The Story Behind Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker Video
If you grew up in the late 90s watching late night MTV then chances are you would’ve caught one of Aphex Twin’s “Window Licker” - the 10 minute mix of bikini butts, hip-hop gloss and gender-bent body horror. Born out of the creative collaboration between Richard D. James and director Chris Cunningham, the 1999 video was second to the shocking debut “Come to Daddy” which had released just two years prior in 1997.
While Come to Daddy was a dark horror-inspired short, Windowlicker spoke to a more skewed summer sound. Inspired by an MTV ‘Party Zone’ show where Richard was featured in the company of hip hop gangsters with expensive cars, girls in bikinis and pure gold, Cunningham realised it would be perfect to draw from all possible hip hop cliches for the video.
Speaking to Medium Mag Cunningham said “When Richard did this track that sounded summery and sunny, I thought, ‘Fuck. We should do it in LA in that style’. Windowlicker was me trying to make a more commercial video for Aphex. The last half of the video sounded really pornographic. It made me think about girls’s arses. So I thought okay, that’s definitely how the video’s got to end and the first half of the video sounded like driving round in the sun.”
The sun was reproduced by using many lens flares (they weren’t mainstream yet) as well as by chasing before-sunset scenery. The dancing was achieved by Vince Paterson’s choreography. He created the dances for Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Black & White. Just like MJ’s 1991 videos, there are dances on puddles in the street with an accent on private parts, but more grotesque with the girl with crooked teeth.
Speaking to the Face, Aphex said “Journalists were wondering: why does he need these grimaces? Aphex shrugged his shoulders, “When you see people in magazines, you can tell they’re thinking, ‘OK, I know I’m not really good-looking, but they’re going to make me good-looking in this photo.‘ So making myself look ugly is just the opposite of that. It’s just a reaction to that fantasy world that celebrities seem to live in.”
Here’s a look at the iconic video and promo shots from 1999
samutaro
7 Likes
Its that day again! I will be blowing up this thread all day with covers of the greatest tune to every be tuned. Please join in the revelry
edit: this one is exceptional
11 Likes
9 Likes
Has there ever been another song that has the “I want to die to this” comment used as much? that’s pretty wild to think about
machinedrum live take
21 Likes
beautiful work @waftlord!
3 Likes
8 Likes
When is he going to make the sequel, Avril 15th? Also what happened to Avril 1st to 13th?
1 Like
This is great and honestly it feels as if he wrote the script and had Mylar Melodies make the video.
5 Likes