Polygon Window - The Dice Man
I have shared Aphex Twin
before, but I have never shared any of Richard D. James other projects under different monikers, such as Polygon Window or AFX. Polygon Window was the name James used in the early '90s when he first began releasing music. These songs definitely show their age some of the time, and they were more in line with what other electronic music producers were doing with ambient/acid techno stuff at the time, but they are definitely still really cool. It's hard to compare this to his later stuff, as all of that is just so iconic, but it's fun to go back and listen to where his sound started, and what it has evolved into since.
Listen to Polygon Window - The Dice Man here.
This song is from a 1992
compilation of artists, released by Warp Records, entitled Artificial Intelligence. I think it's a good representation of James' stuff from this time period. You can hear the dissonance and weirdness that has carried through all of his music, but this song is definitely more "straight-forward" than his later stuff, particularly the drums/rhythm. I still like it a lot, it reminds me of high school when I really got into electronic music like this. This song has some cool changes too, where an entirely new theme just seems to emerge from nowhere.