Richard D. James has a way of grabbing one’s attention—and that doesn’t just mean stunts like the recent Aphex Twin logos that popped up in Turin, London, and Los Angeles, painted on a metal grate and semi-hidden in foliage. Given such campaigns, it would be easy for the hype to eclipse the actual product. And for the first two minutes of “T69 Collapse,” the first single from Aphex Twin’s forthcoming Collapse EP, the music does seem somewhat subdued. The beat stutters and stumbles, a faithful take on the rippling drill ‘n’ bass James has been making for eons now. It sounds great, no doubt: The drums are thick and rubbery, and there’s a melancholy undercurrent to the synths, but it’s not likely to catch anyone off guard.
Not, at least, until the timer ticks over to 1:55: A dissonant synth lead cuts sideways across the tune and the beat seems to quake beneath it, the drums heaving like objects on a ship’s storm-tossed prow. Chaos takes the reins; the kick drum zippers back and forth. It’s as close to heavy metal as James has ever come—and he still has one more card up his sleeve. A false ending gives way to a third part of the track that’s gentler and more bittersweet than either of its predecessors: an acid-tinged coda that jettisons some of the squirreliness and slips into a sleek, head-snapping groove. It’s a lot of ground to cover in a little over five minutes, but James makes the whiplash feel strangely graceful.
