Aphex Twin

Richard D. James has spent nearly four decades making electronic music under a rotating cast of names, of which Aphex Twin is only the best known. Raised in Cornwall and DJing rave and free-party sets before he was twenty, he released the debut EP Analogue Bubblebath in 1991 and co-founded Rephlex Records the same year, then spent the decade on Warp assembling a catalogue that ran from the beatless drift of Selected Ambient Works 85-92 to the shredded breakbeats of Come to Daddy. His music sits between two poles most producers treat as incompatible: melodies sweet enough to be mistaken for lullabies, and rhythms programmed with a precision that borders on hostile. Syro, released in 2014 after a thirteen-year silence under the Aphex Twin name, won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album. He has since uploaded hundreds of archival demos under assorted pseudonyms, by his own account to spare his family the job of sorting through them later.