Richard D James

Aphex Twin (born Richard David James on August 18, 1971 in Limerick, Ireland) is an electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, acid, and drum and bass.

Richard D. James was born of Welsh parents Lorna and Derek James in 1971 in Limerick Regional Hospital, Ireland. He grew up in Cornwall, England, enjoying, along with two sisters, a "very happy" childhood during which they "were pretty much left to do what [they] wanted." ^[1]

Early career: Early 1990s

According to Benjamin Middleton, James started producing music at the age of 12. As a teenager he DJed at the Shire Horse in St Ives, with Tom Middleton at the Bowgie Inn in Crantock, and also along the numerous beaches around Cornwall. His first record was the 12-inch EP Analogue Bubblebath, the last two tracks of which were made with Tom Middleton.^[2][3]

In 1991 James formed Rephlex Records with his friend Grant Wilson-Claridge to promote

"Innovation in the dynamics of Acid - a much loved and misunderstood genre of house music forgotten by some and indeed new to others, especially in Britain."^[4]

Between 1991 and 1993 Richard James released three Analogue Bubblebath EPs under the AFX name, two Bradley Strider EPs, and three Caustic Window EPs. Under the Aphex Twin name he released the Xylem Tube EP and Didgeridoo, a fast-paced song designed to tire dancers at the end of a DJ set. These early releases came out on Rephlex Records, Mighty Force of Exeter, and R&S Records of Belgium.^[5][6]

Early in his career, James moved to London to take an Electronics course at Kingston Polytechnic, but at the time admitted to David Toop that his "electronics studies were already slipping away as a career in the techno business took precedence". After quitting his course, James remained in London and released a number of albums and EPs on Warp Records and other labels under many aliases, including AFX, Polygon Window, Blue Calx, The Dice Man, and Power-Pill. Local legend has it that James lived on the roundabout in Elephant and Castle, South London during his early years in the cap

ital.^[7][8]

[edit] Gaining success: 1992-1999

• "Ageispolis" (file info)

  

  — play in browser (beta)
  • Sample of "Ageispolis", taken from the album Selected Ambient Works 85-92
  • Problems listening to the file? See media help.

The first Aphex Twin album, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, was released in 1992 on R&S Records. John Bush of the All Music Guide described it as a "watershed of ambient music". Pat Blashill of Rolling Stone wrote of the album: "Aphex Twin expanded way beyond the ambient music of Brian Eno by fusing lush soundscapes with oceanic beats and bass lines". Critics also noted that the songs were recorded on cassette and that the sound quality was "relatively poor".^[9][10]

Warp Records pressed and released Selected Ambient Works Volume II in 1994. The sound was much less beat-driven than the previous volume, and the track names were mainly described with circles and pie charts rather than song titles in words. James made unverifiable claims to The Wire magazine and other media that these songs were inspired by lucid dreams and synaesthesia.

• "Ventolin (Video Version)" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • Sample of "Ventolin (Video Version)", taken from the album ...I Care Because You Do
  • Problems listening to the file? See media help.

For his 1995 release, ...I Care Because You Do, James used an image of his face for the album cover, a motif that would continue in his later records. The album was a compilation of songs composed between 1991 and 1994, and represented a mish-mash of Aphex Twin's various music styles. This was Aphex Twin's last record of the 1990s to use mostly analogue synthesizer; later releases made more use of computers and software synthesizers. Aphex Twin collaborated with minimalist composer Philip Glass to make an orchestral version of one of the songs from this album.

In 1995 (primarily with Hangable Auto Bulb), he began releasing more material composed on computers, and embraced a drum and bass sound combined with nostalgic childhood themes and strange computer-generated acid lines. Aphex Twin's early adoption of software synthesizers predated the later popularity of using computers to make music. The late 1990s saw his music become more popular and mainstream, as he released the Richard D. James Album and two singles, "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker", which were shown on MTV and were cover features of music magazines including NME ^[11].