#BBCRadio6Music #AphexTwin #Windowlicker #1990s
"MmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMmmmmmmm Aiuh"
Aphex Twin's Windowlicker was released today in 1999. What's your favourite freaky music video...
...or, in tribute to b-side, Mi−1 = −αΣn=1NDinΣj∈CiFjin − 1 +Fextin−1], what's the best equation-based song?
* "Windowlicker" consists of James' voice modulated on computer, mixed with breakbeat snare rushes, drum samples, and mixed choir-like singing, resulting in a smooth yet erratic song with the last minute of the track escalating into an extremely distorted wall of bass.
* "Windowlicker" included is a sample of a French voice, saying either J'aime faire des croquettes au chien (translating to "I like to make dog nuggets") or J'aime faire des cracottes au chien (translating to "I like to make dog cracottes").
* A spectrogram of "Windowlicker" 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 artwork for the single was created by Chris Cunningham, with additional work by The Designers Republic.
* The music video for "Windowlicker" was directed by Chris Cunningham, who had also directed Aphex Twin's previous music video, "Come to Daddy". It is a ten-minute long parody of contemporary American gangsta hip-hop music videos. In the video, two foul-mouthed young men (a Latino and an African American) in Los Angeles are window shopping for women; the French term for window shopping is faire du lèche-vitrine, which literally translates to "licking the windows".
* There are 127 uses of profanity in the dialogue segment of the video (which is under 4 minutes), including 44 uses of the word "fuck".
* It was also 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.
* In September 2010, Pitchfork Media included the song at number 12 on their list Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.
* "Windowlicker" was briefly featured in the 2006 film Grandma's Boy, is played almost in full in the 2018 Gaspar Noé film Climax, and can be heard in several episodes of the BBC motoring series Top Gear. A version of "Windowlicker" is used in the Voyage mode of Lumines Electronic Symphony, and another is used in the Dior Haute Couture A/W 2012 runway show.
* In 1999, the song featured in the second episode of the second series of Cold Feet and featured on the accompanying inaugural soundtrack.
* The "Windowlicker" cover was featured in the 1999 movie High Fidelity.
* "Windowlicker" is also part of the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack and appears on the FlyLo FM in-game radio station.
