** APHEX TWIN, “Richard D. James,” Elektra

Richard James is the enigmatic electronic prodigy who hit the scene in 1991 at age 19 only to become the most prolific and revered artist connected to ambient dance. His fourth album under the acidic Aphex Twin moniker is a lean, introspective ode to a namesake brother who died before his own birth in 1972.

Fascinating for students of the electronic process and at times endearing, “Richard D. James” is sometimes childish and cantankerous, with half-baked drum-and-bass and disposable, simple melodies. It is self-indulgent, jagged and, contrary to Brian Eno’s own mantra that ambient music should be heard and not felt, obtrusive. You can envision graphic sound charging around like square pixels on a vintage Atari video game. At other times the album seems as if it is stuck in a digital holding pattern, waiting for time travel to rescue it from the pause button.

Abstract? Yes. But beauty seems to be a fleeting concept to James. Long gone are the days of ‘92’s “Didgeridoo”--a teeth-grinding dance-floor scorcher and a forefather of the drum-and-bass sound--and the ominous machinations of ‘94’s “Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II.” With “Richard D. James,” the life machine is beeping and bleeping, but there is no breath, no soul.

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