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: #70478 in Music
• Released on: 2001-05-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
For the second album in its ruefully short-lived Artificial Intelligence series, 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... epitomises 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

Electronic listening music: slowly relaxes and surprises...
By Richard James in one of his guises, the most famous being Aphex Twin. Sine Waves takes in an experimental approach, with unusual samples being sublimely crafted.

The whole music is techno style, but not full-on club style. You may want to relax and listen in your front room, or as great, non-irritating company when you work away at home (I'm a Web designer). It's so cool.

If you are into mainstream or chart music, this may take getting used to and require patience. If you like dance music but don't want to have to move like mad all the time, this is a great tonic. It's chill out stuff with it's feet on the ground, not designed to take you to 'another zone'. Buy it.

Up there with Selected Ambient Vol 1
This is like the techno equivalent of Selected Ambient Works Volume 1 (by the Aphex Twin). It certainly doesn't sound like the average techno album, mainly because the sounds used are mostly unique (he used to make his own synths). The tracks sound haunted and they always make me think how lonely the surfer on the cover looks.

By far the worst thing RDJ aka Aphex Twin ever released
This is one of the few things to have come from the mind of the guy who gave us Analogue Bubble Bath, SAW85-92 & 2, Hangable Auto Bulb, even Drukqs, that seems to be devoid of inspiration. It lacks those indefinable sounds, the glacial melodies and inspired, impenetrable beats. From anyone else this would be considered slightly-above-average 'listening techno'. Coming from Aphex, however, it's just mediocre, especially considering the vast quantity of brilliant, brilliant records that James has put out in the last ten years. If you already have everything with the Aphex name attached, get Analogue Bubblebath III, Hangable Auto Bulb or the Caustic Window Compilation. If you've heard a little Aphex and are wondering what to buy, I recommend Selected Ambient Works 85-92 or I care because you do. On the other hand, if you already have everything mentioned so far, you're very nearly an Aphex Nut (tm). Time to start saving those pennies for rare 12"s, nth generation copies of Melodies from Mars, and bootlegs of live gigs from the late 90s which change hands for considerable amounts of money all over this lovely internet (and no, you won't find them on eBay). Surfing On Sine Waves, however, and in this respect it is probably completely alone in James' catalogue, just blows.