Day Thirty-Six: Caustic Window - Compilation

Rephlex Records ■ CAT009LP

Released June 1, 1998
(EP release dates below)

Produced by Richard D. James

Let's just get this out of the way up front: I'm cheating. While the credited artist for this release is "Caustic Window", that is, in fact, one of the (many) pseudonyms of one Richard D. James, whose most famous monikers are AFX and, of course, The Aphex Twin. If you've been reading here a while, or if you just click that link, you'll see that this is not the first of his releases for me to cover here. However, because I feel it's legitimate to treat this as a "C" release (alphabetically speaking), it avoids the issue of clustering multiple days around a single artist and allows me to cover more of my collection while not (strictly) violating the alphabet. It's not the only time this will occur, but this is the time they'll come closest together (the other I can think of off the top of my head is Leon Russell, who will obviously appear much later, but who released two albums with Marc Benno, at least the first of which was credited originally to The Asylum Choir).


In any case, this is a compilation of the 3 EPs James released as Caustic Window, which were put out by the label he co-founded, Rephlex. The original releases of each EP were actually a bit larger, some tracks being shaved off with the CD release of this as Compilation as well as the original vinyl issue of it as a 3xLP in three conjoined clear plastic sleeves. Each EP loses one track in the process, those being: "Popcorn" (a version of the Gershon Kingsley track made famous by Hot Butter) from Joyrex J4, an untitled track from Joyrex J5 typically nicknamed "R2-D2", and "H.M.N.E." ("Humanoid Must Not Escape") from Joyrex J9i.

Despite the compilation's release date above, the EPs were released much earlier, and I've included those release dates below each EP's title.

Joyrex J4

Originally released July, 1992

(Originally CAT004)

Side One:	Side Two:
Joyrex J4 AFX II Cordialotron	Italic Eyeball Pigeon Street

The title track from Joyrex J4 is built from the sound of a wobbling piece of cardstock (unlikely this is actually what was used, but it tells you what it sounds like), but quickly eschews this by turning into the acid house that makes up all of these EPs. The beat is pounding and rapid, not necessarily designed for actual dancing (allegedly, James created his early track "Digeridoo" and its 140bpm beat to wear dancers out at DJ gigs). Layered into the beat are more wobbling--though the later instances are more electronic, an angular rise-and-fall melody, a distant, phasing buzz and a difficult to describe sound that skips as if being halted from high speeds.

"AFX II" (while there are some instances in which James obscures his identity, to the point that speculation still marks releases from that artist insofar as who it actually is, often he makes no attempt to hide it, and does so only as a matter of distinguishing styles and labels they are released on) is one of the hardest beats in the set, sounding as if it's a second generation recording, and maybe, just maybe, built on ambient sampling of some banal piece of machinery. It's a short track, but an appreciably aggressive one.

"Cordialotron" is one of the tracks that most recalls his only-slightly-earlier work on things like Selected Ambient Works 85-92. It's not a very hard beat, though it's definitely strong enough to fit in its place in these releases. It's strongly melodic, via its use of a looped melody that emulates a keyboard, and a warping sort of "lead" that rides over it. If you liked SAW8-92, this will feel way more familiar and comfortable, with the production approach also resembling that, with that echoing spaciousness and a minimal drum section (for this release, anyway).

The haunting (reversed) Julie Andrews (!) sample that opens "Italic Eyeball" implies we're in for more ambient techno, and doesn't really let down. It's still very strong on rhythm, even as compared to "Cordialotron", but it the woodwind-esque ethereal melody has a semi-central role, and the percussive section does actually deal in varying pitches, even using a bass-like loop to help glue the track together.

"Pigeon Street" is a wonderfully cheerful slice of fun, at only 0:23 running time, sounding as if it might have been taken from a children's program from the late 70s or the 80s, cheerful and melodic, using plunking melody for rhythm, and "nasal"  bounces for the "lead" melody. Unsurprisingly, there was a children's program on the BBC in '81, that actually did use a partly synthesized theme song (it doesn't sound at all alike though, especially as it is primarily an actual acoustically played theme).

Joyrex J5

Originally released July, 1992

(Originally CAT005)

Side One:	Side Two:
Astroblaster On the Romance Tip	Joyrex J5

Unsurprisingly, "Astroblaster" returns us to the more hardcore side of James' Caustic Windows material, pulling out a truly stomping beat, and keeping its melodic variations somewhat abrasive and metallic, as many of the sounds are on these EPs. A harsh buzzing hum is the primary melodic "instrument", one that in some ways hints at the sounds that would work their way into his less repetitive (ie, not acid house) releases in the coming years. Hints of the sounds of "On" can actually be heard here, though used in entirely different ways.

"On the Romance Tip", at open, almost sounds as though it could turn out to be truly ambient: the opening segment wouldn't have been out of place on Selected Ambient Works, Volume II, but an actual percussive track does worm its way in after a few measures, placing it more in the vein of the original Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and its "ambient techno" designation. As such, this is still the kind of track most people will find more pleasant and more palatable. The sustained notes that make the melody are cold, distant and expansive, but quite pretty. The fidgety secondary rhythm track keeps it all moving and from being too somber, too. It actually ends with the sounds you'd expect more from the earliest electronic artists, who recorded in the early 70s, sort of like really badly synthesized strings--a sound I happen to enjoy, actually.

