Aphex Twin

Richard David James better known under the name of Aphex Twin is a British type-setter of Electronic music. He was greeted of the two with dimensions ones of the Atlantic like the solitary Kraftwerk and the new Mozart showing that its music does not know geographical borders. Known for its clashes of cymbals " faster than the éclair" as much as for its loops of Ambient deprived of rhythmic accompaniment, the music of Richard never sounds twice in the same way.
This do-it-yourselfer of sounds, born with Limerick, in Ireland, the August 18th 1971, passed its childhood in Cornouailles. He is generally regarded one of the major artists of the scene Techno, and as having had a notable influence on the styles Drum and low, Acid house, Ambient and Electronica.

Small Biography

The parents of Richard D. James meet whereas they work in a psychiatric hospital. According to Richard, his father was accustomed to distributing to the dropper LSD prescribes with the patients. Some times, with the encouragements of the principal nurse, they consume some put amounts on side. His/her father leaves then to Cornwall (Ontario, Canada) for an employment minor in mines tin. In 1968, the mother of Richard is confined of a baby still-born child. After the closing of the mines in the Years 1980, the father of Richard continuous to work in the old mines by filling the wells which threaten to crumble.

Richard D. James is born in 1971 in Limerick in Ireland. His/her mother, by giving him birth, believed to see in him the resurrection of a child whom it had lost earlier, it baptized it same Richard.
first name It grows in a poor ghetto of Cornouailles, in the south-west of the England with an private interest for the electronic material. “ I was always knocking on something ”, often says it.

Young person of the two sisters of Richard is accro with The Jesus and Mary Chain and his/her small-friends play in independent groups. Richard is never interested really in the Rock. “ I found that some tricks were good but I never really liked them. ” Its master key favorite time is then to play with the sounds. It records them on cassette S, assembles them in end to end, the master key with back and changes their speed. The family has a piano which it records also not without to have moved the cords and the hammers in order to vary the sounds. His/her mother tears off the hair. The mother of one of her friends of childhood tells that “ Richard was not easy for his/her mother ”.

He makes his first recordings at the 14 years age. During its adolescence, he plays on a rotted synthetizer, a computer Spectrum Sinclair and a Sampler cheap. Thereafter, it takes courses of electronics in Kingston Polytechnic of London. “ I learned how to build circuits from almost nothing. ” But, it gives up at the end of one year. “ I wanted to bar and make music to me. ” At the time, it has already an important mass of material do-it-yourselfing to measure and a stock of melodies removed from rim on cassettes. At the end of 1991, the first two maxis Similar Bubblebath and Analog Bubblebath 2 stamps AFX leave to Mighty Force, a local label of Exeter, and at Rabbit City Records.

Its music and its musical course

The album Selected Ambient Works 85-92 , finally signed Aphex Twin, mark a turning in the career of Richard D. James, it is greeted by the critic. It signs then with Warp Records and transforms into Polygon Window for the exit of (Surfing One The Sine Waves) in 1993. It signs at Lord Records (the United States) the same year and leaves in 1994, Selected Ambient Works Volume II (as left at Warp Records, the same year) as the NewYork Times will qualify classical music for the next millenium.

In 1995, Richard reaches the statute of independent number one in England with the disc … I Care Because You Do , and which will be its first exit in the United States. Happy jagged coupled to melodies syphilitics which extend until a pure orchestration. The highest for the difficult ears of some the irreducible set ones on avant-gardism being the piece ICCT Hedral on which Richard joins the orchestrations of legendary the Philip Glass…
1996, Richard D. James Album . Hypnotic To Cure has Weakling Child with a Girl/Boy Song puffed out by the cords, Richard is done more coherent in the balance which holds the disc. “ It is more one progression ”, known as Richard in connection with the album. “ I become more skilful with the machines. ” It admits to have exerted a greater control on quality: “ I sorted among 200 pieces to find the goods for this album. ”

The origin of “Aphex Twin” and its artistic participations

The Aphex of Aphex Twin is a registered trademark property of the Aphex Systems Ltd. , a company manufacturing of the products for the professionals of the audio and the diffusion (especially known for its Aural Exciter™ Aphex Systems Ltd). On some of the recent exits of Richard, the indication Aphex has off registered trademark Aphex Systems Ltd and is used by permission is noted on packing. But, according to the NME of February 13rd, 1993: “ Richard came from there to use the word by accident, using the " A" of Aphex for the Acid element of its sounds and the " ph" like the measurement of this acidity (pH). He had even never heard of Aural Exciter™ before to have left several discs. He is the last person who would give herself the name of a mark of material manufactured by someone else whereas he built his own synthetizers at thirteen years. ”
During a time, the Twin was associated with Tom Middleton which had the same birth date as Richard. Tom also collaborated with Richard on its first disc, Analog Bubblebath (left in 1991 and was credited Aphex Twin Featuring Schizophrenia ). If Tom affirms that the Twin of Aphex Twin refers to him, Richard of sound with dimensions contradicts all. The name Aphex Twin existed before they worked together. The Twin comes owing to the fact that it had a twin still-born child (See in the notes of Girl/Boy EP )…

All the discs of Aphex Twin/AFX are the fruit of the work of Richard D. James alone. Other pseudonyms gave to Richard freedom to collaborate with other artists such as Michael Paradinas (Mike & Rich, Expert Knob Twiddlers at Rephlex) and Tom Jenkinson (AFX/Squarepusher - Freeman, Hardy & Willis Acid in compiles We Are Reasonable People at Warp in 1998), etc the majority of work of Richard makes in collaboration is clearly identified and thus does not lend to confusion.

