Aphex Twin

**Richard David James** (born 18 August 1971), best known by his stage name **Aphex Twin**, is an England-based electronic musician and composer. He has been described by *The Guardian* as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music", and is the co-founder ofRephlex Records with Grant Wilson-Claridge. Aphex Twin's album *Selected Ambient Works 85-92* was called the best album of the 1990s by*FACT Magazine*. In addition to Rephlex, James has released Aphex Twin records on Warp, R&S, Sire, Mighty Force, Rabbit City and Men Records. Following public sightings of the Aphex Twin logo in London, United Kingdom (UK), and New York City, United States (US), in August 2014, the Aphex Twin Twitter account confirmed the release of *Syro*, his sixth studio album. Following a subsequent press release, *Syro* was officially released on 23 September 2014 through the Warp music label.

## Contents

 [hide] \*1 History

* + 1.1 Early years
	+ 1.2 Early career: early 1990s
	+ 1.3 Gaining success: 1992–1995
	+ 1.4 *Richard D. James Album*, *Come to Daddy* and *Windowlicker*: 1996–1999
	+ 1.5 Prepared piano and exploration of digital technology: 2000–2003
	+ 1.6 Synthesizers and drum machines: 2004–2009
	+ 1.7 Live performance and remote orchestras: 2010–2013
	+ 1.8 *Syro* and unreleased works: 2014–present
* 2 Musical style
* 3 Use of James's face
* 4 Pseudonyms
* 5 Influence and legacy
* 6 Personal life
* 7 Equipment
	+ 7.1 Hardware
	+ 7.2 Software
* 8 Discography
* 9 References
* 10 External links

## History

### Early years

James was born in Limerick, Ireland and grew up in Lanner, Cornwall, UK, with two older sisters, in a "very happy" childhood during which they "were pretty much left to do what [they] wanted".He enjoyed living there, feeling apart from nearby cities and the rest of the world. James attended Redruth School in Redruth, Cornwall, and claimed to have produced sound on a Sinclair ZX81 (a machine with no sound hardware) at age 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 codeand found some codes that retuned the TV signal so that it made this really weird noise when you turned the volume up.

According to musician Benjamin Middleton, James began producing music the following year. As a teenager he was a disc jockey at the Shire Horse Inn in St Ives, with Tom Middleton at the Bowgie Inn in Crantock and along the beaches around Cornwall. James studied at Cornwall College from 1988 to 1990 for a National Diploma in engineering. About his studies, he said "music and electronics went hand in hand". James graduated from college; according to an engineering lecturer he often wore headphones during practical lessons, "no doubt thinking through the mixes he'd be working on later".

### Early career: early 1990s

In 1989, James befriended Grant Wilson-Claridge when they were working alternate weeks as a DJ at the Bowgie pub near Newquay, UK. Wilson-Claridge was intrigued by his sets, and when he discovered that James was playing tapes of his own music he suggested that they make records. At first, putting Aphex Twin’s recordings on vinyl was a way of making music the duo's friends wanted to hear; because of their geographic isolation they could not access the music they wanted to hear, so they decided to create their own.

James' first release as Aphex Twin, later changed to AFX, was the 1991 12-inch EP *Analogue Bubblebath* on Mighty Force Records. The track "En Trance to Exit" was recorded with Tom Middleton, also known as Schizophrenia. The EP made the playlist of Kiss FM, an influential London radio station, which helped it become successful.

In 1991, James and Wilson-Claridge founded Rephlex Records 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". From 1991 to 1993 James released two *Analogue Bubblebath* EPs as AFX and an EP, *Bradley's Beat*, as Bradley Strider. Although he moved to London to take an electronics course at Kingston Polytechnic, he admitted to David Toop that his electronics studies were being evacuated as he pursued a career in the techno genre. After leaving school James remained in London, releasing albums and EPs on Warp Records and other labels under a number of aliases (including AFX, Polygon Window and Power-Pill); several of his tracks, released under aliases including Blue Calx and The Dice Man, appeared on compilations. Although he allegedly lived on the roundabout in Elephant and Castle, South London during his early years in the city, he actually lived in a nearby unoccupied bank.

