Track Listing

1. Polygon Window
2. Audax Powder
3. Quoth
4. If It Really Is Me
5. Supremacy II
6. Dot
7. Quixote
8. Portreath Harbour
9. Redruth School
10. Quino-Phec

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23902 in Music
• Released on: 2001-03-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
Culled from the seminal Artificial Intelligence series, this was the debut release on Warp from Richard James, aka Aphex Twin. Surfing... sounds as refreshing today as it did almost a decade ago. This re-issue has two previously unreleased tracks 'Portreath Harbour' and 'Redruth School'. Standard jewel case. 2001 release.

Amazon.com
For the second album in its ruefully short-lived Artificial Intelligence series, Sheffield's Warp Records commissioned a young Richard James (now better known as the Aphex Twin) to demonstrate not only the capabilities of his collection of homemade synthesizers but of his uniquely warped mind as well. Surfing on Sine Waves provides an equal dose of both, a soundscape in which undulating synths compete for space with disjointed drum programming and awkward song structure. But somehow everything fits together. Smooth and tactile tracks like "Polygon Window," "Quixote," and "UT1 Dot" are balanced by opaque drum workouts like "Quoth" and "Supremacy II," finishing off with the delicate and sublime "Quino-Phec." Surfing... epitomizes the sound James slowly abandoned in his later material--a smooth hybrid of Detroit's raw sensibilities with the European electronica that was its inspiration and the personal touch that can only come from a lonely, disturbed mind. --Matthew Corwine

Customer Reviews

The Name of this Band is "Aphex Twin"
Damn, I miss this sound. This is a CD by Richard James, of course, from the period where he was also putting out records under the psuedonyms of 'Caustic Window','The Dice Man', and of course, 'Aphex Twin'. And unlike the first two nom-de-plumes above, this is more in an Aphex-y vein, with dark melodies and very tasteful but propulsive beats in use all over. This, and Aphex's "Selected Ambient Works I", for my money, are perhaps the two best places to start for anyone unfamiliar with RDJ's work. Every track is a standout, but "Quoth", of course, is the one that got RDJ a lot of his early large-scale attention on this side of the Atlantic. A release that really encapsulates a lot of what was so great about techno in that early-to-mid 90s period, RDJ drew away from this sound and into more raucous territory in the wake of "SAW II" and its poor reception by so many factions of the rave community that wanted him to keep doing dance stuff forever. As a result, he quit a lot of both his ambient _and_ melodic proclivities. Try this out and see where the legend of Richard James _really_ comes from!

and a half stars! Another interesting one!
This is a great release from RDJ, but not as organic as his works under "Aphex Twin". This work is more like a rave, rather than an Ambient work. These you can dance to (awkwardly, at least).

The first 4 tracks are electronica bliss. Around the middle, you might become bored with it. Don't turn it off! The final two tracks recover the album as a whole.

If you don't know by now, Richard D. James (aka 'Aphex Twin, Polygon Window), is a pioneer in electronic music. He is responsible for the landmarks "Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2", and "I Care Because you do". This album is one of the last times he used self-made instruments to make techno, before switching to his "drill and bass" sound. Therefore, this work is a must have, that is if you are a collector.

If you are just a music fan, I suggest you look into his "Aphex" stuff first, and work your way to this one. Like all his other stuff, you may not like it at first listen. Give it time. It's really not as hard to get used to as SAW2. If you already like SAW2, this should be a piece of cake!

Agriculture
This is unlike his later, more brutal work - it's closer in style to the first Orbital album, or some of the pieces on 'Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1'. It's smoother, more tuneful, more homogenous (it's very hard to think of a specific track after the album has finished), and less interesting than the proper 'Aphex Twin' material. It's a good place to start, though, as it has all the Aphex trademarks - sine-wave chimes, odd tunes, lots of reverb, and a fascinating balance between mechanistic coldness (his 'sound' makes no concessions to naturalness) and humanistic (the tunes are lovely) elements. It's a like an attractive sculture of a person, both beautiful and frigid at the same time.