So I just ordered all 11 of the Analord records.

I'm actually thrilled to be back into Aphex again, somehow it helps me feel more whole again. I loved him beyond reason for the longest time, and when I stopped feeling his work it was disheartening, literally, in that it suggested that my emotions were fickle, not connected to substance in any important way. I spent years living in his world and then - nothing? So reconnecting with this stuff has sort of strengthened my feeling of identity, like I'm reconnecting to my 20-year-old self.

Ironically, it was another Warp record that triggered this little avalanche today, Jamie Lidell's Multiply. I read an obnoxious set of posts from Momus chastising Lidell for abandoning the revolution and cashing in on his avant-cred by recapitulating the styles and gestures of the masters. Infuriatingly on-the-mark.

And that's what I love about the best Aphex, it's not trying to be anything else. It's not entirely correct to say that's it's forward-looking: a lot of his best melodies are wistful child-like stuff. But it's imaginative and compelling, like a new organic thing.

So given the fact that, based on what I've read, this whole series is a self-consciously retro move on RDJ's part, I could be setting myself up for a lot of disappointment, drukqs-style. But I found just enough favorable reviews online (some from surprising sources) that I started to get excited about the idea of wading through 11 slabs of afx vinyl.

And what pushed me over the top, I suppose, was a loyalty to me circa 1998, when I immersed myself in a sound, subjected myself to the discipline of new genres. Which is the opposite of what I'm doing now. But the idea of force-feeding myself academic electronic music, or classical music, or anything else really, is not appealing to me right now.

But in the future ... well, anything's possible.