Aphex Twin (UK)
The blessed madman of electronic music
In the beginning of the Nineties, it was Cornwall, of all places, that first saw the future of popular music happening in its clubs and basements. And it was a certain Richard D. James that made that future happen with his modified synthesizers and his compositions which could not be compared to anything that had been heard before. He made Brian Eno styled, exquisite ambient soundscapes crash headlong into the broken rhythms and dirty and ugly sounds of Detroit electro.
It is impossible to recall the history of electronic music without mentioning Aphex Twin's recordings Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Selected Ambient Works Volume II, ...I Care Because You Do and Richard D. James Album. The influence of these albums, as well as their disjointed rhythms, is still audible in all sorts of music – from classical to metal – that is being made in all corners of the world. And the music videos for Come to Daddy and Windowlicker have, for their part, made a permanent impact on the development of music videos in general and on the minds of anybody who has seen them.
Richard D. James is a man of many moods and many pseudonyms, a visionary, a workaholic and the blessed madman of electronic music. He releases new music all the time through his own Rephlex label, but does not care to talk to the music press too often. In one recent, rare interview he said that at the moment he's got six completed albums, which he can release someday or then not, just as he pleases. Lucky us, he is now finding Finland a fun enough place to play in, and there's no question about it: this is going to be the most important electronic music event in Finland in 2011.
