Aphex Twin - Drukqs [4LP]

Drukqs is Aphex Twin's sprawling 30-track double album from 2001, a collision of splintered breakbeats and hushed piano pieces, spread across four LPs for this pressing.

Richard D. James released it on Warp in 2001, the story goes, partly to get ahead of a leak after leaving an MP3 player full of unreleased music on a plane. It would be the last Aphex Twin album until Syro in 2014, and the reaction at the time was divided. Time has been kind. Many of the titles are in Cornish, a nod to the place he grew up, and the whole thing plays like a sketchbook left open on purpose.

The quiet pieces came from computer-controlled pianos, including a modified Yamaha Disklavier, and they hit hardest. Avril 14th is a fragile two-minute miniature that became one of his best-known works, later sampled on Kanye West's Blame Game, and Jynweythek sets a hushed, prepared-piano tone. Vordhosbn unleashes the hyper-detailed drill 'n' bass he was famous for, all skittering, splintered snares.

Spread over eight sides, the swings between tenderness and chaos make even more sense, with each side its own strange little world.

For fans who found James through Avril 14th or the QKThr craze, this is the full, gloriously unruly picture.