Aphex Twin is the most well-known alias of British electronic musician Richard D. James, who is widely considered a pioneer of IDM and electronic music in general. His sound is diverse, but is typically characterized by textured, ambient synth stylings, tight sampling, and pressing drum patterns. The pseudonym Aphex Twin is an homage both to the Aphex Systems Limited brand of audio equipment and to his older brother who died at birth.

James began his career in the early 1990s composing jungle, industrial, and ambient techno for the U.K. dance scene using custom synths and components. As his early album titles like Analogue Bubblebath indicate, he used analog synth equipment to create his sounds. It was an approach to music that came as no surprise, considering James' childhood musical endeavors—he would play the family piano from the inside by toying with the wires and hammers.

Notably, James is infamous for using his face on Aphex Twin album covers and distorting it in strange ways. In an interview with Heiko Hoffman, he explained it was a rebellion against the culture of techno producers hiding their identities:

I did it because the thing in techno you weren’t supposed to do was to be recognized and stuff. The sort of unwritten rule was that you can’t put your face on the sleeve. It has to be like a circuit board or something. Therefore I put my face on the sleeve. That’s why I originally did it. But then I got carried away.

Though James released a slew of albums in the 1990s and early 2000s, he stopped making music under the Aphex Twin name after 2004’s Classics, a greatest hits album. But ten years later, he surprised the world with Syro, effectively returning to the music world, and followed up with 2016’s Cheetah EP.