Who Is Richard James?
Published September 29, 2003
"With most music you get the feeling you are moving through the track in time - even if you listen to it backwards you still feel like you are moving forward. With this you don't feel like you are going anywhere. I don't think this stuff is really releasable because it just plays forever and it keeps changing all the time. As soon as you record it and listen back to that, then that's completely different."
This is a profound philosophical issue. Can random sound be music? Can music exist divorced from time? James reveals deep insight in pointing out that when his (or any) random computer sequence is recorded, it is ontologically transformed: recording "pins down" randomness, neutralizing its power to surprise by giving it direction, order, and fixing it in time.
"I love randomness and I don't know why. I guess I think of it like an artificial intelligence. Basically computers usually do things we expect them to do. With randomness you have no idea what it's going to do. With this program now it's a bit like making words: you put in syllables of words, and it comes up with new words. You knew what all the original syllables meant, but the 'words' it comes out with haven't been invented yet."
Every day is different. "The other day I did a whole track in the nude, which is pretty good. I got out of the bath and was getting ready to get dressed and start doing a track, and just ended up sitting there for about seven hours with no clothes on. I just moved out on my own, so I can do things like that. It was pretty wicked."
Perhaps predictably, James' music veers between the very light and the very hard, with little in between. "I don't like middle ground at all. I am an extreme person. I like to get extremes from music. You can use the same [middle] sounds as everyone else, but I don't see the point in that."
James looks to the future: "I want to get some pretty mental things under my belt so I can look back when I'm old and say 'Yeah, that was pretty mental.' I've had a pretty mental life already, but I want a more mental one. And to stay happy, which I've always managed to do. I want to do something where I get confused and don't understand, and then understand it."
- Who Is Richard James?
- Published: September 29, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Ambient, Music: Electronica
- Writer: Eric Olsen
- Eric Olsen's BC Writer page
- Eric Olsen's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
Right on Tom, you like all the good stuff! (just the wrong songs - kidding). He was a wild guy to talk to as well.
Richard James is the man.
I WANT YOUR SOUL! I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL!
He seems like a real, honest-to-goodness freak, from the interviews and articles about him. He strikes me as the type that would be entirely lost without music as his outlet. I hope he keeps it up, but everytime he talks to someone it sounds like he's hung it up for a while at least.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/8763)
Aphex Twin is one of my favorites. A lot of people were disappointed with his last release of "new" music, the double-CD set Drukqs, but I still found it challenging and intriguing. My favorite release of his is the sadly out-of-print 12-track Ventolin EP, but some of that can be found on 51-13. The whole Ventolin EP is consistent and constantly intriguing - and regardless of the "remix" nature of it, there's hardly more than a few tracks that even remotely resemble the original.