Emerging from the Cornish rave scene 9 years previously, to scoring a top 40 ‘hit’ with his face emblazoned across pop culture, was an arc that probably surprised Richard D James as much as anyone else (and prompted his imminent retreat from public view, back to the hinterland from whence he came).
The Windowlicker track and video are so entwined it’s difficult to separate the two. The latter being, if not a parody of music industry excess typified by what gangsta rap had become in the late 90s, then certainly a warped and twisted version of it. The hideous leering faces seem to be mocking the whole medium where surface appearance has become everything.
The track itself is dreamlike and weirdly serene in parts, snapping into a funky swagger in others. Sonically landing in that confluence between analogue warmth and rubberised digital weirdness; the r’n’b cadences and human moans and groans always at the mercy of being overpowered by atonal walls of static and undanceable programmed rhythms.
The b-side known as Formula contains one of Aphex’s best Easter Eggs; when visualised as a spectogram the soundwave morphs into James’ grinning face, truly stamping his image on his music. Musically, it’s cut from the same cloth as Windowlicker, though the percolating bubbles of acid and jittery rhythm are more likely to encourage a fit than grinding on the dancefloor.
Nannou is altogether different and a preview of the computer-controlled instrumentation that would make up half of Drukqs. What sounds like the contents of a child’s music box – xylophones, chimes and wooden percussion – are coaxed into a delicate yet subtly urgent melody. Is it Richard D James actually playing the instruments, or is he just behind the scenes coding a sequence physically impossible to replicate….?
Despite it being an iconic track with a sprawling influence, I often struggle to appreciate Windowlicker on its own terms. Except on one occasion, when Max Cooper dropped it during a set, prompting that uncanny sensation of encountering something familiar in an unexpected context. Proving as with all the best music, there’s always something new to discover.
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