Featured In
ALBUMBlackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760 - EPAphex Twin
Albums by Aphex Twin
ALBUMComputer Controlled Acoustic Instruments, Pt. 2Aphex Twin
ALBUMSyroAphex Twin
ALBUMDrukqsAphex Twin
ALBUMRichard D. James AlbumAphex Twin
ALBUM...I Care Because You DoAphex Twin
ALBUMSelected Ambient Works, Vol. IIAphex Twin
ALBUMSelected Ambient Works 85-92Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin's Popular Music Videos
T69 Collapse
Aphex Twin
Come to Daddy
Aphex Twin
Windowlicker
Aphex Twin
Donkey Rhubarb
Aphex Twin
Windowlicker
Aphex Twin
CIRKLON3 [ Колхозная mix ]
Aphex Twin
On
Aphex Twin
Blackbox Life Recorder 21f
Aphex Twin
Nannou
Aphex Twin
Artist Playlists
Aphex Twin Essentials
Tinkerer, trickster, raver, wry experimentalist—and IDM hero.
Inspired by Aphex Twin
Distorted beats and helter-skelter sonics.
Aphex Twin: Deep Cuts
Blast-furnace breaks and furiously controlled drum programming.
Aphex Twin: Influences
Gurgling acid, burbling sci-fi, and far-out electronic sounds.
Artist Biography
Aphex Twin is one of many pseudonyms used by Richard D. James, the wildly eclectic and innovative British composer, DJ, and producer who revolutionized electronic music in the ’90s with his complex—at times abrasive—instrumental creations.
• James grew up in the countryside of Cornwall, where he first grew fascinated with the mechanics of sound creation. He’d deconstruct and modify synthesizers and mess with the strings inside of pianos.
• He cultivated a passion for raves through the ’80s, organizing local Cornish events along the coast or in clandestine club locales where the price of entry was often cannabis.
• The artist’s 1992 debut album, Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is regarded as a landmark achievement in electronic music meant for contemplative listening.
• Inspired by lucid dreaming, his 1994 album Selected Ambient Works Volume II peaked just outside the Top 10 on the UK charts.
• His widely popular 1999 single “Windowlicker”—accompanied by a characteristically absurd, fever-dream–style music video—cracked the Top 20 of the UK charts.
• James released the 2001 album drukQs after he left an mp3 player filled with unreleased tracks on an airplane. He figured the songs would soon be leaked, so he released them.
• Over the next decade, he released material under the aliases AFX and Tuss.
• In 2014, James released Syro, his first album under the Aphex Twin name in 14 years. It reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart and No. 8 on the UK pop albums tally. The LP also won a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronica Album.
• Sticking with the Aphex Twin moniker, James returned to summit of Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart with his subsequent EPs Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 (2015) and Cheetah (2016).
• Aphex Twin music is often described as intelligent dance music, or IDM—a term that James has rejected.
Hometown
Limerick
Genre
Electronic