Aphex Twin

Collapse EP

It may feel like he is on cruise control a bit, but James’ coasting is any other artist’s magnum opus.

The renaissance of Richard D. James continues with his latest EP, a knotty, meticulous, and joyous collection that ranks among his best late-career albums.

This five-track EP is another excellent, deconstructionist addition to a musical canon like no other.

Collapse isn’t accessible per se, but it is a release which perfectly reflects the finest elements of Richard James’ oeuvre. It is a record liberated from convention, unafraid of failure and confident in its depth.

On his latest EP, Aphex Twin abruptly pulls the rug from under your feet, turning his nostalgic IDM perspective into an etude on electronic music deconstruction.

Collapse ... is instantly, unmistakably recognizable as an Aphex release. Here, he returns to the ultra-glitchy beats and childlike melodies of releases like Hangable Auto Bulb and Richard D. James Album, while sounding miles away from them.

While Collapse won't go down as one of James's landmark Aphex Twin releases ... its consistency and striving ambition to keep moving the project forward, both as a familiar, welcome friend but one that challenges you incessantly is highly appreciated.

Collapse is Richard D. James's best release since the return of Aphex Twin.

Collapse is full of neat tricks in the form of expertly layered flavors of sound that you come to expect from Aphex Twin and never signalling exactly where he’s going. If the ingredients are familiar, James still knows how to make one hell of a meal out of them.

Aphex Twin's meticulously constructed EP Collapse runs the gamut from dense bursts of intricate glitch to expansive, ambient soundscapes, making it feel like a far more elaborate musical journey than its mere five tracks.

Collapse is a step away from James’s forays into ambient and jungle of the past, but the Aphex Twin identity still shines through in his inimitable take on IDM. The more things change, the more they stay the same.