He has Co-founded, in 1991, his own label Rephlex with Grant Wilson-Claridge to leave his own new productions but also to publish artistes.
Thanks to this Rephlex label, Richard supports the talents of some major figures of the existing scene (µ-ziq, Squarepusher, Leila, Bogdan Raczynski, Jeremy Simmonds, Luke Vibert, Mike Dred, The Gentle People, DMX Krew…).

In 2001, Richard David James created the label MEN Records with Tom Jenkinson. It is not a label secondary of Rephlex Records , but assisted by this one for the moment. MEN is right a number of catalog, they did not find a name for this label yet.

Aspects of its music

One could arrange Aphex Twin in the categories “Ambient”, “Electronica”, “IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) or Braindance ”, “Intelligent techno”, even “Jungle”, “Drill' Low”, “Breakcore” or even “Noise” (“Noise”). They all would agree but, at each new exit, the sound created by Richard tears and is reinvented in such a way that it surprises at the same time the press and the public. There are some similarities through all its work but each piece has its own life.
One finds in a recurring way in the compositions of Aphex Twin the use of the old story, a simple, childish melody which is fragmented. They often short and passed in boucle.
Another aspect characteristic of its music is the handling of human voices, as in its maximum Ventolin in which it uses the laughter of his mother, or even in its album Richard D. James Album in which voices of children name part of their body (my arm, my leg…).
The trademark of its last productions ( Drukqs , Like to Daddy …) is held in the complexification of the rate/rhythm with an effect of very fast microphone-rates/rhythms.

Discography

See also: Discographie supplements of Richard D. James

Completely opposed to the industry of the disc and his system of choice of marketing, Richard juggles with the names, the labels and the contracts. He uses various pseudonyms since 1992: GAK, AFX, Power-Pill, Are-P.P., Blue Calx, Q-Chastic, Martin Tressider, Bradley Strider, The Aphex Twin (for the maximum Digeridoo and compilation Classics , published by the Belgians of R&S Records), Aphex Twin, The Dice Man, Caustic Window, Polygon Window, Rich (of Mike & Rich), Tahnaiya Russell, DJ Smojphace…
The discography is here classified by the most known pseudonyms …

The Aphex Twin

Individual

Compilation

  • Classics , 1995, R &S Records
    (Compilation of the first individual ones, titles rare and live)

Aphex Twin

Albums

Individual

Promotions, compilations and others

• Aphex Twin - Afx237 V.7 (W19RHBasement Remix) (6: 00)

AFX

Albums

  • Similar Bubblebath 3 , 1993,1997, 2002, Rephlex Records

  • Hangable Car Bulb , 2005, Rephlex Records
  • Chosen Lords , 2006, Rephlex Records

Individual

Compilations

Polygon Window

Album

  • (Surfing One Sine Waves) , 1993, republication in 2001, Warp Records

Caustic Window

Album

  • Compilation , 1998,2001, Rephlex Records

Resumptions of pieces of Richard D. James

  • The Dillinger Escape Plan with Mike Patton - Like To Daddy , resulting from the EP Irony Has Dead Scene , 2002, Epitaph Records/Epitaph Europe

  • The Bad Plus - Flim (4: 04), resulting from the album Thesis Are The Vistas , 2003, Columbia Records
    The Bad Plus is a group of contemporary jazz. They made a resumption of this piece resulting from the EP Like to Daddy
  • Alarm Will Sound - Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin , 2005, Cantaloupe Music
    L' idea to take again Aphex Twin with acoustic instruments is certainly not new: Philip Glass already took again Icct Hedral , piece of the album … I Care Because You Do . And it is Alan Pierson which directs this company. This entirely formed album of resumptions (more two remixes with doubtful quality) of pyrotechnic compositions like Cock/Worm 10 and Meltphace 6 ( Drukqs ) and finely coloured, detached from any musical movement, like Fingerbib , Logan Rock'n'roll Witch , 4 ( Richard D. James Album ) almost immediately astonishes and is encrusted in the cortex, there to remain…
  • London Sinfonietta - Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters , 2006, Warp Records
    Même idea that the group Alarm Will Sound. Except that it is about an double album on the recordings in the concerts. The group London Sinfonietta took again, among all the titles, 3 pieces of Aphex Twin resulting from the album Drukqs and a piece of Polygon Window resulting from the album (Surfing one Sine Waves)

Videotex

Clips

Others vidéos

Close & Friendly artists

See too

External bonds and sources

  • the site of the label Warp Records and the site of the label Warp Records: all on AFX

  • the site of the label Rephlex Records
  • Discography of Richard D. James, with listening of the pieces
  • Discography of Richard D. James at Discogs
  • The Aphex Twin Community v4 (English site especially for the fans of Aphex Twin)
  • AFX-AphexTwin.com (French site on Richard D. James)
  • Another discography of Richard D. James with small pockets (created by a fan)
  • 3 vidéos in a concert of Aphex Twin (in 3 parts to be downloaded freely)
  • the site We Are The Music Makers
  • the forum of Aphex Twin (WATMM)
  • Forum of site “We Are The Music Makers” (WATMM fansite) for the remote loading of the files audios/vidéos (Live, interviews and broadcasting) of Aphex Twin
  • Discography of Aphex Twin (Discography of Richard D. James)
  • Xltronic (community)
  • Video clip - Aphex Twin & Reflex camera raving @ the Dead Sea, Israel 2000

Simple: Aphex Twin

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