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Aphex Twin – Biography
Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin
Richard D. James -aka Aphex Twin- was born in Truro, Cornwall,UK, in 1971 and he is considered one of the most influential electronic artists from the 90’s.
Richard D. James started his musical career at the age of 13 after getting a Roland synthesizer and soon started re-building electronic machines by re-patching them with the purpose of finding new and personal sounds. He even built his own sample, after his curses at Kingston Polythetnic, and was one of those home-made artists who recorded homework electronica by recording tape to tape.
Aphex Twin’s first release was “Analogue Bubblebath 1″, in 1991, which featured the collaboration of Tom Middleton’s project: Schrizophenia. The real start for Aphex Twin was a year later with the release of the “Didgeridoo” single in R&S label, a hardcore track inspired in the Australian aborigean instrument. He later launched his own record label, Rephlex, starting a serie of numerous releases under different aliases such Pac-man, Caustic Window, Polygon Window, AFX, Blue Calx, Diceman, or PCP.
In 1992 was released the first Aphex Twin album: “Selected Ambient Works 85-92″, a unique cocktail of different styles and tastes, from Brian Eno to kraftwerk.
Aphex Twin has in fact been named as the modern successor of Brian Eno, although D.James claims that he never listened to Brian Eno’s music before.
After a deal with Warp records in 1992, Ricard D. James released different works, such the acclaimed “Surfing on Sine Waves” album as Polygon Window. In 1994 “Selected Ambient Works Vol.2″ was released, drawing some of the master lines of ambient music from the 90’s.
In 1996, D. James released the “Expert Knob Twidlers” album under the name of Mike & Rich, along with Mike Paradinas, who was an usual artist on Rephlex label.
In 1997, “Come To Daddy” meant a switch to the dance-floor breakbeats that reached the mainstream audience with a surrealistic video by Chris Cunnigham showing a legion of girls with Aphex Twin masks, and the Aphex Twin mask became a modern icon of the electronic music of the 90’s.
Aphex Twin has also collabored with minimalism master Phillip Glass, and remixed to different artists, such St. Etienne, Meat Beat Manifiesto, The Cure, Jesus Jones, Seefeel, etc…
Aphex Twin is one of the artists that has most influenced to a generation of electronic musicians, a vanguardist in many ways, and a true explorer that has moved in numerous styles with success: abstract ambient music, hardcore, drill n’ bass, neo-industrial and electro.
Jean Laurendeau and the Ondes Martenot
A wonderful video of Jean Laurendeau showing the antecessor of the synthesizer, the Ondes Martenot.
Jimmy Page’s boathouse on sale
If you are a rich Led Zeppelin fan this is your opportunity to live in the very place where the band was born in 1968: The Boathouse, in Pangbourne, West Berkshire.
Jimmy Page bought the Boathouse in 1967 when he was still a member of The Yardbirds. A year later, he was introduced to Robert Plant and he later invited him to stay at the Boathouse to discuss his proposals to create a new band. It was also at this house where Led Zeppelin -The New Yardbirds at the time- rehearsed for their for their first gigs at The Marquee Club. It was also filmed at this location the part where Jimmy Page plays the hurdy-gurdy by the riverside in the movie “The Song RemainsThe Same”.
This is not the only famous house that the guitarist owned in England, he also lived at Boleskine House, the legendary hunting lodge in Loch Ness that used to be owned by the magician Alistair Crowley, the beautiful Towe House at London’s Holland Park built by Waterhouse that he bought from the actor Richard Harris, and Mill House in Windsor, which he bought from Michael Caine.