I reckon this page could easily go by roughly fourteen other names. Anyway, I estimate there wouldn't have been a Warbler Project, Midifuture, or (especially) Eigenfaces without the music of Richard D. James. His ability to release some of the most unabashedly odd music (and album covers) of all time has motivated me in more ways than one.

A major contributor to why electronica grew to be one of my favorite genres is James' work as Aphex Twin, Caustic Window, and (half of) Mike & Rich. The drums in one of my older tracks, "Come Get Your Fill", were partially inspired by those in "Come to Daddy", specifically those of the "Pappy Mix" variant. My initial penchant for fucking around in pretty much every DAW I'd ever used was to create abrasive noises not dissimilar to James' work, as it assisted in expanding my understanding of the software.

Mr. James' music can be deeply moving, too. Many people have cited "Avril 14th" from Drukqs, though I love the gravity of both "Nanou2" from that album and "aisatsana" from Syro. It's beautiful stuff. Those tracks don't entail much sadness; instead, they simultaneously convey major change and being content with said change, both of which are humanizing states. As Drukqs is comprised of computer-controlled tracks, I believe there's a seminal beauty in the juxtaposition of something so coldly-calculating creating an aural experience so warm and rich.

He's since returned to tightly-arranged beats with Syro (mostly) and Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a Room7 F760; the latter has been one of my favorite EPs in a while. Ah, man. RDJ's discography is so wonderfully eclectic, it wraps back around and becomes singular.