Wiki
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Release Date
23 April 1995
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Length
12 tracks
...I Care Because You Do is an ambient-electronic music album by Richard D. James, under the pseudonym of Aphex Twin. James' third studio album recorded under this moniker, the album was released on April 24, 1995.
The album is quite different from his past acid house, ambient, and general techno pursuits. It features long, repetitive tracks performed on analogue synthesizers and drum machines, and occasionally features string pieces. This album marks the end of James' first analogue era, his next decade of albums being composed on computers until Analord.
...I Care Because You Do peaked at number 24 on the UK Albums Chart. It was supported by the single and EP release of the track "Ventolin". The album received positive reviews, with Entertainment Weekly, Spin, and Rolling Stone commending it as a return to form for James. It garnered comparisons to the work of composer Philip Glass, who later re-recorded the track "Icct Hedral" for James' 1995 EP Donkey Rhubarb. In 2017, Pitchfork ranked ...I Care Because You Do the 13th best IDM album of All-Time.
Each track on ...I Care Because You Do is annotated with a date, revealing that the tracks were created between 1990 and 1994. It was James' final album to be recorded primarily with analogue technology before he turned to digital production methods. Many of the song titles are anagrams.
According to AllMusic, the album finds James "pairing his hardcore experimentalism with more symphonic ambient material, aligned with the work of many post-classical composers" such as Philip Glass. Writer Dave Thompson described the album as "pulling together calm, serene moments then launching into battering and bruising beat-heavy tracks," observing that the rhythms shift "from trancey to hip-hoppish." Thompson also noted the influence of modern composers such as Glass. Rolling Stone stated that the music had "little to do with techno in any of its more popular guises," also comparing it to the work of composers Glass and John Cage but asserting that the album draws "most strongly from hip-hop. James' trademark is to put rhythm and percussion above all else; his beautiful, haunting melodies are relegated to the back of the mix."
Exclaim! stated that the album has been described as "occupying a middle-ground between Philip Glass and the Wu-Tang Clan." Spin wrote that the album "showed up trip-hop laziness", while Dummy Mag described James as taking trip-hop and "refashioning (the) voguish genre in his own image". Entertainment Weekly wrote that "By adding layers of soft, warm synthesizer chords over skull-grinding electronic percussion, James creates sounds that are simultaneously comforting and scary." In 2003, NME summarized the album as "a shotgun wedding of analogue rave and ambient porridge". Rolling Stone stated in 2004 that the increasingly active drum backing on the album was inspired by the presence of drum and bass music in the United Kingdom.
...I Care Because You Do was released on 24 April 1995. It was released on vinyl, compact disc and cassette. It charted for two weeks in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 24 on the UK Albums Chart. I Care Because You Do was re-issued on vinyl by the record label 1972 on 18 September 2012. Warp also re-issued the album in vinyl with a download card on 8 October 2012. In 2017, the album was re-released in digital format with eight bonus tracks.
The cover artwork is a self-portrait painted by James. It was the first of several Aphex Twin releases to feature an image of his grinning face on the cover.
Following the album's release, composer Philip Glass contributed an orchestral arrangement to "Icct Hedral" that was included on the 1995 EP Donkey Rhubarb.
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