Customer Rating:  
Summary: Semi-Classic...
Comment: There's actually two really good songs on here: Digeridoo and Polynomial-C. Both feature elegant rhythms and ambiance, and are easy to listen to. Digeridoo, IMHO is the most ridiculously good techno song, ever. As someone else noted, it's probably worth the price of the CD. Polynomial-C features skittery drums and soothing synth effects, in sort of a dreamy, flying style. Tamphex and Phlange Place both offer somewhat similar style, but also feature semi-annoying vocal samples and static sounds. If the rest of the songs were like these, this would easily be a five star album. Unfortunately, they're not. Most of the remainder are composed in a `classic' techno style, that is, before it became semi-popular. It's easy to see why they changed the format. While the sound effects are memorable, they are often irritating, and unlistenable. The drums featured are often hard-hitting, or... hm, blocky somehow. Also, as we all know, repetition is a key element in techno, something which Digeridoo and Polynomial mostly manage to avoid. But, when the synths come on, yeah, it's classic. Really about three and a half, but several of the songs are really hard on my ears.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Didn't age well
Comment: It's ok and a must have if you're a aphex twin fan. It's interesting to hear some of the earlier aphex twin work, some of which I danced to at raves in the '90s. But unfortunately the songs don't hold up very well and are a extremely dated. Especially compared to his more recent work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Most accessible aphex twin cd
Comment: I think, of all the aphex twin I've heard, this is the most accessible collection of songs. The songs are enjoyable, and as another reviewer noted, their stripped down simplicity gives them a lot of energy. I was expecting a more eclectic, difficult album, but I enjoyed it regardless. It was actually kind of a treat to hear such straightforward music under the Aphex Twin moniker.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A uncompromising collection of his earlier work.....
Comment: For a artist, that can move from the relatively hushed brilliance of his critically acclaimed "Ambient" albums, through to the Skittering & Fractured Breakbeats of his "Richard D.James" album. Aphex Twin has never been a person that's been afraid to play with peoples expectations of his music.
Collected here, is a series of pre-fame Aphex Twin tracks (collated from various EP's and Singles), that although conceived, to give an overall perspective of his music (even though it is sold as a 'Collection' of sorts), but, more to provide a musical snapshot of where he originally started, as opposed to where he's currently ended up today. And because the majority of tracks here are complied from various EP's & Singles, buyers should be warned that there is a decidedly 'Disjointed' feel to the tracklisting, with no continuity to the sequencing of the tracks. Moving from somber and atmospheric Experimental Electronica one minute (The sublime "Digeridoo" is a great example of how truly creative his work can be), through to something a little more brooding and anxious ("Isopropanol" veers more towards Ambient Techno). Moving into the more accessible side of his music is "Polynomial-C" that feels more in line with the progressive techno/Industrial cross-over that he would later go on to perfect under the alias "Polygon Window", that's crunching and slightly abrasive, yet somehow mantains a rhythmic element, under the most strenuous of conditions.
So the question is, are these collection of tracks truly deserving to be included on this album?? Yes!!, of that there is no doubt, but if taken as a whole album, its something of a mess (although a fantastically created one). As tracks lurch wildly from restrained Electronica one minute, to (relatively) fierce and uncompromising Techno the next, and it's such a stylistic change in tempo, that the listener can't help but sit up and notice the rapid fluctuation in tempos. So...right about now, your probably asking yourself, "If he's criticising the tracklisting so heavily, why is he giving it 5 Stars???.....Simple, because these tracks were never designed to be pieced together from various sources and compiled to sit next to each other. So this was always going to be a fragmented listen, plus this isn't the place to start if your a first time listener to Aphex Twin, this is almost certainly aimed at those that have cut their teeth on his work previously, and are already familiar with what to expect (I.e. Anything). Taken as a coherent album...this fails, but as a relatively random collection of some of his more exceptional work, this'll take some beating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great
Comment: Just great. I am a fan of his music for quite a while and all of his records are special in their own way. Tracks with a little twist only RDJ can add. Sometimes a bit sinister, but thats ok for me! Most of his tracks are sertainly refreshing and energy boosting. A philosopher teacher once said: "to enjoy and appreciate the quality of sertain aspects (of whatsoever) you have to have rotten spots besides it". In case of some of the tracks ("ventolin" (medicine for asthmatic patiens) for example in which you hear a sample of a person hyperventilating), annoying bleeps, cracks and sounds are added in such way that when they fade away in a track you almost feel a releef....a contrast between serenety and rotten (no offence)
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