Why I prefer Aphex Twin to any other musician I’ve listened to
Abstract:
No other musical artist or ensemble do I hold in such esteem as Aphex Twin. The man who responds to the name: Richard D. James. I desist from calling him: the best, because such qualifications are contrary to the spirit of such genii. I dislike favouritism, and, even more, idolatry, so I will not place him above other musicians whose music I enjoy, or, at least, appreciate in varying degrees. I suppose I do not know what it is that their most ardent followers perceive in their sounds which eludes me. Although the consensus among many critics is that Aphex Twin is the greatest talent which electronic music has produced, why wouldn’t there be a plethora of unknown artists whose music could also be regarded as matchless. Isn’t music like any other art form? I have had sufficient exposure to unpublished poets whose word art has nothing to envy Byron, Poe, as well as the most highly acclaimed of contemporary bards.
I have had relatively wide exposure to music. This includes the African-derived American genres, including Jazz in its elevated and artistic modes (an exploration currently in progress), Caribbean, Latin, progressive rock and electronic acts besides Aphex. Add to this catalogue: 20th and previous century classical composition. I love all this music, but Aphex has not only endured, it is different. There is a peculiarity about what I denote as genius—it pertains to an independent realm; thus, it is incomparable; in its own category, it is neither better nor worse. Richard is a not a threat to any artist, because he does not belong to any scene, as he himself has indicated. Many artists build upon what has come before. They are validated by awards and considerable fan bases, but genius is perhaps extra-temporal, extrinsic to any discourse. The genius, like the child, needs no audience. He plays with his toys in the dirt of leftfield, mindless of praise, indifferent to congratulations.
People who create an intense kind of art that delves into inconceivable–to anyone else–territory—we might expect to be neurodivergent. There is some kind of brain wiring which is making the individual retreat into their isolated imagination to fashion the extraordinary sounds or images. I am speaking more generally about brains that are configured differently; with minds that often function selfreferentially, by which the highly specialized mental processes begin and end with the self. Artists like Richard might have little interest in keeping up with world affairs or even discussing their own art.