Rants and fun facts
Originally located on http://www.cgocable.net/~jzawisza/aphex but now hosted on this site by agreement.FUN FACTS ABOUT SONGS
Acrid Avid Jam Shred
Forms an anagram with Richard David James.
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
Acrid - adj. sharp, bitter, stinging, or irritatingto the taste or smell. 2.sharp, bitter, or caustic of temper, speech, etc..
Avid - adj. very eager, or , in some cases, very greedy.
- Brad
AFX II
AFX II on J4 has been renamed to AFX 114 on the Caustic Window compilation.
AFX 6/b
"On AFX 6/b (track 10) on Analogue Bubblebath 3, the voice at the beginning and end is saying 'aphex'"
- AntiMime1
Arched Maid Via RDJ
Forms an anagram with Richard David James, except for one "s".
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
Alberto Balsalm
Alberto Balsam (minus the second "l") is a shampoo made by Alberto Culver. Oh, Richardo, you do have style.
Analogue Bubblebath / Laughable Butane Bob
These two titles form an anagram. Hangable Auto Bulb is two letters short of also forming an anagram with them.
Aphex Airlines
Richard was commissioned by Virgin Airlines to write a song for a television commercial, and he came up with the track Aphex Airlines. According to him, the song is supposed to represent how a jet engine feels at take off. Not surprisingly, the Virgin people didn't feel that the song would be very appropriate, they thought it would make people think of airplane crashes.
- thanks to TjM
Astroblaster
This may be obvious but in the song Astroblaster by Caustic Window it contains sounds from the Atari 2600 game called, you guessed it, Astroblaster.
- Shaun Hare
Beaucaphalus Bouncing Ball
"Beaucaphalus Bouncing Ball contains sounds from that classic video game, Defender."
- Hobie
"bucephalus is a two-word combo of latin terms: phalus= penis. this is something i new but overlooked.
buce= mouth (or something to that effect which i didn't notice)
so, mouth/penis...penis/mouth. getting the picture here kids? now maybe it's just me, but everytime i hear this song & the "bouncing ball" transition kicks in, i can't help but picture an overzealous female with tight lips wrapped around a stiff erectile organ, bobbing with the suction of an F5 vortex. silly richie. you bad boy, you."
- Precenphix
"'Bucephalus' was also the name of Alexander the Great's war horse."
- Brian Chavez
"Bucephalus is the name of the Baron Munchausen's horse in the movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen."
- John Bergmayer
"Bucephalus was indeed the name of Alexander the Great's warhorse, but it comes from Greek not Latin - think history... Bu means ox and cephalus means head (it's used in loads of medical terms) so the whole thing is ox-headed. My guess is that it means stubborn or something, but I'm not sure."
- Pete Gillin
Bit
"'Bit' is an 8 second bit from the song 'Hangable Auto Bulb'"
- AntiMime1
Calx
"Calx is ashy powder left behind after a metal has been calcined, and is also the heel of the foot"
- AntiMime1
"Calx is a company that makes semiconductor components"
- Scott Nordlund
Come to Daddy
"The sample at the start of come to daddy mummy mix (You've got so many machines richard) is his mum.
At time 1:30 into Come to Daddy Mummy Mix there is a highly distorted voice but if you have a stereo amp where you can fade off the left speakers, sure enough, there is a little voice that says "Aphex Twin." (actually, it's so distorted that it sounds more like "Aaaaayyyyyy fffeeeeekkkss-aaaa tttwwwwwwwaaayyy-innnnn")
- thanks to Rob Thomas
"RDJ's parents now live in Wales (moving from Cornwall) and "You've got so many machines richard" is in a Welsh accent"
- 3818919/W
He had special latex masks made up for all the kids (midgets) in the daddy video... it's not computer altered or anything."
(from an interview/atricle with rdj in an australian street press)
- thanks to Tintin
"Come to Daddy" was (allegedly) written after a female fan wrote a letter to Richard stating 'I want your soul....'"
