Aphex Twin

About

Aphex Twin is the stage name of British electronic musician and composer Richard David James, who is best known for innovating a unique style of ambient techno music in the 1990s and often cited by fans and music critics as one of the early pioneers of “intelligent dance music” (IDM).

History

Career

In 1991, James released his first EP album titled Analogue Bubblebath under the stage name Aphex Twin. On February 12th, 1992, James released his first full-length album Selected Ambient Works 85–92. That same year, James released several additional EP albums using various psedonyms, including “AFX”, “Polygon Window” and “Power-Pill.” In 1994, Aphex Twin’s second full-length studio album Selected Ambient Works Volume II was released. In 1995, James released his third full-length album …I Care Because You Do. In 1996, Aphex Twin released his fourth studio album titled Richard D. James Album, which was met by critical acclaim on music review sites like Pitchfork Media and NME. In 1997, James began to draw mainstream attention with the release of his EP Come to Daddy, a concept album that was designed as a parody of the death metal rock sub-genre, followed by the release of “Windowlicker” as a single in 1999, which peaked at #16 on the UK Singles Chart and still remains the artist’s highest-charting song to date.

Music Videos

In 1997, the music video for Aphex Twin’s track “Come to Daddy” was released, which was directed by video artist Chris Cunningham (shown below, left). In 1999, Cunningham directed a second Aphex Twin music video for the track “Windowlicker” (shown below, right).

In 2000, Cunningham produced a music video titled “FLEX,” using a soundtrack made by Aphex Twin.^[1] The film features a naked man and woman floating in darkness who furiously attack one another. In 2001, Cunningham created another video titled “Monkey Drummer,” featuring the song “Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michael’s Mount” by Aphex Twin (shown below, left). On June 20th, 2005, Cunninham’s short film "Rubber Johnny was released, featuring the song “afx237 v7” byAphex Twin. The film stars a deformed, wheelchair-bound teenager who is kept locked in a dark basement with his pet chihuahua (shown right).

Online Presence

On November 3rd, 2007, a Facebook^[4] page titled “Aphex Twin” was launched, which gained over 677,000 likes in the next seven years. In August 2010, the @AphexTwin^[3] Twitter feed was created, gathering upwards of 49,000 followers in the next four years. On May 19th, 2011, the /r/aphextwin^[2] subreddit was launched for discussions related to the electronic artist.

Caustic Window Kickstarter

In April 2014, a Kickstarter^[5] campaign was launched for the unreleased Aphex Twin album Caustic Window, with backers receiving a digital copy of the tracks in a lossless format. By May 10th, the campaign reached more than 4,100 backers receiving a total of $67,424. The original LP was subsequently played for auction on eBay and purchased by Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson.

Syro

On August 16th, 2014, a green blimp with the Aphex Twin symbol and the date “2014” was seen flying over London.

On August 18th, 2014, @AphexTwin tweeted a link to a website that could only be accessed through the Deep Web anonymous web browser Tor, which provided a list of tracks for an upcoming album titled Syro.

Personal Life

James was born in Limerick, Ireland on August 18th, 1971. He grew up in Lanner, Cornwall, United Kingdom. In 1990, he received a National Diploma in engineering at Cornwall College.

Search Interest

External References