Most childhood friends are content spending their leisure time engaging in activities that one might deem unsurprising for their age group, but in the case of Richard D. James and Mike Paradinas, the monkey bars were decidedly shirked in favor of drum machines and (what we now deem) vintage synthesizers. Granted, both individuals were in their mid-twenties when the first edition of Expert Knob Twiddlers came out via Rephlex Records, and so extends a ridiculous conclusion: both individuals slept in makeshift cribs hollowed out from the first Moog analogs, and both used patch cables in a kung-fu manner whenever closed-minded bullies came around to fulfill their condemnable job description. Like two peas in a sequenced pod, we’d like to think they were!
Fast forward to today, and Expert Knob Twiddlers is being reissued via Planet Mu, as Paradinas continues to run the label of note, and Aphex Twin seems to be taking this comeback thing as an ongoing proposition. The collaborative album, released in 1996, was recorded partially under the influence in James’s London flat, and musically, there’s certainly something synergistic in the product of these two genre pioneers putting their skills together. Are we totally beyond a musical reunion at this point?
Here’s where you can pre-order Expert Knob Twiddlers; it’s officially out September 16, and this particular reissue was meticulously remastered alongside an addition of seven tracks.
Expert Knob Twiddlers tracklisting:
01. Mr. Frosty
02. Reg
03. Jelly Fish
04. Eggy Toast
05. Vodka
06. Winner Takes All
07. Upright Kangaroo
08. Giant Deflating Football
09. The Sound Of The Beady Eyes
10. Bu Bu Bu Ba
11. Vodka (Mix 2)
12. Portamento Gosh
13. Waltz
14. Brivert & Muonds
15. Clissold Bathroom
16. Jelly Fish (Mix 2)
17. Organ Plodder
More about: Aphex Twin, Mike Paradinas, Richard D. James, μ-Ziq
