Richard D. James: Search & Destroy

That would be the one. Your mileage may vary etc.

Now it rivals SAW 1 for my affections (quite a compliment in this household). There's this warm, womb-like quality. One drifts through diffuse colours, soft- focus shades, and unfamiliar emotions.

Melissa's "seeping" comment hits on the same thing I enjoy about the album. The actual sonic presence of the album is very immediate, and the tones feel very pure and unadulterated. It's very much the definition of 'ambient' in the way that you can treat it as background soundtrack music or devote any number of levels of attention to it. I attended this Night of the Living Drone event recently, courtesy of Clarke B., in which everything from AFX to Oval to Xenakis was projected loudly from auditorium speakers, and it's at that volume that you realize the depth of different types of music. At one point Clarke played the 2nd disc, first song, and I heard these immensely deep bass rumbles that just couldn't be detected on the home speakers or headphones I've been playing it from. It sounded incredible, and very involving ...

on the more general topic, I'm amused by the Richard D. James album, but ultimately the video-game nature of the melodies and the drill-n- bass ditties sound a bit dated. Likewise, Come to Daddy is 'fun' but a little lackluster in overall replayability. So I would choose

1. I Care Because You Do, because it's the perfect mix of his older approach and the new territories he was moving towards 2. both Selected Ambient Works volumes, though the first is far more immediately enjoyable (my friend was playing this last night at a get- together, and everyone was complimenting the relaxed mood it set .. which I loved because years ago I tried to play it and people thought it too 'spacey' and 'techno') 3. all the Analogue Bubblebath EPs are great, but I particularly like #3 because of the hip-hop influenced beats 4. the song "Nannou," which is the third track off the Windowlicker single. it's a music box!

Gareth, How can you not like SAWI??????!!!!!!!!!!!

SAWI & II are both essential, as are I Care Because You Do, Windowlicker, and Come To Daddy.

The Caustic Window Comp, The Analogue Bubblebath EP's, Classics, and Polygon Window material are all forgettable.

RDJ album has its moments, but it is not rdj's best record. It was one of the first idm records to be fully realized on a computer(this was 1996) and paved the way for the current state of IDM. I think in many ways this record was also responsible for wrecking idm to a large extent(too much dsp fuckery, and not enough songwriting).It is not horrible, and it does have it's moments, but it is not essential.

Drukqs as an album is utter shite, but it has serveral excellent songs that are very worth mp3'ing. Mostly the Satie'esque piano pieces and that bbyb...chord track on the first disk. The drum and bass songs are utterly forgettable, and seem to be the worst music that rdj has written in years, they are nowhere near as good as the songs on Come To Daddy. I really wonder if this entire album was a practical joke(and I am being sincere, not sarcastic). This album was leaked on the internet and I had the album a few months before it came out. I really disliked until I made an mp3 playlist without the dnb parts, and it turned into a very calming ECM piano album. The album is still directionless and poorly structured, but it does contain good songs. The problem is the good songs are scattered between horrible ones.

RDJ is one of those guys who has written a lot of brilliant songs, and a lot of bad ones too. When he hits it is genius, and when he misses it is bad. I am still curious to see where he goes next. He is the arbiter of the direction of IDM like it or not. I really hope the fellow still has it in him to make good records.

The album is still directionless and poorly structured

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Not poorly structured at all, still directionless. It's just not structured they way *you* like it CD1: good ambient trax CD2: crap jungle. Am I right? I thought so. ;)

What to get? Everybloodything.

Get SAW 85-92 first, then get the Polygon Window album (best techno album evah, err...on Tuesdays), then get Analogue Bubblebath 3 (ace collection of tuff techno and all sort of sublime ambient trax). Don't forget SAWII though, it will last a lifetime, it will never let you down and always contains a surprise or two, it has alien coldness, frozen soul musik and at times makes you feel like a baby watching sunshine through painted glass. Get RDJ last.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned 'Fingerbib' on this thread. Say what you like about the RDJ album - that particular track is one of the lushest things he's committed to disc.