- 3818919/W
"the sample 'Looking at the Swans and hearing the birds singing, watching the water flow past in the canal,' is from an old movie called Little Lord Fauntleroy."
- Robert Walker
"Some suddle messages in the Come to Daddy video:
#1: when the midgets are fighting after the TV is dropped, you can clearly see graffiti in the background that says "is techno AFX" or something like that (mabye AFX is techno or something).
#2: as the song begins to taper off at the end when the big scary white afx dude is hugging all the children, 3 times, the afx logo flashes in the lower left corner, and if you freeze on that frame, you see some really blurry text, and what i can make out is that it says 'music is aphex twin'"
- Mach5
Cow Cud Is A Twin
"At the very beginning of "Cow Cud Is A Twin" you hear that strange laughing voice. Listen close and you can hear that the voice is actually saying "aphex twin" (...while laughing). Later on, right before the sorta echoed beat stops and the cleared beat comes in, you heard a weird robotic laser-like voice. It's also saying "aphex twin". *Then*, after that's repeated once, the robotic voice says "I, Care, Be-, Cause, You, Do", then repeats that, and then the laughing voice from the beginning comes back in, saying "I Care Because You Do"."
- thanks to Sline
"Cow Cud is a Twin" is an (almost) anagram of "Caustic Window"
- 3818919/W
"hey, just thought I'd let you know for your aphex fun fact page, the laughing voice at the start of "Cow cud is a twin" is made on a program for the mac that uses text-to-speech and SimpleText, something like the sbtalker from creative labs. The voice is called "hysterical". Maciek and I fonud it messing around with it on the macs in photography class."
- Matt Clancey
"The same text-to-speech Macintosh program used in "Cow Cud is a Twin" is also used on the "Respect List", on the Japanese Singles Collection and the Ventolin EP, using a voice called 'Whisper'."
- Rev. David Thiel
"Cud - n. (yer gunna luv this!) 1. a mouthful of previously swallowed food regurgitated from the first stomach of cattle and other ruminants back to the mouth, where it is chewed slowly a second time."
- Brad
Digeridoo
A didgeridoo (not a digeridoo) is an Australian aboriginal musical instrument.
- thanks to Brad Wilson
Donkey Rhubarb
Donkey Rhubarb is an actual plant. The full name is Reynoutria japonica and it grows around Cornwall among other places. For more info, click here
- thanks to Erik Friis
Fingerbib
Fingerbib probably had its title inspired by a UK TV kid's show called Fingerbobs. It ran during Richard's Childhood and he described it as fucking mental in the Loaded Interview.
- thanks to Christian Faucher
Funny Little Man
"The "speech" in the end of Funny Little Man is also featured in the end of Placebo's new album "without you i'm nothing". it's at the end of the bonus track and played many times at different speeds. ooh, are all the pretty boys such samplers?!?"
- kosmik ciller B
Gibbon
".n. a small, slender, long-armed ape of India, southern China, and the East Indies. usually about 3 feet in height."
- Brad
Girl/Boy Song
"Bank of America has used Girl/Boy in one of its commercials, but for another commercial similar there is a style of music very much alike to Girl/Boy. In fact, I would almost think it would be a remix (a real one, not an Aphex Twin schizo mix) of it. It has very similar samples and that same ambient background with a drum and bass covering it up."
- Mark Fleschler
Heliosphan
"Could have been derived from two seperate terms: Helios, the Sun god in Greek mythology and phane, which means resembling or appearing like. Soooo, maybe Heliosphan (minus the "e" at the end) could mean resembling Helios, the Sun god. Just a thought."
- Brad
Humanoid Must Not Escape
"The voice samples from this track were taken from David Bowies 'The man who fell to Earth'. The voice samples in question are the ones that say 'Wanna fuck?' and the girl that shouts 'Yeah, yeah!'"
- thanks to Fred Fredrickson
Industro Garbage Beats
The tune in the background of Garden Of Linmiri [Industro Garbage Beats] is Track 11 from Analogue Bubblebath 3.
- thanks to AntiMime
Inkey$
INKEY$ is a command in the BASIC computer language. INKEY$ is properly pronounced "inky string."
