Aphex Twin (born Richard David James on August 18, 1971 in Limerick, Ireland) is an electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, acid and drum and bass.

History

Early life

Richard David James was born of Welsh parents Lorna and Derek James at 5:00 AM^[1] on August 18, 1971 in St. Munchins Limerick Regional Maternity Hospital, Ireland. He is named after his older brother, Richard James, who died during childbirth three years before he was born. James grew up in Lanner, Cornwall, England, enjoying, along with two older sisters (Sarah and Vicky), a "very happy" childhood during which they "were pretty much left to do what [they] wanted."^[2] "I liked growing up there, being cut off from the city and the rest of the world."^[3] The children studied in Redruth School, Cornwall.

As a child he experimented on the strings and hammers of the family piano.^[4]

According to Benjamin Middleton, James started producing music at the age of 12. As a teenager he DJed at the Shire Horse in St Ives, with Tom Middleton at the Bowgie Inn in Crantock, and also along the numerous beaches around Cornwall.

From age 16 to 18 James studied the National Diploma in Engineering from 1988 to 1990 in Cornwall College. He passed the course, although he listened to his mixes on his headphones during the practical lesson.^[5]

Early career: early 1990s

Aphex Twin's first record was the 12-inch EP Analogue Bubblebath, the last two tracks of which were made with Tom Middleton.^[6][7] It was played on the KISS FM's playlist, an influential London pirate station, which helped the EP become a success.^[8]

In 1991 James formed Rephlex Records with his friend Grant Wilson-Claridge to promote: "Innovation in the dynamics of Acid - a much loved and misunderstood genre of house music forgotten by some and indeed new to others, especially in Britain."^[9]

Between 1991 and 1993, James released three Analogue Bubblebath EPs under the name of AFX, two Bradley Strider EPs, and three Caustic Window EPs. Under the Power-Pill name he released the Pac-Man EP based on the arcade game Pac-Man. Under the Aphex Twin name he released the Xylem Tube EP and Didgeridoo, a fast-paced song designed to tire dancers at the end of a DJ set. These early releases came out on Rephlex Records, Mighty Force of Exeter, and R&S Records of Belgium.^[10][11]

Early in his career, James moved to London to take an electronics course at Kingston Polytechnic, but at the time admitted to David Toop that his "electronics studies were already slipping away as a career in the techno business took precedence". After quitting his course, James remained in London and released a number of albums and EPs on Warp Records and other labels under many aliases, including AFX, Polygon Window, and Power-Pill. A number of Richard's tracks (released under the aliases Blue Calx, The Dice Man, and others) were also included in various compilations during this time. Local legend has it that James lived on the roundabout in Elephant and Castle, South London during his early years in the capital.^[12][13]

Gaining success: 1992-1999

The first Aphex Twin album, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, was released in 1992 on R&S Records. John Bush of the All Music Guide described it as a "watershed of ambient music". Rolling Stone magazine wrote of the album: "Aphex Twin expanded way beyond the ambient music of Brian Eno by fusing lush soundscapes with oceanic beats and bass lines". Critics also noted that the songs were recorded on cassette and that the sound quality was "relatively poor".^[14][15] Warp Records has billed the album as "both the birthplace and the benchmark of modern electronic music ... every home should have a copy." [1]

Warp Records pressed and released Selected Ambient Works Volume II in 1994. The sound was much less beat-driven than the previous volume. Except for one song explicitly named "Blue Calx", all of the track names were described with pie chart symbols, each of which was meant to be paired with a corresponding image in the album jacket. To decipher song titles, listeners had to pair each numbered symbol with the correct image (for example, the first title, which is often labeled "cliffs", is realized by pairing the first symbol with the first image, which is that of a rocky cliffside)[2]. James stated in The Wire magazine and other media that these songs were inspired by lucid dreams and synesthesia.

For his 1995 release, ...I Care Because You Do, James used an image of his face for the album cover, a motif that would continue in his later records. The album was a compilation of songs composed between 1991 and 1994, and represented a mish-mash of Aphex Twin's various music styles. This was Aphex Twin's last record of the 1990s to use mostly analogue synthesizer. Aphex Twin collaborated with minimalist composer Philip Glass to make an orchestral version of one of the songs from this album, "Icct Hedral".

