Windowlicker

"Windowlicker" has been described variously as "uncompromising cyborg R&B",{{cite web |last1=Murphy |first1=Ben |title=Solid Gold: How Aphex Twin's ‘Selected Ambient Works 85-92’ refined dance music |url=https://djmag.com/content/solid-gold-how-aphex-twins-‘selected-ambient-works-85-92’-refined-dance-music |website=DJ Mag |access-date=2 November 2020}} "hip-hop written in the language of glitches",{{cite web |title=The 50 best Aphex Twin tracks of all time |url=https://www.factmag.com/2017/04/14/best-aphex-twin-songs/ |website=Fact |date=14 April 2017 |access-date=15 November 2019}} and "eerie lounge-porn music"; the track's "sleazy, erotic ambiance connote[s] images and emotions alien to James's previous compositions."{{cite journal |journal=CMJ New Music Report |date=12 April 1999 |volume=58 |issue=613 }} Heavily digitally processed and rhythmically rearranged breakbeats prominently appear in the song's backing track. Gasps, vocal harmonies and moans reminiscent of sexual vocal tones "glide in and out of the production"; it has been speculated that, like in many of James's productions from the late 1990s, the vocals are his own.{{cite web |last1=Staff |title=11 Songs That Sample Sex The Right Way |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/valentines-day-sex-songs/ |website=Vice |date=14 February 2017 |access-date=4 September 2019}} The track consists of various sections, including a drum'n'bass intro, a "gooey middle section", and an abrasive noise ending, as well as featuring consistent melodic elements throughout.

In 2012 Pitchfork stated that the track's futuristic elements presaged various musical developments, including "Flying Lotus' digital deconstruction, James Blake's bent vocals, [and] the wobble and knock of dubstep". Similarly, Stereogum stated that "the song's mix of unpredictable syncopation, digital-dub alien transformations, errant noises, and bursts of melody would serve as a starting block for much of today's electronic music".{{cite web |last1=Weingarten |first1=Christopher R. |title="Windowlicker" Turns 20 |url=https://www.stereogum.com/2036704/aphex-twin-windowlicker-turns-20/franchises/the-anniversary/ |website=Stereogum |date=22 March 2019 |access-date=4 September 2019}} Additionally, Daft Punk credited "Windowlicker" as an influence on the direction of their stylistic approach on their 2001 album Discovery.{{cite web|url=http://www.mtve.com/article.php?ArticleId=40|title=Daft Punk Embark on a Voyage of Discovery|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060327234551/http://www.mtve.com/article.php?ArticleId=40|archive-date=27 March 2006|access-date=22 February 2007|publisher=MTV}}

{{Listen

|filename = Aphex Twin - Windowlicker.ogg

|pos = left

|title = "Windowlicker"

|description = The final 11-second portion of "Windowlicker" that showcases the high frequencies created in the audio to make a visual image of a spiral

}}

File:Windowlickerspiral.png

A spectrogram of "Windowlicker" 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.{{cite web|url=http://elists.resynthesize.com/idm/2001/08/531341/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221003951/http://elists.resynthesize.com/idm/2001/08/531341/|title=Electronic Music Mailing List Archives: idm — Re: Dissecting Windowlicker track #2|archive-date=21 February 2008}} 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 kind of discordant, metallic scratching".

A logarithmic spectrogram of the track entitled "$\backslash Delta\; M\_i^\{-1\}\; =\; -\; \backslash alpha\; \backslash sum\_\{n=1\}^N\; D\_i\; \backslash left[\; n\; \backslash right]\; \backslash left[\; \backslash sum\_\{j\; \backslash in\; C\; \backslash left[\; i\; \backslash right]\}^\{\}\; F\_\{ji\}\; \backslash left[\; n\; -1\; \backslash right]\; +\; Fext\_i\; \backslash left[\; n^\{-1\}\; \backslash right]\; \backslash right]$" (commonly known as 'Equation' or 'Formula') reveals a portrait of James' face near the end of the track, grinning.{{cite magazine | first = Leander | last = Kahney | title = Hey, Who's That Face in My Song? | date = 10 May 2002 | publisher = Wired | url = https://www.wired.com/2002/05/hey-whos-that-face-in-my-song/ | magazine = Wired | access-date = 8 August 2013 | quote = Aphex Twin, who has been described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music," appears to have sneaked the digital image of a devilish face into at least one of his songs.}}

