Aphex Twin

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Essential Albums

  • Drukqs
    Drukqs

    2001

  • Come to Daddy
    Come to Daddy

    The year 1997 was electronic music’s global breakout moment. The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, and Fatboy Slim all released landmark albums, spreading UK rave—nearly a decade after those first all-nighters in muddy fields—to a stateside audience. Daft Punk dropped their first LP, inaugurating the French Touch; Moodymann made his album debut too, proving Detroit still had plenty of gas left in the tank. And then there was Aphex Twin, whose Come to Daddy shredded every last page in the electronic rulebook. It tossed acid, jungle, and ambient house into a blender and hit “puree”; the album was by turns noisy, confrontational, gleefully tongue-in-cheek, and heartbreakingly beautiful. Savvy, too: At precisely the moment that once-“faceless” electronic music was generating genuine superstars, Richard D. James spoofed underground pieties and overground celebrity alike with an ingenious, Chris Cunningham-directed video for its title track that turned James and his leering visage into an unlikely icon—electronic music’s first real alternative hero. James had been at it since 1991, entrancing ravers with hits like “Digeridoo” and expanding the possibilities of IDM (or as he called it, “braindance”) with 1995’s …I Care Because You Do and 1996’s Richard D. James Album. But rather than following up with a “mature” take on his sound, Come to Daddy threw down the gauntlet with the “Pappy Mix” of its title track, mashing up drum ’n’ bass breaks with industrial sonics and the refrain “I will eat your soul,” delivered with almost cartoonish malevolence. Two additional mixes of the same song offer contrasting takes—one politer, one far weirder—but it’s the EP’s deep cuts that truly shine. The rubbery syncopations of “Bucephalus Bouncing Ball” remain among the best examples of James’ programming nous, polyrhythms bending and flexing like a Swiss wristwatch in an industrial vise; “Flim,” one of the sweetest songs in James’ catalog, dusts the frantic grooves of drill ’n’ bass with sunshine and powdered sugar. In 2011, Skrillex cited “Flim” as his favorite song of all time—proof of Come to Daddy’s continued power to surprise.

  • Richard D. James Album
    Richard D. James Album

    1996

  • Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II
    Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II

    Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, always seems to make music with a wry grin on his face. When he released Aphex Twin’s seminal collection Selected Ambient Works Volume II in 1994, he declined to name any of the album’s 24 tracks. Instead, he simply numbered them from 1 through 24, giving Selected Ambient Works Volume II an air of mystery—as though someone had found a spare mix CD on the ground, and distributed it through Britain’s most influential indie label, Warp. Dedicated fans eventually decided to assign their own track titles, based on the album’s artwork—a move that speaks to the devotion and discussion that Volume II has inspired over the past few decades. It’s a classic of the ambient genre, one that James famously—and perhaps with a winking facetiousness—claimed was inspired by the sounds in his lucid dreams. He set out to recreate what he was hearing in his sleep, and the result was less like the organic new wave coming out of Japan, and more like minimalist industrial music. Instead of focusing on harmonious, naturalistic sounds, James crafted something more metallic and tonal: “Track #2 (Radiator)” softly bubbles, like someone’s playing on the pipes of an abandoned factory with a marimba mallet. “Track #15 (Shiny Metal Rods)” has a dark electric crackle—it’s techno by way of Brian Eno. Not everyone was happy with Volume II, though. James’ illustrious career as one of the UK’s most famous rave DJs, as well as Aphex Twin's previous release—Selected Ambient Works 85–92—had created an image of what his music “should” sound like. The ambient collection on Volume II was perhaps too gentle or too atmospheric for fans who wanted the hard-charging “intelligent dance music” of Aphex Twin. But James has made a career out of shapeshifting, going where his instincts take him. He may be electronic music’s consummate joker, but there's nothing trivial about his music.

  • Selected Ambient Works 85-92
    Selected Ambient Works 85-92

    1992

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About Aphex Twin

Aphex Twin is one of many pseudonyms used by Richard D. James, the wildly eclectic and innovative British composer, DJ, and producer who revolutionized electronic music in the ’90s with his complex—at times abrasive—instrumental creations. • James grew up in the countryside of Cornwall, where he first grew fascinated with the mechanics of sound creation. He’d deconstruct and modify synthesizers and mess with the strings inside of pianos. • He cultivated a passion for raves through the ’80s, organizing local Cornish events along the coast or in clandestine club locales where the price of entry was often cannabis. • The artist’s 1992 debut album, Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is regarded as a landmark achievement in electronic music meant for contemplative listening. • Inspired by lucid dreaming, his 1994 album Selected Ambient Works Volume II peaked just outside the Top 10 on the UK charts. • His widely popular 1999 single “Windowlicker”—accompanied by a characteristically absurd, fever-dream–style music video—cracked the Top 20 of the UK charts. • James released the 2001 album drukQs after he left an mp3 player filled with unreleased tracks on an airplane. He figured the songs would soon be leaked, so he released them. • Over the next decade, he released material under the aliases AFX and Tuss. • In 2014, James released Syro, his first album under the Aphex Twin name in 14 years. It reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart and No. 8 on the UK pop albums tally. The LP also won a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronica Album. • Sticking with the Aphex Twin moniker, James returned to summit of Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart with his subsequent EPs Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 (2015) and Cheetah (2016). • Aphex Twin music is often described as intelligent dance music, or IDM—a term that James has rejected.

HOMETOWN
Limerick
BORN
August 18, 1971
GENRE
Electronic

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