Aphex Twin-нің алғашқы таңдағысы: «Analogue Bubblebath»

First record by the musician Aphex Twin

Analogue Bubblebath, also released as Aphex Twin ep, is the first record by musician and producer Richard D. James. The EP was released under his alias The Aphex Twin through Mighty Force Records in September 1991. It was the inaugural release for the label, which at the time was a record shop in Exeter. The record was hugely influential on the development of electronic music, particularly techno and ambient techno. Its release has been described as a key event in the history of dance music. It is the first release in what became the Analogue Bubblebath series. James previously had little inclination to release his music, though it had long circulated on tapes amongst his friends, and he would include his tracks in his set when DJing. His reluctance was eventually overcome while he was tripping on acid at a rave where he was performing, where he finally agreed to release the record. On release it was frequently played by London pirate radio stations and by the then newly legal station KissFM. The record quickly gained James a cult following in the techno underground, and one of the early white label copies was heard by the head of R&S Records, leading to James' releases on that label.

James had been making tapes of his music since his school days, which then circulated amongst his friends. He also included tracks of his own music in his early DJ performances. He has often said that he had little inclination in this period to release his music. James preferred to keep his music exclusively for playing at his performances, similar to the use of dubplates in sound system culture. Mark Darby, a free party organiser and rave promoter, opened the Mighty Force record shop in Exeter in January 1991. The track "Isopropophlex" uses samples from the arcade game Berzerk, along with a flanged and filtered voice sample. The musician and producer Tom Middleton collaborated on "En Trance to Exit" under the pseudonym Schizophrenia. Berlin DJ Ellen Allien called the track "Analogue Bubblebath" "a classic tune by the best electronic producer in the world." The author and critic Simon Reynolds wrote of its "fluttery, diaphanous riff pattern and hazy yet crystalline production". The influential publication Mixmag called it "one of the most perfect tracks ever written". The Guardian described it as "one of those timeless tracks that convey incredible emotional depth" and noted that "it still stands as a gold standard for electronic music nearly 30 years after its initial release." Simon Reynolds observed that the rest of the EP "revealed that James was no slouch when it came to industrial strength hardcore." In contrast to the ambient sound of the title track, the industrial, menacing sound of "Isopropophlex" was described as "astringent" and suggestive of "a nasty corrosive fluid". In an examination of James' work, The A. V. Club described the track as "restless, a pounding bass line fighting it out with synths that stab through the arrangement with purposeful malice." The tracks "Analogue Bubblebath" and "Isopropophlex" can also be found on the R&S Records compilation Classics. The EP was reissued by TVT Records in the US in 1994 on both CD and 12" vinyl format.

The record created a buzz in the UK about Aphex Twin, and on release won immediate acclaim, quickly earning the artist a cult following. The original white label release found distribution in continental Europe. Renaat Vandepapeliere of the Belgian label R&S Records heard the record and then contacted James, which led to the releases James put out on that label in 1992. The record went on to be hugely influential. Its title track was described as a "redrawing of ambient techno aesthetics" by Rolling Stone. The Guardian named its release one of the "key events in the history of dance music".