Aphex Twin Aphex Twin > Warping Digital Music

May 25, 2006

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Aphex Twin > Warping Digital Music

Words by A. David Cooper

The beginning of the 21st century is full of digital music breakthroughs and leading the movement is one united kingdom native who pushes the Mac platform to its limits.

Amid the rumors of a new digital music service from Apple Computer, many in the electronic music scene are wondering exactly what direction the music industry is poised to take in the coming months. And that may be the problem. Increasingly fledgling musicians look to the major labels and the media to lead the way for the direction and future of music. But there is hope as one artist makes his very living defying expectation. Aphex Twin (aka Richard D. James) has become something of a cult figure in the world of electronic music, and for good reason. Boasting a name taken from the actual digital audio manufacturer Aphex, Richard D. James is the electronic music world's version of David Byrne, or, at times, Ozzy Osbourne (before the pathetic reality TV stint).

Just last year the technology cognoscenti stood up and took notice as it was finally discovered that James had embedded a secret message into the music for his EP "Window Licker". The secret message was actually an eerie image of James that can only be viewed using special sound-to-visual software. James created that now famous image using the Mac-only application known as MetaSynth.

This is the same software that was used extensively for its sound bending abilities in the film The Matrix during the ground breaking "bullet time" scenes. Aside from this, the program can also be used to input pictures into your Mac that are then transformed into sound that cannot be produced in any other way. Created by Eric Wenger, MetaSynth allowed James to give the music world something more to consider when he originally released the EP back in 1999.

James ripped convention to shreds again when he teamed up with UK director Chris Cunningham to deliver the horrific drum and bass video for "Come To Daddy". The video takes viewers on a bleak and chilling trip through the back alleys of London where a group of hideous Aphex Twin child clones wreek havoc and James emerges from a television set as Satan himself to confront a hapless old woman and her dog. What has pushed James from obscurity into the spotlight is his willingness to discard convention.

Technologically, James' pedigree flies in the face of the Windows crowd that believes the stereotype that Mac users are not technically inclined and shy away from Windows because they are not ready to deal with ones and zeros. Hailing from the United Kingdom, James is well known for his reclusive habit of disappearing inside his digital studio for months only to emerge to play the occasional drum and bass live event. While in his lab, James plays with technology and attempts to push the boundaries of what electronic music can communicate.

Rarely willing to give public comments on his dense works, James recently clarified his position on digital music when he told a Japanese reporter, "I think now that people can make music on a laptop and be in more places than just a studio it is like folk music which I think is amazing that it's come around full circle after so long." The fact that James compares the seemingly cold and metallic world of digital music to that of the perpetually warm and fuzzy genre of folk music goes a long way towards explaining his organic approach to his music and the tools he uses to make it.

Another Mac based application James is known for pioneering is called Max/MSP, by San Francisco based software makers Cycling 74. The package is a graphical programming environment for music and various media applications. Max/MSP mixes the Max graphical programming environment with MSP's dozens of powerful audio extensions. All told, once you're up and running, you have about 400 objects, the building blocks of a complete audio application development environment, at your fingertips. Right now it only runs on Mac Classic, but as of this writing a Mac OS X version of the software suite was scheduled to hit the web before the end of the year.

Continuing to shun the media spotlight and hole up in his UK sound lab, James has just released a new set of tunes ("26 Mixes For Cash") that are actually remixes, a full 26 of them, that span two full CDs. These remixes will document, and in many ways update James' work over the last ten years, and serve to educate many who are just now finding out about the underground leader. The title is typically ironic and seems to give off the same no frills attitude of James' previous work "Druqks". But if history is any guide, we are likely to discover several hidden surprises in this latest release. Leaders don't wait for direction; they simply push the boundaries and don't look back. @ www.warprecords.com

May 25, 2006

strange....i've only seen him using a sony vaio laptop for his live work.

(why not a powerbook i wonder??).

Maybe he suddenly realised that all macs are s**t!! :omg:

Will be interesting to see what he's got in his studio in next months future music

(anyone seen the article yet??)

May 25, 2006

Supposedly he has a buncha Macs & PCs.

May 25, 2006

yeah, probably a load of old commodore 64's :teeth:

May 25, 2006

aphelion said:
strange....i've only seen him using a sony vaio laptop for his live work.
(why not a powerbook i wonder??).

Maybe he suddenly realised that all macs are s**t!! :omg:

Will be interesting to see what he's got in his studio in next months future music

(anyone seen the article yet??)

Vaios are the best and they come with a docking station with RCA inputs/outputs which makes playing live that much simpler.