The "Windowlicker" single contains its title track and two B-sides. Track two, commonly known as "[Formula]",{{cite web|url=http://warp.net/records/releases/aphex-twin/windowlicker |title=Warp / Records / Releases / Aphex Twin / Windowlicker |publisher=Warp |access-date=5 June 2009}} "[Equation]", or, as translated on the Japanese edition, "[Symbol]", due to its actual title being a complex mathematical formula ("$\backslash Delta\; M\_i^\{-1\}\; =\; -\; \backslash alpha\; \backslash sum\_\{n=1\}^N\; D\_i\; \backslash left[\; n\; \backslash right]\; \backslash left[\; \backslash sum\_\{j\; \backslash in\; C\; \backslash left[\; i\; \backslash right]\}^\{\}\; F\_\{ji\}\; \backslash left[\; n\; -1\; \backslash right]\; +\; Fext\_i\; \backslash left[\; n^\{-1\}\; \backslash right]\; \backslash right]$"), has a very experimental sound.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} Track three, "Nannou", dedicated to his then-girlfriend, is made up of wind-up music box samples.{{Cite web |title=The Soft Side of Aphex Twin |url=https://www.keymag.co.uk/features/the-soft-side-of-aphex-twin |access-date=2025-05-29 |website=KEYMAG |language=en-GB}}

As of 2001, "Windowlicker" had sold over 300,000 copies.{{Cite web|url=http://groove.de/2014/08/21/aphex-twin-groove-interview-2001-english/|title=APHEX TWIN Groove Interview, 2001|date=21 August 2014}}

{{Quote box|quote=I don't really like it very much because it's me working in a slightly different area. It was fun though because it was just done in the spirit of trying to have a crack, I'm too much of a hip-hop fan to want to take the piss out of hip-hop.|source=Chris Cunningham, director{{cite web|url=http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/6103-chris-cunningham/|title=Interviews|work=Pitchfork|date=31 July 2005 }}|width=200px}}

The music video for "Windowlicker" was directed by Chris Cunningham, who had also directed Aphex Twin's previous music video, "Come to Daddy". It is a ten-minute long parody of contemporary American gangsta hip-hop music videos. In the video, two foul-mouthed young men in Los Angeles are window shopping for women; the French term for window shopping is faire du lèche-vitrine, which literally translates to "licking the windows"; "window licker" and "window licking" are pejorative British English terms.

• {{cite news |last1=Coulter |first1=Martin |title=MP Nadine Dorries faces backlash over 'window licking' tweet |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/mp-nadine-dorries-faces-backlash-over-window-licking-tweet-a3673366.html |access-date=13 December 2021 |work=Evening Standard |date=1 November 2017 |language=en}}
• {{cite news |title=Council candidate criticised for saying "window licker" in email |url=https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/16180629.council-candidate-criticised-using-phrase-window-licker-email/ |access-date=13 December 2021 |work=Daily Gazette (Colchester) |publisher=Newsquest Media Group Ltd |language=en}}
• {{cite web |title=EXCLUSIVE: 'Window licking' and 'misogynistic' jibe Coventry councillor Rachel Lancaster avoids suspension – despite earlier final written warning |url=https://coventryobserver.co.uk/news/exclusive-window-licking-and-misogynistic-jibe-coventry-councillor-rachel-lancaster-avoids-suspension-despite-earlier-final-written-warning/ |website=Coventry Observer |access-date=13 December 2021 |language=en}}
• {{cite news |title=George Galloway criticised for 'window licker' tweet |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/aug/27/george-galloway-criticised-window-licker-tweet |access-date=13 December 2021 |work=the Guardian |date=27 August 2012 |language=en}} They come across two women (referred to in the end credits as "hoochies") who repeatedly turn down their advances. Suddenly, a ridiculously long white limousine (38 windows in length, including the driver's window, which takes 20 seconds to fully display) crashes into the two men's black Mazda Miata NA (MX5) convertible, and a "pimped-out" Richard D. James, displaying a hyperbolic amount of wealth and power, emerges with his signature fixed grin, at which point the song begins. After emerging from the limousine, James begins provocatively dancing with an umbrella bearing the Aphex Twin logo in an attempt to seduce the two women. The women then accompany James and other women in his limousine while their faces morph into James' own likeness. When two women emerge from the limousine's sunroof, the young men try to woo them but fail. The men arrive at an area where James and a group of women bearing his face are dancing together, and they receive leis from two of the women. Their attention is eventually drawn to a dancing woman turned away from them, but she turns around to reveal a horrifically ugly, buck-toothed, deformed face (which was later illustrated in a sketch by Swiss artist H. R. Giger titled "The Windowlickers"{{cite web|url=http://www.aphextwin.nu/visuals/98319764035682.shtml |title= Windowlicker artwork created by H.R Giger, 1999.|access-date=6 July 2012}}), much to the men's horror. The video ends with James' women dancing on Santa Monica Beach while James pops and sprays a bottle of champagne.