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
Knievel
"Yo, the track Knievel on the AB4 release is nothing more than a distorted sound clip of an interview with the famous stunt-man Evel Knievel."
"More on Knievel... it's from a press conference following one of his jumps. Part of the original clip can be found here. The beginning of this clip makes up the ending of the AB4 track."
- Jordan Snodgrass
Metapharstic
"in Metapharstic, the voice is saying 'Aphex'"
- AntiMime1
My Teapot
"My Teapot" features sampled voices from the only track on Analogue Bubblebath Vol. 3.1 (it's untitled) that's not on ABB3, a track which consists entirely of processed spoken words. ("I'm picking up an awful lot of s--t though, can you smell that s--t?...")
- Mitch Hilton
Next Heap With
Forms an anagram with The Aphex Twin.
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
Peek 824545201
PEEK is a command in the BASIC computer language.
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
Phlange Phace
AFX 114 (or AFX II) is the background for Phlange Phace.
- thanks to AntiMime1
Polynomial
"n. 1. in algebra, an expression consisting of two or more terms, such as: X2 - 2xy + y2. That is a polynomial. 2. in biology, a species name consisting of more than two terms. adj. consisting of or charactarized by polynomials."
- Brad
Popcorn
"about the original Popcorn song... It was done by Gershon Kingsley under the name "Hot Butter" in 1972 on Musicor Records. In elementry school our dance teacher made us do the Popcorn dance where you stand in place while stepping fowards-backwards-sideways similar to the "Hokey Pokey". You're supposed to get thirty or so children doing it at the same time in rows. It also sounds best while eating punch and cookies. I have the 45 in my LPs somewhere. "
- Bruce
Powerpill & PacMan
"The track was actually used on a British Comedy TV Show which took the piss out of Rave music at the time (with David Baddiel in case anyone saw it/remembers it....). Hopefully Richard took note."
- 3818919/W
Ptolemy
Ptolemy was an ancient Egyptian astronomer who helped develop the geocentric system, later disproved by Copernicus.
- thanks to lo-phi
Pulsewidth
"Pulsewidth is an electronics term. In square waves, it referes to the length of time that the signal is high. This term is used in pulsewidth modulation, used in things like servo motors."
- Scott Nordlund
Quixote
"the last word of a title for a satirical romance by Miguel de Cervantes [Don Quixote], published in two parts. pronounced "Quicks" ut" OR "Ki" ho" ti". 2. the hero of this romance [Don Quixote], who tries in a chivalrous but un-realistic way to rescue the oppressed and right the wrongs of the world."
- Brad
Quoth
"v. t. 1. used in past tense, to qoute someone, and then saying you "quoted" them is not correct. You "quoth" them."
- Brad
Schottkey
"Schottkey is another electronics term. It is a special kind of semiconductor named after its inventor. They are used in logic circuits and switching power supplies, among other things."
- Scott Nordlund
Supremacy II
The sample in "Supremacy II" from Surfing on Sine Waves is the voice of Julie Andrews, from the movie The Sound of Music, from the song "Do-Re-Mi." "Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti... Oh, let's see if I can make it any easier."
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
Tamphex
This song was inspired by an old Tampax tampon commercial (Tampax-Aphex?). The sample "are you one of those girls for whom time stands still, once a month?" was taken from the commercial.
- thanks to Maad
The other sample in the song is "why stop when your period starts".
- thanks to lo-phi
The Garden of Linmiri
The tune in the background of Garden Of Linmiri [Industro Garbage Beats] is Track 11 from Analogue Bubblebath 3.
- thanks to AntiMime
To Cure a Weakling Child
Part of an interview with Richard:
Weidenbaum: Who is the child speaking on "To Cure a Weakling Child."
James: That's my voice, going through my computer and come out the other end. I said loads of words and then I chopped them all up and made a tune around all around them words, like, the way I said it and stuff. It's quite a good way of writing tunes. It's a bit similar to, like, sometimes I just hit the keyboard in a really sort of way I'd like the rhythm of the tracks to sound, like just hitting 12 notes at a time, and then I'll spend four hours moving all the notes where I want them to go.
