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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Aphex_Twin_2.jpg]]
2
3[floatboxright: Influences:
4+Music/SergeGainsbourg, Music/BrianEno, Music/ErikSatie, 808 State, Music/{{Squarepusher}}, Luke Vibert, Vince Clarke, Music/{{Ween}}, Music/{{Kraftwerk}}...
5Influenced:
6+Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/{{Bjork}}, Music/DaftPunk, Creator/DavidFirth, Music/{{Kasabian}}, Music/FlyingLotus, Music/{{Skrillex}}, Music/LinkinPark, Music/{{deadmau5}}, Music/{{Arca}}...
7]
8
9->''"I'm just some irritating, lying, ginger kid from Cornwall who should have been locked up in some youth detention centre. I just managed to escape and blag it into music."''
10
11Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), better known as Aphex Twin ([[IHaveManyNames amongst other stage names]]), is an Irish-born English electronic musician, as well as the founder of the now-defunct Rephlex Records label. He was raised and spent much of his career based in Cornwall, England but currently resides in Glasgow, Scotland.
12
13James is highly known and respected for his innovations in the world of {{electronic music}} and the sheer volume and versatility of his output, to the point where he's often regarded as one of the most influential artists of the umbrella genre's modern era, if not ''the'' most. His experimentation with sounds and visuals has built a [[MindScrew surreal]], idiosyncratic style, and his individual persona -- eccentric and {{reclusive|Artist}}, with any information about his personal life muddled up with lies he tells ForTheLulz -- is arguably [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} just as weird]].
14
15James started making music at the age of 11 by tinkering with one of his home computers, and hasn't looked back since. After some years of false starts, his first album ''[[Music/SelectedAmbientWorks8592 Selected Ambient Works 85-92]]'' was released on 1992 (a year after he started Rephlex Records) to overwhelming critical praise, setting him on the path to widespread recognition. Retrospective consensus deemed the album's success a watershed moment for the transition of electronic music to the mainstream, and the album itself an effective blueprint for the whole [[InsistentTerminology braindance]][[note]]More colloquially referred to as "intelligent dance music" or "IDM"; James prefers the "braindance" label since he (along with many, many other people for that matter) thinks "intelligent dance music" comes off as elitist[[/note]] movement.
16
17While James is known in some ways as a TropeMaker for ambient techno thanks to the aforementioned ''SAW 85-92'', his material is very diverse, ranging between pure {{ambient}} (''[[Music/SelectedAmbientWorksVolumeII SAW Vol. II]]''), sad and beautiful {{Lonely Piano Piece}}s (most of them on ''Music/{{Drukqs}}''), ear-splitting drum 'n' bass (''Music/ICareBecauseYouDo'', the ''Come to Daddy'' EP, some songs in ''[=drukQs=]''), acid techno (his early AFX/Caustic Window material, plus the ''Analord'' 12" series), and his trademark combination of upbeat melodies with complicated beats (''Music/RichardDJamesAlbum'', ''[=drukQs=]''). His 2014 album ''Music/{{Syro}}'' (his first full-length release in 13 years!) falls somewhere in between the last two styles.
18
19Oddly enough, out of two of his best-known mainstream hits (those would be "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker"), the former has experienced CreatorBacklash and the latter is a BlackSheepHit.
20
21As of 2017, James has put up a [[https://aphextwin.warp.net personal Bleep store]] with which he aims to rerelease all of his past discography on Warp, including various new bonus tracks within the releases in the process.
22
23He has accounts under the Aphex name on sites such as [[https://www.facebook.com/aphextwinafx Facebook]], [[https://twitter.com/aphextwin Twitter]] and [[https://soundcloud.com/richarddjames SoundCloud]] that are strictly for promotional purposes. The closest thing he has to a regular public profile at the moment is [[https://soundcloud.com/user18081971 his personal SoundCloud]], where he notably uploaded hundreds of demos and unreleased tracks completely anonymously in the mid-2010s. He still updates the profile occasionally to this day, even conversing with fans in comment sections.
24
25You can now vote for your favourite Aphex release [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/Sandbox/BestAlbumAphexTwin HERE!]]
