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26 Mixes for Cash
26 Mixes for Cash is a
compilation album, composed essentially of
mixes for various artists (plus four
original tracks) all remixed by Richard D.
James, better known by his recording alias
of Aphex
Twin. It was released on March
24, 2003,
by Warp
Records.
From as early as 1992,
Richard D. James has been in demand as a remix
artist, much to his reported dismay. James
has said in interviews that he rarely
listens to any music other than his own,
although he has admitted to listening to Pink
Floyd and Led
Zeppelin for use as breakbeats,
and to listening to the music made by his
close friends, including Luke
Vibert, Tom
Jenkinson, Mike
Paradinas, and Chris
Jeffs. Upon being asked to do a remix
for US
pop singer Madonna,
James asked in return that she portray a pig
for him. Another popular story claims that a
man showed up at Richard's home one morning,
claiming to be the representative for the
band Lemonheads,
and that James owed them a remix. James
quickly went to his home studio, Lannerlog,
and copied off an original piece completely
unrelated to the original mix, which he
handed over for several thousand dollars.
This tale is not so unbelievable given that
James is infamous for remixing tracks to the
point that they become new musical works
with little left intact from the original
compositions.
This compilation also collects four
original Aphex Twin tracks. Two are new
versions of known tracks: "Windowlicker
(Acid Edit)" and "SAW2 CD1 TRK2
(Original Mix)" (the Peel Session
version of the track also known as
"[radiator]"). The two others were
previously available only on Further
Down the Spiral (the remix album of
popular US industrial
band Nine
Inch Nails's album The
Downward Spiral): "The Beauty
of Being Numb, Section B" (originally
the second part of the complete NIN track)
and "At the Heart of It All"
(originally 7'14" long, this version is
shortened to 3'49" by removing a lot of
repetitive loops). James allegedly claims to
have never heard the original NIN album and
to not want to, so it appears he contributed
two original pieces (duly tagged
"Created by Aphex Twin") instead
of remixes. The end of "The Beauty of
Being Numb" does however incorporate
(in the background) the compressed sound of
the track "Eraser" from the same
original NIN album, yet it's unclear if
James actually listened to it or simply
digitally cut-pasted-compressed it as raw
noise material for his own track.
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