Aphex Twin's new EP

It sends me back to re-listen to 2018's Collapse EP

I wasn't ready for Collapse. The new Aphex Twin EP provides the occasion for developing a new perspective on the 2018 Collapse EP, which I under-appreciated when it came out.

I still haven't had the chance to open this for a good listen. I've heard the digital tracks, and I thought I liked them more than I liked Collapse. This new EP isn't groundbreaking, but not everything good has to be groundbreaking. (And I’m on my phone and just am not going to type the long title of the album in the photo, the “new EP.”) When I want a cake for my birthday, there is a family recipe for a chocolate mint cake covered in chocolate mint frosting, and there are no groundbreaking substitutes needed for that special day. Of course, I often take a week or a month to just bask in a birthday.

Collapse was adventuresome and I admire RDJ for making it. Not everything groundbreaking is going to be released when I'm ready for it. So, this moment, I'm giving “T69 collapse” another listen, after at least a year without hearing it. Sure enough, I wasn't ready for the middle section of descending notes coupled with ratatata-thump-ratatata drumming. I think my ventures in listening to more jazz that might be called “free,” “experimental,” or contemporary avant garde, have prepared me for it by now. My tastes were narrower in 2018. It was not the best year for me, either. I wasn't even into records then.

So, I offer my apology thus: RDJ, I simply wasn't ready for Collapse. That's all there is to it. I wasn't even into audio. I appreciate Collapse much more, and part of it is that I can hear more of it now that I have decent equipment. And I've grown into it, like a seven-year old child's latest pair of shoes.