The Devil’s Duality: Aphex Twin’s ‘…I Care Because You Do’ at 30

Last December, the ever-elusive Richard D. James quietly uploaded a trove of previously vinyl-only music, sold exclusively at his live DJ sets, to streaming services. Given the unceremonious but accurate title of Music from the Merch Desk (2016–2023), this compilation—one in which no information has been provided about any of the tracks—isn’t a total anomaly in James’s sprawling discography. He’s known for adopting new aliases, dropping tossed-off EPs, and collaborating with other artists with little to no fanfare.

James’s third album as Aphex Twin, …I Care Because You Do was released in the spring of 1995, just a few months after his first greatest hits compilation—released by R&S Records without his involvement—and it’s similarly characterized by a capricious approach to curation. In a sense, the album serves as its own anthology—a time capsule that displays James’s broad musical interests at what was arguably the peak of his creative prowess.

The tracks that comprise …I Care Because You Do, unlike those on Music from the Merch Desk, are annotated with the year of their recording, all between 1990 and 1994. The music’s deliberate blend of genres and moods creates a listening experience that mirrors the Aphex Twin ethos: unnerving, disorienting, maddeningly beautiful, and always forward-thinking.

…I Care Because You Do might be James’s most transitory album. Because this unwieldy collection of compositions doesn’t fit neatly into any one categorical box, it tends not to stand out as sharply as either volume of Selected Ambient Works or drukQs. You get a little of everything that had (and would) define his sound: futuristic IDM (“The Waxen Pith” and “Moonkid”), far-out acid (the cheekily named “Acrid Avid Jam Shred,” one of the many anagrams that pop up throughout), and the kinetic, jungle-style breakbeats (“Come on You Slags!”) that would become the calling card of 1996’s Richard D. James Album.

Mostly, what one gets here is a bold mix of the ambient textures that made James a critical darling a few years earlier, paired with walloping percussion and bursts of hardcore techno. But there are still cuts on …I Care Because You Do of such blistering intensity and commitment to chaos that they rival some of the more pointedly trollish moments on drukQs, most infamously “Ventolin,” arguably the most headache-inducing, dance floor-dominating dentist drill of a song ever recorded. Loaded with high-pitched blasts of piercing white noise meant to replicate the sensation of tinnitus, it’s a song that invites you in, even as it forcefully tries to push you back out. That is, until its eruptions of sonic distortion become so overwhelming by the final stretch that you’d swear the track was coming apart.

That same level of devilish duality—between attraction and repulsion—runs through much of …I Care Because You Do, such as the truly unsettling “Icct Hedral.” Starting with a minute of murky, almost indecipherable reverb, the track gradually builds, layering strings, synth, and bass, expanding and contracting into an immensely triumphant climax, all while embodying the fiendish attitude of the jarring self-portrait on the album’s cover. While many prefer Philip Glass’s orchestral remix, I personally find that version over-embellished. It pushes the song into “white elephant art” territory: grand, attention-seeking, and a little overstuffed. Aphex, by contrast, operates better in “termite mode,” with as few obtrusive elements as possible.

At almost every juncture, …I Care Because You Do seemingly establishes some form of internal logic, only to break it: After its most assaultive track, “Start as You Mean to Go On,” you get one of its goofiest, “Wet Tip Hen Ax,” with its silly, funky rhythm just bouncing along the mix. And after a chilled-out, deeply resonant song like “Alberto Balsalm,” there’s the dubby “Cow Cud Is a Twin,” which feels like a lethargic stroll through the countryside.

When you finally feel like you may have gotten your head around exactly what the hell this album’s sound or end goal really is, it ends on “Next Heap With,” a heavenly arranged, beat-free jaw-dropper that closes things out with eerie stillness, as if it were suspended in time. For James, it was a turning point, as …I Care Because You Do feels like the moment he fully embraced his own contradictions—melodic yet menacing, chaotic yet precise—and began shaping the deeply idiosyncratic world that would inform his most iconic work.