Review Summary: An EP that dwells on the cold and sparse quality of Aphex Twin's work.
When the orchestra Alarm Will Sound interpreted some of Richard D. James' more notable tracks for their
Acoustica album they did a good job drawing out the often warm and textured quality of James’ work. Simon Farintosh on the other hand has adapted 5 Aphex Twin tracks for acoustic guitar, and the result is an EP that dwells on the cold and melancholic quality of tracks like Flim, Avril 14th and Jynweythek Ylow. These are good choices, all giving themselves well to acoustic interpretations; they’re sparse tracks that recall the slow sad timelessness of Erik Satie and sound like they could have been originally written for acoustic guitar (with perhaps the exception of Alberto Balsalm which retains an echo of its robotic beat). However, this timelessness exists in a tentative form. The cover, the cornish titles and sparse guitar work all lead one to think this is a reproduction of cornish folk music. But that's not the case. These are Aphex Twin interpretations for guitar and Aphex Twin is very firmly settled in modernity (and it's hard to forget that). But the very natural way these tracks sound illustrate the deceptive talent in Aphex Twins songwriting (a very human robot) and Simon Farintosh’s interpretive abilities.