26
27----
28!!Discography
29[[foldercontrol]]
30
31[[folder:Under Aphex Twin]]
32
33[[AC: Studio Albums]]
34* ''[[Music/SelectedAmbientWorks8592 Selected Ambient Works 85-92]]'' (1992)
35* ''Music/SelectedAmbientWorksVolumeII'' (1994)
36* ''Music/ICareBecauseYouDo'' (1995)
37* ''Melodies From Mars'' (1995) (unreleased; however, Richard has suggested in an interview that he is remaking it and planning an official release)
38* ''Music/RichardDJamesAlbum'' (1996)
39* ''Music/{{Drukqs}}'' (2001)
40* ''Music/{{Syro}}'' (2014)
41
42[[AC: [=EPs=]]]
43* ''Digeridoo'' (1992)
44* ''Xylem Tube'' (1992)
45* ''On'' (1993)
46* ''Ventolin'' (1995)
47* ''Donkey Rhubarb'' (1995)
48* ''Girl/Boy'' (1996)
49* ''Come to Daddy'' (1997)
50* ''Windowlicker'' (1999)
51* ''Analord 10'' (2005)
52* ''Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2'' (2015)
53* ''Cheetah'' (2016)
54* ''Collapse'' (2018)
55* ''bbox.l.r.'' (2023)[[note]]EP was announced under the name ''Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760'', but the physical release lists its official title.[[/note]]
56
57[[AC: Compilations]]
58* ''Classics'' (1994)
59* ''51/13: Aphex Singles Collection'' (1996)
60* ''26 Mixes for Cash'' (2003)
61* ''Chosen Lords'' (2006)
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Under AFX]]
65
66[[AC: [=EPs=]]]
67* ''Analogue Bubblebath'' (1991)
68* ''Analogue Bubblebath 2'' (1991)
69* ''Analogue Bubblebath 3'' (1992)
70* ''Analogue Bubblebath 4'' (1994)
71* ''Analogue Bubblebath 5'' (1995)
72* ''Hangable Auto Bulb EP'' (1995)
73* ''Hangable Auto Bulb EP 2'' (1995)
74* ''Analogue Bubblebath 3.1'' (1997)
75* ''Smojphace EP'' (2003)
76* ''Analords 1-9, 11'' (2005)
77* ''AFX / LFO|AFX / LFO split 12"'' (2005)
78* ''Orphaned Deejay Selek 2006-2008'' (2015)
79
80[[AC: Compilations]]
81* ''Hangable Auto Bulb'' (1995 and 2005 re-release)
82* ''Chosen Lords'' (2006)
83
84[[AC: Single]]
85* ''2 Remixes by AFX'' (2001)
86[[/folder]]
87
88[[folder:Under Caustic Window]]
89
90[[AC: Album]]
91* ''Untitled'' (1994) (formerly unreleased, finally released in 2014)
92
93[[AC: [=EPs=]]]
94* ''Joyrex J4 EP'' (1992)
95* ''Joyrex J5 EP'' (1992)
96* ''Joyrex J9ii'' (1993)
97
98[[AC: Single]]
99* ''Joyrex J9i'' (1993)
100
101[[AC: Compilation]]
102* ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Compilation]]'' (1998)
103[[/folder]]
104
105[[folder:Under misc. aliases]]
106
107[[AC: As Bradley Strider]]
108* ''Bradley's Beat'' (1991)
109* ''Bradley's Robot'' (1993)
110
111[[AC: As GAK]]
112* ''GAK'' (1994)
113
114[[AC: As Green Calx]]
115* ''Green Calx'' (1993) (unreleased)
116
117[[AC: As Polygon Window]]
118* ''Surfing on Sine Waves'' (1993)
119* ''Quoth'' (1993)
120
121[[AC: As Power-Pill]]
122* ''Pac-Man'' (1992)
123
124[[AC: As Q-Chastic]]
125* ''Q-Chastic EP'' (1992) (unreleased)
126
127[[AC: As The Tuss]]
128* ''Confederation Trough EP'' (2007)
129* ''Rushup Edge'' (2007)
130
131[[AC: Collaboration album]]
132* Mike (Music/MuZiq) & Rich:
133** ''Expert Knob Twiddlers'' (1996)
134[[/folder]]
135
136----
137!!Aphex Tropes:
138
139* AbsurdlyLongLimousine: In the music video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fmo1Sjn7dg "Windowlicker"]], Richard arrives in a white limousine that has 38 windows and takes ''[[OverlyLongGag 20 seconds]]'' to fully show.
140* AffectionateParody: The [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_uo_eC6uZluY/RlGjoGKY6WI/AAAAAAAAAD0/KAew9P4i4e4/s400/mikerich.jpeg cover art]] for ''Expert Knob Twiddlers'' (his collaborative album with famous IDM artist Music/MuZiq) parodies the [[https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91qiLjLPHOL._SL1500_.jpg box art]] for the Milton Bradley game ''Downfall''.
141* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: He owns a Daimler Ferret [=MK3=] armoured car.
142* BearsAreBadNews: The "Rhubears" in the "Donkey Rhubarb" video, which all have Richard's face (or rather, the painting of his face from the cover of ''I Care Because You Do'') plastered onto them.
143* BilingualBonus:
144** ''Syro'' contains some weird samples spoken in Russian, like ''Псевдо-растяжение звука во времени'' ("Pseudo stretching of sound in time") or ''Носочки'' ("Little socks").
145** Examples also abound in ''[=drukQs=]'', which feature most of its track names in Cornish dialect or Kernawek (modern Cornish). [[http://forum.watmm.com/topic/28561-drukqs-translations Here is a list of translations on a forum post.]]
146* BlatantLies: Richard's well known for deliberately misleading both the press and his fans with very bizarre lies. He has claimed, amongst other things, to sleep only around 3 hours a night, as well as the ownership of a large square building with no windows in the middle of a South London roundabout (it actually contains a power transformer).
