Rural living, though peaceful and picturesque, afforded James little in the way of socio/cultural distractions (apart from getting into fights with his mates). Eventually an ad hoc dance culture began to evolve around him. "All my mates got into dance music around 1987 and wanted me to press out records of the electro music I was making so they could DJ with them. They made me do it, and I got addicted once I got in to it. We used to organize really brilliant beach parties. It was pretty exciting times."
James is excited still; he describes a typical day's work: "There isn't any set method, I just approach it from whatever angle I'm thinking about. Today there wasn't much music. I am programming my own language based on randomness combined with human input. You give the computer all the rules from ten [already completed] tracks and get the computer to jumble it all up at random. You get a really weird vibe from it because you are not traveling anywhere," he said.
"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.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
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.
2 - Eric Olsen
Right on Tom, you like all the good stuff! (just the wrong songs - kidding). He was a wild guy to talk to as well.
3 - frost@work
Richard James is the man.
I WANT YOUR SOUL! I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL!
4 - Tom Johnson
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.