Aphex Twin

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Aphex Twin <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:RDJAFXPromoPic.jpg </td></tr>
Background information <tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">Richard David James</td></tr><tr><td>Also known as</td><td colspan="2">AFX Blue Calx Bradley Strider Martin Tresseder Caustic Window Gak Soit P.P. Polygon Window Power-Pill Q-Chastic The Diceman Tahnaiya Russell</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">August 18, 1971</td></tr><tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Limerick, Ireland</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Acid House Ambient Music Ambient Techno </br> Drill and bass Electronic Music Noise music</td></tr><tr><td>Occupation(s)</td><td colspan="2">Musician Songwriter Remixer</td></tr><tr><td>Instrument(s)</td><td colspan="2">Piano Synthesizers Electronics Prepared piano Laptop computer</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1991 – present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Rephlex Records Warp Records</td></tr><tr><td textalign="top" style="padding-right: 1em;">Associated acts</td><td colspan="2">Universal Indicator Mike & Rich</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #f4bf92;" colspan="3">Members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Richard David James</td></tr>

Aphex Twin (Richard David James, born 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.

1 Biography
2 Aphex Twin's influences
3 Influence of Aphex Twin on others
4 Aphex Twin and UK Digital Television
5 Aphex Twin's press
- 5.1 Remix competition
6 Discography
7 Citations and References
8 External links

[edit] Biography

Richard D. James was born of Welsh parents Lorna and Derek James in 1971 in Limerick Regional Hospital, Ireland. He grew up in Cornwall, England, enjoying, along with two sisters, a "very happy" childhood during which they "were pretty much left to do what [they] wanted." <ref> The Face magazine </ref>

According to Benjamin Middleton, he 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. His first record was the 12-inch EP Analogue Bubblebath, the last two tracks of which were made with Tom Middleton.<ref> Tom Middleton talking about Aphex Twin on early usenet</ref><ref>AFX - Analogue Bubblebath</ref>

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."<ref>The Rephlex Manifesto </ref>

Between 1991 and 1993 Richard James released three Analogue Bubblebath EPs under the AFX name, two Bradley Strider EPs, and three Caustic Window EPs. 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.<ref>BBC Aphex Twin</ref><ref>BBC Aphex Twin </ref>

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, Blue Calx, The Dice Man, Power-Pill. Local legend has it that James lived on the roundabout in Elephant and Castle, South London during his early years in the capital.<ref>interview by David Toop</ref><ref>list of aliases </ref>

Image:Aphex Twin logo.png

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". Pat Blashill of Rolling Stone 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". A sample of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - "We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of the dreams" - was used on one of the songs. Critics also noted that the songs were recorded on cassette and that the sound quality was "relatively poor".

<ref>Review by Rolling Stone magazine</ref><ref>Review by All Music</ref>

Warp Records pressed and released Selected Ambient Works Volume II in 1994. The sound was much less beat driven than the previous volume, and the song names were mainly described with circles and pie diagrams rather than song titles in words. James made unverifiable claims to The Wire magazine and other media that these songs were inspired by lucid dreams and synaesthesia.

For his 1995 album, ...I Care Because You Do, James began using images of his face for his album covers, 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 mostly analogue synthesizer record of the 90's, as later releases moved to using computers and software synthesizers. Aphex Twin collaborated with minimalist composer Philip Glass to make an orchestral version of one of the songs from ...I Care Because You Do.

The cover to the album ...I Care Because You Do.

In 1995 (primarily with Hangable Auto Bulb), he began releasing more material composed on computers, and embraced a more drum and bass sound mixed with a nostalgic childhood theme and strange computer generated acid lines. The early adoption of softsynthesizers 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 two singles, "Come to Daddy", and "Windowlicker", which were shown on MTV and were cover features of music magazines including NME <ref> Cover of NME Magazine March 20 1998 </ref>.

