Richard D. James Album

s was inspired by Luke Vibert. In 1995, Richard James released the two Hangable Auto Bulb EPs under his AFX moniker, experimenting with exaggerated rhythms inspired by drum and bass in a style that came to be called "drill 'n' bass". This faster style of drum programming was inspired by James' friend Luke Vibert, also known as Plug. James stated that while he worked with triplets and complicated beats in the past, that Vibert "got me into doing it a faster pace. He gave me the spark to do it faster, but now I'm trying to take it to all extremes". James has stated that most of the album was composed on his Macintosh computer and that the album took longer to create than any of his previous albums. Describing his approach to drum programming, he stated that "sometimes I just hit the keyboard in a way I'd like the rhythm of the tracks to sound. Then I'll spend four hours moving all the notes where I want them to go." Some tracks on the album include James' vocals modulated on a computer; in "To Cure a Weakling Child", James manipulated his voice to sound like a child giving a lecture about their arms and legs. For the orchestral arrangements on the album, James bought a violin at a car boot sale. He used the instrument by placing it on a table, playing a note, and sampling the note. ==Composition==

Richard D. James Album is a work of electronica that has been characterised as James's "swan dive into jungle and drill'n'bass" by Vice Dan Weiss, and labeled as a work of IDM by Pitchfork, working with jungle, and ambient and acid techno in some tracks. James has claimed the influence of jungle music came from "any of the drum 'n' bass and breakbeat artists" and that he has "always been into nicking other things [...] and making something different". It also features lush string arrangements and simple keyboard textures built over quadruple time breakbeats. A reviewer for Spectrum Culture wrote that the album used unstable time signatures. John Bush of AllMusic noted that the album continued James's "forays into acid-jungle and experimental music," noting that the album was "more extreme than virtually all jungle being made at the time", with beats layered over slower melodies that characterised James' earlier ambient works. Exclaim! commented that tracks such as "Girl/Boy Song", "Yellow Calx", and "Peek 824545201" were "loosely based on jungle". ==Release==

Richard D. James Album was released through Warp on 4 November 1996. It was released on compact disc, cassette and LP; early copies of the album were distributed with a plastic sachet containing James' hair. The American version included the Girl/Boy EP as bonus tracks. The album entered at number 7 on the Dance Albums Chart It was released in the United States through Sire Records on 28 January 1997 and charted at number 20 on Billboard Top Heatseekers Albums chart. By November 1997, it had sold over 100,000 copies and became Warp's most commercially successful release at the time, Warp announced their own re-issue of the album on 180-gram vinyl for 8 October 2012. ==Critical reception==

Richard D. James Album received acclaim from music critics. In the United Kingdom, The Independent Ben Thompson wrote that "The intuitive sense of melody [James has] been striving so hard to suppress over the last few years has come to the fore too, and the result is the most magical pop record of the year: the year in question being AD 2001." NME reviewer Ted Kessler praised its sense of "fresh musical perception" and called it "a record that's absorbed the rhythmic advances made by drum'n'bass in places... yet scribbles furiously over its roots with sparkly chemical melodies and splintered clanging". Entertainment Weekly writer David Browne called it James' "quirkiest, most personal work" and said that "4" and "Girl/Boy Song" revealed "a new warmth and wistfulness". Richard D. James Album was placed in numerous best-of lists. NME placed the album at number 20 on their list of the best albums of 1996. The Wire also listed the album among their top 50 albums of the year for 1996. In 2003 Pitchfork listed their top albums of the 1990s, with Richard D. James Album ranking at 40. Slant Magazine placed the album at number 91 on their list of the top 100 albums of the 1990s, describing it as "more fascinated by textures than almost any other electronic album ever crafted". In 2015 Spin placed the album at number 71 on their list of the best albums of the past 30 years. In the same year, Exclaim! listed Richard D. James Album on their list of Essential Richard D. James albums. The review opined that the album was "not necessarily a release that you immediately fall in love with", but that it was "endlessly rewarding". ==Track listing==

All tracks are credited as being written and produced by "Me" (Richard D. James). ==Personnel==

Credits from the back cover of the album. • Aphex Twin (credited as "Me") – writer, producer, sleeve • Johnny Clayton – sleeve ==Charts==