Here is a release that I’m almost certain I’ve never listened to before, so it’s something of a treat to get some new (to my ears) Aphex Twin material, but after a few plays, I can see why I never troubled to search it out.
The five tracks here are all untitled, but have been given ‘fan titles’, based on the prominent sound effect/sample featured in each, so we have Elephant, Cuckoo, Gibbon, Sloth and the fifth is simply a snippet of American stunt daredevil, Evil Knievel, explaining how he approaches fear in his line of work.
They’re probably some of the least Aphex Twin-sounding tracks I’ve come across to the extent that, if I’d downloaded these as mp3s from a file sharing platform back in the day, I’d have suspected them to be fakes.
Elephant is a straight-up techno stomper, though the sample sounds more like someone going ‘woop’ than an
elephant. (More digging reveals it to be from an old ragga tune).
Gibbon would sound at home on one of the earlier instalments in the series, with a twisted acid line doing the job of aping the monkey. I’m not sure how they came up with the title for Sloth, but as you’d expect, it’s a slow and placid piece, with a pleasant synth melody and pointillist drum pattern.
Cuckoo is the most interesting find here, playful, energetic and funky but with that characteristic Aphex weirdness as well. The wobbly acid synth feels like the blueprint for later tracks and even Fingerbib off the RDJ Album.
Repeated plays have enamoured me a bit more towards Bubblebath 4; despite it feeling like a bit of a ragtag collection it’s an interesting stepping stone and still has that idiosyncratic Aphex oddness.
Rating 2 / 5 – One for the fans
Top track: Cuckoo
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