James's faces aren't digitally morphed on the women. Masks and make-up were specifically designed by the production, to achieve the desired morphing effect. The cast for the dialogue intro of the clip are Marcus Morris, Gary Cruz, Marcy Turner and Chiquita Martin.{{cite web|url=http://www.aphextwin.nu/visuals/98140163561445.shtml |title=Windowlicker Credits |publisher=Aphextwin.nu |access-date=2 May 2012}} Filming was done in the Los Angeles area.

There are 127 uses of profanity in the dialogue segment of the video (which is under 4 minutes), including 44 uses of the word "fuck".{{Citation|last=Aphex Twin|title=Aphex Twin – Windowlicker (Director's Version)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZT3gTu4Sjw|access-date=18 January 2019}} This averages to more than one use of profanity every two seconds. The video was released as a VHS single, containing both uncut and censored versions (the latter being referred to as the "Bleep Version"). It was also 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/adam-rickitt-1385224|title=BRIT AWARDS – THE NOMINEES IN FULL|last=NME|date=1 February 2000|website=NME|language=en-US|access-date=18 January 2019}}

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 dialogue removed (the censored version starts with the arrival of the limousine), along with some of its more graphic images. In 2008 MTV Networks Europe was fined by the United Kingdom's media regulator Ofcom for several breaches of its broadcasting code, including airing the uncensored version of the "Windowlicker" video on TMF in 2006 before the 9 PM watershed.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jun/04/television.ofcom |title=MTV fined £255k for offensive material |date=4 June 2008 |last=Sweney |first=Mark |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=18 March 2009}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|last=Bush |first=John |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/windowlicker-mw0000047858 |title=Windowlicker – Aphex Twin |website=AllMusic |date=23 February 1999 |access-date=2 May 2012}}

| rev2 = Pitchfork

| rev2Score = 8.5/10{{cite web |url=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/a/aphex-twin/windowlicker.shtml |title=Aphex Twin: Windowlicker EP: Pitchfork Review |accessdate=2023-08-07 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20031217102649/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/a/aphex-twin/windowlicker.shtml |archivedate=17 December 2003 }}

| rev3 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev3score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite book|last=Cross|first=Charles R.|author-link=Charles R. Cross|editor1-last=Brackett|editor1-first=Nathan|editor2-last=Hoard|editor2-first=Christian|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide|publisher=Simon & Schuster|edition=4th|year=2004|isbn=0-7432-0169-8|chapter=Aphex Twin|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/21 21]}}

}}

"Windowlicker" was acclaimed. AllMusic gave the single 4/5 stars, and was named by NME as Single of the Year in its 1999 year-end charts.{{Cite news|url=http://www.nme.com/bestalbumsandtracksoftheyear/1999-2-1045360|title=1999 – NME|date=10 October 2016|work=NME|access-date=1 February 2018|language=en-US}} In September 2010 Pitchfork Media included the song at number 12 on their list of the "Top 200 Tracks of the 90s". In March 2025, Billboard magazine ranked it number 81 in their list of "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time".

