Windowlicker

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"Windowlicker"
Single by Aphex Twin
B-side	"ΔMi−1=−αΣn=1NDi[n][Σj∈C{i}Fji[n − 1]+Fexti[(n−1)]" "Nannou"
Released	22 March 1999
Genre	Electronic Experimental
Length	6:07
Label	Warp Records WAP105 (United Kingdom) Sire/WEA Records 35007 (rest of world) WPCR-10328 (Japan)
Producer	Richard D. James
Music video "Windowlicker" at Warp.net Aphex Twin chronology "Come to Daddy" (1997) "Windowlicker" (1999) drukqs (2001)

"Windowlicker" is a 1999 single by electronic music artist Richard D. James, released under the Aphex Twin name on Warp Records. The single reached #16 in the UK Singles Chart. The song was later voted, by fans, as Warp Records' most popular song, for its Warp20 compilation.

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.

The artwork for the single was created by Chris Cunningham, with additional work by The Designers Republic.

Contents 1 Background 2 Music video 3 Track listing 3.1 CD1 and 12-inch vinyl 3.2 CD2 3.3 Japanese version 4 Other information 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Background

"Windowlicker" consists of James's voice modulated on computer, mixed with his trademark breakbeat snare rushes, drum samples, and mixed choir-like singing, resulting in a smooth yet erratic song, 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 to "I love making dog nuggets".

The single has two b-sides. Track two, commonly known as "[Formula]"^[1] or "[Equation]" due to its actual title being a complex mathematical formula (see track listing), has a very experimental sound. Track three, "Nannou", dedicated to his then-girlfriend, is made up of wind-up music box samples.

Viewing a spectrogram of the second track reveals hidden images of James' face 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 "embedding" images into his music (see also: Interlace - Innuendo, Venetian Snares - Songs About My Cats, Nine Inch Nails - The Warning and My Violent Heart) . 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.^[2] This 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 kind of discordant, metallic scratching".^[3]

[edit] Music video

The music video for "Windowlicker" 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 prostitutes (referred to in the end credits as hoochies); the French term for window shopping is faire du lèche-vitrine, which literally translates to licking the windows. Suddenly, a ridiculously long white limousine (38 windows in length, including driver's window) 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 his signature fixed grin. The two women, among others, accompany James in his limousine while their faces morph into James' own likeness, and are later joined by a woman with horrifically ugly, buck-toothed, deformed face. The video was directed by Chris Cunningham, who also directed the infamous music video of Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" in 1997.

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. This averages to more than one use of profanity every two seconds.

The video was released as a VHS single, containing both uncut and censored versions (the latter being referred to as the "Bleep Version").^[1]

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.

The full "Windowlicker" video is restricted to being broadcast only during the nighttime on most music television channels. A bleeped-out version of the video exists, and MTV Two even made a daytime version, with all the opening dialogue removed (the censored version starts with the arrival of the limousine) and some of the video's more shocking images are also removed. In 2008, MTV Networks Europe was fined by media regulator Ofcom for several breaches of its broadcasting code, including airing the uncensored version of the "Windowlicker" video before the 9PM watershed.^[4]

[edit] Track listing

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All tracks written, produced and engineered by Richard D. James. The original single was released on 12-inch, two separate CDs, a special edition Japanese CD and VHS.

[edit] CD1 and 12-inch vinyl

WAP105CD/WAP105

1. "Windowlicker" – 6:07
2. "" – 5:43
3. "Nannou" – 4:13

• Track two is commonly referred to as "[Equation]" or "[Formula]".

[edit] CD2

WAP105CDR

1. "Windowlicker (Original Demo)" – 2:37
   • available on the bleep.com release of "Windowlicker"in mp3.[1]

• The "Windowlicker" video is also included in QuickTime format.

[edit] Japanese version

WPCR-10328

1. "Windowlicker" – 6:04
2. "" – 5:43
3. "Nannou" – 4:22
4. "Windowlicker (Demo Version)" - 1:57
5. "Windowlicker (End-Roll Version)" - 1:07

[edit] Other information

• "Windowlicker, Acid Edit" is a remix 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, and an authentic jewelled Aphex Twin logo necklace (a replica of the one worn in the video).

• The single was named NME's Single of the Year 1999 in its year-end 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 "ΔM_i⁻¹ = −∂Σ_n=1^ND_i[n][Σ_j∈C{i}F_ji[n − 1] + Fext_i[[n⁻¹]]" can be heard on the song "54 Cymru Beats" from James's 2001 album Drukqs.

• The heavily distorted outro of Windowlicker was featured in the movie Grandma's Boy.

• The heavily distorted outro was sampled in Episode 11 (Series 6) of the British television show TopGear for a segment featuring the Lamborghini Murcielago. Video on TopGear.com/UK BBC
• A remixed version of "Windowlicker", entitled "WINDuckyQuaCKer", appears on V/VM's HelpAphexTwin/1.0 (2001)^[5] and HelpAphexTwin 4.0 (2003).^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "Windowlicker" at the Warp Records website
• The "Windowlicker" video
• "Face the music" - from The Guardian Friday Review, 5 March 1999
• Spectrogram analysis of track 2 (The Aphex Face)
• Analysis of the video

v • d • e Richard D. James As Aphex Twin Studio albums Selected Ambient Works 85–92 · Selected Ambient Works Volume II · ...I Care Because You Do · Richard D. James Album · drukqs EPs/singles Digeridoo · Xylem Tube EP · On · Ventolin · Donkey Rhubarb · Girl/Boy EP · Come to Daddy · Windowlicker · Analord Compilations Classics · 51/13—Aphex Singles Collection · 26 Mixes for Cash As AFX Analogue Bubblebath Vol I · Analog Bubblebath Vol 2 · Analogue Bubblebath Vol 3 · Analogue Bubblebath 4 · Hangable Auto Bulb · Analogue Bubblebath Vol 3.1 · 2 Remixes by AFX · Smojphace EP · Analords 1–9, 11 · AFX / LFO · Chosen Lords As Polygon Window Surfing on Sine Waves · Quoth As Power-Pill Pac-Man As Bradley Strider Bradley's Beat · Bradley's Robot As Caustic Window Joyrex J4 EP · Joyrex J5 EP · Joyrex J9i · Joyrex J9ii · Compilation As GAK GAK Unreleased Q-Chastic EP · Green Calx · Caustic Window album · Analogue Bubblebath 5 · Melodies from Mars With Mike Paradinas Expert Knob Twiddlers Related articles Discography · The Tuss · Universal Indicator · Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound performs Aphex Twin · Warp Records · Rephlex Records · Chris Cunningham