In 1995 (primarily with Hangable Auto Bulb, a near anagram of Analogue Bubblebath), he began releasing more material composed on computers, and embraced a drum and bass sound combined with nostalgic childhood themes and strange computer-generated acid lines. Aphex Twin's early adoption of software synthesizers predated the later popularity of using computers to make music. The late 1990s saw his music become more popular and mainstream, as he released the Richard D. James Album, and later two singles from the Come To Daddy EP ("Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker"), both of which were shown on MTV and became cover features for music magazines such as NME.^[16] The videos for both singles were directed by British artist Chris Cunningham and caused controversy on their release due to disturbing images and themes.

2000-present

In 2001 Aphex Twin released his most personal album yet, drukqs, a 2-CD album which featured prepared piano songs influenced by Erik Satie and John Cage. It is notable that many of the tracks names are written in the Cornish language (e.g. 'jynweythek' translatable as 'machinemusic'). Also included were abrasive, fast and meticulously programmed computer-made songs. Rolling Stone described the piano songs as "aimlessly pretty".^[17] Some reviewers concluded that drukqs was released as a contract breaker with Warp Records—a credible guess, as James' next big release came out on his own Rephlex label. Richard told the interviewers he had left almost all the album's tracks on an MP3 player that he accidentally left on a plane with "Aphex Twin - unreleased tracks" written on it, and rushed its release to pre-empt an Internet leak.^[18]

In late 2004, rumours of James' return to an acid techno based sound were realised with the Analord series. This series concentrated on producing fully analogue pieces of music, written and recorded on analogue equipment and pressed to vinyl. James was very meticulous about the whole process of recording, mastering and pressing. However, label co-owner Grant Wilson-Claridge convinced James to release a digital CD, Chosen Lords, which included a selection from the Analord series, with some tracks slightly altered to improve the flow of the album.

For the Analord records, James used his extensive collection of Roland drum machines which he bought when they were still at bargain prices. He also used one of the rarest and most desirable synthesizers of his generation, the Synton Fenix, and the notoriously difficult to program Roland MC-4 sequencer (a sequencer with a reputation for excellent timing), as well as the famous Roland TB-303 for his trademark acid melodies.

Recently, rumors have begun surfacing that James is now recording under one or more secret new aliases, such as The Tuss.^[19][20]

On September 29, 2007, Saturday Night Live ran a Digital Short Film featuring a parody song by Andy Samberg ridiculing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement during a speech given earlier in the week that there were no gays in Iran. The Digital Short was based upon a music sample of "Avril 14th" by Aphex Twin. NBC removed the link to the parody from their website as apparently Aphex Twin had not granted clearance to use the sample.

Background

The Aphex Twin name

The name "Aphex Twin" is derived from Aphex Systems Limited, a brand of audio signal processing equipment. It is used with permission, as was recognized on the back sleeve of his Richard D. James and Drukqs albums. He has explained in interviews that the 'Twin' is in memory of his brother, also named Richard James, who died at birth.

Photography

James usually creates his own photography for his releases' artwork. Many of these photos show James' own face, grinning or slightly distorted in some way, as it can be seen in some of his videoclips ("Come to Daddy", for example). Towards the end of the second track on the "Windowlicker" single (commonly referred to as "[Formula]", "[Symbol]", or "[Equation]") a photo of James' face is revealed when run through spectral analysis.^[21] The picture illustrates his famous toothy, evil grin (with a spiral also visible at the end of "Windowlicker"). In addition to this, the cover of "Two Remixes by AFX" is actually contained only on the CD, encoded in SSTV format.

Influences

At age 17, Richard D. James mentioned these influences: "Phonic Bod, Computer World, Mental Telepathy, Industrial Inc, Tomita, Tangerine Dream". Of note regarding this is that Mixmaster Morris mentions on the "I Luv AFX" BBC Radio 1 Breezeblock session that James' preferred moniker whilst DJ'ing in Cornwall was Phonic Boy on Dope. More recently, he has said that he gets inspiration from "everyday sounds that can be emulated / reconstructed electronically, quality techno, especially from Europe which overshadows the current hardcore pop crap". When asked about what is next for electronic music, he said "acid-techno, ambient-techno".

James was influenced by Chicago house and Detroit techno pioneers like Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Other house and acid house influences include A Guy Called Gerald, Mr. Fingers, 808 State, Lil Louis.

Avante Garde music is a big influence for James as well, including Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Can, Neu!, Tangerine Dream, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tod Dockstader, Xenakis, Piero Umiliani, Parmegiani, John Cage, the French composer Erik Satie for his piano works and his innovation ideas for furniture music (a precursor to ambient music).

Many songs include sounds from and references to the ZX Spectrum. For instance, "Carn Marth" from Richard D. James Album includes the tape loading noise of the game Sabre Wulf.

