Aphex Twin
This Artist Somehow Turned a Loaf of Bread Into the Artwork of Aphex Twin’s Debut Album
Iain Ross isn’t loafing around when it comes to perfecting his craft. The grain-smith, better known as thug.loaf, has amassed an impressive following across multiple short-form video-sharing platforms by stenciling iconic album covers into baked goods. His creations have featured everyone from MF Doom to Taylor Swift to Playboi Carti. Along the way Ross has paid homage to famous electronic music works too, most recently recreating Aphex Twin’s influential debut album, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, in bread form. Released in 1992, the classic album has earned its legacy as a cornerstone of the subsequent proliferation of underground techno throughout the world. So what exactly constructs Ross’ delicious recreation? He was kind enough to include the recipe, which ...
Aphex Twin Launches Cryptic Teaser, Foreshadowing Return to the Stage In 2023
Fans of Aphex Twin are about to have a field day with his latest cryptic teaser. A mysterious link bearing Twin’s insignia has gone live, and likely portends the enigmatic producer’s first live performance in four years. The website features a flurry of frenetic pixels dancing across the screen, ebbing and flowing to make out a single word: “LONDON.” It didn’t take long for sleuths to put two and two together and determine the web address likely refers to the date of August 19th, 2023, which aligns precisely with the timing of the London-based music festival, Field Day. The accompanying email intake form on the arcane website is additionally tied to Waxarch Limited, another entity tied to the annual event hosted in Victoria Park, according to&nb...
We Came Up With Bizarre Descriptions of DJs—Then Used Artificial Intelligence to Bring Them to Life
There’s nothing that blurs the line between frightening and fascinating quite like artificial intelligence. And since artificial intelligence and electronic music are becoming more symbiotic by the day, the staff here at EDM.com wanted to see just how far it could go in a visual sense. So we came up with bizarre descriptions of artists and fed them through A.I. art generators. Some images are photorealistic. Others are fancifully distorted. And the majority of them are flat-out creepy. But we digress. Read on to see our weird and wonderful creations. TOKiMONSTA “TOKiMONSTA DJing in a neon sky arcade with golden canaries” by Jason Heffler. Jason Heffler REZZ “REZZ DJ as painted by Salvador Dalí” by Nick Yopko. Nick Yopko Flume R...
Aphex Twin Launches Free “Sample Mashing” App, an Idea Decades In the Making
Aphex Twin‘s secret sauce is certainly difficult to decode, but the fabled electronic music producer is shedding a light on his creative process with the development of a new creative production app, Samplebrain. The free, open source software effectively turns any given sample into a neural network of possibilities. Aphex Twin teamed up with Dave Griffiths on the app’s engineering. A statement by Aphex Twin via Warp Records outlays Samplebrain’s possibilities. “What if you could reconstruct source audio from a selection of other mp3’s / audio on your computer?” he said. “What if you could build a 303 riff from only acapellas or bubbling mud sounds? What if you could sing a silly tune and rebuild it from classical music files? You ca...
Avicii, Skrillex, DJ Snake Make Rolling Stone’s “Greatest Dance Songs of All-Time” List
Rolling Stone has published its list of greatest dance songs of all-time. Dance music has evolved immensely over the years and is now paramount to today’s contemporary music ecosystem. In order to land on their high-profile list, the songs “had to be part of ‘dance music culture,'” according to Rolling Stone. “It’s a more specific world, but an enormous one too, going back nearly fifty years and eternally evolving right up to today and into the future,” the outlet writes. Covering 200 tracks, the list features electronic dance music classics like Avicii‘s “Levels” (#52), Nero‘s “Promises” (#42), DJ Snake‘s “Turn Down For What” (#22) and Disclosure‘s “Latch” (#10)...
