APHEX TWIN - COME TO DADDY @ 25

 

Marking its quarter century anniversary today is the infamous EP/single from Aphex Twin, Come To Daddy, which was released on vinyl and extended CD edition on October 6th, 1997. Along with its mind bending video, courtesy of Chris Cunningham, it would go on to become one of Richard D. James’ most iconic songs.

The title track began as something of a drunken joke when James was at home messing about with some death-metal riffs fused with furious break-beat rhythms. Some say it was a piss-take parody of Prodigy’s Firestarter hit. James went ahead and released it, but then withdrew it shortly thereafter for a week in order to prevent it from going to the #1 spot on the charts. It ended up peaking at #33.

The video for the single is a primary reason for the song’s longevity and lasting impact. It was shot in the same area as many of the exterior scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and offers a dismal, apocalyptic scenario where an old lady is terrorized by a gang of rampaging children, all with Richard D. James’ sinister grinning face, a motif that would be repeated with various record covers and videos. Grandma is eventually confronted by a screeching TV summoned demon who gathers the kids around him in a manner which seems intended to be a parody of a similarly framed scene in one of Michael Jackson’s videos. The oblique references to Jackson would continue in the Windowlicker video, which was the followup from AFX and Cunningham.

Reissues of the CD have expanded it to 11 tracks and a pretty much full LP runtime of 45 minutes. What may have started off as a bit of a laugh turned out to be one of Aphex Twins most enduring and memorable releases.