AFX* ‎– Third Analogue Bubblebath

A couple of tracks on here are excellent, but for the most part this is not a very enjoyable release. Normally Aphex Twin's work is indeed very complex and wild, but this release is particularly annoying on the ears, with screeching synths at some points, and repetition and lack of creativity all throughout. If you want some of his better analogue releases, take a look at his later Analord series, summarized in his "Chosen Lords" CD.

Brilliant album. It covers a lot of different style including 2 of AFX's very few forays with Trance. Track one is trancey, borderline cheesy but amazing, it has a rather industrial and repetitive beat glossed over with really nice synthesizers and uplifting chord-changes.

Track 2 is a highly repetitive track with incrediblyspooky synths and a heavy simplistic beat and beautiful high-pitched noises, it reminds me of a desert at night. Track 3 is weird, more spooky synth sounds, a really funky hiphop beat, strange illegible vocal samples and a metal clank, love it.

Track 4 is an atmospheric gabba-techno hybrid with overtones of calming ambient sounds reminiscent of Super Metroid. Track 5 is a nice intermission song which is pretty much indescribable but very enjoyable. Track 6 starts out as what sounds like a hairdryer pointed at a speaker and explodes into another Trance track although a lot harder than Track 1, great song.

Track 7 is vintage mental-as-fuck AFX acid in its purest form with a bit of Caustic Window spliced in. Track 8 is a really sweet ambient song with nice beats and sounds throughout. Track 9 is slightly industrial squelchy acid with a sample of a delirious laugh being looped, great track too.
Track 10 is thirty-five enjoyable seconds of mental Gabber. Track 11 is a very dark full-on Ambient tune with a really spooky vibe. Track 12 sounds like satan taking an analogue bubble-bath. The final track is slightly dated techno which wouldnt sound of place on a Caustic Window EP, good song though.

Analogue Bubblebath 3 (most notably track 2) proves that a prolonged, beyond-repetitious, not-exactly-complex string of tinnitus-inducing hi-hat-like samples, sometimes gritty and nasal booty bass booms, and atonal-yet-pretty, feather-light-yet-cheaply-overdriven ambient synth tones can actually be aesthetically pleasing. Listening to this disc gives me the same sense of wonder that I experience when I view paintings in an art museum - more so than listening to any Western "art music" I've ever heard. Genius, indeed.