A remix of "Windowlicker" in the acid techno style, entitled "Windowlicker, Acid Edit", is available on the remix compilation 26 Mixes for Cash. Another remix of "Windowlicker", entitled "WINDuckyQuaCKer", appears on V/VM's HelpAphexTwin/1.0 (2001){{cite web |url=http://brainwashed.com/vvm/releases/vvmtest/hat01b.htm |title=V/VM – helpaphextwin v1.0 |publisher=V/Vm Test Records |access-date=18 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110053602/http://www.brainwashed.com/vvm/releases/vvmtest/hat01b.htm |archive-date=10 November 2006 |url-status=dead }} and HelpAphexTwin 4.0 (2003).{{cite web |url=http://brainwashed.com/vvm/releases/vvmtest/hat04b.htm |title=V/VM – helpaphextwin v4.0 |publisher=V/Vm Test Records |access-date=18 March 2009 }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} A remix entitled "it's a richJAMs World" appears on V/VM's HelpAphexTwin 4.0 (2003). Run Jeremy (an alias of Danish producer Anders Trentemøller) also made his own remix of "Windowlicker".

Beardyman performed a live version of "Windowlicker" as part of his Edinburgh show in 2009.{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qciVXUHTN10|title=Beardyman – Live in the Underbelly: The Full show|date=19 January 2010|via=YouTube}}

A. G. Cook made a "note-for-note" cover of "Windowlicker" in 2017 as part of the PC Music compilation Month of Mayhem.{{Cite web|date=28 July 2017|title=A. G. Cook – "Windowlicker" (Aphex Twin Cover)|url=https://www.stereogum.com/1954537/a-g-cook-windowlicker-aphex-twin-cover/music/|access-date=24 November 2020|website=Stereogum|language=en}}

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

{{Track listing

| headline = WAP105CD/WAP105

| total_length = 16:03

| title1 = Windowlicker

| length1 = 6:07

| title2 = $\backslash Delta\; M\_i^\{-1\}\; =\; -\; \backslash alpha\; \backslash sum\_\{n=1\}^N\; D\_i\; \backslash left[\; n\; \backslash right]\; \backslash left[\; \backslash sum\_\{j\; \backslash in\; C\; \backslash left[\; i\; \backslash right]\}^\{\}\; F\_\{ji\}\; \backslash left[\; n\; -1\; \backslash right]\; +\; Fext\_i\; \backslash left[\; n^\{-1\}\; \backslash right]\; \backslash right]$

| note2 = commonly referred to as "[Equation]" or "[Formula]"

| length2 = 5:43

| title3 = Nannou

| length3 = 4:13

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = WAP105CDR

| title1 = Windowlicker

| note1 = original demo

| length1 = 2:37

}}

• The "Windowlicker" video is also included in QuickTime format.

{{Track listing

| headline = WPCR-10328

| total_length = 19:13

| title1 = Windowlicker

| length1 = 6:04

| title2 = $\backslash Delta\; M\_i^\{-1\}\; =\; -\; \backslash alpha\; \backslash sum\_\{n=1\}^N\; D\_i\; \backslash left[\; n\; \backslash right]\; \backslash left[\; \backslash sum\_\{j\; \backslash in\; C\; \backslash left[\; i\; \backslash right]\}^\{\}\; F\_\{ji\}\; \backslash left[\; n-1\; \backslash right]\; +\; Fext\_i\; \backslash left[\; n^\{-1\}\; \backslash right]\; \backslash right]$

| length2 = 5:43

| title3 = Nannou

| length3 = 4:22

| title4 = Windowlicker

| note4 = demo version

| length4 = 1:57

| title5 = Windowlicker

| note5 = end-roll version

| length5 = 1:07

}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://warp.net/records/releases/aphex-twin/windowlicker "Windowlicker"] at the Warp Records website
• {{YouTube|5ZT3gTu4Sjw}}
• {{IMDb title|qid=Q61958116|id=tt0302037|title=Aphex Twin: Windowlicker}}
• [https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,,313437,00.html "Face the music"] – from The Guardian Friday Review, 5 March 1999
• [http://www.bastwood.com/aphex.php Spectrogram analysis of track 2 (The Aphex Face)]

{{Aphex Twin}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1999 songs

Category:1999 singles

Category:Compositions by Aphex Twin

Category:Music videos directed by Chris Cunningham

Category:Warp (record label) singles

Category:Obscenity controversies in music