Richard D. James, an electronic musician from Cornwall, U.K., who has, since the late eighties, recorded as Aphex Twin and under many other names, has a reputation for mischief and red herrings. “Drukqs,” the previous album released under the name Aphex Twin, came out in 2001. It was a double album of songs that alternated between the woody tones of acoustic instruments and fluttering, rebarbative rhythms that sounded as much like random generations as like compositions. The title reflects the album’s sound: a bit off. While Aphex Twin went quiet for much of the next decade, Kanye West sampled “Avril 14th,” from “Drukqs,” for “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010).
In the years following “Drukqs,” James, who is forty-three, moved to a small village near Glasgow, married for a second time,…
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The New Yorker (Digital) - 1 Issue, Oct-06-14