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Aphex Twin
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Aphex Twin is the stage name of Richard D. James, a British musician, composer and DJ. He was born in Ireland in 1971 to Welsh parents and grew up in Cornwall, far from the big cities. As a child he played with the strings of the family piano and with tape recorders, and later he tinkered with electronic equipment. At twelve he bought his first synthesizer. In the late 1980s he played at illegal parties in coves and among the dunes of Cornwall, where he slipped in his own tracks on cassette.
Music and breakthrough
In 1991 his first EP, Analogue Bubblebath, came out, and with a friend he founded the label Rephlex. The Belgian label R&S picked the tracks for his first album, Selected Ambient Works 85–92 (1992), from a box full of cassettes. That record, with Xtal, was largely made at home: soft, dreamy ambient techno with slow beats and warm synthesizer sounds. He then signed to Warp, and Selected Ambient Works Volume II, the Richard D. James Album (1996) and the singles Come to Daddy and Windowlicker followed, with notorious videos by Chris Cunningham.
Influence
James combines styles such as techno, ambient, acid and jungle, and his music can be soft and lovely, but also hard, fast and distorted. He is regarded as one of the most important names in so-called intelligent dance music. After Drukqs (2001) he released music for years under other names. In 2014 he returned with Syro, for which he received a Grammy. Many journalists call him one of the most influential electronic musicians of his time.
Listening
Xtal · Aphex Twin, 1992Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1992Selected Ambient Works 85–92
- 1994Selected Ambient Works, Volume II
- 1995…I Care Because You Do
- 1996Richard D. James Album
- 2001Drukqs
- 2014Syro
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 8: Electronic MusicNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- IDM Genre
In 1992 the Sheffield label Warp released the compilation Artificial Intelligence, and Aphex Twin, Autechre and Boards of Canada made music with complicated rhythms, unusual sounds and ambient-like melodies.