Influence on others

Fans of Aphex Twin made an internet discussion list in August 1993 to talk about Aphex Twin and Warp Records. It was called the Intelligent Dance Music List. From then fans from the internet have called Aphex Twin IDM to describe Richard's novel approach to dance music.^[22][23]

Perfect Sound Forever: Another term that's been used to describe your work is 'intelligent dance music.'

"I just think it's really funny to have terms like that. It's basically saying 'this is intelligent and everything else is stupid.' It's really nasty to everyone else's music. (laughs) It makes me laugh, things like that. I don't use names. I just say that I like something or I don't." - Aphex Twin^[24]

The London Sinfonietta has performed arrangements of Aphex Twin.^[25] In 2005, the orchestra Alarm Will Sound released Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin. The album consists of acoustic arrangements of some of James' electronic tracks.

Aphex Twin has said, "I don't really like rock & roll." Despite this, he has had an influence on rock bands like Radiohead.^[26] However, he has dismissed the idea of going on tour with them: "I wouldn't play with them since I don't like them."^[27] However, he has stated "I love Ween. I really, really like them and everything they do." ^[28]

The mathcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan has covered "Come to Daddy" on one of their EPs, Irony is a Dead Scene, that featured Mike Patton as vocalist. The jazz ensemble The Bad Plus covered "Flim" on their album These Are the Vistas.

Braindance

Richard's own Rephlex Records label, which he co-owns with Grant Wilson-Claridge, describe Aphex Twin's music as "Braindance", beginning in 1991.^{[29][30] [31]} "Braindance" applies to "forward-thinking" techno music that can appeal to the listener's brain as well as his desire to dance and party. It encompasses elements of a variety of genres, including traditional, classical, electronic music, popular, modern, industrial, ambient, hip hop, electro, house, techno, breakbeat, hardcore, ragga, garage, drum and bass, etc.

The term "braindance" was created to describe Aphex Twin and Rephlex Records' music, including the Aphex Twin EP Come To Daddy ^[32] and Astrobotnia Parts 1, 2 & 3. ^[33] or record labels started by artists there for example Ed-DMX's Breakin' records label and µ-Ziq's Planet-mu label.

Rephlex Records

Rephlex Records is an influential record label started in 1991 by acclaimed electronic musician Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) and Grant Wilson-Claridge, without the intention of making large profits. It pioneered "Innovation in the dynamics of Acid", or Braindance as Rephlex now prefers to call it.

• Rephlex Records discography

Aphex Twin's press

James described himself in the Guardian newspaper as follows: "I'm just some irritating, lying, ginger kid from Cornwall who should have been locked up in some youth detention centre. I just managed to escape and blag it into music."^[34]

Aphex Twin said he composed ambient techno music at the age of 13; he has "over 100 hours" of unreleased music; he made his own software to compose with, including algorithmic processes which automatically generate beats and melodies; he experiences synesthesia; and he is able to incorporate lucid dreaming into the process of making music.^[35]

James owns a tank (a 1950s armoured scout car, the Daimler Ferret Mark 3) and a submarine bought from Russia, and he lives in southeast London in a converted bank, which was formerly the Bank of Cyprus and then HSBC. Contrary to popular opinion, however, he does not own the silver structure in the centre of the roundabout at Elephant and Castle. This is, in fact, the Michael Faraday Memorial, containing a power transformer for the Northern Line, which James jokingly claimed to be buying in an interview with The Face magazine in 2001 ^[36].

Aphex Twin provided all 3 of the tracks, [rhubarb] (SAW2), Xtal (SAW1), and [parallel stripes] (SAW2), in the BBC's digital widescreen test transmission, broadcast on a loop in the UK between November 1998 and early 2002.^[37]

Stockhausen vs. The Technocrats

In November of 1995, "The Wire" wrote an article entitled "Advice to Clever Children".

A package of tapes containing music from several artists, including Aphex Twin, was sent to the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Stockhausen commented:

"I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic music, and a young boy's voice singing with himself. Because he would then immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions, and he would look for changing tempi and changing rhythms, and he would not allow to repeat any rhythm if it were varied to some extent and if it did not have a direction in its sequence of variations."^[38]


Aphex Twin responded:

"I thought he should listen to a couple of tracks of mine: "Didgeridoo", then he'd stop making abstract, random patterns you can't dance to."

