【コラム】 Aphex Twinの初期と現在──電子音楽の臨界点を越えて

Column en IDM Techno UK Techno

24 Oct 2025

“When music stopped imitating emotions, Aphex Twin appeared.”

Text: mmr｜Theme: Comparing Aphex Twin’s early works with their current achievements, and critically interpreting the changes in their acoustic structure, philosophy, and technology.

In the early 1990s, Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) emerged as someone who completely turned the existing grammar of genres like techno and ambient on its head.His early works are sound experiments in which mechanical dreams and human illusions intertwine, and his current sound lies between an artificial intelligence structure and a return to nostalgia.

Below, we will compare and examine these “changes” and “unchanges” from the four axes of work, technology, aesthetics, and ideology.

I. The world of early Aphex Twin: electronic poetics and analog violence

1.1 “Selected Ambient Works” - Introspective electronic dreams

1992’s Selected Ambient Works 85–92 was a turning point in the history of electronic music. The monotonous rhythm of a sequencer and the soft fluctuations of an analog synth. What you can hear inside is ``human breathing’’ on the other side of the electrons.

Rather than composing'' sounds, Richard composedenvironments.’’ A strange sound image that is ambient yet has the intensity of a club. It was an extension of Brian Eno, but with a more personal and destructive emotion.

“For me, ambient is ‘memories that reverberate in the air.’” (Aphex Twin, 1993)

1.2 The era of “Classics” and “Analogue Bubblebath”

In the early EPs, the physical constraints of the hardware shaped the very character of the sound. Manual errors such as the Roland TB-303, SH-101, and Akai S950 defined his aesthetic.

Glitches (atomization of noise) and irregular tempo changes are It later became the origin of a movement called “IDM (Intelligent Dance Music)”.

Supplementary Chapter: Early Aphex Twin’s “Noise Body”

His early music was also an experiment in pushing the “physicality of sound” to its limits. The internal noise of the machine becomes the rhythm, and the errors become the building blocks. It is pre-digital “analog violence” and an attempt to transform error into the aesthetics of construction.

II. Mid-term transformation: Rhythm as sound sculpture

2.1 “Richard D. James Album” – Reincarnation under a personal name

With 1996’s “Richard D. James Album,” Aphex Twin clearly defined his “authorship.” What you hear here is a sonic sculpture that fragments and reconstructs breakbeats to the extreme.

In “The World of a Quarter Beat,” the drums bounce, the strings are cut, and the voices become particles. The sophistication is as if they were composing music at the DNA level. It’s amazing that they created this complexity in a pre-DAW environment.

2.2 “Come to Daddy” “Windowlicker” ─ Media and Nightmare

From 1997 to 1999, Aphex Twin combined music with “visual horror.” The PV group created in collaboration with Chris Cunningham converted the instability of electronic sound into the amorphousness of images.

Around the time MTV featured him as the “weirdest genius” He was already sensing that his music was in danger of becoming incorporated into popular culture.

Supplementary Chapter: Aphex Twin as Irony

Aphex Twin’s activities since the middle of their career have always been a meta-critique of the music industry. His smiling face (logo) is a satire on the “artist myth”, The puzzling nature of song titles asserts the ``right of sound to defy meaning.’’

III. Silence and Resurrection—Digital maturity after “Syro”

3.1 “Syro” (2014): Completion of the acoustic archive

His first album in 13 years, “Syro,” is a fusion of analog return and digital editing. All songs have detailed credits for the equipment used, Aphex Twin suggests that “every sound has a technical history.”

What is important here is that the focus is on the feel of the data'' rather thanemotions.’’ In other words, music is transforming into “the body as information.”

3.2 “Collapse EP” (2018): Emergence of AI composition structure

Collapse EP is Aphex Twin’s experiment in embedding emotion into algorithmic structures. Complex time signatures, intermittent rhythms, and three-dimensional spatial processing. Sound particles self-deploy like AI’s thoughts, forming an inhuman “flow.”

Supplementary chapter: Relationship between modern Aphex Twin and AI

Aphex Twin takes AI composition not just as a technological innovation; It is treated as a “device that extends human perception”. His recent work can be described as an attempt to make artificial intelligence learn about “human errors.” In other words, his music is a testing ground for post-AI humanism.

