Aphex Twin

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风格: #科技舞曲　#鼓打贝斯　#出神舞曲　#迷幻科技舞曲　#氛围科技舞曲　#电子乐　#钻击贝斯　#智能舞曲　#电子
地区: United Kingdom 英国

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风格： Acid Techno（酸性数码） Ambient Techno（氛围数码） Electronica（电子） Experimental Jungle（试验舞曲） Experimental Techno（数码试验） IDM（IDM） Techno（数码） Trance（Trance）

上世纪八十年代中后期，年仅十四岁的Richard D.James已经开始蹲在合成器旁制造迷幻氛围的试验音乐了，那个时代高科技艺人还处在舆论抨击的夹缝中，验证电子音乐的市场前景的确是件费力不讨好的苦差事。当年他以Aphex Twin的名字录制的单曲“Didgeridoo”成为氛围高科技摇滚的第一块试金石，身为DJ的他或许没有意识到自己正在尝试一种全新的摇滚风格，当时这种新音乐只是为了能够给舞厅带来更好的效益。九十年代初，Richard D. James和The Orb 、Black Dog, Autechre, B12 and Fuse，等乐队推出的大批电子乐专辑使电子音乐的商业潜力开始爆发，当年他的《Selected Ambient Works 85-92》的氛围高科技音乐，被视为The Orb后的又一次风格界定，高科技的春天从此来临。Richard D. James的简约主义的试验作品中体现出的攻击性和噪音成份为后来的电子摇滚指明了方向。此后，他的音乐走向开始复杂起来，电子疯克、硬核化的根源迷幻流行音乐、工业drum n'bass等风格的专辑确立了他高科技音乐急先锋和探险者的地位。Aphex Twin(后来多以Richard D. James的名义)推出了众多的专辑、单曲，风格差异非常得大，Aphex Twin的成长史几乎涵盖了电子乐的所有发展阶段，没有他的高科技音乐是不可想象的。

by John Bush

Exploring the experimental possibilities inherent in acid and ambience, the two major influences on home-listening techno during the late 80s, Richard D. James recordings as Aphex Twin brought him more critical praise than any other electronic artist during the 1990s. Though his first major single, Didgeridoo, was a piece of acid thrash designed to tire dancers during his DJ sets, ambient stylists and critics later took him under their wing for Selected Ambient Works 85-92, a sublime touchstone in the field of ambient techno. James reaction to the exposure portrayed an artist unwilling to become either pigeonholed or categorizable. His second Aphex Twin album, Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2, was so minimal as to be barely conscious — in what appeared to be an elaborate joke on the electronic community. Follow-ups showed James gradually returning to his hardcore and acid roots, even while his stated desire to crash the British Top Ten (and perform on Top of the Pops) resulted in a series of cartoonish pop songs whose twisted genius was near-masked by their many absurdities. His iconoclastic behavior surprisingly aligned with MTV audiences turned on to end-of-the-millennium nihilist pop along the lines of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.

James began taking apart electronics gear as a teenager growing up in Cornwall, England. (If the title Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is to be believed, it contains recordings made at the age of 14.) Inspired by acid house in the late 80s, James began DJing raves around Cornwall. His first release was the Analogue Bubblebath EP, recorded with Tom Middleton and released on the Mighty Force label in September 1991. Middleton left later that year to form Global Communication, after which James recorded a second volume in the Analogue Bubblebath series. This EP (the first to include Digeridoo) got some airplay on the London pirate radio station Kiss FM, and prompted Belgiums R&S Records to sign him early the following year. A re-recording of Digeridoo made number 55 in the British charts just after its April 1992 release date, and James followed with the Xylem Tube EP in June. He also co-formed (with Grant Wilson-Claridge) his own Rephlex label around that time, releasing a series of singles as Caustic Window during 1992-1993. Available in cruelly limited editions, most of the recordings continued the cold acid precision of Digeridoo — though several expressed humor and fragility barely dreamed of in the hardcore/rave scene to that point.

The climate for intelligent techno had begun to warm in the early 90s, though. The Orb had proved the commercial viability of ambient house with their chart-topping Blue Room single, and R&S scrambled to find useful material from its own artists. In November 1992, James acquiesced with Selected Ambient Works 85-92, consisting mostly of home material recorded during the past few years. Simply stated, it was a masterpiece of ambient techno, the genres second work of brilliance after the Orbs Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. As his star began to shine, several bands approached him to remix their work, and he complied, with mostly unrecognizable reworkings of tracks by St. Etienne, the Cure, Jesus Jones, Meat Beat Manifesto, and Curve.

