What is Aphex Twin?
1.
The main pseudonym of Richard D. James, one of the leading electronic musicians in the 90's, the prime innovator of the IDM movement, and the founder of Rephlex records. He has no experince in musical theory, and has built most of his instruments by himself. He makes a colossal amount of e-music in many different styles, from slow, mellow ambient pieces to harsh, drilling noise sequences.
"That's a fine IDM piece, Jonny. not Aphex Twin, but still good."
2.
The single most genius electronic music creator/producer ever. Ever. I've never heard of Ventian Snares, but you can rest assured that Aphex Twin is better. While his real name is Richard D. James, he's never created music under that name. Instead, he's used no less than twelve pseudonyms, including Aphex Twin, AFX, Polygon Window, Caustic Window, GAK, Powerpill, Mike & Rich (Mike something-or-other aka Mu-Ziq and Richard D. James), Q-Chastic, Bradley Strider, Universal Indicator (which is rumoured to be several early acid house musicians), and The Dice Man (which he recorded one track entitled "Polygon Window" under before finding out the name was already in use). He has collaborated with director Chris Cunningham for two videos, the uber-disturbing "Come to Daddy (Pappy Mix}" and the absolutely hilarious parody video "Windowlicker". Richard has remixed artists ranging from
-he owns a street-legal tank
-he owns a closed down bank
-he recorded an album, "Come To Daddy EP" in the vault of said bank
-he has a rare disorder that randomly affects him and allows him to see hallucinatory visions as though he were on acid or some other mind-altering drug
-he recorded his album "Selected Ambient Works: Volume II" while he was having an "attack" of the aforementioned disease, and could "see the music" which is why the tracks are sometimes listed as various shades of brown, green, and/or blue
OR
-he recorded his album "Selected Ambient Works: Volume II" while having lucent dreams
-when he used to DJ, instead of playing records on the turntable, he used to spin sheets of sandpaper
Notable Releases Include (with the pseudonum in parentheses):
"Richard D. James Album" (Aphex Twin)
"Selected Ambient Works 85-92" (Aphex Twin)
"Selected Ambient Works: Volume II" (Aphex Twin)
"Analogue Bubblebath 1" (AFX)
"Smojphace EP" (AFX) - known for being quite possibly the biggest rip-off of a Richard D. James recording ever, since two of the three tracks are just static noises... personally, I think it's awesome
"Pac Man" (Powerpill) - a series of 5 different versions of the Pac Man theme
"Joyrex J9 EP" (Caustic Window)
"Surfing On Sine Waves" (Polygon Window)
Aphex Twin is an IDM/Ambient/Noise/Hard Techno/Scary Industrial genius.
3.
a man of pure musical genious
aphex twin produces excellent idm/electronic music
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4.
Real name: Richard D. James. Also known as AFX and dozens of other names. The only musician that I would call an artist, inventor, and madman. Makes incredibly varying music, ranging from ambient house to abstract techno to trance-oid songs. Makes his own synths, and slices sound effects into hundreds of pieces and rearranges them to make some odd and truly original sounds. Became famous for critically acclaimed album Selected Ambient Works 85-92. Many of his tracks have nonsense names, are acronyms, or are random letters.
Not applicable.
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5.
Euphoric music. Outstanding.
Come to daddy.
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6.
speechlessly good artist
'i'm speechless'
7.
Sure, I go through Autechre, Squarepusher and Boards of Canada phases, but RDJ is the only one who's infallibly in my CD changer at all times. Although he no longer reinvents electronic music's productional lexicon with every release like his label mates, Autechre, Aphex continues to inject this inexplicable character into his music that no one has ever come close to duplicating. It might be the AFX melodies, it might be the programming, and it might be the sound design; I really can't tell you. There's just something about RDJ that sets him above the rest. Honestly, I've never listened to music the same since hearing Richard's "RDJ Album" for the first time. He gets my most sincere recommendation, my unabashed praise, and my dick if he wants it.
Aphex (Twin) can be used as a proper noun, an adjective, and even a verb.
As a proper noun, we have: "Aphex Twin was born in Cornwall and he even pwned as a baby."
As an adjective, we can say: "OMFG THAT DRILL AND BASS IN VENUS NO 17 IS SOOO APHEX!"
And as a verb, it's appropriate to say: "Holmes, this track is going to land on Chocolate Industries or some shit unless you aphex it up a bit."