Drukqs

Reception

Initial critical response to drukQs was positive, though not as much as his previous albums under the Aphex Twin name. While at its 2001 release Alex Needham of NME called it "beautiful" and "bulging with goodies", Spin's Simon Reynolds criticised the album as "unimpressive" and "trapped by [its] potential for infinitesimal tweakage" and Pat Blashill of Rolling Stone called it his "most irrelevant album to date". Later, though, the New Rolling Stone Album Guide in 2004 declaimed that "weirdly dismissed by many, Drukqs is often spectacular". At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 66, based on 21 reviews.

CD

All songs composed by Richard D. James.

In popular culture

"Avril 14th" has been used many times in other contexts. In 2006, it appeared on the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. In 2007, it was sampled in the digital short "Iran So Far" on a Saturday Night Live episode that aired on 29 September. There were complications of this—NBC did not get the rights to use the song. However, rights were eventually garnered by Chrysalis Music, Aphex Twin's publishing company, for television and DVD usage, but The Lonely Island was not allowed to include the track on its album Incredibad. In 2010, "Avril 14th" was used as the credit music for Chris Morris's film Four Lions, and also sampled by Kanye West for his song "Blame Game" on the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In 2013, the song was featured in a trailer for Spike Jonze's film Her.

"Nanou 2" features in Shane Meadows' gritty cult thriller Dead Man's Shoes (2004). A drukQs poster can be seen in Edgar Wright's comedy horror film Shaun of the Dead (2004).

Personnel

Aphex Twin – piano, synthesizers, harmonium, keyboards, various percussive objects, treatments, sampler, bass guitar