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Thursday, February 11, 2010

??!! / Video / Teh Internets The Return of Aphex Twin?

Posted by Travis Ritter on Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 7:36 PM

Come Back To Daddy!

A series of mysterious short music videos have popped up over the last month on YouTube that have lead people to hypothesize who is responsible for the music. Some have suggested it is the solo work of Trent Reznor. Others believe Goldfrapp is behind it. Others even think it's Lady Gaga. While the all three aren't completely off-the-cuff, I firmly believe this very well could be the product of one of electronic music's most gifted and shrouded geniuses: Aphex Twin.

Stylistically, the music heard on these videos is not as abstract and glitchy as your typical Aphex Twin/AFX/Polygon Window song. Nor does it contain the same tonalities of his Selected Ambient Works. In fact, the lucid, liquid grind I hear is more in the vein of his Warp labelmates Boards of Canada and Leila.

So why do I think it's still Aphex Twin?

1) Aside from the Analord 12" series, 26 Mixes For Cash, and reissues from his early techno days, Richard D. James has not put out a proper full-length studio album under his own Aphex Twin moniker since 2001's heady drukqs. That's 9 years, people who don't know math!

2) He has proven himself to be very chameleon-like over the years, adapting to changes, and slightly mellowing his hyperactive melodies in favor those that are much more graceful (The beautiful, piano solo of "Avril 14th" on drukqs is a prime example of this.)

3) The videos' dark haunting visuals practically scream the name of Aphex Twin's go-to video director Chris Cunningham. (Yep, still weird and beautiful!)

4) Aphex Twin has always had fucked up song titles, the most recent found on the Analord series (which were said to be the names of computer viruses to thwart hackers.) All the songs below are titled numerically, as though they are all fantasy IP numbers. Nerdy!

5) Other electronic musicians are bringing more voice into the fold these days, like Warp labelmate Flying Lotus (who has Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu on his forthcoming Cosmogramma, though they are both still pretty deep in the mix). Three of the songs below contain a woman's voice, which doesn't completely rule out Goldfrapp. But if Aphex were wise, he would use voice (even Goldfrapp perhaps?) It sounds as gorgeously mysterious as the music he has always made.

Hell, maybe we could all be wrong about these videos, which could have been done by some mysterious nobody hoping to cause some fraudulent viral video sensation. Hello Daft Punk!

What do you think? Watch the videos in order:

Comments (23) RSS

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i don't think so. they just don't sound like him. they sound too much like postal service knockoffs.

Posted by Terry Miller on February 11, 2010 at 8:50 PM

There's definitely money put into these things and I KNOW warp is eager to get RDJ back into it. Cunningham has been out of work for a while now it would make perfect sense.

Posted by Thomatron76 on February 11, 2010 at 8:58 PM

Its Trent Reznor, that is a Korg Radias synth.

Posted by synth head on February 11, 2010 at 10:18 PM

These videos have names - they're just enciphered by replacing letters with numbers. Very geeky, but perhaps it gives a hint as to who's doing this? (The very big numbers don't translate, or translate some other way. I've left those alone.)

The first is: Prelude 699130082.451322-EDUCATIONAL
The second: IAM 669321018
The third: ITSME 723378
The fourth: MANDRAGORA 1110

So: Educational / I Am / It's Me / Mandragora.

I'm not familiar with anyone named Mandragora who'd sound like this - anyone with more musical knowledge than me want to step in on this?

Posted by Jason W on February 12, 2010 at 12:18 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandragora_… perhaps? Though, listening to some of their other stuff on the youtube, I'm not sure they have the same sound (the visuals, I suppose, I could buy).

Posted by madcap on February 12, 2010 at 12:36 AM

Oh, I take the last statement back... I was seeing videos for another band called Mandragora Scream, apparently.

And to be confused with these guys either: http://amzn.com/B0033P01VW

By Jove, I think we've got it: http://amzn.com/B000YGGFCC

Posted by madcap on February 12, 2010 at 12:44 AM

Could be that other Aphex impersonator who hasn't done anything in a while, Musiq. But, it also sounds like it could be someone like Mark Van Hoen, aka Locust. Regardless, it's not all that impressive.

Posted by Sounds like on February 12, 2010 at 11:01 AM

it doesn't feel or look like aphex twin to me either; his stuff is darker in a different way. these videos seem like they are trying to be seductive, which is never something i felt from rdj. nor u-ziq for that matter... hmmmm... i could go with a trent reznr solo project because of the visuals, but only because i'm familiar enough with his sound to rule him out. the videos are well produced and there are enough of them to tell there is at least some money behind this.

