Aphex Twin’s Sister Is Now Wales’ Climate Change Minister, Also Horrified By Some Of His Music
"Some of [his music]...it was like being inside a CT scanner for an hour."
Julie James, the sister to reclusive icon Aphex Twin — real name Richard D. James — recently became the Climate Minister for Wales, a prestigious and important position in the country’s fight for environmental equity.
Although James has held the position since May of this year, the connection to her musician brother has only just been revealed via an interview with the BBC. Opening with a description of personal tragedy — James’ husband died when their child was only 11 months old in a terrible car accident — the profile then moves on to note the importance of family in her life. Highlighting that James sees her brother and her younger sister “all the time”, the politician is then asked what she thinks about his music, and whether she likes it.
“Very much,” James says, somewhat guardedly. “Not all of it. Some of it’s, I think Charlie Brooker once said, it was like being inside a CT scanner for an hour.
“But some of it is glorious. He writes beautiful jazz. He did a collaboration with Phillip Glass, which is glorious, and a lot of his ambient stuff is lovely.”
The ambient work to which James refers is the cornerstone of the Aphex Twin artistic project. Although his best known song is probably ‘Windowlicker’, a demented take on EDM that came with an astounding accompanying music video, the musician has also carved a name for himself as one of the most sensitive and nuanced ambient artists in the world. His album Drukqs, released back in 2001, is a work of deep sensitivity that drew comparisons to Mozart.
Better yet, James reveals that when Carwyn Jones was stood down as Wales’ Labour Leader back in 2018, his cabinet gave him a parting gift — a copy of Collapse, the monumental Aphex Twin work, on vinyl.
Families look out for each other in Wales, it seems.