In 2001 Aphex Twin released his most personal album yet, drukqs, a 2-CD album which featured prepared piano songs under the influence of Erik Satie and John Cage. Also included were abrasive, fast, and meticulously programmed computer-made songs. Rolling Stone described the piano songs as "aimlessly pretty"<ref>[1]</ref>. drukqs is perhaps Richard's most controversial album to date; the album lacked the novelty found in his other albums, so reviewers guessed this album was released as a contract breaker with Warp Records — a credible guess, as James' next big release came out on his own Rephlex label. It is also rumored that the album drukqs was released as it was because he had almost all of these songs on a Creative Jukebox mp3 player that he accidentally left on a plane, and in fear of all of the tracks being leaked to the internet, its release was rushed as to avoid this. <ref> Synths, drukqs and rock'n'roll FairfaxDigital, January 9 2004 </ref>

In late 2004, rumours of James' return to a more 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 particular about the whole process through recording, mastering and press. However label co-owner Grant Wilson-Claridge convinced James to release a digital CD Chosen Lords which included a selection from the Analord series, some of these tracks were slightly altered to improve the flow of the album.

The cover to the Richard D. James Album.

For these records, James used his extensive collection of Roland drum machines which he bought when they were still at bargain prices. Also he 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.

Richard D. James usually does the photography for his releases' artwork himself. A lot of his album artwork photos show James' own face, grinning or slightly distorted in some way. Near 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 <ref> The Aphex Face Bastwood.com, retrieved on 23 May 2006</ref> . 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.

[edit] Aphex Twin's influences

James has stated in numerous interviews that he has no musical influences other than himself. <ref> Tank boy The Guardian, October 5 2001 </ref> He claims to have listened rarely to songs on the radio as a child and that he is unable to read sheet music. When asked who he admired musically, he responded: "Kraftwerk, Guy Called Gerald, Derrick May, Mr. Fingers, 808 State, Lil Louis, Lidell Townsend, Bass Master Warriors, Noel Williams, Martin Hannett, J Dilla, Sten Hanson, Xenakis, Piero Umiliani, Brian Bennett, Squarepusher, Autechre, and Grace Jones." <ref> Future Music 177 July 2006 </ref>

Conversely, James has said that he has listened to many bands and artists for inspiration and sampled Led Zeppelin for breaks. He signed fellow musicans and personal friends Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) and Mike Paradinas (µ-ziq) to his Rephlex record label, as well as Luke Vibert.

In the 1993 compilation album, Artificial Intelligence, James contributed the song "Polygon Window" under his alias "The Dice Man". The liner notes contain Q&As with all the contributors, including The Dice Man (aka James). His listed age is 17, and in response to why he contributed to Artificial Intelligence, he stated, "from a want to hear quality electronic music that was longer than 20 minutes". He lists as his earliest influences: "Phonic Bod, Computer World, Mental Telepathy, Industrial Inc, Tomita, Tangerine Dream". Recent Influence/inspiration was "everyday sounds that can be emulated / reconstructed electronically, quality techno, especially from Europe which overshadows the current hardcore pop crap". The 5 most influential electronic labels he listed were: "Rephlex, Arptran v Plastic, KK Acid, R&S, Fragile". He listed his top 5 electronic tracks as: "K7 Acid by XP4, Astro Blaster by Joyrex J5, Flow Coma by State 808, Synth It by Revelation, Computer World by Kraftwerk". When asked to list his favourite electronic artist and why, he states, "AFX, mainly due to totally new ideas of percussion instead of the 909 etc", ironically AFX being one of his other monikers. In reply to what is next for electronic music, he says "acid/techno, ambient/techno". Finally, when asked who is his music for, he replied "nice people with three ears".

[edit] Influence of Aphex Twin on others

Fans and journalists either coined or spread the genre names IDM and drill and bass to describe Aphex Twin's novel approach to dance music.<ref>IDM list http://music.hyperreal.org/lists/idm/</ref><ref>Drill and Basswww.allmusic.com</ref> Richard's own Rephlex Records label, which he co-owns with Grant Wilson-Claridge prefers the term "Braindance".<ref>Rephlex - the Record Label BBC - h2g2, August 28, 2002</ref> <ref>V/A - Braindance The Milk Factory, May, 2001</ref>

In Aphex Twin's words on the 'Intelligent Dance Music' label: "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." <ref>Perfect Sound Forever interview Perfect Sound Forever by Jason Gross, [September 1997], 1997</ref>

These labels have proven useful for upcoming artists looking to find a genre name for their own music, influenced by Aphex Twin and Warp Records.^{[citation needed]}

The London Sinfonietta has performed arrangements of his music along with pieces by Boards of Canada and Squarepusher. <ref>Interview with Morgan Hayes and David Horne, March 2, 1997</ref> In 2005, the orchestra Alarm Will Sound released "Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin". The album consists of acoustic arrangements of electronic tracks originally composed by Richard D. James.