Because the emphasis of these EPs is on primarily acid house tracks, the title track for Joyrex J5 ends this version of the EP (it does end the original version as well) on that note. It is a less harsh track than "Astroblaster", though, even if it is the longest track in the entire series. The beat is rapid and not overly focused on bass, which keeps the track centered more in the midrange and helps its comfort level for listeners a lot (barring those who are really big on the harsh sounds, anyway). The completely unrelated rhythm and melody that comes in about a third of the way through is not an unusual technique at this point for James, and the way it comes in and ignores everything else, just hovering in the background with a sense of mysticism is part of what tends to make his work better for sitting and listening, or listening more than just feeling in a rave-y context (that's why he suggested that his work be called "Braindance"--which appears on the only liner notes for this album, apparently actually trademarked--instead of the pretentious and snobby "intelligent dance music"). Oddly, that melody, despite its completely disjointed placement, manages to make the song quite pleasant indeed, even as the sped-up-saw sound of the primary hook cuts at your ear.

Joyrex J9

Originally released September, 1993 (J9i); December, 1993 (J9ii)

(Originally CAT009i and CAT009ii)

Side One:	Side Two:
Fantasia Clayhill Dub	The Garden of Linmiri We Are the Music Makers [Hardcore Mix]

If you don't like the harsh noises, "Fantasia", at least its opening, are not going to be your friend. Something like a machine starting up, or failing, or a locked groove of the same, it drops quickly both in pitch and even existence for the squeaking alarm-like centrepiece of the song, which is backed by a pounding, bass-heavy rhythm track, and a jagged, distorted lead "melodic" line. That line is aggressive, but actually quite cool. It's actually hard for me to really say "harsh" here except in comparative terms. This shouldn't really be "ear-bleed" kinds of harsh at all, just not something that makes you sigh contentedly. Of course, amusingly, a few minutes in (another of the longer tracks here), we hear a sample from a (purported) porn film--"Oooh, ooh!" from a female voice, which is eventually given a moment in isolation to play fully: "Oooh, ooh! That's great, yeah!" says an, ah, excited female voice. While James has done this kind of thing before (and would again later), it doesn't seem at all like it's really "connecting" to porn or making the track actually sleazy: instead, it feels like James is wryly referencing the quality of his music (which he would also later do without the orgasmic association, via tracks like (despite what the title might imply to you) "Cock/Ver10". 

"Clayhill Dub" is likely so named because it is focused less on bass kicks than it is on a bassy melodic line, which throbs throughout and keeps the song centered entirely around the low end. Occasional splashes of metallic clank and rattle, echoing or just striking momentarily wander in here and there, but largely it's just that bassy line.

"The Garden of Linmiri" uses an alarm-like noise, not unlike "Fantasia", but more like hearing a large factory's alarm from outside, with the kind of distortion that comes from an intentionally ridiculously loud noise as muffled by the walls of a building. Squeaky, high-pitched rhythms (a favoured sound for James in faster tracks), is the trade-in for that alarm sound's patient repetitions, as well as another of the full-on, hard beats (think "Astroblaster" above), with four-on-the-floor, but done with the drop of a boulder on concrete. The strike of grinding on metal alternates beats, while it all eventually mutates into an aggressive, clatter of pounding on thin metal trays in a rather catchy and appealing way.

Making it only appropriate that these are the two James releases I'm going to cover, the compilation closes with the "Hardcore Mix" of "We Are the Music Makers", from SAW85-92. Let's be honest: while it may have been James's sense of humour to tell us one of his big pop star remixes was an unrelated track he had laying around, passed on because he was caught offguard by the deadline (the man has also said he checks our records by "smelling the grooves", and that he used a goat to help create Drukqs, and that it was most helpful after he got it a "hoof mod"), this would not be surprising as an approach for him. The only connection here is that of Gene Wilder's sampled voice, speaking that same line: "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams..." The beat itself is another hard one, four-on-the-floor accented with a secondary beat between the third and fourth. The focal point is a rhythmic brushing sound, as of stiff bristles taken back and forth across a floor, but clipped free of any higher pitches. A yawning, distorted buzz falls repeatedly in the background, keeping the pace of the track not quite so fast as the fully rhythmic portions would imply.

I'm normally not one for house or trance or any of the more repetitive strains of electronic music, simply because it seems like the repetition is intended to maintain danceability--a sound that can be appealing for its consistency, but that, as a focal point, doesn't build for active listening unless done with that in mind (or because the artist in question likes to do so anyway). James's Caustic Window material isn't an exception to the style, really, but it does keep things interesting, as James may DJ for shows (and did then, too), but he's also made it clear that music seems to be more of a listening interest to him than a dancing one. I think, then, that this reflects in how he puts even house-based tracks together. It is more repetitive, to be sure, and is not my favourite of his material, but that's honestly not saying much when this is the artist in question. It is a bit odd that my collection of his work on vinyl is exclusively his analogue-produced material (this, SAW85-92, Analogue Bubblebath 3, and the Analord series of releases he did in 2005 on a return to that kind of equipment from his computer-based work in the preceding decade or so). Still, his work in electronics (I think we can believe that one, as well as his claims to modifying the equipment himself)  makes the material unique within the framework of the genres and styles the material falls into.

Just don't go into this expecting free, easy, happy kinds of stuff. There are better releases from him for that kind of thing--but getting this kind of hard, harsh, rough stuff from him, this is probably the top.

• Next Up: Chemical Brothers - Brotherhood