147* BodyHorror: It would be easier to list examples of his videos that don't invoke this trope.
148* BreadEggsMilkSquick:
149** Consider the lyrics to the song "Milkman", sung in a odd monotone-yet-cheerful jingle.
150--->I wish the milkman would deliver my milk in the morning\
151I wish the milkman would deliver my milk when I'm yawning\
152[[spoiler:I would like some milk from the milkman's wife's tits...]]
153** A more jarring version appears on "Funny Little Man." The song proper isn't all that bad, assuming you don't mind that a pitched-up, autotuned James sounds exactly like [[WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy Rolf]] on acid, but what follows is a Plaintalk program threatening to [[spoiler:sodomize, stalk, and castrate the listener before eating their genitals]].
154* BrokenRecord:
155** "Come To Daddy". Its sole lyrics are "I want your soul/I will eat your soul", aside from a part where the song title is repeated over and over again...
156** "Milkman" alternates between repeating "I wish the milkman would deliver my milk in the morning / I wish the milkman would deliver my milk when I'm yawning" and repeating "[[spoiler:I would like some milk from the milkman's wife's tits]]".
157** The modulated child voice in "Funny Little Man" spends a lot of the song repeatedly saying "Come on, you little funny man!"
158* BrutalHonesty: Subverted; ''26 Mixes for Cash'' '''sounds''' like this with [[MoneyDearBoy its title]], but in actuality ([[WordOfGod as explained by Richard on his SoundCloud]]), the title is based on Richard exchanging [=DATs=] for cash rather than with cards so that record companies wouldn't know his bank account information.
159* ButterFace: Used infamously in the music video (and single cover) for "Windowlicker", which is full of scantily-clad women...that all have Richard's face and creepy grin.
160* CallBack:
161** The random snippet of children's lullaby music that famously halts the "Come to Daddy" video is ripped straight from "Isoprophlex", a cut from Richard's early-90s acid techno days, where it's used to equally jarring effect.
162** The last track on ''[=drukQs=]'' is called "[=Nanou2=]", which is seemingly a sequel to the closing track on the ''Windowlicker'' EP, titled "Nannou."
163* CarefulWithThatAxe: One of the most famous parts of "Come to Daddy (Pappy Mix)" is a horrific, anguished 34-second scream (actually composed of four screams following each other in quick succession) near the end of the song that is presumably from Richard himself.
164* ChildProdigy:
165** At age 11, Richard tinkered around with a Sinclair [=ZX81=] computer and wound up writing a program that caused it to produce sound, ''[[SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming even though they lack sound hardware.]]'' (He reportedly even won 50 pounds for it.) However, he didn't gain his skills as a musician until later on, as the GAK demos prove.
166** If you take the ''SAW 85-92'' title into thought, that means that some of the oldest tracks on that album were made when Richard was only around 13-14.
167** In an interview, Richard said that his son had downloaded music software from the Pirate Bay and put some songs he made on Bandcamp, although he was only 5 at the time. Some of those tracks, namely "The Best Track", "Rock Up", "Jiper" and "Up in the Rocks", would wind up appearing in the [=SoundCloud=] dump, being tagged as songs made by "AFX Jnr" (AFX Junior).
168* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Assumed by many due to his eccentric public persona, the anecdotes he's told and his overall surreal aesthetic.
169* ClusterFBomb: The first half of the "Windowlicker" video contains 127 swears, 44 of which are just the word "fuck".
170* CountryMatters:
171** The only other lyric besides "Tricks!" in the track "Cock/ver10" from ''[=drukQs=]'', "COME ON, YOU CUNT, LET'S HAVE SOME APHEX ACID!", is screamed in the middle of the track. It was also a phrase used in promotion for the album.
172** The penultimate track on the ''Caustic Window'' LP is titled "Cunt".
173* CreditsGag: The "Windowlicker" video features a disclaimer that "any identifications with or similarity to actual persons, living or dead or to actual events is completely intentional."
174* CrossReferencedTitles: "Green Calx" on ''SAW 85-92'', "Blue Calx" on ''SAW Volume II'', "Yellow Calx" on ''Richard D. James Album'', and "4 Red Calx" from his [=SoundCloud=] tracks.
175* {{Dedication}}: The name Aphex Twin is dedicated to his older brother, also named Richard D. James, who died during childbirth.
176* DeconReconSwitch: The "Windowlicker" video is designed as a tongue-in-cheek satire of the rap videos that were coming out at the time (late 1990s), and follows this format. It starts by deconstructing a standard rap video premise with two foul-mouthed young men in a Mazda coming across two women on the street that they try to pick up. In a normal video, the men would probably score them with ease, but in this video, the women aren't having it for a second and repeatedly shoot them down. This then leads to a ridiculously exaggerated reconstruction once Richard enters the video; he steps out of an AbsurdlyLongLimousine and surrounds himself with beautiful dancing women as [[MaleGaze the camera gratuitously ogles over their bodies]]...but the women all have his face, as if to lampoon the rampant [[ItsAllAboutMe narcissism]] of the male subjects in these videos.
177* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The ''Come to Daddy EP'' cover.
178* DigitalHeadSwap: The cover for "Windowlicker" puts his bearded face on a bikini-clad girl.
179** Used to even more disturbing effect in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBS4Gi1y_nc the music video]]. Even worse about the video is that ''those are real masks''.
180* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: Allegedly the message behind ''Analord 8'', ''9'', and ''11'' all having tracks with names based on malware.
181* DistinctDoubleAlbum: ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II'' and ''[=drukQs=]''.
182* DroneOfDread: ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II'' alternates between what most people think of when they hear the words "ambient music" and this trope, making for music that is at once ethereal and ominous. A good example of this trope in play on the album is "Stone in Focus", which actually combines the two categories.
183* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Strangely inverted with ''Selected Ambient Works 85–92'', which is not only his most acclaimed album to date by fans and critics, but also the most ''normal'' compared to his later ventures into dark ambient and IDM, which got progressively weirder and weirder.
184* EasterEgg:
185** "[Equation]" notably ends with a sequence of strange noises; when run through a logarithmic spectrogram, it reveals that the sounds contain [[http://www.bastwood.com/?page_id=10 a spectrograph of Richard's face]][[note]]Scroll down to see[[/note]].
186** An image of a spiral is responsible for the signature squeal at the end of "Windowlicker".
187* EpicRocking: Richard ''loves'' his long songs.
188** The entirety of ''SAW 85-92'' except for "i", which is justified since it's an ambient interlude. The longest track is "Tha" at just over 9 minutes.
189** The amount of ''SAW Volume II'' tracks that are less than five minutes long can be counted on one hand ("Hankie", "White Blur 1", "Grey Stripe", "Z Twig", "Lichen"). The longest track is "White Blur 2" at eleven-and-a-half minutes long.
190** 7 out of the 12 tracks on ''...I Care Because You Do'' are over 5 minutes long, with the opening track "Acrid Avid Jam Shred" as the longest (7:38).
191*** One of the bonus tracks included in the 2017 rerelease, "sekonda 3, +2", clocks in at just under 11 minutes long.
192** 8 out of the 30 tracks on ''[=drukQs=]'' are over 5 minutes long, with the 8.5-minute long "Ziggomatic 17" as the longest.
193** 7 out of the 12 tracks on ''Syro'' are over 5 minutes long, with the 10.5-minute long "XMAS_EVET10 [120] (thanaton3 mix)" being the longest.
194** On the ''Windowlicker'' EP, the TitleTrack as well as "Equation" are both around 6 minutes long.
195** "Digeridoo" is 7 minutes and 11 seconds long.
196** "Dodeccaheedron" on the ''Xylem Tube'' EP is just over 6 minutes.
197** Two thirds of the original '93 release of ''Surfing on Sine Waves'', with the longest track being the 7-minute "If It Really Is Me".
198** ''Quoth EP'' had the 8-minute Wooden Thump mix of "Quoth."
199** Half of ''Rushup Edge'' was over six minutes long, with another track being over 5 minutes. The longest was "Last Rushup 10" (6:36).
200** Half of ''26 Mixes for Cash'' was over 5 minutes long, with the longest being the 10-minute "Journey, Aphex Twin Care Mix".
201** ''On EP'' had the 7-minute TitleTrack and the 7-minute "D-Scape", as well as all of the remixes. The longest was the D-Scape mix at almost 11 minutes.
202** The Salbutamol, Crowsmengegus, Wheeze, Cylob, and Deep Gong mixes of "Ventolin".
203** "[=MARCHROMT30A=] edit 2b 96", the Japanese bonus track of ''Syro'', is 7 minutes and 19 seconds long.
204* EveryoneHasStandards: Although Richard has a reputation of being a {{Jerkass}} (see below), he was upset that Music/KanyeWest tried to sample "Avril 14th" on his ''Music/MyBeautifulDarkTwistedFantasy'' song "Blame Game" without his permission or help (even when James offered to ''rerecord the song in a different tempo''). It would eventually lead to West's team to use a rerecording instead of the sample, with James being given proper credit.
205* EvilDetectingDog: In the "Come to Daddy" video, an old woman's dog barks aggressively at a TV when an evil spirit inside it begins coming to life to the point that the old woman can no longer restrain the dog.
206* TheFaceless: Defied via inversion. Richard has stated that due to faceless anonymity being a norm of techno at the time of his rise to fame, he responded by putting his face in ''[[SigilSpam every conceivable place]]''.
207* FaceRevealingTurn: The "Windowlicker" video contains a particularly (in)famous instance among one of the most, er, [[NightmareFuel memo]][[{{Squick}} rable]] examples of ButterFace in music video history. In one sequence, the attention is centered on a seemingly attractive dancing woman, as the camera focuses on her body (specifically her butt), keeping her head out of the frame. She then turns around, revealing [[NightmareFace a horrifically ugly face]].
