The Aphex Twin | Didgeridoo (Expanded Edition) (2LP) [RS9201X]

The Aphex Twin | Didgeridoo (Expanded Edition)
Label: R & S Records – RS9201X
Format: 2 x Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM, Reissue, Remastered
Released| 31 May 2024

“It’s just too easy to make a standard dance track,” Aphex Twin said of his mindset back in 1992. “You’ve got to put a bit of thought into it to get something a bit different.”

‘Digeridoo’ was released on the Belgian R&S Records label in 1992, and originally peaked at #55 in the UK singles chart in May of that year. Over the last 32 years the track has become one of the essential Aphex Twin tracks in a gargantuan catalogue that continues to amaze and inspire.

“I wanted to have some tracks to play to finish the raves I used to play in Cornwall, to really kill everybody off so they couldn’t dance,” Richard D James, AKA Aphex, told Select magazine back in the 90s. “Digeridoo came out of that.”

Released as a 4 track EP that also included early Aphex productions (now classics) including the industrial, acidic clang of ‘Flap Head’ and hyperbolic futurism of ‘Isopropanol’, the release cemented a relationship with the R&S label that went on to release the ‘Xylem Tube’ EP and the pivotal album ‘Selected Ambient Works 85-92’ in the same year. The label’s owner & A&R Renaat Vandepapeliere reflected “When I first heard Aphex Twin’s music I said, ‘This is it!’, and everybody else said, ‘You’re crazy!’ …a lot of the hardcore R&S fans dropped us. To them it wasn’t music.”

‘Digeridoo’ (Expanded Edition) is the first time the EP has been re-issued with extra material. Whilst digging in his DAT archive (allegedly stored in an airtight military ammo box), Richard James revisited the recordings, encoding them through a Nakamichi CR7e cassette deck, using the customised deck with vari-speed to encode at speeds “felt right at the time”. Alongside these CR7e versions, the original mixes have been remastered by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering, offering a dilated insight into one of electronic music’s most endearing releases.  

- All tracks written & produced by Richard D. James
- CR7E Versions encoded from original master tapes on a modified Nakamichi CR7E cassette deck at speeds that felt right at the time.
- Remastered by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven.
- Marketed & Manufactured by R&S Records Ltd.
- P & C 2024 R&S Records.

TRACKLIST:
        Black Side    
A1    Didgeridoo
A2    Flap Head
        Silver Side    
B1    Phloam
B2    Isoprophlex
        Black Side    
C1    Didgeridoo (Cr7e Version)
C2    Didgeridoo (Live In Cornwall) (Cr7e Version)
        Silver Side    
D1    Isoprophlex (Slow) (Cr7e Version)
D2    Phloam (Cr7e Version)

# Experimental # Techno # DnB