Aphex twin born in ireland
Aphex Twin is Arguably the Greatest Irish Musician of all Time
Music
Niamh Rooney
(and you should vote for him now in The Meteor Choice Music Prize)
By Will Lynch
It is curious to see how one of my favourite musicians from my teenage years is now surfing the crest of the cultural zeitgeist once again. It is peculiar, as Aphex Twin won a Grammy twenty years after his best work. There is a pattern here, for one of the originators of Techno music, Detroit’s Juan Atkins was nominated for a Grammy in 2006, a full twenty years after his best work. There must have been a rip in the space-time continuum over at The Grammys. Even Rolling Stone magazine recently pronounced Artificial Intelligence (Aphex Twin opens the album under the moniker The Dice Man) as one of the most ground breaking albums of all time. From being relatively obscure and unknown, he is now the apotheosis of cool and the only faux-pax any discerning hipster can commit now is to say Aphex Who?
So why now? The overlapping sociological forces that determine whether an artist is in vogue are difficult to discern. Personally, I first encountered Aphex Twin through a friend in secondary school. Like a lot of people at the time, my gateway drug to what is now called Electronic Dance Music was The Prodigy. From The Prodigy it was a short Melbourne Shuffle away to discovering Orbital, The Orb, Leftfield and then the greatest producers of the 20th century, the holy electronic music trinity of Kraftwerk, Autechre and Aphex Twin. I say 20th century deliberately for this is when Autechre and Aphex Twin, both hailing from the boundary pushing WARP label from Sheffield produced their best work. Kraftwerk lit the fuse that influenced everything from Detroit techno to hip-hop and of course electro, but arguably the most talented of this digital troika was Aphex Twin.
I remember vividly when one of my school friends in 5th year lent me Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol 1 & 2 and it was
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer, and DJ. He is renowned for his distinctive contributions to electronic genres such as techno, ambient, and jungle.
A true musical genius of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Aphex Twin has been a pioneer in the electronic music landscape throughout his prolific, multifaceted career. Under various aliases, James has laid the foundation for ambient techno, drill 'n' bass, and dark ambient across six remarkable studio albums and numerous EPs and side projects. He has also crafted a unique visual identity, expressed through his iconic logo and collaborations with video director Chris Cunningham. Moreover, he has become an influential figure for artists as diverse as Thom Yorke and Pharrell Williams. Year by year, the mythos surrounding him continues to grow, ensuring he remains as culturally relevant as ever. Journalists from publications including Mixmag, The New York Times, NME, Fact, Clash, and The Guardian have called James one of the most influential or important artists in contemporary electronic music.
Raised in Cornwall, James began DJing at free parties and clubs in the area in the late 1980s. His debut EP, Analogue Bubblebath, released in 1991 on Mighty Force Records, garnered an early following; he began performing across the UK and continental Europe. That same year, James co-founded the independent label Rephlex Records. His 1992 debut album, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, released by Belgian label Apollo, received wider critical and popular acclaim. James signed to Warp in 1993 and subsequently released charting albums such as ...I Care Because You Do (1995) and Richard D. James Album (1996), as well as Top 40 singles like "Come to Daddy" (1997) and "Windowlicker" (1999); the latter two were accompanied by music videos directed by Chris Cunningham, bringing James significantly wider international attent Aphex Twin (born Richard David James, 18 August 1971, in Limerick, Ireland) is an Irish-born Cornish musician. He lives and works in the UK. He is a famous electronic musician. Aphex Twin is not his real name. His real name is Richard David James. His name is a combination of Aphex Systems Limited (a brand of audiosignal processing equipment) and the word Twin to remember his older brother. His brother was stillborn, but given the name Richard James. Aphex Twin was born in Limerick, Ireland. He grew up in Cornwall, U.K. He started to make music when he was a teenager. In 1991, he formed a record label called Rephlex Records. After he became well known, he moved to London. This was so he could be in a place that was closer to other people. However, he returned to Cornwall a few years later, after meeting his wife. He still makes a lot of music today, and uses many different names. He lives in an old bank. He has bought interesting things, like a tank and a submarine. Music writer John Doran ventures into the strange world of Richard D James. Over the course of three decades James, known to his legion of hardcore fans as Aphex Twin, has achieved the primary but evasive aim of most serious musicians - the invention, exploration and curation of a truly unique and inimitable sound. Born in Ireland and raised in Cornwall, James was radicalised by the underground acid house phenomenon that swept UK clubs in the late 1980s but, unlike many of his peers, he seemed equally influenced by ambient, New York minimalism, power electronics, avant composition, techno, industrial and pop music. By combining these strands, he became just about "as important as a single figure can get in electronic music" and the more that the press wanted to speak to him the more he treated their attention with a mixture of irritation, gleeful mischief and wilful myth building. Realising that legend is often much more interesting than truth, he slowly began to construct a personal mythos that many still believe to this day. Does he really write songs while asleep after training himself in the practice of lucid dreaming? Does he drive a tank round Cornwall? Did he once live in a bank vault in the middle of the Elephant And Castle roundabout? Does he own a submarine? Does his DJ tech rider include a food processor and sheets of sandpaper? Does he move among his many fans on electronic dance music forums online, often trolling them and stirring up these very myths? In an attempt to disentangle the man from the myth, we hear from fans such as comedian Vic Reeves and those who know him best such as musicians Tom Middleton, Leila, David Toop and Scanner. Fan of 25 years John Doran believes that James should be seen as a Cornish folk musician. While a lot of time has been spent talking about how groundbreaking his music has been over the years, less thought has been devoted to discussing how he is also a conduit to the pre-Christian cultu
Aphex Twin
Early life
[change | change source]Selected works
[change | change source]Albums
[change | change source]EPs and Singles
[change | change source]Promotions and Compilations
[change | change source]The Cult of Aphex Twin