208* FadingIntoTheNextSong: On ''Richard D. James Album'', "Cornish Acid" ends with the same monotone hum that begins "Peek 824545201", and in turn the next track "Fingerbib" also contains the same hum, although it's fragmented and practically inaudible without headphones.
209* FanDisservice: The music video of "Windowlicker" has the girls' faces transforming into that of Richard's SlasherSmile grin and a really hideous woman near the end.
210** The cover art for the single is a woman in a bikini with large breasts, with Richard's face superimposed over hers.
211* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Let's take a look at the ''Come to Daddy'' EP. A bunch of kids with Richard's face creepily grinning at you and... what's that on the far left? ''A kid doing a gang sign?''
212* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: Following the creation of his personal Bleep store, many of Richard's rereleased albums had tracks from their respective development periods (many of which originating from his Soundcloud dump) put in as bonus tracks. ''...I Care Because You Do'', in particular, has almost '''45 minutes''' of new content added to it.
213* GenreBusting[=/=]GenreRoulette: His discography is one of the most diverse ones in electronic music history, ranging from blissful ambient music to piano pieces to archetypal IDM to horrifying beat-sliced madness, as well as basically everything in between. His albums are also prone for swapping between musical styles and genres at the drop of a hat between tracks, or perhaps within a single track.
214* GratuitousForeignLanguage:
215** GratuitousFrench: The sole lyric on "Windowlicker" ("J'aime faire des croquettes au chien", or "I like to make dog nuggets".)
216** GratuitousRussian: Several of the lyrics in "Syro", as listed above.
217* HiddenDepths: Besides producing music, Richard's also a pretty good singer (as shown in "Milkman" and "Beetles") and apparently painted the painting of him that's on the cover of '''I Care Because You Do''.
218* HumanoidAbomination: How Richard D. James often likes to portray himself and others in his videos.
219** In "Windowlicker", for example he seems to have the ability to transform others into 'clones' of himself. There's also the [[Creator/HRGiger windowlicker]].
220** The screaming man from "Come to Daddy" gets an honorable mention as well.
221** [[http://doubleti.free.fr/Images/Mes-images/pages/Aphex%20Twin%20--%20drukqs%20-%204.htm These]] [[http://doubleti.free.fr/Images/Mes-images/pages/Aphex%20Twin%20--%20drukqs%20-%202.htm images]] were left out of the official ''[=drukQs=]'' album art, presumably on purpose.
222* [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming Idiosyncratic Song Naming]]: The more nonsensical titles on any given album are bound to have a theme:
223** The titles of the tracks on ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II'' are not so much names as they are photographs. This was done to all tracks ''except'' "Blue Calx" (which follows its own discography-wide "Calx" theme with several other songs).
224** Several of the titles on ''Hangable Auto Bulb'' and ''I Care Because You Do'' are [[SignificantAnagram anagrams of phrases pertinent to]] Aphex Twin.
225** Several track titles on ''[=drukQs=]'' are in Cornish. Throughout his career there have also been numerous titles referring to places in Cornwall.
226** ''Analord 8, 9,'' and ''11'' all have tracks named after or akin to malware. This was apparently an attempt to [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil discourage piracy]].
227** All of the ''Syro'' tracks have nonsensically chosen names that also feature the BPM in brackets. Some of them also claim to be mixes, and others are named after the equipment and programs James has used.
228* IHaveManyNames: Aphex Twin, AFX, Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, Caustic Window, DJ Smojphace, GAK, Martin Tressider, Polygon Window, Power-Pill, Pritchad G. Kraymes,[[note]]Which he wrote to New Musical Express under after they deemed "Windowlicker" Best Single of 1999[[/note]] Prichard D. Jams, Q-Chastic, Tahnaiya Russell, The Dice Man, Soit P.P., user18081971, The Tuss, and, by extension, both Brian and Karen Tregaskin.
229* TheImmodestOrgasm: Heard at circa two minutes in "Windowlicker". Obviously the sexual moan is chopped up to go [[UncommonTime in rhythm with the song.]]
230* InNameOnly: Several (but not all) of his "remixes" are actually original works. For example, the Little Lord Faulteroy and Mummy mixes of "Come to Daddy".
231* InsistentTerminology: He is one of many IDM musicians who insist it be called braindance, on the grounds that the term "intelligent dance music" has elitist connotations.
232* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: It's bad enough that he has songs called things like "Cunt", "Death Fuck" and "Come On You Slags!", not to mention things like "Backdoor.Spybooter.A" and ""[=PWSteal.Bancos.Q=]". But it's taken further with titles like "Kladfvgbung Micshk", "[=Beskhu3epnm=]", and "s950tx16wasr10". Not forgetting the one that's a complex mathematical equation.
233* ItsAllAboutMe: Ridiculously exaggerated in the "Windowlicker" video to show how ridiculous the trope's use in rap videos is.
234* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: There are a variety of stories, both confirmed and unconfirmed, about Richard being rude or spiteful to people; however, he has shown himself to be nicer.