### Gaining success: 1992–1995

The first full-length Aphex Twin album, *Selected Ambient Works 85–92*, was released in 1992 on R&S Records to critical praise; John Bush ofAllmusic described it as a "watershed of ambient music". In 2002 *Rolling Stone* said about the album, "Aphex Twin expanded way beyond the ambient music of Brian Eno by fusing lush soundscapes with oceanic beats and bass lines." Pitchfork Media called it "among the most interesting music ever created with a keyboard and a computer". However, critics noted that the songs were recorded on cassette and their sound quality was relatively poor.

In 1992 James also released the *Xylem Tube EP* and *Digeridoo* (first played by DJ Colin Faver on London's Kiss FM) as Aphex Twin, the *Pac-Man EP* (based on the arcade game) as Power-Pill, and two of his four *Joyrex* EPs (*Joyrex J4 EP* and *Joyrex J5 EP*) as Caustic Window. "Digeridoo" reached #55 on the UK Singles Chart, and was later described by *Rolling Stone* as foreshadowing drum and bass. He wrote "Digeridoo" to clear up his audience after a rave. These early releases were on Rephlex Records, Mighty Force of Exeter and R&S Records of Belgium.

In 1993 James released *Analogue Bubblebath 3*; a single, "On"; his second Bradley Strider EP, *Bradley's Robot*; two more Caustic Window EPs and his first releases on Warp Records, *Surfing on Sine Waves* and "Quoth", as Polygon Window. Warp Records released *Selected Ambient Works Volume II* in 1994, with a less beat- and melody-driven sound than the previous album. 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 (except "Blue Calx"). To decipher the titles, listeners had to compare the length of each track with the size of the pie-chart symbols; for example, the first title (often called "Cliffs", is realised by pairing the first symbol with the first image (a rocky cliffside).James said in *The Wire* magazine and elsewhere that the songs were inspired by lucid dreams and synaesthesia. Other releases were a fourth *Analogue Bubblebath*; *GAK*, derived from early demos sent to Warp Records and *Classics*, a compilation album with "Digeridoo" and the *Xylem Tube EP*.

For his 1995 release *...I Care Because You Do* James used an image of his face for the album cover, a motif which would be repeated on many of his later records. The album was a compilation of songs composed between 1990 and 1994, a melange of Aphex Twin musical styles. This was James' last record during the 1990s to emphasise analogue synthesizers. He commissioned Western classical-music composer Philip Glass to create an orchestral version of "Icct Hedral" (a song on this album), which appeared on the *Donkey Rhubarb* EP.

In November 1995 *The Wire* published an article, "Advice to Clever Children". During the production of the interview a package of tapes with music from several artists (including Aphex Twin) was sent to Karlheinz Stockhausen, who said:

I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James (sic) 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 varied to some extent and if it did not have a direction in its sequence of variations.

James (an admirer of Stockhausen) replied, "I thought he should listen to a couple of tracks of mine: "Digeridoo", then he'd stop making abstract, random patterns you can't dance to".

### *Richard D. James Album*, *Come to Daddy* and *Windowlicker*: 1996–1999

*Richard D. James Album*, James' fourth studio album as Aphex Twin, was released on Warp Records in 1996. The album includes his personal name (Richard David James) in the title and features use of software synthesizers and unconventional beats. The album garnered high acclaim from music critics, and was named 40th in Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s" list. It was also placed #55 on *NME'*s Top 100 Albums of All Time in 2003.

James garnered attention the following year after the release of the *Come to Daddy* EP, which was conceived as a death metal parody when he was visiting his house. Accompanied with a music video directed by Chris Cunningham, he became disenfranchised with its success. It was followed by *Windowlicker*, another critically and commercially successful EP promoted with a music video also directed by Cunningham.

