A couple weeks ago in my Aesthetics class I racked my brain for an artist that I should probably never listen to again. The artist I came up with was Aphex Twin. Why, you ask, would I consign the immense creative and music deconstructing power of Aphex Twin to the garbage bin? To be honest, I'm not sure. I've been a fan of Richard D. James ever since I discovered music on the internet and though I've listened to probably every single thing that he's put out over the years, his later work has been disappointing me with its ridiculousness and lack of musicality (particularly the Analord collection) to the extent that I felt (in that moment in class) that I would probably be better off if I never listened to him again.

In this funk of AFX disownership I stumbled the other day across a reimagining (also known as a "cover") of the very first Aphex Twin track that I ever loved, called "Flim" from the Come to Daddy EP. It's performed by The Bad Plus, and whether you love them or think they're gimmicky trash, this performance captured my heart and reminded me why I fell in love with Richard James almost twelve years ago. It's because despite the awkward ramblings through not-music and his predilection for disturbing images and sounds, he makes some startlingly beautiful music. The fact that these delicate musical flowers are found in the musical equivalent of a industrial scrap yard makes them all the more precious.



The original track is here.