235** Jerk:
236*** When requested to remix a song for {{Music/Madonna}}, he said that he would only agree if she were to portray herself as a pig on one of his songs.
237*** When a representative for the band The Lemonheads came to his house one morning asking for the remix he was commissioned to do, he went to his studio, ripped a random song which was irrelevant to the song he was requested to do, and gave it to him in exchange for thousands of dollars. Supposedly, this was due to Aphex completely forgetting about the remix he was commissioned to do, but apparently, he didn't demand money.[[note]]The Lemonheads' Evan Dando once gave his side of the story in an interview - according to Evan, the Lemonheads song Richard was supposed to have remixed was "Style", and what he actually turned in was "a piano piece"; Evan thought the music itself was "cool", but still rejected it for not using any elements of the original composition.[[/note]]
238** Heart of gold:
239*** Oddly enough, when there was a snafu regarding Music/TheLonelyIsland sampling "Avril 14th" for their song "Iran (So Far Away)", he didn't mind and was "cool" about the whole thing. His label, however, wasn't.
240*** He once criticized the description of his music as "intelligent dance music", as it implied everyone else's music was stupid, before joking it was "really nasty".
241* KubrickStare: Richard sure likes to show off his creepy smile at this angle, with the ''Richard D. James Album'' cover being a prime example.
242* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: "Peek 824545201" ends by decreasing in tempo, its frenetic mechanical beat slowing to a crawl.
243* LightIsNotGood: In 'Windowlicker', James' clothes, umbrella, and limo are stark white.
244* LongList: The packaging for ''Syro'' is a visual version of this trope, displaying the full manufacturing costs for one copy of the album (which changes based on whether it's the CD or the vinyl.) It includes items such as, "Outdoor postering in Italy", "Hotel in Seattle for album playback meeting" and "Royalty to Richard (50%)." Apparently, Aphex makes £1.0989 per CD sold. The list is long enough that its small print takes five CD pages and all 3 vinyl panels to display.
245* LonelyPianoPiece:
246** ''[=drukQs=]'' alternates between pounding breakcore and songs of this variant. Examples include the most famous of the bunch, "Avril 14th", as well as "Strotha Tynhe", "Petiatil Cx Htdui", and the album's finale "nanou2".
247** There's also "Piano [=Un10=] It Happened" off of ''Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments [=Pt2=]''.
248** "Aisatsana", the final track of ''Syro''.
249%%* LoudnessWar: ''SAW 85-92'' was remastered in 2008.
250* LyricalDissonance: "Milkman", which, despite the lewd lyrics, has a melody reminiscent of children's music.
251* MeaningfulName: "Windowlicker". The French term for window shopping is "faire du lèche-vitrine", which literally translates to "licking the windows", while the song name also ties into the derogatory epithet.
252* MickeyMousing: Whenever there's dancing in the "Windowlicker" video, it's always perfectly synchronized to the music, especially the dancing Richard and his...phallic umbrella.
253* MinimalisticCoverArt: The out-of-print second ''Come to Daddy'' CD has a cover of all orange with the words "An image of children chasing after an ice-cream van from an Orange TV commercial advertising Text Messaging" on top of it. This references the use of "To Cure a Weakling Child" in an Orange TV ad (although the EP uses the vastly different "Contour Regard" mix of the song).
254* MoodWhiplash:
255** LyricalDissonance aside, "Milkman" has a happy, peaceful feel to it. However, at the very beginning of the song, James' voice can be heard unintelligibly mumbling an anecdote about [[EyeScream gouging a kid's eye out with his erect penis.]]
256** ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II'' consists of beautiful SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel tracks alternating with atmospherically horrifying tracks.
257** On ''Come to Daddy'', the heavy, pounding, and terrifying "Come to Daddy (Pappy Mix)" is followed by the calm, mellow "Flim".
258** ''[=drukQs=]'' also falls prey to this. At first it seems to alternate between pounding breakcore and soft piano pieces, but then the ambient tracks show up...
259** ''Richard D. James Album'' has the extremely [[SensoryAbuse abrasive]] "Peek 824545201" being followed by the [[SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel blissful and calm]] "Fingerbib"...which is in turn followed by another abrasive song, "Carn Marth".
260* {{Neologism}}:
261** James claims that ''[=drukQs=]'' is this, despite it sounding like an InheritedIlliteracyTitle of "drugs".
262** ''Syro'', which is short for "Syrobonkus", a nonsense word that one of James' sons came up with while listening to material on the album.
263* NightmareFace:
264** James' iconic unnerving smile, which seems to look creepy however it is depicted; just plain and pressed up to the camera (''Richard D. James Album''), in an oil painting (''...I Care Because You Do''), pasted onto children (''Come to Daddy''), and even pasted onto bikini-clad women (''Windowlicker'').
265** The woman with a hideous, deformed face and buckteeth near the end of "Windowlicker". The fact that it was based on an Creator/HRGiger sketch certainly helps.
