Man I don't have much to add to all this AFX info, and this should probably be a Richard D. James discography, but hey. Here's his "other" discography:

MF 201 (EP) -- 1991
Aphex Twin - Analogue Bubblebath**

AMB LP 3922 -- 1992
Aphex Twin - SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS 85-92**           just buy it.

TABX 110 -- 1992
Pac-Man - Powerpill**

RS 95035 CD -- 1995
The Aphex Twin - Classics


>>and here's his rephlex discography:

CAT004 -- 1992
Caustic Window - Joy Rex 4

CAT005 -- 1992
Caustic Window - Joy Rex 5

CAT008CD -- 1992
AFX - Analogue Bubblebath Vol. 3

CAT009i -- 1993
Caustic Window - Joy Rex 9

CAT019EP/CD -- 1994
AFX - Analogue Bubblebath Vol. 4

CATO27LP/CD/MC -- 1994
Mike and Rich - Expert Knob Twiddlers**

CAT034LP/CD -- 1995
AFX - Analogue Bubblebath Vol. 5**

CAT009CD/LP -- rerelease 1998
Caustic Window - Compilation**


>>and here's his WARP discography:

WARP LP7 (CD/LP) -- 1993
Polygon Window - surfing on sine waves**

WAP 33 (CD/EP) -- 1993
Polygon Window - Quoth

WAP 39/WAP 39R (CD/EP) -- 1993
Aphex Twin - On / Aphex Twin - On remixes**

WAP 48 (CD/EP) -- 1994
Gak - Gak

WARP LP21 (2CD/LP) -- 1994
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works II

WARP LP30 (CD/LP) -- 1995
Aphex Twin - ...I care because you do

WAP 60 (CD/EP) -- 1995
Aphex Twin - Ventolin**

WAP 63 (CD/EP) -- 1995
Aphex Twin - Donkey Rhubarb**

WAP 67 (CD/EP) -- 1995
Aphex Twin - Hangable Auto Bulb EP**

WAP 69 (CD/EP) -- 1995
Aphex Twin - Hangable Auto Bulb EP 2**

WARP LP43 (CD/LP) -- 1996
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James album**

WAP 78 (CD/EP) -- 1996
Aphex Twin - Girl/Boy EP

WAP 94 (CD/EP) -- 1997
Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy**

WAP 105 (CD/EP) -- 1999
Aphex Twin - Window licker

so far no music in 2000...

and if I may... ** denotes 65535 recommends


and here's an ASCII logo:
         g@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@b_          
        0@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@k        
        0@@@@@@@@@@@@@^^#@@@@@@@@@@@@L        
         #@@@@@@@@@@"   J@@@@@@@@@@@@@        
                       J@@@@@@@@@@@@@@b      
                      d@@@@@##@@@@@@@@@L      
                     d@@@@#   ^@@@@@@@@Q      
                    d@@@@@@r    #@@@@@@@|
                   d@@@@@@@|     #@@@@@@@r    
                  0@@@@@@@P       0@@@@@@%    
                 0@@@@P            0@@@@@@L  
                0@@@@^              0@@@@@@  
               #@@@F                 0@@@@@b  
               1@@@^                  `@@@@@L 
                                       ^@@@@@ 
                                        ^@@@@|
                                          ##P

Aphex is so good.

werd to emil greer for the aphexscii.
Aphex Twin's style?
Aphex Twin himself really has no style; he is above style. Richard D. James is, in the end, a mood; not a style. And so if you look at his records you realize that in some vague, flippant way, each one is about someone else's style. Not using that style, of course, but perverting it; tearing it apart, ripping out the soul of the musical methods and styles involved and making it his own, making it wholly a part of the Aphex Twin, with only the vaguest echo of what was originally there. Not copying or paying tribute to others in any way, but destroying; slashing out the heart of a genre, and recording the digital screams as it falls dead to the ground.

Every single one of Aphex Twin's albums has a totally different sound. Some have looked at this fact and said it is because RDJ's scope rises above any particular genre, has more depth than can be fit inside a cd case, and so in order to show his skill to the world RDJ has been forced to make each album one particular slice of his talent; one particular genre.

I personally suspect that he is doing parodies.

I personally suspect that he is doing (in some ethereal, cosmic way..) to musical paradigms what weird al does to lyrics. That each album is simply him looking at a type of music, saying "no, no, that's all wrong.." and then slashing the type up, rearranging the pieces into a blissful incoherent sonic soup, and then stepping back and smiling from the knowledge that he can do someone else's style better and more innovatively than they can.

That every time someone listens to Girl/Boy song and thinks "hm, that sounds just a little bit like Goldie", that somewhere, Richard D. James is laughing hysterically.
Looking at things this way:

This may, of course, be misinterpretation, but if so it's certainly valid misinterpretation. If you can strip away the tiny toss-off stylistic references in each album, you wind up with at the core what is among the most creative music ever made; and if you can listen to it in the right way, most of Aphex Twin's music is actually hysterically funny. It's extremely rare to see music that can express humor without any lyrics and without being the least bit goofy (the only other artist i've ever seen pull this off is Trent Reznor.. And by the way, maybe the best example of how RDJ can wear others' techniques as interchangeable skins comes on NIN's Further Down the Spiral remix album, where you can find two tracks created by Aphex Twin. The tracks are so brilliantly and uniquely Aphex that once you notice who did them, it seems impossible that anyone else could have done those tracks, but until that point it meshes so wonderfully with the rest of the album that you don't notice the artist has changed..), but Aphex does it wonderfully, and most amazingly, subtly. Whether laughter is the intended response to the Come to Daddy video will never be known, but i do know it works that way.

Particularly interesting from this perspective is Drukqs, since it seems to be Aphex Twin's take on IDM. This is interesting because IDM as a movement was essentially indirectly started by Aphex Twin. So what we have here is Aphex Twin's stylized take on Warp Records' stylized take on Aphex Twin, just kind of a look, you kids, I can still do this better than you thing.

Perhaps this would be a good place to suggest you read The Official Unofficial Aphex Twin FAQ.

The only thing about Aphex Twin that I can say with certainty is that he's either a compulsive liar or good at marketing. Either way, he only gives joke answers in interviews, leaving everything about him shrouded in mystery. It's therefore probably quite sensible to assume that he's just an ordinary person who happens to be a talented composer of electronic music, and move on.

As far as his music is concerned, it's hit and miss. Some of it seems to be very clever but isn't, some of it seems to be very clever and is, and some of it may or may not be clever but it's so idiosyncratic that no one outside of his cult of followers cares. At any rate, he's capable of making very beautiful music when he wants to. This is why it's such a shame that he doesn't seem to care about what anyone else wants to hear, verging on attempts to downright annoy everyone.

All in all, he's very good at making background drones and loud noises, but only rarely puts in the effort to make anything in between, such as actual music. This is why whenever you buy an Aphex Twin album, it is vitally important that you get a receipt.

Selected Discography

Most artists start out making amateur music that's enthusiastic and original yet lacks polish, then slowly creep closer and closer towards making glossy, technically correct music that isn't innovative anymore. Aphex Twin isn't like that at all. He started off making strange music, and each subsequent album got even further removed from what everybody else was doing, as his lonely island suffered further continental drift.

I'd therefore recommend you check out his earliest albums first. If you don't like those, there's little chance you'll be able to stomach his later releases.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 One of the definitive ambient techno albums.

Selected Ambient Works Volume II Truly ambient music, spanning the emotional spectrum from beautiful to scary. This is the one you should listen to while having a bath, having a stroll around an abandoned power station at night, or having an epiphany.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.