Early in 1993, Richard James signed to Warp Records, the influential British label that virtually introduced the concept of futuristic electronic listening music with a series of albums (subtitled Artificial Intelligence) by ambient techno pioneers Black Dog, Autechre, B12, and FUSE (aka Richie Hawtin) among others. James release in the series, titled Surfing on Sine Waves, was recorded as Polygon Window and released in January 1993. The album charted a course between the raw muscle of James nose-bleed techno and the understated minimalism of Selected Ambient Works. A deal between Warp and TVT gave Surfing on Sine Waves an American release (James first) by the summer. A second album was released that year, Analogue Bubblebath 3, for Rephlex. Recorded as AFX, the LP renounced any debt to ambient music and was the most bracing work yet in the Aphex Twin canon. On a tour of America with Orbital and Moby later that year, James clung to the headbanging material, to the detriment of his mostly unreplaceable gear. He later cut down on his live performance schedule.

In December of 1993, the new single On resulted in James highest chart placing, a number 32 spot on the British charts. The two-part single included remixes by old pal Tom Middleton (as Reload) and future Rephlex star µ-Ziq. Despite James appearance on the pop charts, his following album, Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2, appeared to be a joke on the ambient techno community. So minimal as to be barely conscious, the quadruple album left most of the beats behind, with only tape loops of unsettling ambient noise remaining. The album mostly struck out with critics but hit number 11 on the British charts and earned James a major-label American contract with Sire soon afterward. During 1994, he worked on the ever-growing Rephlex stable, signing µ-Ziq (Michael Paradinas), Kosmik Kommando (Mike Dred), and Kinesthesia/Cylob (Chris Jeffs) to the label. In August 1994, he released the fourth Analogue Bubblebath, this one a five-track EP.

The year 1995 began with the January release of Classics, a compilation of his early R&S singles. Two months later, James released the single Ventolin, a harsh, appropriately wheezing ode to the asthma drug on which he relied. I Care Because You Do followed in April, pairing his hardcore experimentalism with more symphonic ambient material, aligned with the work of many post-classical composers — including Philip Glass, who arranged an orchestral version of the albums Icct Hedral on the August 1995 single Donkey Rhubarb.

Later that year, the Hangable Auto Bulb EP replaced Analogue Bubblebath 3 as Aphex Twins most brutal, uncompromising release — a fusion of experimental music and jungle being explored at the same time on releases by Plug and Squarepusher. In July 1996, Rephlex released the long-awaited collaboration between Richard James and Michael Paradinas (µ-Ziq). The album, Expert Knob Twiddlers (credited to Mike & Rich), watered down the experimentalism of Aphex Twin with µ-Ziqs easy-listening electro-funk. The fourth proper Aphex Twin album, November 1996s Richard D. James Album, continued his forays into acid-jungle and experimental music. Retaining the experimental edge, but with a stated wish to make the British pop charts, James next two releases, 1997s Come to Daddy EP and 1999s Windowlicker EP, were acid storms of industrial drumnbass. The accompanying videos, both directed by Chris Cunningham, featured the bodies of small children and female models (respectively) dancing around, all with special-effects-created Aphex Twin faces grinning maniacally.

James released nothing during the year 2000, but did record the score to Flex, a Chris Cunningham short film exhibited as part of the Apocalypse exhibition at Londons Royal Academy. With very little advance warning, another LP, Drukqs, finally arrived in late 2001. Although James continued making frequent DJ appearances, he released no more material until 2005, when Rephlex issued the first installment in a lengthy, 11-part series of 12 singles titled Analord. The singles minimalist acid techno harked back to his Caustic Window/Analogue Bubblebath material of the early 90s. Chosen Lords, a CD compilation of some of the Analord material, appeared in April 2006.

Aphex Twin　理查德·詹姆斯 / Richard David James / Richard D. James

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Aphex Twin 理查德·詹姆斯 / Richard David James / Richard D. James

艺人介绍

热门评论

最新简评（共386条）

Aphex Twin　理查德·詹姆斯 / Richard David James / Richard D. James