Something of a companion EP to the I Care Because You Do album, Ventolin is characterised by metallic clangs and bumps, melodies wrought from unexpected origins and a hefty dose of mischief and silliness.
The title track, identified here as the Salbutamol mix, (terms familiar to any asthma sufferers) is notorious as perhaps one of the most unlistenable tracks in electronic music. Personally I hear far more objectionable music whenever I turn on a radio, but the gut wrenching kick drum, jerky stop-start momentum and of course the piercingly shrill whine (supposedly mimicking the sound one hears during an asthma attack) all make for a bracing listen.
In classic Aphex style, the rest of the tracks are labelled as remixes while sounding nothing like the original. The Plain-An-Gwarry mix is a trip-hoppy head bopper that sounds more like a remix of Cow Cud is a Twin from I Care Because You Do – imagine if DJ Shadow was from Redruth instead of San Francisco.
Praze-An-Beeble mix is composed largely of pinging metallic sounds and a spartan melody, if you can even call it that, before descending into fits of laughter, quite literally. I dunno whose mirth provided the source material but the fit of wheezy giggles is pitch-shifted, chopped and layered to create a bizarre outro that would be kind of pointless if it wasn’t genuinely funny. One for the stoners.
Each mix takes its title from a different location in Cornwall. Some electronic artists plumb science, fantasy, or pure mathematical symbols to name tracks that otherwise have no worldly reference. Aphex situates his firmly in his homeland, although the idiosyncratic linguistic features will seem alien to most.
The EP closes with a ‘respect going out to’ list of shout outs, read out in an early Mac generated ‘robot’ voice. I recognise some of the Rephlex roster (Aphex’s own label, set up with Grant Wilson-Claridge), including Cylob and The Gentle People. Maximum respect indeed.
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