IV. Comparison between the early days and the present: Three-layered structure of technology, ideology, and emotion

Item	Early (1990–1995)	Current (2014–2025)
Technology	Mainly analog equipment and samplers	Modular + digital algorithms
Texture of sound	Organic, accidental, material	Geometric, informational, transparent
Aesthetics	Coexistence of noise and rhythm	Symbiosis of data and emotion
Subject of expression	Individual’s inner world/body	Boundary between humans and machines
Social context	Rave ~ the dawn of IDM	The maturation of AI/algorithm culture

Supplementary chapter: Unchanging “feeling of foreign body”

The core of Aphex Twin lies in ``remaining foreign’’ even as times change. Even when music becomes trendy, his sound always leaves a “margin”. It is in that blank space that there is room for listeners to project their own emotions.

V. Critical Thoughts: What is music after Aphex Twin?

After Aphex Twin, electronic music is no longer just a “genre.” Artists influenced by him include Burial, Oneohtrix Point Never, Autechre, Arca, etc. All of these questions reconsider the “meaning generation” of sound itself.

“In an era where music is converted into data, Aphex Twin has become a ``sculptor of perception.’’

Supplementary chapter: Suggestions for the future of music

We live in an era where AI creates music and Spotify categorizes your mood. In such a situation, the sound of Aphex Twin is trying to recover the human noise hidden in the data. His current music is no longer an act of listening,'' but rather aphilosophy of sound that exists.’’

VI. Chronology: Aphex Twin acoustic evolution trajectory

timeline title Aphex Twin Chronology of acoustic evolution (1985–2025) 1985: Started experimenting with cassettes (Cornwall) 1991 : Established Rephlex and announced the Analogue Bubblebath series 1992 : “Selected Ambient Works 85–92” released 1995: Abstracting ambient with “...Volume II” 1996: Cellularization of rhythm in “Richard D. James Album” 1999: “Windowlicker” clashes with the media 2001: Silence with “Drukqs” 2014: Regression and technology integration with “Syro” 2018: Introducing AI-like structure in “Collapse EP” 2023: New EP “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f” announced 2025: Modular AI performance experiment continues

VII. Conclusion: Aphex Twin, a “sound conscious body”

Aphex Twin’s music is not just a collection of electronic sounds. It is an experiment to visualize the “metastructure of listening”. It is also a philosophical event where human emotions and machine perception meet.

In his early works, “electronization of emotions” was carried out, Nowadays, the trend has reversed to the ``emotionalization of electronics’’. His journey may foretell a future in which music itself becomes conscious.

Reference materials/recommended discography

“I don’t make music, I make music that is about listening.” ― Richard D. James

Waveform/spectrogram comparison (conceptual diagram)

Description: A conceptual diagram to visualize the differences in waveforms and spectrograms by arranging the typical acoustic features of the early and current times.

flowchart TD A [Early (1990–1995)] B [Current (2014–2025)] A --> A1["Low frequency dominant
(60–400Hz)"] A --> A2["Narrow dynamic range"] A --> A3["Tape/analog distortion/accidental noise"] A --> A4["Relatively simple kick/beat"] B --> B1["Frequency widely distributed
(balanced between low and high)"] B --> B2["Wide dynamic range
Transient accuracy ↑"] B --> B3["Modular + digital composite texture"] B --> B4["Polyrhythm timing difference"] subgraph VIS_LEFT ["Waveform (Concept) - Initial"] direction TB WL1(("short repetitive phrase")) WL2(("High-pass weak sub-bass")) end subgraph VIS_RIGHT ["Waveform (concept) - current"] direction TB WR1(("complex transient")) WR2(("Dense high-frequency detail")) end A1 --> WL1 A2 --> WL2 B1 --> WR1 B2 --> WR2 style VIS_LEFT fill:#f8f9fa,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px style VIS_RIGHT fill:#f8f9fa,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px

Equipment map (genealogy chart)

Description: Shows the genealogy from early representative equipment to modern modular/software environments.

