Surfing on Sine Waves
For the second album in its ruefully short-lived Artificial Intelligence series, Sheffield's Warp Records commissioned a young Richard James (now better known as theAphex Twin) to demonstrate not only the capabilities of his collection of homemade synthesizers but of his uniquely warped mind as well.Surfing on Sine Wavesprovides an equal dose of both, a soundscape in which undulating synths compete for space with disjointed drum programming and awkward song structure. But somehow everything fits together. Smooth and tactile tracks like "Polygon Window," "Quixote," and "UT1 Dot" are balanced by opaque drum workouts like "Quoth" and "Supremacy II," finishing off with the delicate and sublime "Quino-Phec."Surfing...epitomizes the sound James slowly abandoned in his later material--a smooth hybrid of Detroit's raw sensibilities with the European electronica that was its inspiration and the personal touch that can only come from a lonely, disturbed mind.--Matthew Corwine