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Originally written December 2000 | pp. 1 2 3
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Richard D. James:
King of cerebral
Electronica
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Richard D. James
only writes music that goes to extremes. And it is this boundary-pushing
fanaticism in every direction away from the norms of popular music which
allows listeners to so easily discern the archetypal patterns which James
prolifically and magnetically harnesses.
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James, known by the
aliases Aphex Twin, Polygon Window, and AFX, is the experimental wunderkind
who almost single-handedly defined intelligent electronica in the 1990's.
James's music polarizes popular and critical opinion into either love
or hate camps, yet all would agree–including the artist himself–that James
walks a fine line between stark, raving madness and the rare genius that
is able to secure musical mana from the heavens and hells beyond this
world.
James's prodigious output
from the last decade can basically be distilled into three general categories
of techno: hauntingly beautiful, ethereal, beatless ambient; terrifyingly
macabre, severe, and barren "illbient," or dark ambient; and highly experimental,
relentlessly driving hardcore, appropriately called "drill'n'bass." James
also acknowledges these divisions, as he states, "I just like the extremes
of music whether it be totally chilled-out ambient music, the strangest bizarre
music, or totally most aggro (aggressive) ...mental hardcore." (From
"Words and music," Aphex Twin)
If we look at James's
birthchart, (solar only) we can see that he is giving voice through
his music to the prominent archetypal formations at his birth. James was born
on August 18th, 1971. His birth was at the strange interface between the waning
energies of the Pluto-Uranus conjunction of the sixties and the potency of
a tight Saturn opposite Jupiter-Neptune conjunction whose energies were best expressed
in visionary fantasy films like Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Ken Russell's
The Devil's, and Mel Stuart's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
James was born with a
considerable Grand Trine (three planets forming an equilateral triangle) between
Saturn, Uranus, and Mars, however, unlike the reputation of Grand Trines being
"lazy," or forced to be made manifest only by necessity, James implemented
the positive qualities of this configuration at an early age. As Saturn and
Uranus in combination has a proclivity to electronics and mechanics, James
began experimenting with computers at an early age, composing his earliest
electronica at the age of 14. Later, James would pursue electronics in college,
only abandoning it for his obsession with music and computers.
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