ELECTRONICA

Latest releases reviewed.

AFX
Hangable Audio Bulb Warp
***

Originally released a decade ago as a pair of vinyl-only EPs, Hangable Audio Bulb documented some of the many twists that have kept Aphex Twin Richard D James in clover down through the years. Few other British electronic artists have tested and tweaked sound templates like James, but it would also be quite unlike him to do anything else. With Hangable Audio Bulb he found hugely fertile soil, and the frantic cut-up breaks style first premiered there has been aped by many producers in the intervening years. James himself has also returned to this source on many occasions, obviously finding new melodic discordance in its ceaseless stream of hallucinogenic flutters. Second time around, it's the unexpected rhythmic beauty of such tracks as Children Talking and Wabbly Legs that provide the most interest as pointers to what James was hearing in his head.  www.warprecords.com Jim Carroll