Aphex Twin has said, "I don't really like rock & roll." In spite of this, he has still had an influence on rock bands like Radiohead<ref>Radiohead - Kid A www.bbc.co.uk by Rhys Tranter, 17 June, 2003 </ref>. However, he has dismissed the idea of going on tour with them: "I wouldn't play with them since I don't like them." <ref> Aphex Twin Interview Kludge Magazine by Arturo Perez, March 16, 2002 </ref>

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

In September 2006, OutKast member André 3000 admitted in an interview with Mixmag to being inspired in his music by Aphex Twin as well as Squarepusher, although he called his attempts to incorporate their sound into his work "feeble". In October 2006, Entertainment Weekly's website ew.com reported of Kirsten Dunst; "Before a lot of scenes, she'd play Aphex Twin's wistful solo-piano ditty Avril 14th to put herself in the right reflective mood: That was my sad little lonely song that I'd listen to a lot."

[edit] Aphex Twin and UK Digital Television

Aphex Twin provided all of the 3 tracks in the BBC's digital widescreen test transmission, broadcast on a loop in the UK between November 1998 and early 2002 <ref>[2]BBC Digital Widescreen Test Transmission</ref>

[edit] Aphex Twin's press

Aphex Twin described himself to the Guardian newspaper: "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." <ref> http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,3605,563163,00.html </ref>

Some seemingly outlandish claims from interviews have been verified, however. Richard does own a tank (actually 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.

Richard's close friends have said he built his own synthesizers and samplers from scratch in his early years and he is experienced in electronics and electricity, and has modified and circuit bent his equipment from a young age.

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." <ref> The Face Magazine John O'Connell, The Face Magazine, October Issue 2001 </ref> 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 semblence of melody.

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 Sabre Wulf.

Additional claims, some of which are unverifiable, include the following: He composed ambient techno at age 13; he has "over 100 hours" of unreleased music (including songs on his answering machine that could be wiped away by leaving a message); he made his own software to compose with, including algorithmic processes which automatically generate beats and melodies; he experiences synaesthesia; and he is able to incorporate lucid dreaming into the process of making music. <ref> Aphex Twin : Mad Musician or Investment Banker? Don Anderson, Space Age Bachelor Magazine, Date unknown </ref>

[edit] Remix competition

In the first half of 2006, Richard made two appearances in Future Music. In issue 174 (released in May), he was featured after winning FM's remix competition. He entered under the name "Tahnaiya Russell" (likely inspired by a surreal artist of the same name who has cited Aphex Twin as an influence in her biography, see Tahnaiya.com) and his remix of a Luke Vibert track was deemed by Luke himself to be the best of the submissions ("Relaxed and sophisticated, but with large balls and huge bass")<ref> Aphex Twin Wins Music Remix Competition We Are The Music Makers.com news post</ref>. Richard revealed to FM that he had entered under the alias, but was unaware he had actually won, and the sample CDs prize was instead awarded to runner-up mixer Michael Stephens.
In issue 177 (released in July), Richard was interviewed by Future Magazine, and went into surprising detail on topics such as what software he uses, his opinion on music today and so-forth. However, the equipment list did seem to be tongue-in-cheek due to the inclusion of relics and curiosities such as UPIC by Iannis Xenakis <ref>Aphex Twin Interview In Future Music </ref>. One may also find it interesting that the interview was originally announced as appearing in issue 176, released in June, meaning the interview had been pushed back one month. Future Music's frontpage news post for the issue on their website stated "This month sees the eventual arrival of the interview with Aphex Twin".