### Prepared piano and exploration of digital technology: 2000–2003

In 2001 Aphex Twin released *Drukqs*, an experimental double album featuring computer-controlled piano (influenced by Erik Satie and John Cage) and abrasive, fast, meticulously-programmed songs. Many track names are written in Cornish—for example, *"Jynweythek"* ("Machine Music"). *Rolling Stone* described the piano pieces as "aimlessly pretty". The release polarized reviewers on release, some reviewers believed that *Drukqs* was released as a contract-breaker with Warp Records, since James' next major release was on his own Rephlex label. The musician told interviewers he accidentally left an MP3 player with a large number of new songs (labelled "Aphex Twin—unreleased tracks") on a plane, and rushed the album's release to preempt an Internet leak. In 2001 James also released a short EP, *2 Remixes By AFX*, with remixes of songs by 808 State and DJ Pierre. It also had an untitled third track, consisting of a SSTV image with high-pitched sounds which can be decoded to a viewable image with appropriate software (such as MultiMode for Macintosh or MMSSTV for Windows).

### Synthesizers and drum machines: 2004–2009

[1]Aphex Twin live in 2011

In late 2004 James released his *Analord* series under his previously used pseudonym of AFX: 11 EPs with a total of 42 tracks (initially averaging two to four tracks per EP). The series was created by playing and sequencing analogue and digital electronic musical equipment such as synthesizers and drum machines (predominantly the Roland 303, 808 and 909 machines) recorded on magnetic tape and then pressed on vinyl. James also utilized his collection of vintage synthesizers and drum machines, some of which were rare by that time. Some record inserts have photos of rare synthesizers like the Synton Fenix, the notoriously difficult-to-program Roland MC-4 sequencer and the Roland TB-303.

James was meticulous about the process of recording, mastering and pressing. He tried a number of pressing plants until he was satisfied with the quality of each EP. James prefers vinyl or tape to digital. However, label co-owner Wilson-Claridge convinced him to release a CD compilation (*Chosen Lords*) with 10 tracks from the *Analord* series.

Media speculation in 2007 suggested that Aphex Twin was recording under another new alias, The Tuss. Although Rephlex Records has denied that James is The Tuss, fans and media have treated The Tuss as another Aphex Twin project and been heavily influenced by it's style; all Tuss tracks are published in the BMI repertoire under "James Richard David". When *Syro* was announced, Bleep.com finally confirmed that The Tuss was an Aphex Twin alias.

Twenty more tracks were added in December 2009 to the *Analord* series (available by download from the Rephlex Records website), and each EP now contains up to nine tracks.

### Live performance and remote orchestras: 2010–2013

In an October 2010 interview with the British magazine *Another Man*, James said that he had completed six albums (one of which was a remake of the unreleased *Melodies from Mars*, originally produced around the time of *Richard D. James Album*).

In June 2011, James spoke to the Spanish newspaper *El País*. When asked about the six albums, James answered: "More than 10 or 11 are already compiled, and many more songs are orphans". He also said that a new album "[would] show in a while" and the reason for the delay since his last album was that he was divorcing his wife, though some fans assumed the latter comment to be a joke. In September 2011, James appeared as Aphex Twin in a live tribute to avant-garde Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Alongside Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, James performed his remix of Penderecki's "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima", as well as a version of "Polymorphia", at the tribute concert that was held in Poland. The following month, an Aphex Twin set was part of the lineup at the Pitchfork Music Festival Paris event.

In October 2012, James brought his remote orchestra act to London for one, three act performance including the "Interactive Tuned Feedback Pendulum Array" which paid tribute and expanded upon Steve Reich's "Pendulum Music".

### *Syro* and unreleased works: 2014–present

[2]Street art promoting the *Syro* album in New York City.

On 16 June 2014, the 1994 *Caustic Window* LP (originally a test pressing, of which at least five copies were made and given to µ-ziq, Cylob and Rephlexco-founder Grant Wilson-Claridge) was released as a digital download to backers of a Kickstarter campaign to buy a copy of the vinyl record from an anonymous seller on Discogs. The purchase of the vinyl and the subsequent vinyl rip was organized by We Are the Music Makers, an online electronic music forum. The crowdfunding was approved by Rephlex Records and James, with each contributor receiving the right to keep their digital copy of the album. When the campaign finished, the LP was placed for auction on eBay and purchased by Markus Persson, author of the video game *Minecraft*.