ZX Spectrum Competition Richard claims to have produced sound on a Sinclair ZX81 (a machine with no sound hardware) at the age of 11:

"When I was 11, I won 50 pounds in a competition for writing this program that made sound on a ZX81. You couldn't make sound on a ZX81, but I played around with machine code and found some codes that retuned the TV signal so that it made this really weird noise when you turned the volume up."^[39]

By displaying changing patterns of color on the monitor (in the case of the Spectrum, as with many early personal computers, the display monitor was a television), the natural hum from the cathode ray tube was modulated, producing a semblance of melody.

Luke Vibert remix competition

In May 2006 the artist Tahnaiya Russell (a surreal artist who cites Aphex Twin as an influence in her biography [3]) won the remix competition in Future Music magazine. Tahnaiya Russell's remix of the Luke Vibert track was deemed by Vibert himself to be the best of the submissions ("Relaxed and sophisticated, but with large balls and huge bass").^[40] Richard James revealed to the magazine that he had entered under the alias, but was unaware he had actually won, and the prize of sample CDs was instead awarded to runner-up Michael Stephens.

Equipment

Synth	Drum Machine	Sampler	Sequencer	Software
Roland SH-101	Roland TR-606	Casio SK-1	Roland MC-4	Reaktor
Roland TB-303	Roland TR-808		Atari ST	Metasynth
Yamaha GX1	Roland TR-909
Synton Fenix	Roland R8	UPIC

During an interview with Future Music, Richard said he liked using Ableton Live but prefers Liveslice for beat editing/stretching.

In an interview with Japan's Snoozer magazine in 2001, James stated that his favorite instruments were his piano, laptop computer, and the Synton Fenix.

In one of his older interviews in the nineties, Richard said he used Pro Tools and "stuff like that". In the same interview, he reveals that he has "homemade" equipment which covered software programmes written by himself and synthesisers and various hardware devices he built when he was younger.

Richard D. James studied electronics in Cornwall College and Kingston Polytechnic in London. He built his own synthesizers and samplers in his early years, he has also modified and circuit bent his equipment. James also programmed his personal music software algorithm.

UPIC by Iannis Xenakis^[41]

Discography

''See Richard D. James discography

Citations and references

1. ^ Lornaderek, from the album Drukqs
2. ^ The Face magazine
3. ^ [4]
4. ^ [5]
5. ^ [6]
6. ^ Ben Middleton talking about Aphex Twin on early usenet
7. ^ AFX - Analogue Bubblebath
8. ^ [7]
9. ^ The Rephlex Manifesto
10. ^ BBC Aphex Twin
11. ^ BBC Aphex Twin
12. ^ interview by David Toop
13. ^ list of aliases
14. ^ Review by Rolling Stone magazine
15. ^ Review by All Music
16. ^ Cover of NME March 20 1998
17. ^ [8]
18. ^ Synths, drukqs and rock'n'roll FairfaxDigital, January 9 2004
19. ^ Article on The Tuss in The Guardian
20. ^ Article on possible new aliases in the Village Voice
21. ^ The Aphex Face Bastwood.com, retrieved on 23 May 2006
22. ^ IDM list [9]
23. ^ Drill and Basswww.allmusic.com
24. ^ Perfect Sound Forever interview Perfect Sound Forever by Jason Gross, [September 1997], 1997
25. ^ Interview with Morgan Hayes and David Horne, March 2, 1997
26. ^ Radiohead - Kid A www.bbc.co.uk by Rhys Tranter, 17 June, 2003
27. ^ Aphex Twin Interview Kludge Magazine by Arturo Perez, March 16, 2002
28. ^ Radiohead - Aphex Twin FAQ [10] 27 September, 2007
29. ^ Rephlex - the Record Label BBC - h2g2, August 28, 2002
30. ^ V/A - Braindance The Milk Factory, May, 2001
31. ^ Dancing in the dark: Aphex Twin's Richard D James is up to his old tricks, says Louis Pattison The Guardian, Saturday May 26, 2007
32. ^ album description on HMV retailer website
33. ^ Astrobotnia Parts 1, 2 & 3, Rephlex; 2002; album review by Paul Cooper Pitchfork Media , October 04, 2002
34. ^ [11]
35. ^ "Aphex Twin: Mad Musician or Investment Banker?" Don Anderson, Space Age Bachelor Magazine, Date unknown
36. ^ [12]
37. ^ Google Video
38. ^

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Advice to clever children... "The Wire", November 1995
39. ^ The Face John O'Connell, The Face, October Issue 2001
40. ^ "Aphex Twin Wins Music Remix Competition" We Are The Music Makers.com news post
41. ^ Aphex Twin interview 'In Future Music''