As expected, this double CD set rambles all over the place. Is this a bad thing? The breadth of material is daunting enough that it may hinder attempts to absorb it all at once, meaning much of it sounds like disorganised doolally at first. One thing is certain, though, it is by no means a disappointment after the hype, as the scale of the thing allows Richard James to develop some new ideas and cover some old ground - "gwely mernans" is very SAW, for instance - as well as taking the inevitable berzerko breakbeat science tracks just that bit further. For instance, "54 Cymru Beats" launches headlong into the second disc by basically stomping much heck out of some breakloops and half of the "matrix equation" track from 1999's Windowlicker single, and is simply screaming to get boomed out along Chapel St on a Saturday night, just to throw out all the boom-tssh fanatics.

The ventures into new areas include electro-acoustic boffinry, as on the meandering "gwarek 2", and prepared piano stylings on "prep gwarlek 36" and elsewhere, and interestingly a less encumbered piano is utilised for some of the tunes to let them stand in the flesh, where before James might've dressed them up with the usual squirts and clicks. This probably won't stop kids applying such accompaniments off their own bat in an attempt to rake off some of the Aphex mystique. Expect unauthorised dream house remixes of "Avril 14th" before too long, blurgh. Perhaps this is what James meant by being "ripped off". Many of the short tracks mainly consist of dicking around - "lornaderek" presumably a voice message of his parents wishing him a happy birthday, or the single pad burst of "bit 4", but fortunately they're short and to the point, with the better material getting worked out a bit, often being so dynamic and complex that the mind just gives up analysing after a while, and may well take a few listens to resolve the blur of ideas.

Whilst Drukqs is not quite a quantum leap from his previous work, it's a definite progression from Richard D James Album, the Come To Daddy EP and "Windowlicker", with more moments of beguiling beauty that suck you in before ambushing you with something hard and blunt. The album makes damned clear that for all of RDJ's oft-amusing media strategies, there are few compromises for popular taste here, and this will grate with some people. Too bad. If you don't want to jump straight into the deep end, give I Care Because You Do or perhaps Come To Daddy a burl first so you're not completely disorientated. It's not hard music, just a case of finding bearings to orientate oneself to.

In any case, Drukqs is a great return for Aphex Twin which is bound to create some conjecture, as you'd expect.