On 16 August 2014, a green blimp with the Aphex Twin logo and "2014" written on its side was identified flying over London, UK. The sighting of the blimp was reported in both the *NME* and *Pitchfork* music publications. Soon after, a photo on Twitter appeared showing the Aphex Twin logo sprayed on the footpath outside of Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Two days later, the Aphex Twin Twitter account posted a link to a hidden service using deep web browser Tor, providing the title and tracklist of an upcoming album release called *Syro*, which will be the first Aphex Twin studio album since *Drukqs* in 2001.

An official press release was shared by the *Pitchfork* online music publication on 21 August 2014, providing readers with both the album cover artwork and further album details. *Syro* will be released on the Warp label on 23 September 2014 and the cover artwork, which reads like a tax receipt, is by the Designers Republic brand. A limited-edition box set version of the album, released through the Bleep label, is also available; limited to 200 copies, interested buyers must first enter a lottery to become eligible. Also on 21 August, the *Digital Spy* online publication published the same press release, but the release date is written as 22 September 2014.

## Musical style

In a September 1997 interview with *Space Age Bachelor* magazine, James said he composed ambient techno music at age 13, had "over 100 hours" of unreleased music and had invented music-composition software consisting of algorithmic processes which automatically generated rhythm and melody. In the interview, he also claimed to have experienced synaesthesia and could incorporate lucid dreaming into his compositions.

James' Rephlex Records, which he co-owns with Grant Wilson-Claridge, coined the word "braindance" in 1991 to describe Aphex Twin's music. According to the label: "Braindance is the genre that encompasses the best elements of all genres, e.g. traditional, classical, electronic music, popular, modern, industrial, ambient, hip-hop, electro, house, techno, breakbeat, hardcore, ragga, garage, drum and bass, etc." In a review of Astrobotnia's *Parts 1, 2 & 3* Rephlex release, a Pitchfork Media writer said in 2002:

Breakbeats liberated producers from the impositions of relentless four-to-the-floor stomping, and "braindance" escaped the mind/body binary opposition of electronic music--here was a rhythmically hyper, complex genre that retained its club roots by appending fantastically supple limbs to the listener's fervid imagination.

In 2001, *The Guardian* described James' musical lineage as Stockhausen, John Cage, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and Derrick May.Acknowledging another influence, James released *Music from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop*: a compilation of music recorded by the pioneers of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (including Delia Derbyshire) on Rephlex. Although he has said "I don't really like rock & roll" he appreciates Led Zeppelin (as a source of "great breakbeats") and Pink Floyd (for their psychedelic music).

Intelligent dance music (IDM) is mentioned on the home page of the Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) mailing list (created in August 1993) about the music of Aphex Twin and the Artificial Intelligence Series released by Warp Records. The series features James' recordings as Polygon Window and early productions from artists including Autechre, Black Dog, Richie Hawtin's FUSE project and Speedy J. The term spread to the United States and internet message boards. James responded to the IDM term in a 1997 interview:

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

In an essay for the UK magazine *The Wire* published in February 2013 (15 years after James' comment in the 1997 *PerfectSoundForever* interview), Joe Muggs reflected on the Artificial Intelligence Series in relation to the IDM label:

So, although genre speciation was accelerating even as these albums were being made, and even though they have been seen as representing a separation of non-dancefloor Electronica as a gentrified genre in its own right, the Artificial Intelligence series could equally be seen as an extended attempt to hold on to the rave explosion's all-inclusiveness in opposition to its fragmentation. This stands in direct opposition to the philosophy of Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) which followed, and which tended to consider itself above mere dancefloor music. Post-1994, the idea of ‘listening Techno’ would become lost as IDM, Triphop, chill out and mellower strains of drum ‘n’ bass occupied its place in the ecosystem, while the Artificial Intelligence diaspora would follow wildly different routes ...

In June 2014, electronic-music producer Patrick Gräser (who records as Answer Code Request) quoted James in a feature on the *Ransom Note* website: "It sounds really arrogant, but my music's my favourite music ever. I prefer it to anyone else's."