- thanks to Yellow 40
Vaz Deferenz
" The vas deferens is the technical name of the spermatic duct which connects the testicles to the prostate and seminal vesicles in male mammals"
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
Ventolin
"Ventolin (sold also as Proventil) is an inhaler for asthma. In the US, the drug itself is known as albuterol, but in the UK, it's official name is Salbutamol."
- Moonlight
The song Ventolin is Richard's description of an asthma attack (he has asthma). I was told that the laughs on the ventolin ep are Richard's mother laughing at his asthma...
- thanks to Moonlight
"A great deal of the track names on the Ventolin EP's are Cornwall related : Praze-en-Beeble is an actual place, as is Plain-an-Gwarry (believe it or not!). Marazonvose is similiar to a place called Marazon ; Carharrack is a place..."
- 3818919/W
"The laughing on ventolin ep is definately not richard's mother. the laugh is really from a monty python scetch that can be found on one of the monty python home videos (i can't name the exact one, but i've seen it and the laughing caught my attention because of it's familiarity). it is a monty python actor playing a mother."
-deepcore
Wax The Nip
Forms an anagram with Aphex Twin.
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
Waxen Pith
Anagram of Aphex Twin.
- thanks to Jordan Snodgrass
Wet Tip Hen Ax
Forms an anagram with Aphex Twin, with an extra t and e left over.
- thanks to Charles Henderson
We are the Music Makers / Schmart
"the sample from "We Are The Music Makers" is from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Gene Wilder is the voice."
- Jordan Snodgrass
"'we are the music makers...& we are the dreamers of the dreams' was also used in the caustic window track 'schmart' on joyrex j9"
- precenphix
The sample from "We Are The Music Makers" also appears in the track "Nephatiti" by 808 State, from their album Ex:el, released in 1991.
"'We are the music makers' (hardcore mix) takes it's voice samples from Gene Wilder's 'Charlie and the chocolate facory'"
- Fred Fredrickson
We Have Arrived
"the Track, 'We Have Arrived' on the Classics LP, I know that Rdj copped it off of The Mover, but I heard that same song on an old "Sheep on Drugs" ep entitled 'Song x'"
- Robert Walker
Windowlicker
"In Sheffield, where Warp Records are based, 'Window Licker' is a slang term for a severely mentally handicapped child (referring to their lack of control over their bodies as they are transported to school by bus etc)"
- Zennn
"Window licker - a name for the sort of 'nutter' who sits next to you on the bus and does something weird. "
- Simon Stokes
Xtal
"Xtal is also an electronics term. It is the abbriviation for crystal on circuit boards. (It refers to a quartz crystal used as a clock frequency, like in watches)."
- Scott Nordlund
Xepha
Forms an anagram with Aphex.
- thanks to Mitch Hilton
FUN FACTS ABOUT ALBUMS
Polygon Window
"The Polygon Window LP was entirely written in the deep south west of Cornwall between 1986 and 1989 apart from "Quoth" and "If It Really Is Me" which have recently been updated due to a spillage of orange juice on the master tapes.
The tracks were created in the Llanerlog studios, constructed by Richard and two friends from Rephlex records which is based in London and Cornwall. The studios are set close to the coast where the cover photos were taken. The photo on the front cover shows where there used to be a swimming pool made from the rocks. When they were nippers they'd stand on a wall for as long as possible and let massive waves crash into them - if you fell the right way you'd get mashed on the rocks by the sea."
- taken from the TVT page
"the cover shots on surfing on sine waves are of Porthtowan beach in cornwall, and 'Porth Towan' is listed in the thanks section on the back of that album"
- Matt Verran
"On the inside of the "booklet" for Polygon Window's Surfing On Sinewaves where the picture of RDJ is, in very small letters and upside-down is spelled out "surfing on sinewaves." It looks something like this:
s u r
f
i n
g
o
n
s i
n e
w a
v e s
spread across the entire image."
