Aphex Twin Aphex Twin popularity in UK

[Braintree]

Man. I went to SF Underground a month ago and saw some blonde, white girl rapping horribly. She was all "BAKERSFIELD, REPRESENT."

 

*ordered ice water with ice to go*

[Blir]

"Hey! You're a jap cunt, do you know Merzbow!?"

[ilt17]

But how old are the people you ask ? Most of the people that know him well must be as old as him, like 35-40, isn't it ?

[Guest ZeroHour]

fair point, people i ask are 15 or so

[Guest bunty]

the uk is so small everybody knows him personally so they don't know him as aphex twin they know him as ginger richard

 

Yeah, everyone pops round Dicky James for a brew every now and then

 

Everyone in Canada knows about Venetian Snares

 

I love collecting things like this. I had a friend from Vancouver in college and he worked as a tour guide in high school. He would get people that asked him "what's the best way to see Canada in a day or two?" It can happen to anyone because every nation has a squirrely contingent. I work with a guy from Liberia and either that country is truly as insular as he says it is or he is as thick as a trunk because if I bring up anything about a different country in Africa, he gets pissy: "Man, I am from Liberia okay? I don't know!" Shit I'm from Missouri but I know plenty about New York, California, even Mexico and Canada and EVEN more about your home continent apparently. English is the native language in Liberia so I can't really blame a barrier that way. Yet, he always wants to talk with me at work--I thought I had all wrong, amirite?

 

No, you're wrong. There's a difference between knowing something about a couple of countries that border your own, and being able to answer questions on the other 50 something countries in a continent that you don't even live in anymore. Plus his internet connection back home was probably made from sticks and string

[fenton]

I don't know anyone who doesn't know who aphex twin is.

 

 

75% of my mates are big fans.

 

 

 

You lot are weird.

[Guest Tchocky]

No-one i know know's him...I'm 16 so that's probably it.

[kirm]

pretty much every1 I know has heard of him but most dont really know his music, and if they do it is normaly just come to dady and windowlicker.

[Guest Adjective]

I don't know anyone who doesn't know who aphex twin is.

 

 

75% of my mates are big fans.

 

 

 

You lot are weird.

we aren't all born at raves

[Guest Babar]

actually "aphex popularity" seems to be exponentionally increasing. Maybe I'm gonna reopen the statistical thread in a few days.

 

[kakapo]

I went to an old people's home in Cornwall of all places and repeatedly shouted at them if they knew Aphex Twins. They did not.

 

I then asked my 8 year old niece if she knew what synth Richard D. James used for the bass on W32.Deadcode.A, and she didn't have a fucking clue, the stupid little bitch.

 

But then I asked a bunch of 25-35 year olds who were relativly clued up with regards to pop culture and music if they knew the aphex twin, and some of them did wtf.

 

I can't reconcile these apparent contradictions wattem and need your help with my brain.

[ilt17]

Maybe I'm gonna reopen the statistical thread in a few days.

Avec plaisir

[Guest Jimbob]

I'm sure Fenton consumes more drugs than the rest of this board put together.

I'll be steering well clear of him at the Glade

[Guest idrn]

I don't know anyone who doesn't know who aphex twin is.

 

 

75% of my mates are big fans.

 

 

 

You lot are weird.

 

a) you live in london

b) your uni is 500 metres away from rdjs old house

c) we did those centrifuge nights at your uni

d) stfu

[fenton]

I don't know anyone who doesn't know who aphex twin is.

 

 

75% of my mates are big fans.

 

 

 

You lot are weird.

 

a) you live in london

b) your uni is 500 metres away from rdjs old house

c) we did those centrifuge nights at your uni

d) stfu

 

 

 

I'm not from London. Everyone's heard of aphex twin. He's the biggest dance music producer in teh world.

 

 

I'm not on drugs either.

[zazen]

Anyone who's into alternative music in any way knows who Aphex Twin is or has at least seen his Cunningham videos on MTV.

 

Ok he's not Prodigy/Orbital mainstream but only because he's always kept a safe distance from the charts by putting free gifts and stuff with his singles, he certainly isn't underground.

 

yeah this sounds about right, people who are into electronic music have usually heard of him, and people into other non-charty genres will generally have heard of him, because he so often gets mentioned in the (more arty) music press as an example of ....well ...idm-ness I guess.

 

I can't speak for the under 20s though, I'm not sure if he's on their radar.

 

the average brit tourist you bump into in the states wont have heard of him, its not like he's robbie williams or lily allen or someone like that.

 

i have quite often been surprised when I'm round people's houses looking at CD collections and i find the RDJ album or Druqks, even though they're not obvious electronica fans.

[Guest iamabe]

fuck stupid people

[Guest mafted]

it's saddening to think the lay person's vision of electronic music is something like daft punk or similarly watered down foolishness. if it's not challenging your mind or doing anything different, what the hell is the appeal? ok , cynicism off.

 

 

[pissflaps]

Aphex Twin is still really underground outside people who are into electronic music. He is sure known worldwide, but as mentioned, he is no Daft Punk/Justice famous, since the music requires the listener not being a complete moron.

[sinicalypse]

I live in the US, and every time I meet somebody from the UK, I tell them that Aphex Twin is my favorite musician, and all but one has replied "who?" I thought RDJ was popularz over there...what with symphonies playing his music and the like...what gives?

 

huh?!@ i dont know where you live, but out here in chicago i have the opposite effect. so many times out at bars i'll be bullshitting with someone who pronounces words properly and i'll mention aphex twin and 9 times out of 10 they always know who he is and have respect whether or not they like him. i've had people literally go WHOOAAAAA and grab their gf/friends and be like "now here's a man who knows real music" hell in fact whenever i wear one of my aphex twin shirts here in chicago i'll usually get at least 3 comments from people coming up to me unsolicited, and usually one of them has a proper accent.

 

i think this is because the types of places i frequent feature types of music that aren't too far away from the aphex twin branch of the electronic music tree, and with that being the case, if you're into electronic music and you're british i reckon you know who aphex twin is, short of maybe like being 16 or 17 now, seeing as since 1997 aphex has drastically reduced his output of new music, however, anyone around my age (28) would clearly know who he is.

 

from what i've gathered, aphex twin is a definite source of national pride amongst british electronic music enthusiasts and noticeably still ahead of squarepusher, as you go down to roughly 60-75% of the same people who know/love aphex are the same with squarepusher, but by and large aphex twin is a buzzword, especially here in america, that shows a british person that you've got civilized tastes in music.

[marf]

Obama mentioned Aphex in his speech today

[marf]

I got into some back and forth with this bitch that dates a guy that runs some no name electronic label company. She must be in her early 20's. She is like, "Aphex sucks, he's old now"..."there's so much better music out there" Almost gouged my eyes out

[soundwave]

This reminds me of a little irrelevant story that my mate told me years ago where he was fitting a kitchen for some old bloke who heard some Prodigy or something coming from my his radio and got chatting. Turns out this bloke had moved up from Cornwall and said he used to know a local lad who used to walk his dog past his old house who made music like that and called himself.......you guessed it.

[Guest theSun]

I got into some back and forth with this bitch that dates a guy that runs some no name electronic label company. She must be in her early 20's. She is like, "Aphex sucks, he's old now"..."there's so much better music out there" Almost gouged my eyes out

 

yeah have you heard of that venetian snares guy? he's like so much better than rdj