266* NonindicativeName: ''Selected Ambient Works 85-92'' is not a wholly ambient album; its sequel, however, is.
267* NothingIsScarier:
268** The original form of ''Rubber Johnny'', a 30-second commercial for ''[=drukQs=]'', has a lot of this due to the lack of explanation for the incredibly bizarre visuals.
269** His more atmospheric tracks, like "Gwely Mernans" and "Grass", are made up of soft, [[DroneOfDread droning]] noises that wouldn't be out of place in ''Franchise/SilentHill''.
270* {{Overcrank}}: The "Windowlicker" video ends with a group of women [[ItMakesSenseInContext that all have Richard's face]] dancing in slow-motion on Santa Monica Beach. It's strangely climactic.
271* OverlyLongGag:
272** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JAt6jpBmHHM#t=225s Windowlicker video]] has two in immediate succession: the conversation between the two guys, and eventually the two girls, which goes on for nearly four minutes; and Richard's limo.
273** The packaging for ''Syro'' with the receipt as the cover stretches over several sides of the casing, which has to be folded over five times to be closed.
274* PerpetualSmiler: If anyone who isn't Richard has Richard's face in a music video, it'll probably be fixed in his signature grin.
275* {{Portmantitle}}: A couple examples.
276** "s950tx16wasr10" is a portmanteau of the names of three synthesizers: Akai S950, Yamaha [=TX16W=], and Ensoniq ASR-10.
277** "Lornaderek" is a combination of his parents' names, Lorna and Derek, as the track consists of an answering machine recording from them.
278* PrecisionFStrike: See CountryMatters above.
279* PunBasedTitle: ''Surfing on Sine Waves''.
280* RemixAlbum: ''26 Mixes for Cash'' is mostly remixes done for other artists, with two tracks being alternative mixes of his own music and a couple more being his original contributions to Music/NineInchNails' ''Further Down the Spiral''.
281* RidiculousProcrastinator: Despite having a reputation for having thousands of hours of music recorded, there are a couple stories about how he almost missed deadlines. One story claims that a remix for a major record label was almost overdue and said label sent an agent to retrieve the tape directly from James, to which he dubbed off a copy of the first song off a random cassette and handed it to the agent.
282* {{Sampling}}: James' usage of samples is legendary within its own right. Very notable examples include:
283** "4", which includes a short clip of Richard talking with his father.
284** "Nannou", which is composed entirely of wind-up music box samples.
285** "We Are the Music Makers", the title of which comes from a line in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' which is heard throughout the song.[[note]]Actually, the true original source is a 19th century poem written by Arthur O'Shaughnessy called "Ode".[[/note]]
286** "IZ-US" starts with Richard's nephew saying "Stop making that big face!" and cracking up.
287* SelfDeprecation: The page quote comes from him describing himself in an interview.
288* SelfTitledAlbum: The ''Richard D. James Album''.
289* SensoryAbuse: He's made several songs that are made to be as harsh as possible.
290** "Ventolin" is deliberately patterned after the side-effect Ventolin gives to some users (namely, harsh-sounding ringing in the ear).
291** "Come to Daddy" is a very harsh combination of static-y bass, heavy and intense percussion, and a distorted voice chanting about how much he's craving your soul.
292** The end of "Windowlicker" has a wall of extremely distorted, amplified, and fuzzy bass, not to mention the high-pitched squeal which at its highest goes above the hearing range.
293** "Peek 824545201" has some ''extremely'' grating instrumentation.
294* SigilSpam:
295** He used his face liberally as a contrast to the norm of techno musicians being [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen faceless]]. ({{Lampshaded}} during an interview where James admitted that he overdid it.)
296** He's also done the same thing with his actual logo, though not to such a similar extent.
297* SignificantAnagram: Richard seemed to be fond of this trope around 1995, as both ''...I Care Because You Do'' and ''Hangable Auto Bulb''[[note]]itself an anagram for "Analogue [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Bublbath]]"[[/note]] have several tracks titled after anagrams like "Wax the Nip"[[note]]"Aphex Twin" [[/note]] or "Laughable Butane Bob" [[note]]"Analogue Bubblebath"[[/note]].
298* SirSwearsALot: The two men in the "Windowlicker" video crank out 127 swear words, including 44 uses of "fuck", in the under-4-minute intro. This averages to more than one swear every two seconds.
299* ShoutOut:
300** On a rerelease of ''Surfing on Sine Waves'', Richard included a song called "Redruth School", a school he went to when he was a child.
301** Three of the tracks on ''Richard D. James Album'' - "Carn Marth", "Goon Gumpas", and "Logan Rock Witch" - are named after landmarks in Cornwall.
302* SlasherSmile: Probably one of the most famous examples of this trope in music. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L_ZEXhDQzo promotional video for ''26 Mixes for Cash'']] compiles some of his unsettling promotional photos.
303* SomethingElseAlsoRises: The "Windowlicker" video's, er, [[AccidentalPun climax]] involves Richard spraying a bottle of white champagne on a beach, and the way that it's intercut with the dancing bikini-clad women makes the bottle seem rather phallic.
304* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Some of his earliest music under the Aphex Twin name was instead credited to "''The'' Aphex Twin". This credit can be seen on the ''Digeridoo'' EP and ''Classics'', as well as in the "Come to Daddy" video.
305* SpokenWordInMusic:
306** "4" has a brief and repeated clip of an exchange between Richard and his father.
307** "Come to Daddy (Mummy Mix)" contains a modified recording of what seems to be Richard speaking with his mother interspersed throughout.
308** The spoken French line in "Windowlicker" comes from Richard's French at-the-time girlfriend.
309** ''[=drukQs=]'' has spoken-word interludes, and the song "Cock/ver10" stops abruptly to play a voice clip of someone screaming "COME ON, YOU CUNT, LET'S HAVE SOME APHEX ACID!"
310** ''Syro'' contains several samples of phrases being spoken in Russian.
311* TheSomethingSong: "Girl/Boy Song".
312* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Richard has sung on a small number of his songs, such as "Milkman" and "Beetles".
313* SurprisinglyGentleSong:
314** ''Richard D. James Album'' has "Fingerbib", "Goon Gumpas", and "Logan Rock Witch".
315** On the ''Come to Daddy'' EP, "Flim", especially considering it directly follows the TitleTrack.
316** A majority of ''[=drukQs=]'', considering the album switches between aggressive breakcore and calm piano instrumentals at the drop of a hat.
317* SurrealMusicVideo: All of his music videos, really, more often than not foraying into SurrealHorror.
318* TakeThat: One who did an interview with Richard D. James said that "Come To Daddy" and "Windowlicker" feel respectively like take-thats to BlackMetal and rap music.
319** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P3Wc-37pC4 The music video for "Windowlicker"]] parodies rap music videos, especially the infamous misogynistic sort. The video begins with two young men that would probably be the stars of any other rap videos that can't go for five seconds without cursing and talking about how they want to fuck bitches; it drags on to the point of absurdity, showing how ridiculous it truly is. They then try to pick up two women on the sidewalk. In a normal rap video, they'd probably score the women, but in this video they get shot down. And then Richard hijacks the video, portraying an absurdly rich and powerful pimp who arrives in a limo that takes [[AbsurdlyLongLimousine 20 seconds to fully display onscreen]], and ends up getting a gaggle of women who [[ButterFace all have his face]] in probably an ultimate exaggeration of the typical egotism shown in rap videos.
320** One could interpret "Come to Daddy" as a TakeThat to DeathMetal, especially with Richard describing it when he came up with it as a "crappy death metal jingle".
321* TastesLikePurple: Richard is allegedly synesthetic. He claims to have used it as an inspiration for ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II''.
322* TeenGenius: He was already producing music at age 12, and some of ''Selected Ambient Works 85-92'' was reputedly recorded during those years, which means he was making material for the album at the ripe old age of 13.
323* TextlessAlbumCover: ''Richard D. James Album'', ''Come to Daddy'', ''Donkey Rhubarb'', ''I Care Because You Do''.
324* TitleByNumber: "4".
325* TitleDrop:
326** Done eight times in succession in "Come to Daddy" around the 45-second mark (well, ''seven'', since the last one is saying "Come to Mummy!").
327** Done in "Taking Control" by a SyntheticVoiceActor.
328* UncommonTime: Many of his songs have extreme syncopation and complicated instrumentation that make dancing to the music nigh-impossible. Many of the ''Richard D. James Album'' songs are good examples, as is "Windowlicker".
329* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: The "Come to Daddy" video has a noticeable blue hue present throughout, adding to its creepiness.
330* UnreliableNarrator: Go no further than the purposeful TranslationTrainwreck of [[http://warp.net/artists/aphex-twin/ his Warp profile]] to see how confusing Richard comes off as to his fans.
331** See BlatantLies above as well.
332* UntitledTitle:
333** Every track off ''Selected Ambient Works Vol II'' (except "Blue Calx") is untitled. On the album art, each song is represented by a pictogram, which led to fans creating names that became widely adopted.
334** All the tracks off ''Melodies from Mars''. However, tracks 2 & 8 are recognised as demo versions of "Fingerbib" and "Logan Rock Witch", respectively.
335* UpCloseWithTheMonster: In the video for "Come to Daddy", the old lady happens to witness the demon coming out of the TV, at which point it screams directly in her face.
336* WordPureeTitle: While his titling was unusual before ("Hedphelym", "Logan Rock Witch", "Schottkey 7th Path" etc), ''Syro'' took this beyond his past titles, bringing us such pronunciative nightmares as "Syro u473t8+e (Piezoluminescence Mix)", "[=S950tx16wasr10=] (Earth Portal Mix)", "[=CIRCLONT6A=] (Syrobonkus Mix)" and "Fz pseudotimestretch+e+3".
337----
338->''COME ON YOU CUNT, LET'S HAVE SOME APHEX ACID!''

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