- Phil Shenandoah
Selected Ambient Works II
"A few months ago a tv show on radio-canada had a report about ecstasy. they used all the songs on the first disc of sawII (except the last one). the report was crummy and very moralistic but the combination of some images and the music really worked. the images of models walking down the alley in a fashion show combined to track n°5 was devastingly powerful. also they almost had me weeping to the bit of a father praying for his dead girl to the sounds of track 1."
- Christian Faucher
FUN FACTS ABOUT MOVIES
8mm
"the song "Come to Daddy" is played twice in the new movie 8MM. The first time it is played as the theme song to a hardcore porn flick, and the second time it is actually played as the background music to 8MM, upon Nicholas Cage's entering of the "bad guy's" house. Also, if you have very good eyes, you will catch that the music video for Come to Daddy is being played on a small tv in (hardcore porn director) Dino Velvet's office."
- Brandon Cotton
Blade
Polygon Window is featured in "Blade" starring Wesley Snipes. At the very start of the movie, they play the track "UT1 - dot", which does an excellent job of setting a creepy mood. It only lasts 20 or 30 seconds and then the New Order track Confusion kicks in.
Carl in New York
This television commercial for Pirelli tires won an Andy Award, and the music was made by Aphex Twin. You can download it here, it's a 4 Mb Quicktime file. The soundtrack is available as part of the Big Day Out live performance. The track is called Industro Garbage Beats and it's from Joyrex J9.
- thanks to Jordan Snodgrass
The Doom Generation
"Aphex has appeared on the soundtrack of the movie "the doom generation" by gregg araki (1995). According to the end credits, they used "on". but when i saw that film i had never heard "on" so i don't know what part of the song they used or how long of it could be heard (it probably was a few seconds). What i know for sure is that it isn't featured on the soundtrack album nor mentionned in the liner notes in the album sleeve. from what i've read this would be the only commercial (???) movie aphex's music would have been a part of."
- Christian Faucher
"aphex twin is only in the director's cut of "the doom generation" - they play "on" pretty early on in the first bedroom scene - that's a really twisted movie if you haven't seen it yourself - good for shock value."
- Scott Calanca
French Rugby Championship
"On the French TV channel "Canal +", there is a retransmission of a match of the French Rugby Championship every saturday afternoon. The trailer for these events shows some images of previous matches, with a small announcement over them. What is the connection with Aphex Twin? : The music in the background is "Digeridoo". Is it called success when your music serves as jingles for the television?"
- Ronan Pronost
Macross Plus
"I was watching the anime video Macross Plus (US version) put out by Manga video. There is a scene in the first video of four parts that has some images of a busy city street. One of them shows a bus stop with an advertising billboard showing the Aphex Symbol. This only shows for about one second so I paused on it and it said "AFX new album Selected ambient works vol. 23 20XX-20XX" (Replace the X's with year numbers). I could not read the numbers clearly but the movie is based in 2040 and this is the best I could read it."
- Weave
A very generous person sent me a screen grab of the Macross Plus movie in question. Here is the still of the bus stop, and here is an enlarged version of the ad.
- thanks to Joseph Mesterhazy
Perfecto
"For the five last years, MusiquePlus, our MuchMusic, was broadcasting a fashion show called Perfecto. I always liked the song they played during the credits, and I sometimes wondered who had made it, since they didn't credited it anywhere. I sometimes thought, "hmm, could be aphex", but I didn't really believed it. Well, I just found out it is indeed an aphex track, although it is a remix. So, "Time To Find Me (AFX Fast Mix)", originally by Seefeel, was the credit track for Perfecto, and has been so since 1993. Perfecto is being re-worked this year into a show called "P" or "Q", I'm not sure, and will have a new credit sequence."
- Christian Faucher
Pi
"Bucephalus Bouncing Ball is in the soundtrack of the movie Pi (the greek math symbol). Pi opened on July 24th, 1998. Pi is a great film; awarded best director in the Sundance Film Festival, rated "Two Thumbs Up!" by Siskel and Ebert, it's an independant film that has recieved a lot of attention."