flowchart TD A["1980s - 1990s
(early)"] B["1996–2005
(Turning period)"] C["2014–2025
(current)"] A --> A1["TB-303 / TB-808 / SH-101
Analog Rhythm / Bass"] A --> A2["Akai S900 / S950
Sampler (cut and paste)"] A --> A3["Atari ST + Cubase (initial)"] B --> B1["Higher performance sampler
Expansion of hardware synths"] B --> B2["DAW introduction (Pro Tools etc.)
Precision editing"] B --> B3["External effects/hard processing"] C --> C1["Eurorack modular
(modular patch culture)"] C --> C2["Max/MSP, Reaktor, soft module"] C --> C3["Hybrid: Physical control + algorithm"] A1 --- B1 A2 --- B2 B3 --- C2 B2 --- C2 C1 --- C2 classDef era fill:#eef,stroke:#88a,stroke-width:1px; class A,B,C era;

Emotion vs. Data (Abstract Diagram)

Description: A conceptual diagram showing how “human emotional expression” and “data/algorithmic manipulation” are combined in an Aphex Twin song.

Spectrogram measurement comparison

(“Xtal” (1992) vs “minipops 67” (2014))

Visually capture the sonic differences between Aphex Twin’s early days and today. Schematic representation of changes in frequency distribution, sound pressure, and stereo width.

flowchart TB subgraph LEFT["1992『Xtal』"] direction TB L1["Low frequency: 60–300Hz dominant (analog bass)"] L2["Middle range: vocal fragments/reverb dense"] L3["High frequency: less noise component"] end subgraph RIGHT["2014『minipops 67』"] direction TB R1["Low frequency: compression balance"] R2["Middle range: subdivided pulse group"] R3["High range: micro detail/rhythm granularity ↑"] end L1 --- R1 L2 --- R2 L3 --- R3 style LEFT fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#666,stroke-width:1px style RIGHT fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#666,stroke-width:1px

Caption: A comparison of the spectrogram structures of “Xtal” (1992) and “minipops 67” (2014). Initially, it was characterized by a soft sound pressure concentrated in the mid-low range, but in recent years it has become more granular across the entire range, and spatial information has become more precise.

Rhythm structure analysis diagram (beat arrangement vs. polyrhythm)

Schematic representation of the “asymmetrical rhythm” and “even/odd beat interference” often used by Aphex Twin. A visual beat grid is placed at the bottom.

graph LR subgraph EVEN["4/4 Grid"] direction LR E1["|1|"] E2["|2|"] E3["|3|"] E4["|4|"] end subgraph ODD["5/4 Layer"] direction LR O1["|1|"] O2["|2|"] O3["|3|"] O4["|4|"] O5["|5|"] end subgraph RESULT["Superposition result"] direction LR R1["1"] R2["1.5"] R3["2.3"] R4["3.7"] R5["5.0"] end EVEN --> RESULT ODD --> RESULT style EVEN fill:#eef7ff,stroke:#3366cc,stroke-width:1px style ODD fill:#ffeef2,stroke:#cc3366,stroke-width:1px style RESULT fill:#fff9e6,stroke:#cc9933,stroke-width:1.5px

caption:

Polyrhythm structure diagram.In Aphex Twin’s works, a ``beat shift’’ is created by overlaying a 5-beat cycle on a 4-beat grid, creating an aural sense of floating and instability.

Chronology of acoustic evolution (frequency range × year)

Average frequency range spread by age group. Initially, it concentrated on the mid-low range, and after the 2000s, the high and ultra-low ranges expanded.

timeline title Aphex Twin Evolution of the acoustic range (1990–2025) 1992: Average range 80Hz–8kHz (mainly analog recording) 1995 : 100Hz–10kHz (noise reverb expansion) 2001: 60Hz–12kHz (improved digital accuracy) 2014 : 40Hz–18kHz (full range) 2023: 30Hz–20kHz (mastering technology and AI analysis introduced)

caption:

Aphex Twin acoustic range transition (1990–2025). Thanks to advances in recording environments, equipment, and mixing methods, the range of all bands has expanded.In particular, the amount of information in the ultra-low and high frequencies has increased significantly.