On Collapse, Aphex Twin's genre-bending techniques once again prove that electronic can be beautiful, playful and tantalising, if you can bear to sit outside your comfort zone.
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.
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 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.
This five-track EP is another excellent, deconstructionist addition to a musical canon like no other.
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.
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 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.
Collapse is wildly unpredictable and compelling.
The electronic music innovator revisits some old tricks and falls down a dark dubby hole.
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.
Collaspe EP suffers from a common malady that inflicts “progressive” music: its constant desire to dazzle us with technical mastery, rhythmic complexity, and melodic sophistication (or outright rejection of melody) leaves a blank space in its mysteriously defined “soul” that burns bright in all of the best music ever created.
Sometimes I get the feeling that he downloads a bunch of drum packs and records himself randomly pressing every key.
Collapse is a great, epileptic ep from IDM legend Aphex Twin. Production as always has this futuristic vibe with a tone of energy. This one is not an exception. Aphex Twin still creates colorful tracks with tone energy, creativity, and passion.
this one has depth, not naturally, but with a full forced collapsing into the matrix of glitchy and sudden transitions switching side to side. Its effective and impressive showing richard's still standing on his throne of idm
This was an interesting one. These are probably the longest tracks I’ve heard from Aphex Twin so far, and they were all good. I liked the mixture of sounds on T69 Collapse and the samples and heavy bass on 1st 44. There are more interesting uses of vocals on MT1 t29r2 that stuck out to me as well. abundance10edit[2 R8's, FZ20m & A 909] (lord almighty that title), was chill was some weirdness sprinkled in, and finally, pthex was kind of chaotic, but in a subtle way, like you could just ... read more
1 | T69 Collapse 5:22 | 89 |
2 | 1st 44 6:09 | 82 |
3 | MT1 t29r2 6:04 | 83 |
4 | abundance10edit[2 R8's, FZ20m & A 909] 6:20 | 78 |
5 | Pthex 4:57 | 81 |
#15 | / | Earbuddy |
#31 | / | Consequence of Sound |
#50 | / | ABC News |
/ | XLR8R |