First artist album in the quintessential Artificial
Intelligence series, which would define the Warp
sound to this day, Surfing On Sine Waves is
the work of Aphex Twin Richard D. James. The AI
series would then include other seminal work by Black
Dog Productions (Bytes), B12 (Electo-Soma),
F.U.S.E. (Dimension Intrusion), Speedy
J (Ginger) and Autechre
(Incunabula).
Released in between the two Aphex Twins’ Selected
Ambient Work, Surfing On Sine Waves encompasses
the dance scene of the early nineties, as it was starting
to recover from the Acid days, and was by then moving
ahead, towards a more Kraftwerk-esque era. A fine record,
Surfing On Sine Waves is also James’s most
melodic record to date. The album opens with a slightly
longer version of Polygon Window than the one
featured on the Artificial Intelligence compilation,
and foreshadows the general sound of the record, that
is a slightly acidic sound underlined by soothing waves
of multi-textural synthetic strings and polymorph beats.
Audax Powder is not dissimilar, continuing
the along the same line. Quoth displays a more
tribal feel, and prefigured Selected Ambient Works
2, in the way it deals with atmosphere in a very
specific manner. The track is built around a phenomenal
beat, with multiple percussions and delays, to create
a very unusual musical structure to this day. James
would develop this way of creating music from nothing
in SAW2, while getting rid of the drums, leaving
an empty shell with which he would construct some astonishing
ambiences by his use of delays, effects and noises.
The contrast between Quoth and If It Really
Is Me couldn’t be greater, the later most definitely
being one of the most melodic and simple tracks James
has ever released. Supremacy II shows a more
in-your-face approach, but Surfing On Sine Waves
regain its composition with the following three tracks,
pushing the acid equation to some strangely quiet shores
with track 7. To coincide with the opening of their
new American office, Warp Records have released a remastered
version of the album, including two extra tracks, Portreath
Harbour and Redruth School, that Richard
D. James excavated from the sessions recorded around
the time of Surfing On Sine Waves. If Portreath
Harbour fits perfectly with the rest, Redruth
School proves to be a definite winner, with its
slightly perverse atmosphere and polyrhythmic patterns.
Quino-Phec concludes the album on a restrained
note, which once again was an indication of what direction
would Aphex Twin take for his following record.
Nearly ten years after its first release, Surfing
On Sine Waves proves to be a very enduring record,
on which Richard D. James, then at the beginning of
his career, showed some clear signs of his visionary
talent. Essential.
5/5 |
