Windowlicker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Windowlicker" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Aphex Twin | ||
| Released | 22 March 1999 | |
| Genre | Electronic music | |
| Length | 16:10 | |
| Label | Warp Records WAP105 Sire Records 35007-2 |
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| Producer(s) | Richard D. James | |
| Aphex Twin singles chronology | ||
| Come to Daddy (1997) |
Windowlicker (1999) |
drukqs (2001) |
| Alternate cover | ||
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| CD2 (WAP105CDR) | ||
"Windowlicker" is a 1999 single by electronic music artist Richard D. James, released under the Aphex Twin name on Warp. The artwork is by The Designers Republic. The single reached #16 in the UK Singles Chart.
The name of the single comes from the derogatory British term windowlicker, meaning a mentally handicapped person. The term is also a direct English translation of the French term faire du lèche-vitrine, meaning "window shopper"; a second meaning played up in the song's video.
Contents |
[edit] Details
"Windowlicker" comprises three tracks, each in a different musical style.
The title track consists of the soothing tones of Richard's voice modulated on computer, mixed with his trademark breakbeat snare rushes and drum samples, and mixed choir-like singing, resulting in a smooth, yet erratic song, with its last minute escalating into an extremely distorted wall of bass. Also included is a sample of James's French then-girlfriend speaking in her native tongue (saying "J'aime faire des croquettes au chien," translating (literally) to "I like to make dog food" / "I like to make food for dog" [unclear, depending on the context, here inexistant], [interpretation] "I like to have sex with dogs") or "I like to bite dogs". The song could be interpreted as a parody of oversexualized commercial Hip Hop and dance music. Track two features sounds that wreak havoc on the eardrums of the listener, and was most likely created as an experimental track. Track three, dedicated to his girlfriend, is made up of wind-up music box samples.
The title track has been used on many adverts, notably for Mercedes Benz, and occasionally on promos for Nickelodeon.
Viewing a spectrogram of the second track reveals hidden images that were apparently synthesized as sound by Aphex Twin for the express purpose of being discovered in this manner. It is one of the few instances of an artist using steganography to embed a representation of his own face into his music (see also these artists: Interlace - Innuendo, Venetian Snares - Songs about my cats). A spectrogram of the first track, "Windowlicker", also reveals a spiral at the end of the song. This spiral is more impressive when viewed with an X-Y scatter graph, X and Y being the amplitudes of the L and R channels, which shows expanding and contracting concentric circles and spirals.
The effect was achieved through use of the Mac based program MetaSynth. [1] One of the facets of the program allows the user to insert a digital image as the spectrogram. MetaSynth will then convert the spectrogram to digital sound, and "play" the picture. According to an article on the website Wired News, photographs run through the program tend to produce a "dischordant, metallic screeching."
Similar programs to generate sound from images include Coagula (for PC) and the BeepMap plugin for Fruity Loops.
[edit] Video
Also of note is the promotional music video, a ten-minute long parody of contemporary American rap music videos. In the video, two foul mouthed young men (a Latino and an African American) in LA are attempting, unsuccessfully, to pick up two young African American women (referred to in the end credits as "hoochies"), when suddenly a ridiculously long white limousine crashes into the two men's black Mazda Miata (MX5) convertible, and a "pimped-out" Richard D. James displaying a surreal amount of wealth and power emerges with a fixed grin. The two women accompany Richard in his limousine, while throughout the video, their faces continuously morph into James's own likeness. The video was directed by Chris Cunningham, who also directed the infamous music video for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" in 1997.
It is worth noting that the men are "window shopping" for prostitutes during the video's opening; the French term for "window shopping" is faire du lèche-vitrine, which literally translates to "licking the windows".
There are 127 uses of profanity used in the dialogue segment of the video which is little in under 4 minutes, including 44 uses of the word "fuck". This averages to about 1 use of profanity every 2 seconds.
The promo was nominated for the "Best Video" award at the Brit Awards 2000, alongside videos by Supergrass, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, and eventual winner Robbie Williams.
[edit] Track listing
All tracks written, produced and engineered by Richard D. James. The original single was released on 12" and two separate CDs.
[edit] CD1 and 12" vinyl
WAP105CD/WAP105
- "Windowlicker" – 6:07
- "
![\Delta M_i^{-1} = -a \sum_{n=1}^N D_i \left[ n \right] \left[ \sum_{j \in \mathbb{C} \{i \}} F_{ij} \left[ n-1 \right] + F\operatorname{ext}_i \left[ n^{-1} \right] \right]](../../../math/b/8/6/b86988f4273700c9b758ef955cb1e820.png)
" – 5:47
- in HTML: "ΔMi−1 = −aΣn=1NDi[n] [Σj∈ℂ{i}Fij[n − 1] + [Fexti[[n−1]]"
- commonly referred to as "Equation", "Complex Mathematical Equation", "[Formula]", or "[Symbol]"
- "Nannou" – 4:13
[edit] CD2 (out of print)
WAP105CDR
- "Windowlicker (Original Demo)" – 2:37
- available on the bleep.com release of Windowlicker
- "Windowlicker" video, in QuickTime format.
[edit] Other information
There are also three other official mixes of "Windowlicker" in existence: the "End-Roll Version", which is played during the credits of the video and a different "Demo" (both available on some Japanese imports), and the "Acid Edit", a remix performed in the acid techno style (available on the remix compilation 26 Mixes for Cash).
Other promotional material included a 5" calendar featuring images from the video, an authentic jeweled Aphex Twin logo necklace (replicas of the one worn in the video), and a VHS release of the video (in both uncut and censored versions, the latter being referred to as the "Bleep Version").
The single was named NME's Single Of The Year 1999 in its end-of-year charts. Richard James sent NME the following missive in acceptance:
- Smart! Thank you very much for voting for my track/s. I've had a very good year as usual, although it was very intense, getting on a really big roll, writing new stuff constantly, really looking forward to isolating myself next year even more! Hope everyone has a totally boring New Year's party, overdoses on everything and chokes on their own vomit on the bathroom floor, make sure you lie face down just before you pass out!
- Signed, Pritchad.g.kraymes.
Samples of "ΔMi−1 = −aΣn=1NDi[n] [Σj∈ℂ{i}Fij[n − 1] + [Fexti[[n−1]]" can be heard on the song "54 Cymru beats" from James' 2001 album drukqs.
[edit] External links
- "Windowlicker" at the Warp Records discography (features audio clips).
- The "Windowlicker" video (Directors Cut)
- "Face the music" - from The Guardian Friday Review, 5 March 1999
- Spectrogram analysis of track 2
- The Aphex Face
