Aphex Twin – Richard D. James Album (LP Vinyl)

Richard D. James arrived in 1996 at a moment when electronic music was fracturing into a dozen competing futures, and this record planted a flag in territory all its own. Drill'n'bass rhythms running at inhuman speeds underneath melodies of genuine tenderness, the whole thing somehow feeling both clinical and deeply personal. It remains one of the most distinctive statements in the IDM canon.