- Rich Hogben
Radio ads
"On the subject of commercials.... I haven't heard or seen the Pirelli tire commercial, But earlier this year I did hear Aphex Twin on a SeaFirst Bank commercial. It was a song off of the Richard D. James album (the albums at a friends house so I can't even begin to guess what track....). SeaFirst Bank is located in Seattle and all over the Pacific Northwest."
- Ilto 8
FUN FACTS ABOUT OTHER STUFF
Richard D. James' aliases
Aphex Twin monkier: As far as I know, Richard himself originated the name, the Twin addition regards (more likely) to Richards dead namesake, who was born (and died) some 2 years previously to the RDJ as we know him. This is opposed to the Tom Middleton rumour (Tom & Richard worked together on a number of occasions, but fell out some time ago) - Tom is one half of Global Communications/ Jedi Knights - [now The J-Knights]. Tom was born on the same day (not necessarily year) as Richard, and Tom himself claimed this was where the "Twin" addition derived.
The other possible argument is that "Aphex" is derived from the familiar "AFX" moniker - which in turn could easily stand for "Audio Effects" or similiar....
Bluecalx ("Bluecalx-Bluecalx" on Philosophy of Sound & Machine compilation - ART/Rephlex)
Soit-PP (on above compilation)
Q-Chastic (also on above compilation, and on the mysterious Rephlex CAT.002 double 7" pack (only 100 in existence at last rumour - Grant Wilson Clarriadge [head of Rephlex] claimed that his "had been stolen" which casts serious doubts on it's actual existence (oh, come on Grant!....)
Polygon Window ;
Caustic Window ;
Joyrex (these are the names of EP's 004 & 005 - NOT a moniker).
PacMan (see under songs) ;
Mike'n'Rich (yes - well spotted! - he's Rich!)
The Diceman (for the Polygon Window track on Warp's AI compilation - due to R&S holding the Aphex Twin rights at the time) - note : There was another Diceman, on UK Vivatonal label - ignore it, it sucks...
Brad Stryder (see my earlier mail).
Richard is NOT any of these people : u-Ziq ; Cylob ; Universal Indicator [a variety of people by my reckoning] ; Kozmik Kommando ...or anyone else on Rephlex for that matter.....
- MUCHO thanks to 3818919/W for all of the above
Brad Stryder
"Basically,it is at very least a pseudonym for one or more people - Rephlex claim that it's a guy called "Manuel Sepulveda" (we have seen photo's of this guy and also I saw him DJ at the first Rephlex party in London (erm, can't remember the date tho).
I reckon most of the Brad Stryder tracks HAVE to be RDJ composed Mainly cos Grant met RDJ in cornwall and wanted to start a label up (Rephlex of course) with Richard contributing the first tracks....
Note CAT.020 - Bradley's Robot - Tracks 1 & 2 on A are definitely RDJ (I heard him play tr.1 live once) but the tracks on B are by either Grant and/or Mike Dred [Kozmik Kommando].
Also note - there are apparently 2 versions of Cat.001 - one has a different track on Side B."
- 3818919/W
"Brad Stryder is actually spelled Brad Strider. The discography on the Rephlex page is misspelled, that is, if you believe the labels of the actual records themselves."
- Doug Deru
Llanerlog Studios
"Llanerlog studios was in Lanner, Cornwall (it's near Redruth) and is obviously a "clever" mixture of the words "Llaner" and "analog"
- 3818919/W
Prichard D Jams
"maybe this is too obscure for your fun facts page, but i thought i'd send it over anyways.... it really has to do with one of squarepushers new albums "feed me wierd things". on the back of the album is a short review of tom jenkinson written by none other then- Prichard D Jams. No typos there.... i could only guess who this is... one more alias to add to the list."
- Chris Haas
Worms Armaggedon
"In the new game Worms Armaggedon, you can pick a flag for your team of worms. One of the flags is called "Aphex" and it's white with the AFX logo on it."
- Mark
