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Aphex Twin (born Richard David James, August 18, 1971, Ireland) is a UK-based electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, IDM, acid, drum and bass (specifically drill n bass). Recent experimentation on his album drukqs included use of a prepared piano (specifically a Yamaha Disklavier) in the style of composer John Cage.
Richard James was a bit of an electronics prodigy, building and customizing his own machines from an early age. |
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He began recording experiments in the mid-80s and has since developed a sound in geographical isolation from the specialist record shops and pirate radio stations that have shaped and styled dance music. The result is a truly experimental and innovative body of post-acid electronic music, ranging from full-on industrial noise through to slow groovy breakbeats and ambient drones.
Aphex’s first release, Analogue Bubblebath 1 (1991) featured Schizophrenia (aka Tom Middleton, half of ambient/techno duo, Global Communications/ Reload) on one side -- the only release on which the two worked together. Played regularly by Colin Dale of London dance music station Kiss FM, it created an early cult following.
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Aphex followed this up with a second 12" release, Analogue Bubblebath 2 (1991).
Its A-side, at 160bpm, was faster than anything else around at the time, while the two tracks on the flip sounded so weird that nobody could even work out what their correct speed was. Both Analogue Bubblebath records were white-label releases, but a track from each, along with a couple of new tracks, were now released by R&S as a single, Digeridoo (1992). |
"When I met him, he'd been up for the last 2 days with his new girlfriend. Now here I was with him in his tiny hotel room, interviewing him on his bed. Besides lack of sleep, he also had the misfortune of having his mixer blow out after a show where he only had a half hour (though he was the headliner): this meant that the crowd that night couldn't hear more of his experimental stuff.
The set for the show wasn't ideal either- there was a couch on stage which he decided to sit in front of and no toy house for the background as he wanted. For all of this, he was very good natured, chatting about the Internet (he blew out his connection but he's ready to get ISDN because he loves being online) and his amazing lack of carpal tunnel syndrome ('I've been a computer nut for 20 years so I guess I'm immune now') as I fumbled to set up my tape recorder. "
- Says Teresa Stern abouh Aphex Twin...
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