I mean, what else is there to say about it? Obviously a wave of nostalgia washes over you every time you listen to it, but the pieces on here are also genuinely well-composed and engaging. The only reason why this isn't a 100 is that there are 3 or 4 pieces on here that I don't care about quite as much, but otherwise, easily one of the best OSTs ever.

I'm a big fan of Ambient music, but partially due to the fact that my tastes align mostly with the more subtle, quiet and pretty sections of the genre, I never really checked out Tim Hecker, as it always seemed as though his work is often very abrasive, chaotic and intricate. Well, I finally gave it a shot, and thankfully, I did. This album is fantastic.

Below all of its noise, distortion and shifting soundscapes, there persists an unrecognizable beauty that compelled me in a way that words or ... read more

Honestly, though it is nearly three times as long, I was a little more impressed by the first single. Now, don't let that come off as me disliking this track, I like it a lot, but I just find it funny how I got just as much out of an eight-minute long track as I got out of a track that didn't even go past the three minute mark... but yes, Bring Down the Sky is a great track, easily one of the grandest and most explosive things that Dispirited Spirits has released so far.

There is a fantastic ... read more

Elliott Smith's Either/Or is one of those beloved albums that's immediately enjoyable to the point where I almost can't really say anything about it. Whatever I say about it, in my mind, I'd always go "duh!", because it's apparent what's so incredible about this project. I swear, if I got into Elliott Smith during my big Folk-phase a couple of years ago, this would easily be one of my favorite albums now. Back then, I never gave him a chance because I wasn't a big fan of the ... read more

The Collapse EP is easily Aphex Twin's best release since his big return. While he doesn't completely indulge in crazy experimentation or genre-bending ideas, this EP's sound is unlike anything he's ever made, which leaves me intrigued yet utterly satisfied. I can't really put into words how this project sounds, really. It's sort of tranquil, soothing, soft, but at the same time, its beats leave a lot to unpack because of their complexity and interesting sound. What I find so very interesting ... read more

Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 is an odd release within Aphex Twin's discography, partially due to the fact that we've never heard him within this setting and soundscape before. It offers new perspective on his music and how the acoustic sound can offer a totally different feeling when infiltrated by IDM compositions. I definitely get people that say it's a companion piece to drukQs, considering that that album heavily explored the relationship between the electronic and the ... read more

With Syro, Richard D. James made a smooth return under the "Aphex Twin"-name after a long period of studio-album silence, some hailing it as a disappointing comeback, and some giving it the praise of a "glorious return" to the extent of calling it some of his best work. I, personally, am sort of in the middle within the spectrum of these two extremes. Syro is not a bad album by any means, it is a perfectly listenable, catchy album with a good amount of memorable moments ... read more

Are You Experienced, The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Debut, immediately stuns with its dirty, loud and explosive sound, but for it to continuously keep up the quality and pace for the entire track list is even more insane. These 11 tracks are all incredibly solid, there's not a single miss on this entire project and every second of it is captivating me through immense appreciation of the technical proficiency, a smoothly psychedelic atmosphere or an overflow of energy. What Hendrix would go on to ... read more

Richard D. James' music has always been about finding human emotion within the electronic and finding the artificial within the organic. Whether it's harshly loud beats with a beautiful synth-melody in the background, or a somber piano with a dark wave of ambient noise accompanying it, contrast and juxtaposition is an essential part of Aphex Twin's discography and always has been. For the majority of his career, he put a lot of effort into merging these two opposites to create sounds that few ... read more

I'm literally so lost as to how to rate this one. Yachty returns with a surprising Psychedelic Rock LP filled with catchy but eventually empty and shallow tunes, offering himself up to a new idea whilst still in the midst of not really having figured out that idea to the extent that one may want it to have been developed to get the best experience possible. It's called Let's Start Here, so I guess there's more to come, which is good, because this lane is at least way more interesting than ... read more

Windowlicker, the track itself, is one of Aphex Twin's most beloved songs, and for good reason. I mean, within its six minutes, it's continuously visceral, expressive and interesting without wasting a single second of its 6-minute runtime. There are few pieces of his that sound as exciting as this one does.