Posted by in-frequent on February 12, 2010 at 11:09 AM

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnothe…

Posted by natatat on February 13, 2010 at 7:45 PM

i don't know if that link posted but this is from the site:
"III. The video names.

This was the one that sealed the deal for me: If you add up all of the numbers before a decimal and attach a letter to its corresponding number (A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.) you’ll notice that each video has a distinct message:

Prelude 699130082.451322 = (38.17) = (CH.AG) = CH. AG.
9.1.13.669321018 = I. A. M. CH.
9.20.19.13.5.723378 = I.T.S.M.E.C.
"

Also, Christna has been working on her next album with Ladytron

Posted by natatat on February 13, 2010 at 7:54 PM

It's definitely Christina Aguilera.

Posted by UA on February 15, 2010 at 3:30 AM

Hmmm, well, my friend RDJ is known to change sounds, he experiments with styles. He's a real chameleon. This could sound like him, but, what really bothers me is that there's a woman on each vid. I don't think RDJ nor Trent have anything to do with this, even though sounds very nice to me, something I could buy from both of them. Hell, I like Ladytron too, so if its her, I could get this as soon as it comes out!!

Posted by VampireAngel909 on February 16, 2010 at 7:48 PM

It's Lykke Li:

http://the-hidden.com/iamamiwhoami_lykke…
http://stylescrapbook.files.wordpress.co….

http://www.lykkeli.com/music.htm

Posted by hatathli on February 21, 2010 at 11:06 PM

I buy that it could be Chris Cunningham directing - the style of the way these are being released smacks of the "footage" in Pattern Recognition by William Gibson; one of the characters in the book is based on Cunningham. Musically I think it's Lykke Li and possibly others collaborating on Röyksopp's new album due out in April. Li, Karin Dreijer (Fever Ray/ The Knife) and Robyn were all on their last one, and this is supposed to be a follow-up. Check out the last time Röyksopp did a video w/ Karin Dreijer: http://vimeo.com/2355334

Posted by motoko on March 2, 2010 at 12:50 PM

RDJ hasn't really been out of work...he's been working under pseudonyms (see The Tuss). Also, I don't think he likes Warp all that much. Drunqs was partly about getting out of that contract. Finally, the music here seems good - and I would buy it, certainly - but still, it lacks RDJ's production quality, more than anything. The melodies are similar...but the production is a little straight-up for someone like him. No doubt the vids are superb...anyway who knows, right?

Posted by J. Summer on April 17, 2010 at 5:18 PM

Definitely not Aphex Twin. Travis Ritter, you could listen to Druqks in its entirety or listen to Death Fuck or Goodbye Rute by The Tuss (Rushup Edge, possibly a labor of collaboration) before suggesting that Richard D. James would musically mediocre out to this extent. His mellow stuff is all there in his more ebrasive stuff; Avril 14th is just as much in Death Fuck as it is in, well, maybe not Ventolin, but surely Verdhosbn. It's definitely not here though and you should listen harder before making genius commonplace.

Posted by mynure on April 27, 2010 at 6:22 AM

Being a huge Richard James fan, i can assure you this music is not his!

Posted by Dan Beck on April 29, 2010 at 6:52 PM

Definitely not Mr. James...the music lacks depth and substance and the videos are a light year away from Chris Cunninghams work...not fucked up enough, not polished enough. I saw CC doing a live VJ set last year he almost turned me inside out, it was amazing:)

Posted by nominou on May 5, 2010 at 4:08 PM

the spice girls havent done anything for a while, could be them

Posted by slothrop on June 8, 2010 at 5:16 PM

my unsigned in posting characters were unrich...

Posted by slothrop on June 8, 2010 at 5:21 PM

it is much in the vain of rdj, but must agree it probably isn't. chris cunningham is actually making music now (he did the first few minutes of the rubber johnny video its different from album version) so wouldn't count him out either

Posted by whizzle on August 18, 2010 at 1:19 PM

It sounds like a mix of rdj,nin and seefeel! As far as the videos go it looks like cc's work.

Posted by MNM2 on September 5, 2010 at 9:22 AM

Not Mr. James. There is no groove, no emotional melodies, and certainly no squelchy blorpy modulars that he's been making his new stuff he displays in his live sets. The new stuff Richard puts out if he puts out any is going to far surpass what we normally hear in the electronic genre, musicians are like wine, they get way better with age, and without ego mixed with the music as we see because he is not a fame monster, even while the world cups his tuss, his music will never put popularity or mass appeal before sonic truth of what a true artist wants you to hear.

Posted by Polygon on December 30, 2010 at 1:30 PM