Electronic music pioneer Aphex Twin will re-emerge from a two-year, self-imposed retirement this autumn, when he releases a sprawling two-disc set to be titled Drukqz. Due in October on the Warp Records label, the album – which hasn’t been given an official release date yet – boasts thirty tracks of new material.
The epic release marks the first full-length recording from Aphex Twin since 1996’s acclaimed acid jungle exercise, Richard D. James Album, a set titled after his birth name. Mastered in London last week, the hotly anticipated project marks the return of a man that many credit for expanding the boundaries of techno in the 1990s to incorporate elements of acid-thrash, ambient-noise and industrial drum-and-bass.
Following the release of 1999’s “Windowlicker” single, Aphex Twin had retreated from his music career in order to work on Flex, a short Chris Cunningham film shown as part of the Apocalypse exhibition at London’s Royal Academy.
Aphex Twin’s return to music began with his April DJ appearance at the second Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, held outside Los Angeles at Empire Polo Field. The show also featured Jane’s Addiction, Gang Starr, the Orb, Weezer, Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers.