Aphex Twin - ...I Care Because You Do [2LP]

Aphex Twin's restless 1995 album ...I Care Because You Do arrives as a double LP with a download card, Richard D. James staring out from his own painted self-portrait.

By the mid-1990s the Cornish producer had already rewritten ambient music with his Selected Ambient Works releases, and this record showed off a harder, stranger and more playful side. Gathering pieces written across the early part of the decade, it moves between brutal rhythm workouts and fragile, almost classical melodies.

Acrid Avid Jam Shred opens with a slow, grinding drum pattern that sounds like machinery waking up, while Alberto Balsalm drifts in on soft, chiming tones and a gently clicking beat, one of the loveliest things he has ever made. Ventolin, named after an asthma inhaler, assaults the ears with a piercing, high-pitched whine that splits listeners to this day.

The textures range from detuned synths and mangled drum machines to delicate string-like pads, all arranged with a sense of humour that keeps the experimentation from ever feeling academic. Titles like Come On You Slags! hint at the mischief involved. It is electronic music that refuses to sit still.

A cornerstone of Warp's golden era and a blueprint for much of what became known as IDM, it rewards repeated, very attentive listening.