Windowlicker

WINDOWLICKER is an Enhanced CD containing a full audio program as well as the video for the title track using Hyper-LOCK technology. The photo collage on the cover of WINDOWLICKER should be warning enough to expect the unexpected. The unexpected, in fact, is practically the only thing one can expect from Aphex Twin (also known by his real name: Richard D. James), one of most intelligent and innovative artists in the world of electronica. His formidable imagination has encompassed hardcore techno, drum 'n bass, atmospheric beat-based trance music, and highly ambient compositions of the most alien and delicate nature. This CD single features two additional tracks that blend the artist's sophisticated ethereal and textural concepts with the beat-based vocabulary of club culture. The breezy, undulating title track (the video for which is included on the disc in enhanced CD-ROM format) segues into the mind-burbling sonic assault of the second cut (its title written out in lengthy mathematical notation). On the last piece, "Nannou," James orchestrates a chorus of rattles and music box chimes to achieve a mesmerizing and creepy rhythmic lullaby. Throughout, shifting rhythmic patterns hold together layered melodic fragments and otherworldly dialogues of sound with a tremendous range in dynamics and tone. These hallmarks of James' art, as always, dazzle and provoke.