Aphex Twin: ‘His music is a perfect mix of mystery and adrenaline’

“Horny” and “smug”, said Richard James when asked by Rolling Stone how he felt about Syro, his first new Aphex Twin album in 13 years. He laughed as he said it but if anyone is entitled to feel a little bit pleased with themselves, it’s him. After so long away, Aphex still has an allure like no other. At 43, he remains a reluctant figurehead who has nevertheless preserved his mystique in an era of limitless data by doing precisely nothing; letting the digital realm embellish what he once called the “lush disinformation” about him: those 90s Aphex myths perpetuated, often by James himself, before the internet took hold and the tales could be instantly verified. Did he really drive a tank, live in a bank vault and make music in his sleep?

The truth hardly matters when the myth is so engaging. A techno Time Lord who regenerates with each new release – always the same, always different – it helps that his music is impervious to fashion. Straddling everything from Stockhausen to Pain Jerk, disco to jungle, Aphex fills in the gaps between genres and constructs entirely new ones. Hence the hoo-ha surrounding Syro. For the devoted, this is a rare chance to devour an hour of box-fresh blockbuster braindance that might somehow bring them closer to their master. Everyone else should sit back and enjoy the frenzy.

Björk

“Richard is an innovator. He showed the way and had to then take on the extraordinary pressures of scrillions of copycats. It probably gets tricksy to tell your own voice apart from your disciples’ – which one is the original? And he has the true prangsterism of an original, too: when someone assimilates him, he simply disappears and starts from scratch elsewhere. They can hang on to the artifice. It wasn’t about that in the first place anyway. I cannot remember when I first heard his music – it must have been in 92. But I do remember that he came and supported me on tour, probably around 94, in the USA – he shared our tour bus and he DJed with sandpaper! It really cracked me up. Richard has always been incredibly supportive of me and has emailed me a couple of times and told me about equipment that he knew I would get into. For example, he told me about the Korg 4-track dictaphone that helped me a lot to make Medúlla. He has a very generous and humble side.”

Ian Rankin

“I use Ambient Works as background music when I’m writing, which would probably appal Richard James, to think he’s being used as wallpaper music, but it puts me in a great zone. It shuts out the world. Selected Ambient Works means that I can focus. It means my brain can dance. But having gotten used to that very ambient sound, the videos came as a complete shock, especially Come To Daddy. I’m a big fan of Clive Barker, and it had that kind of urban horror; it was absolutely chilling. The meeting of a great visual artist, Chris Cunningham, with decent music. The way he puts his face on to these horrific children who are running around this great postmodernist estate causing havoc. And in Windowlicker, when he grafts it on to glamour models; it’s funny and very disturbing at the same time. Which is quite in keeping with the music. He’s definitely part of a great lineage of British artists. He’s got wide appeal: for young people that still listen to dance music, but also for music fans my age, who want something cerebral that you can sit down and listen to. Also, you don’t know what you’re going to get. His new album could aspire to Brian Eno or it could be quite heavy dancefloor music. He’s someone who, from a very early age, knew what he wanted to do and found ways to do it.”

Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai

“Aphex Twin has been a constant in my life as a music fan. I remember hearing Digeridoo as a teenager at an Orb gig and thinking: “This is absolutely one of the most intense things.” I’ve always got his records, I’ve seen him play a lot of times and enjoyed all the amusing things he’s done over the years. I thought he might have given up on the concept of releasing records as Aphex Twin. People concentrate on the innovations, but the actual musicality of them is above what most musicians ever produce. Selected Ambient Works II and a lot of the piano music on Drukqs is timeless. Then he’ll bring out something like Come To Daddy and you can imagine him pissing himself laughing.”

Chris Cunningham

“I heard Selected Ambient Works volume one first and didn’t like it at the time, but then I heard Surfing On Sine Waves and became obsessed. I started going to the record exchange in Camden two or three times a week to look for the Rephlex white labels or test pressings that would end up there. I actually got one of the original Caustic Window vinyl LPs from there. Richard tried to steal it back from me when he came round my house! He was so baffled that I had a copy. There’s a lot that makes his music extraordinary: personality, sense of humour, technical mastery, scope, depth… Plus he’s not lazy; he’s made so many tracks. His music is a perfect mix of mystery and adrenaline. It’s influenced my film-making more than any film-maker, for sure. I remember he played me a track in his studio once that blew me away and then gave me a Zip drive with it on. When I got home it was blank and I still haven’t gotten a straight answer from him it if it was a trick or not.”

Daniel Avery

“I was utterly transfixed by the videos for Windowlicker and Come To Daddy as a teenager. It was a view into another place that I didn’t quite understand but was desperate to know more about. Aphex is a continual reminder that the most interesting musicians are the ones who create their own world and don’t particularly care about existing outside of it. In today’s pop culture, where extroversion and gushing collaborations are seen as the most desirable attributes for success, Aphex remains the ultimate anti-careerist. Everything he creates has a beautiful cohesion to it: whether it’s serene ambient electronica, laser-guided acid, or disconcerting, dystopian glitch, the work clearly comes from a singular mind but one that is not affected by outside trends. Aphex is one of those figures who has always done things exactly on his own terms and I see many new artists with the same mindset. The next few years could be very exciting.”

Syro by Aphex Twin is out on Warp on Monday