Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy

Unsettling, aggressive and darkly funny, Come to Daddy is the 1997 Aphex Twin EP that dragged electronic music into horror-film territory, collected here as a four-track vinyl edition.

Richard D. James was already a cult figure in electronic music by the mid-nineties, but this release took him to a much wider audience. Its title track, with shrieking vocals and distorted, pounding beats, was paired with Chris Cunningham's nightmarish music video and became a genuine cultural flashpoint, a long way from the ambient worlds he had explored earlier in the decade.

The Pappy Mix of Come to Daddy is the main event, a churning, metallic assault of breakbeats and screaming that still feels confrontational today. Flim provides a startling contrast, a gentle, intricate piece of melodic beauty that has become one of his most beloved tracks. Bucephalus Bouncing Ball is a wildly inventive drill-and-bass workout, its rhythm accelerating and collapsing like a dropped ball skittering across a floor, while the Little Lord Faulteroy Mix offers a twisted alternate take on the title track.

Short, sharp and endlessly surprising, Come to Daddy is a perfect snapshot of Aphex Twin's split personality, one moment menacing and the next disarmingly sweet. Just maybe keep the lights on the first time through.