Aphex Twin Releases Stunning New Single After Five Year Hiatus

Written by Stephanie Wang, Photo by Richard D. James

After five years of not releasing any official new music, Richard David James, better known by his producer name Aphex Twin, has come out with a new single. Aphex Twin is a pioneer of the electronic music scene since he started making music in the late 80s; he is considered one of the first to jump on the wave of acid and techno house music when it first started gaining mainstream fame in the early 90s. He got his start in the scene by DJing free parties and secret raves all around the UK and founded his own label, Rephlex Records, in 1991. When he released the second volume of his album Selected Ambient Works in 1994, ambient music was barely even a genre at the time. Since then, he’s released numerous works that define the genre of IDM - intelligent dance music - such as “Windowlicker,” which was a main inspiration for electronic duo Daft Punk, “Avril 14th,” and “QKThr.”

Aphex Twin’s new single, “Blackbox Life Recorder 21F,” was released on June 21, a perfect way to celebrate the summer solstice. However, even though it was his first official release since his EP, Collapse, came out in 2018, James has been uploading some new tracks on Soundcloud under the radar. In April of 2020, James released six new tracks on his secret Soundcloud. These songs range from James’s signature ethereal and dreamy soundscapes, like in “qu 1,” to his punchy drumlines and unique percussive patterns, like in “Tha2.” James is known to live a very private life, which is why he probably chose to secretly release these songs. His fans who knew it was him, though, were given hope that he was working on masterpieces he’d one day release to the public. 

“Blackbox Life Recorder 21F” starts out with a catchy drumline before James’s unique ambient synths gradually fade in. The first half of the song is a perfect, seamless blend of James’s distinctive sounds of both ambient and soft electronic, and his creative percussion rhythms. As the song goes on, the synths slowly build up and the drums get louder until he adds in a few more synth layers and creates a big, full sound. Suddenly, around halfway through, the drums disappear and the synths repeat the same two-note chromatic motif with an echo effect. The short break from the fast-paced drums offers the listeners a moment of contemplation as they get lost in the full sound of the synths. Just as quickly as the drums went away, they come back with full force, and the tempo picks up as James layers more synth melodies. The song ends with the percussion fading out again until there is just the synth motif, and James turns the volume all the way up until it ends with just one synth fading away into nothing. Overall, the song is the epitome of why Aphex Twin remains a pioneer of the electronic sound; his flawless ambient sound production is evident in all the music he has and will continue to create.