AFX* - Analogue Bubblebath 4

Not just the best Analogue Bubblebath but probably the best AFX release, excluding the Analord series. Much talk is made of the screaming on Track 1, but those who complain are missing the whole point of the song, and in fact this whole release, which is to forget all human pretensions and simply let one's primal animal instincts take over. Why else are the track titles all named after animals?

As for the rest of the tracks, what can I say, they're all brilliant. I could try to describe them in words but you'd be much better off just buying it and taking a listen for yourself.

ESSENTIAL.

A vastly overrated release from Aphex Twin, and I must say I was dissapointed after reading promising reviews from other listeners. Gibbon is an extremely hard and wild track that does nothing for me other than make me deaf. Likewise, Elephant Song is extremely loud and banging, but it has some more creativity in it. Cuckoo is quite the opposite, an almost cheesey and extremely happy and dreamy track. Sloth is a chilled back track, my favorite on this release (and even this track isn't that great), and Knievel is nothing more than a strange vocoder effect on some spoken words. None of the tracks seem very complex or thought-out, rather, this release sounds like an average techno release. Overall, the quality of these tracks is horrible, nowhere near the finesse that Richard displays on his other releases.

I just noticed the CD art/text says:
"...Unauthorised Public Performance, Broadcasting And Copying Of This Record Punishable By Death."
I guess the Braindance approach isn't working, so lets get Militant! :-)

This is one of my least favourite RDJ releases alongside Power Pill. The songs presented seem to be some form of endurance test, Elephant Song is repetitive and noisy and I don't mean in an interesting abstract kind of way. Gibbon is certainly a better track with some amazing acid riffs, stomping beats and spooky signature synths towards the end but most likely will be too corrosive and repetitive for most listeners.Cuckoo is a nice little number with care-free droopy Paradinas-style synth work and nice bassy beats reminiscent of AB3. The synths in Sloth are somewhat of a prelude to Hangable Autobulb but in my opinion the track suffers from a pleasent but uninteresting noise which repeats every three seconds for eight minutes.

This is really a spectacular AFX album, my first of aphex's AFX albums, and most certainly not my last. I love every song on here, and the last one is too short to worry about being a waste of time. I love the scream in the first track, I don't know, I guess I just find it humorous, and the hard rythm is pretty creepy, I think. I love the song 'Cuckoo', it really is catchy. Heck, all of the songs on this are pretty great, and I am really happy with the release.

ha the screaming is what makes it!
brilliant in a club ,everyone always screams along to it,
hard big solid beats which puts venetian to shame,slow his tracks down to this tempo and they will sound thin cold and boring this sound big phat and chunky and has a lot of big balls id say.
lovely release

This is not an overall great release, but it is fairly good. Track #1 is boring and annoying if you listen to it at home, but I'm sure it would be awesome on the dance floor. Track #2 is the best reason to buy AB4. This is a wonderful bubbly song that brings the more light-hearted side of RDJ out. Track #5, regardless of not being music, is still an interesting and slightly humorous way to end the album.

This release could be freakin' classic, but just misses. Track 1 just bangs HARD. Crazy hard acid beats with someone screaming every so often for about 6 minutes. I could love this track if not for all the screaming (in fact, the beat reminds me of some of the newer Venetian Snares). But there IS screaming, and lot's of it. I've owned this CD since 94 and I just cannot listen to more than the first minute of this track (before the screaming starts). Tracks 2 and 3 are nice. One of them has some chirping birds before it goes of into some quick bounciness with a few start/stops for good measure. One is evidently forgetable as I have no memory of it at this moment. However, track 4 is in MY PERSONAL top 10 RDJ tracks of all time. A beautiful 8 minutes of contemplative bliss. Lush deep stings and minimal beats to the point that it could be called ambient. Except there is this loud cold bleep sound that runs the length of the track (on the 2 I believe), keeping you from drifting too far away. Early genious from RDJ.