Aphex Twin

You’ve got to admire electronic-music paragon Richard D. James’ cheek, if nothing else. Although it would be dishonest to say he did all 26 remixes gathered here for the Benjamins, even when he’s phoning it in, James creates some mighty interesting polished turds (see Jesus Jones). The artists whose work he’s deigned to revamp range from kindred spirits (Seefeel, Meat Beat Manifesto, Baby Ford, Nobukazu Takemura, 808 State) to camp EZ-listening specialists (Mike Flowers Pops, Gentle People) to cult rockers (Phillip Boa & the Voodoo Club, Buck Tick) to certified stars (David Bowie, NIN, Curve) to classical giants (Philip Glass, Gavin Bryars). James manipulates vocals like a mischievous child molds Silly Putty, and his percussion sounds alternately like Martian gamelan orchestras or crazily askew punch presses. Although most of these mixes are around a decade old, they’ve aged much better than most cutting-edge electronic music. In Aphex’s case, greed is good.