he double album is a milestone that has frustrated even the most talented musical artists. The Beatles' White Album contained stunning songs, but lacked cohesion. The Who's Quadrophenia had too many ideas in its concept. Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti could have probably been pared down to one disc. Even Slayer's Decade of Aggression was missing a certain je ne sais quoi. Richard D. James, the man behind Aphex Twin, has never been one to play on the conservative side of the musical spectrum. So it came as no surprise that James would release a groundbreaking double album early in his career. The surprise was that Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2, running two hours in length, would stand as the most cohesive, consistent Aphex Twin album to date.

James could be expected to rest on his laurels, having summited the treacherous double-album peak. Instead, he decided to test the mountain again with his latest album Drukqs. He should have checked his carabiners a few more times before this expedition. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and in today's electronic music, they don't come much bigger than Aphex Twin. That's why Drukqs comes off as such a stinker - it's not necessarily bad, per se; it's just not very good.

It's been a rough year for Warp's heavy hitters. Autechre's Confield was just too obscure and remote; Squarepusher's Go Plastic treaded too much water. Drukqs hits its own potholes, succumbing to many of the failings of double albums before it by the time the hundredth minute is over. The album lacks any and all cohesion or flow: where SAW2 was the model of consistency, Drukqs alternates drastically between spacey shorts, melodic piano pieces, and jungle-inspired acid (think what Analogue Bubblebath 6 might sound like). James simply bites off more musical ideas than he can possibly chew on: the ambient excursions and piano melodies are occasionally interesting, but not fully developed. The first disc can hardly be distinguished from the second, and James could have easily trimmed off some fat to let Drukqs fit on one CD. Most damnable, none of the tracks stand out: the piano pieces are pretty but short; the acid tracks are solid, but not revolutionary; the ambient pieces come off as essentially filler. Nothing has a spark or spirit of contemporary Aphex Twin. In fact, Drukqs takes just about every misstep it possibly could without making just plain bad music.

James is known for a warped sense of humor, and the only sense I can make of Drukqs is that it might be a big joke: one on his fans and followers. Instead of pushing the limits of electronic music again, James has decided to play some pranks (the title of the album itself appears to be a pun of sorts: "Druk qs" is a phonetic approximation of "drug use"). I can almost picture the devilish grin on his face as he pictures legions of skinny white kids wasting a bunch of money on a highly anticipated, mediocre double album. They're making the same mistake they made when The Fragile came out! Hilarious! Imagine overeducated music snobs debating the nuances of piano noodlings that he cranked out in one take! Or analyzing jungle tracks that he can't even remember programming! Or arguing over which sub-one-minute track is the best over email lists and message boards! James is no doubt rolling on the floor of his bank vault, doubled over in laughter.

Of course, there's always the possibility that Drukqs was meant as a genuine album. In that case, the joke is on James himself.