Analogue Bubblebath

Analogue Bubblebath is the title track of the 12-inch EP that began James's recording career, released in September 1991 as the first record on Mighty Force, an Exeter record shop turned label. The music had circulated on tape among friends before Mark Darby and Tom Middleton persuaded James to let it out. The record was mastered from a C90 tape onto a Betamax F1 tape. The first pressing of 1000 copies sold out in less than a week, and London pirate stations and Kiss FM played it. An early white label copy was heard by R&S Records head Renaat Vandepapeliere, which led to James's releases on that label in 1992. The Guardian later counted its release among 50 key events in the history of dance music.

Mixmag called it one of the most perfect tracks ever written. The Guardian's Geeta Dayal put it first in her 2019 ranking of his songs, writing that it is melancholy and uplifting, moody and hopeful all at once, and still a gold standard for electronic music nearly 30 years on. Simon Reynolds described its 'fluttery, diaphanous riff-pattern and hazy yet crystalline production'. The same EP includes Isopropophlex, which uses samples from the arcade game Berzerk, and En Trance to Exit, on which Middleton collaborated as Schizophrenia. Rolling Stone ranked the title track 62nd on its 2022 list of the 200 greatest dance songs.