## Use of James's face

James's face, grinning or distorted, is a theme of his album covers, music videos and songs. According to him, it began despite techno producers who concealed their identities:

I did it because the thing in techno you weren’t supposed to do was to be recognized and stuff. The sort of unwritten rule was that you can’t put your face on the sleeve. It has to be like a circuit board or something. Therefore I put my face on the sleeve. That’s why I originally did it. But then I got carried away.

—Aphex Twin

The cover of *...I Care Because You Do* features a painting of James, and that of *Richard D. James Album* has a close-up photograph. His face is superimposed on the bodies of other people in the music videos for "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker". Near the end of the second track of the "Windowlicker" single (known as "Equation"), a photo of James' face is a steganogram which is revealed as a spectrogram. Another image of James and collaborator Tom Jenkinson is embedded (in SSTV format) with text in the third track of *2 Remixes by AFX*, "Bonus High Frequency Sounds". He has used his own photography for some releases, including the album sleeve for *Selected Ambient Works Volume II*.

## Pseudonyms

James has recorded as Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, Brian Tregaskin, Caustic Window, The, Smojphace, GAK, Karen Tregaskin, Patrick Tregaskin, Martin Tressider, PBoD, Polygon Window, Power-Pill, Q-Chastic, Dice Man, The Tuss and Soit-P.P.

## Influence and legacy

The London Sinfonietta has performed arrangements of Aphex Twin songs. In 2005 Alarm Will Sound released *Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin*, acoustic arrangements of James' electronic tracks. Although he has influenced Radiohead, he does not wish to tour with them: "I wouldn't play with them since I don't like them."

However, James premièred new music with Radiohead guitarist-composer Jonny Greenwood in a 2011 collaboration with Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Animator David Firth has much of his work soundtracked by Aphex Twin.

Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk has cited Aphex Twin (particularly "Windowlicker") as an influence. Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante said that Aphex Twin is "the best thing since sliced bread", and his *Outsides* EP and *PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone* are examples of James' influence.

In June 2014, Patrick Gräser (Answer Code Request) called James "one producer who always inspires" him in the "Influences" section of the *Ransom Note* website. Gräser used the Aphex Twin song "Analogue Bubblebath 1" to exemplify James' influence: "I guess being obsessed with your own music is what makes him that brilliant."

In June 2014, Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit stated "Cliffs" off of Selected Ambient Works II is the song he would listen to for the rest of his life - if he had to pick one.

## Personal life

James described himself in a *Guardian* interview: "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." James does not own the silver structure in the centre of the roundabout at Elephant and Castle (the Michael Faraday Memorial, which contains a power transformer for theNorthern line), although he jokingly said in a 2001 interview with *The Face* that he was buying it. He is known for untruths, including a claim that he sleeps only two or three hours a night.

In a 2010 interview with the *FACT* publication, James revealed that he was living in Scotland at the time after relocating from London. According to *FACT*, he "extolled the virtues" of his new residential location. James has two sons from his first marriage. As of 2014 he lives with his sons and his second wife, a Russian art student.

## Equipment

* Casio FZ 10
* Casio SK-1
* EMS Synthi 100
* Elka Synthex
* Three Korg MS-20s
* Make Noise DPO
* Oberheim Matrix 1000
* Roland 100m
* Roland MC-4 Microcomposer
* Roland MKS-80
* Roland SH-101
* Roland TB-303
* Roland TR-606
* Roland TR-707
* Roland TR-808
* Roland TR-909
* Synton Fenix
* Sequential Circuits Studio 440
* UPIC
* Yamaha CS 5
* Yamaha DX1
* Yamaha GX1
* Serge Modular
* Ableton Live
* Pro Tools
* Cubase
* LiveSlice
* Max
* Reaktor
* ReCycle
* SuperCollider
* Logic Pro

## Discography

Main article: Richard D. James discography;Studio albums (as Aphex Twin)

* *Selected Ambient Works 85–92* (1992)
* *Selected Ambient Works Volume II* (1994)
* *...I Care Because You Do* (1995)
* *Richard D. James Album* (1996)
* *Drukqs* (2001)
* *Syro* (2014)