The musician who opened up Thom Yorke’s entire world and changed Radiohead for good
A band of true originals, Radiohead have had a greater impact on the landscape of alternative and art rock experimentation than most. From their initial formation in 1986, the Thom Yorke-fronted outfit soon rose through the ranks into a league entirely of their own, with the help of seminal records like OK Computer and Kid A. Throughout it all, the group rarely paid much attention to current trends or music scenes; instead, they operated entirely by their own desires and earned themselves an obsessive audience in the process.
The early days of Radiohead were a far cry from the legendary reputation Yorke and the gang are now afforded. Formed as private school kids in Oxfordshire, it took a few years before the band got the swing of things, immersing themselves in the indie and shoegaze scene of their local area. When it came time to record their debut album, Pablo Honey, the group were undeniably polished and impressive, but their sound wasn’t exactly the most groundbreaking.
Reflecting the era of grunge and alternative rock, the debut album is abrasive and raw. In fairness, Pablo Honey is not a terrible album by any means, but it simply does not represent the Radiohead that audiences would come to know and love. There was a piece of the puzzle missing, and it concerned the world of electronic music. Moving away from the traditional roots of being a guitar-based alternative rock band helped to open new avenues of inspiration for the band, leading Radiohead to create groundbreaking, timeless records like OK Computer.
It cannot have been a particularly easy choice for Radiohead to go down the route of electronic experimentation. If you look back at the British rock and indie scene of the mid-1990s, the airwaves were dominated by guitar-led indie rock outfits within the Britpop movement. Although the Oxfordshire outfit hinted at Britpop on The Bends, they largely steered clear of current trends in music, and that certainly aided them in moving towards electronic influences.
Radiohead were also helped along that path by the influence of Aphex Twin, who was a particular favourite of Yorke’s. The stage name of Richard D James, Aphex Twin crafted a particularly unique electronic sound beginning in the late 1980s and 1990s. Incorporating elements of ambient, experimental electronica as well as jungle, techno, and dance music, the discography of Aphex is as broad as they come, but each instalment offers something new and endlessly inventive.
Aphex Twin appealed to Yorke from the very beginning and acted as a major influence on Radiohead’s move towards more inventive electronic compositions. “Aphex [Twin] opened up another world that didn’t involve my fucking electric guitar, and I was just so jealous of that whole crew,” Yorke once revealed to Dazed and Confused. “They were off on their own planet.”
This new world of inspiration seemingly helped Yorke to create OK Computer, an album which revolutionised perceptions of 1990s rock, and inspired countless future artists to challenge musical conventions. Sadly, though, Yorke’s love of Aphex Twin was not reciprocated, with James once saying of Radiohead, “I don’t like them. I heard maybe five or six tracks, and I thought they sounded really really cheesy.”
In the years since James gave that quote, the relationship between the two iconic acts of the 1990s has cooled down somewhat. Either way, the impact of Aphex Twin on the development of Radiohead cannot be overstated. Perhaps, without the pioneering sounds of Aphex, the music world would have never been introduced to the awe-inspiring sounds of OK Computer.