Christian Bale’s “Thor” Marvel Villain Is Inspired By Aphex Twin
The next major Marvel villain was inspired by electronic music’s most enigmatic artist. Next week, nerds and pop culture enthusiasts alike will flock to theaters for the release of the fourth entry in the Thor saga, Thor: Love and Thunder. This time around, director Taika Waititi has recruited the help of Academy Award-winning actor Christian Bale to play the role of Gorr the God Butcher, the movie’s primary antagonist and one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most menacing villains. Bale has now revealed that the character was inspired by the legendary Aphex Twin, whose music video for 1997’s “Come to Daddy” features an iconic scream sequence. Unfortunately for fans of the mysterious IDM icon, Bale’s request was denied since the imagery, he...
The 90 Greatest Albums of the ’90s
This article originally appeared in the September 1999 issue of SPIN. “You must be high.” We heard that a lot during the time we spent preparing this issue. Which is understandable. Pronouncing the 90 greatest albums of the ’90s is a somewhat presumptuous thing to do. When you’re measuring the music this decade is offering to history—the sounds we partied with, copulated to, fought about, and wept over—everyone has an opinion. That ours should be more valid than yours is debatable. But hey—it’s our magazine. What, then, you ask, constitutes “greatest”? Don’t even start. Suffice it to say that, after much heated discussion and countless veiled insults, it came down to the factors of both remarkable artistry and cultural shock value. Sometimes a record’s knock-you-off-your-Skechers impa...
Radiohead Took Notes From Aphex Twin and Massive Attack for New Album, “Kid A Mnesia”: Listen
With the release of their Kid A Mnesia album, Radiohead indulge in an alternate version of music history. When the band released the forward-thinking Kid A in 2000 and then Amnesiac, just eight months later, the public immediately began to draw a connection between the two. As Paste points out, the prevailing school of thought was to consider Amnesiac an extension of Kid A—a place for the tracks that were originally left on the cutting room floor. Radiohead fought this interpretation, as they specifically wanted to rebuke the trend of releasing a double album. Now, decades later, the iconic band are giving fans the box set they wanted, and then some. The combined Kid A Mnesia album, which includes a dozen previously elusive ext...
The 40 Greatest Music Video Artists
Music videos are the perfect bastard child of art and commerce, even more than pop music itself. A promotional visual accompaniment to a popular song doesn’t need a coherent narrative (although on rare occasions, they do). It just needs to suit the song, sell the record, and possibly make the artist look cool. But since the launch of MTV 40 years ago this week, a select few recording artists have helped raise music videos to an art form — sometimes by accident, and sometimes by carefully curating the work of brilliant directors like Mark Romanek, Hype Williams, and Spike Jonze. Here are 40 artists from the last four decades that helped video kill the radio star. 40. Lil Kim [embedded content] Although earlier female MCs like Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah used music videos to help launch th...
Aphex Twin Hid a Secret Clue In His NFT Sale
It seems that Aphex Twin has hidden a secret clue in his recent NFT that went up for sale earlier this month. The legendary electronic music producer dropped his first NFT in early March 2021 alongside longtime collaborator and world-class visual artist Weirdcore, selling it within 24 hours for a whopping $127,000. The winning bidder obtained Twin’s debut NFT, titled afx\/weirdcore\blockscanner, which features the iconic smile depicted on much of his album covers and has become a classic visual during his live performances. Much like the vast majority of his musical releases, the audio accompanying the digital artwork was no less haunting and eerie. Just two weeks later, digital artist and “creative mercenary” Freeka Tet, who also contributed “additional technical input to t...
Aphex Twin’s Debut NFT Sold for $127,000 in 24 Hours
Aphex Twin has recruited the help of his longtime collaborator and world-class visual artist, Weirdcore, for the release of his debut NFT. Minted on the Foundation digital marketplace and shared on social media minutes later, fans and collectors only had 24 hours to bid on the piece. Despite being a short auction with even shorter notice, the item sold for 72 Ethereum, or just shy of $127,000. As shown in the official listing for the artwork, the visuals depict Aphex Twin’s iconic smile that’s graced several of his album covers and much of his live performance visuals. As one would expect, the sound provided in the near-minute-long video is from the producer himself. Haunting and madcap like many of his releases, the dark, grinding synth perfectly accompanie...
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