Unfortunately, the rest of this Single/EP is some of the least exciting material he's put out. It really feels as though he wanted to release the song and then put two filler tracks at the ... read more

The shift that happens from the first to the second track is insane, it's literally like hell in sound form versus heaven in sound form.

In a way, it very much foreshadows and indicates the structure that an album like drukQs would follow later on in his career, by juxtaposing that extremely loud and intense style with a few very moving and beautiful pieces of music in between in order to create a very push-and-pull-esque effect. However, the Come to Daddy EP still stands as its own unique ... read more

I think the Richard D. James Album is Aphex Twin's worst LP up to the point in his career where it was released, but don't let that be a reason to not listen to it, considering that it is still an incredible release. It definitely trades in the challenging and harrowingly harsher sounds of his previous album for a more quirky, hopeful und nearly child-like bliss that makes his music a lot more accessible, and while i think it does decrease its artistic merit by a little bit because of that, the ... read more

Makes sense that this EP came out a couple of months after ...I Care Because You Do, considering that the music on here sounds like a bridge between that album and his next album (Richard D. James Album), as (especially the first two tracks on here) have that playful, eccentric, goofy and nearly bubbly sound that he would use more thoroughly on his fourth full-length LP. Donkey Rhubarb could be a little more cohesive, I mean, with the exception of the first two songs, every single piece on here ... read more

The two Selected Ambient Works volumes were already an interesting progression to behold; making very catchy, texturally interesting IDM and Techno music and then using these textures to make a purely ambient experience on your second LP is such an interesting direction to take your music in, but when James made ... I Care Because You Do, it's like he used both of these two extreme ideas and merged them into a very juxtaposing vision. On this project, he opposes a warm wave of pads to harsh and ... read more

Violator is pretty much close to being the best that Pop Music can be, and I totally understand why somebody would give this album a 100/100. It's catchy, somewhat fun but also ominous, dark, creepy and atmospheric. It offers the pop appeal while simultaneously doing a ton of interesting stuff with the sound and lyrics. For most of this album, we have very well written tunes and a lot of great beats, but when you pay attention, you hear all of these background sounds that fill up your ears to ... read more

Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" is a sublime Soul record that stood the test of time and continues to be one of the most beloved albums of all time. I certainly get why, it expresses a universal message of love and peace that can be felt by pretty much anybody, and the sound of the record itself is exceptional. Not just the writing and compositions, but the production is immaculate and the sound palette feels rich and full. A big reason as to why this album is as great as it is, is ... read more

I was honestly kind of frustrated when I heard the teaser to this single, it sounded like more of the same sound that was already present on "Fragments of a Dying Star", but once I actually started to press play on the track, I was immediately hooked and convinced.

The instant you hear the jazzy opening of the track, it seems abundantly clear that Dispirited Spirits is not trying to hone in on the style of the first album and instead continues to evolve his sound, which makes me ... read more

Giant Steps is far from Coltrane's best, but I mean, that's such a high bar that saying it makes the statement kind of arbitrary and pointless. The 7 tracks on this LP are pretty much all significant and extremely infectious, quite flawless from a certain point of view too. This is just top tier Jazz, nothing really to complain about whatsoever. It's not as powerful, creative and unique as some of his other albums, but as I said, I shouldn't complain about things that it isn't; it's an ... read more

Out of the three albums that Alicks released this year, this one did the most for me. It could be that MU_2 just stands in the shadow of its predecessor and that the experimental messiness of the thematic Maybe doesn't land all of the time, but this one was immediately impactul and never wasted any time. It's incredibly short but just as effective (if not more), and it features the type of music that I love hearing Alicks do the most; he mixes his singing tendencies with the great ambient ... read more