Windowlicker

"Windowlicker"
Song

"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.

Background

Windowlicker comprises three tracks, each in a different musical style. The title track consists of Richard'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 craquottes au chien, translating [literally] to "I like to make craquottes to my dog", [interpretation] "I like to have sex with my dog", where craquotte is literally a sort of small, horizontally sliced, dry cracking bread, but as a second degree can be interpreted as something cute or sweet). The song could be interpreted as a parody of over-sexualized commercial hip-hop and dance music. Track two, generally known as "Formula" due to its title on the disc being an extremely complex mathematical formula, features sounds that wreak havoc on the eardrums of the listener and has a very experimental sound. 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.

File:Spectrogram - Aphex Twin - Windowlicker.png

Spectrograph of the "mathematical equation" track

The spiral at the end of "Windowlicker"

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). 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. 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 "discordant, metallic screeching".

Music video

The promotional 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's own likeness (possibly a parody of egotism in hip-hop music videos or a display of Aphex Twin's usual creepiness). 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 dialog 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 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 dialog removed (the censored version starts with the arrival of the limousine) and some of the video's more shocking images are also removed.

Track listing

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

CD1 and 12" vinyl

WAP105CD/WAP105

1. "Windowlicker" – 6:07 ()
2. "ΔM_i⁻¹ = −αΣ_n=1^ND_i[n][Σ_j∈C{i}F_ji[n − 1] + Fext_i[n⁻¹]]"
   • Commonly referred to as "Equation", "Complex Mathematical Equation", "[Formula]" or "[Symbol]"
3. "Nannou" – 4:13

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.

Japanese version

WPCR-10328

1. "Windowlicker" – 6:04
2. "ΔM_i⁻¹ = −aΣ_n=1^ND_i[n] [Σ_j∈ℂ{i}F_ij[n − 1] + [Fext_i[[n⁻¹]]]]"
   • commonly referred to as "Equation", "Complex Mathematical Equation", "[Formula]", or "[Symbol]"
3. "Nannou" – 4:22
4. "Windowlicker (Demo Version)" - 1:57
5. "Windowlicker (End-Roll Version)" - 1:07

Other information

• "Windowlicker, Acid Edit" is 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 (a replica 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 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 = −αΣ_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.

• A sample of Windowlicker was featured in the movie Grandma's Boy.

• The heavily distorted outro was sampled in an episode of the British T.V. show TopGear
• A Remixed version of "Windowlicker" appears on V/VM's "Helpaphextwin 4.0" album.

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)
• Analysis of the video