The Analord - EMP Blog Week 1

Richard D. James, known famously as Aphex Twin, AFX, Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, The Universal Indicator and tens of other aliases, is my favourite Electronic Music Producer. He has been working in the Electronic Music genre since the early 90s and has allegedly produced hundreds of tracks, some still awaiting release. It is difficult to classify his music in a particular genre because over the years it has ranged from Ambient Music to Intelligent Dance Music and Acid Techno but can be broadly categorised under Electronic Music. Rephlex Records, which he co-owned with Grant Wilson-Claridge, coined the word "braindance" in 1991 to describe Aphex Twin's music. According to the label: "Braindance is the genre that encompasses the best elements of all genres, e.g. traditional, classical, electronic music, popular, modern, industrial, ambient, hip-hop, electro, house, techno, breakbeat, hardcore, ragga, garage, drum and bass, etc."

My early acquaintance with him was not very amiable. I was introduced to AFX when I was about 17 years old and that time, as any other teenager would think, music for me was all that was pop and catchy. So when I first heard and saw Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker", I dismissed it as garbage. The music video was creepy and like nothing that I'd seen before. I would show the music video to my friends just to make fun of it and have a good laugh but over some time, the song started growing on me. I started realising how intricate and painstaking the production was. The song was originally released in 1999 and the heavy instrumental layering and warped soundscapes incorporated is something that new artists are doing today. This shows how ahead of his time AFX was.

"Windowlicker" consists of James' voice modulated on a computer, mixed with his trademark breakbeat snare rushes, drum samples, and mixed choir-like singing, resulting in a smooth yet erratic song with the last minute of the track escalating into an extremely distorted wall of bass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowlicker

Here's the link to the song. You can skip the dialogue part by going to 4:20 because that's where the song starts.

Personally, I'm really inspired by Aphex Twin's work and this song in particular and although there is a lot more to his music but "Windowlicker" is like a signature track for Aphex Twin incorporating the very best of him.

References

Aphex Twin. (2017). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 11 February 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphex_Twin

Windowlicker. (2017). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 11 February 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowlicker

Joseph Smith. (2017) Retrieved 11 February 2017, from http://stoneyroads.com/2017/02/throwback-track-aphex-twin-windowlicker