Surfing on Sine Waves [Remaster] by Polygon Window (CD, Feb-2008, Warp)

This is a definitive acid-house album. If I am mistaken, if this is not true acid-house, then understand that this album only defines MY understanding of the genre. Basically, if this isn't acid-house, then I don't know what is. This record sounds so influential, so classic, like it was recorded at the dawn of existence yet still remains relevant to this day because it is the documented sounds of a prehistoric epoch. It sounds dated, but that's the magic of it. It sounds timeless, really. So whether it was aping someone else or someone else subsequently aped it, I don't know. All I know is that it has certainly left a mark on me.
But enough nostalgia.
The music contained herein is classic Richard D. James alien ambient acid techno, which makes sense since this is essentially his first full-length release. In that respect, it sounds uncannily similar to the first installment of Analogue Bubblebath, specifically "Isopropophlex". The entire album is drenched in reverb to the effect that it sounds like a transmission beamed directly from a Zeta Reticuli rave. It's HARD, very percussive, with paranoid melodies, but it definitely has the same mood as early Aphex. Most songs are just straightforward ravers with that unmistakable Aphex melancholy. Their concept may be simple and somewhat homogenized by now, but the magnificent execution distinguishes these tracks from anything else out there.
Some songs, like "Quoth", are downright clanging clatter. However, Surfing On Sine Waves manages to remain compelling throughout by sturdily walking the tight rope above the pitfall of experimentalist noodling. It won't sound too poppy to hardcore veterans of Madchester, yet it won't frighten the uninitiated. I myself have grown up in the insularity of the boondocks, and I still find this release enthralling. ...but maybe that's why I'm so ecstatic about it; I have yet to really be exposed to the more arcane genres like techstep or illbient.
Whatever.
Whether it's a milestone or a pebble, it is an entirely solid album, and sometimes just achieving that is innovation enough.
Purchase it posthaste, even if you are only occasionally intrigued by this whole "music" concept.