Donkey Rhubarb was the second time an Aphex Twin track would be accompanied by an eye-catching video. This one being closer to the subversive and mischievous visual style he’d become known for, featuring giant day-glo teddy bears adorned with Richard D James masks, dancing and thrusting aggressively.
Musically it’s a weird track, with a repetitively childlike melody juxtaposed with a menacing industrial kick drum…for which I guess being molested by a giant grinning teddy bear is an apt visual metaphor.
Vaz Deferenz plays like an alt version of Donkey Rhubarb; a pulsing acid line does the melodic work joined by more industrial-strength kick drums. Like the previous track, it’s all high end and bass and not much in the middle, which induces an oddly sparse feeling. Bracing stuff if you’re in the mood.
The flipside couldn’t be more different, featuring Phillip Glass’ orchestration of Icct Hedral (from the ICBYD album). That the version performed by a full orchestra sounds so true to the original shows just what a rich piece of music it is. The edges are softer, given the sound of actual strings being brushed and pipes being blown, but overall there’s little to choose between this and the original. I know there’s countless renditions of Aphex tracks by musicians to be found online, but wouldn’t a Phillip Glass orchestration of the whole I Care Because You Do album sure be something?!
Pancake Lizard closes things out on a gentler note. Live percussion and strings bring a warm atmosphere and the melody is in that ambiguous Aphex sweet spot: melancholy, redemptive, somehow weary but optimistic at the same time. Maybe not as memorable as others in the same vein but still right nice.
As an overall release, it’s a odd one. Donkey Rhubarb feels too much of a novelty track for me to be drawn to it often, and the other three cuts are so disparate, it’s hard to imagine being in the mood to listen to them together. Still, an idiosyncratic and unsettling release as always, as we march ever closer to Aphex Twin’s transition from analogue to digital…
3/5
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