This is Richard D. James at his most unhinged. Drukqs came out in 2001 on Warp, a double album that shoves lurching, impossibly fast drill and bass against delicate solo piano pieces and the kind of prepared-piano experiments that sound like furniture falling down stairs. The production is brutally detailed. Drums fracture and reassemble at speeds that feel less like rhythm and more like percussive seizure.
The slow bits hit hardest. Gwely Mernans is a damp, underwater drone track that takes its time. Avril 14th is the beautiful solo piano piece you have definitely heard in a film or a commercial, simple and sad and completely out of place next to the chaos. 54 Cymru Beats sounds like a keyboard shorting out in a wind tunnel. It is exhausting and brilliant and a total mess in the best way. If you liked Syro or Richard D. James Album but wish they were more frantic and weirder, this is the one.
