''On'' is an

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

record by the

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

producer

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...

released on 15 November 1993 by Warp. ''On Remixes'', featuring remixes by James, Reload and μ-Ziq, was released on the same day. The record entered the Dance Singles Chart at number 3 on 27 November. It also peaked at number 32 on the main

Singles Chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...

Track listing

The Sire Records (US) version of ''On'' contains only "On", "73-Yips", and "Xepha" with early fade-outs, followed by the Reload Mix of "On", and it is housed in an Ecopak case instead of the standard slimline jewel case in which the Warp (UK) release was packaged. The "D-Scape Mix", in actuality a remix of "D-Scape" from ''On'', features mostly harsh sucking noises.

Production

In the 2015 Soundcloud dump, James states that he produced some of the sounds in "Xepha" by modifying a DAT player to play back tapes that he purposefully damaged. He claims that he created distorted sounds by stretching tapes, spraying them with

hair spray Hair spray (also hair lacquer or spritz) is a common cosmetic hairstyling product that is sprayed onto hair to protect against humidity and wind and have it stay in a desired shape. Hair sprays typically consist of several components for the ...

, as well as changing the playback speed of the motor.

Music video

The music video for the title track was directed by

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...

and Martin Wallace, and features a

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

sequence filmed on a beach involving numerous props (including an old fashioned

diving suit A diving suit is a garment or device designed to protect a diver from the underwater environment. A diving suit may also incorporate a breathing gas supply (such as for a standard diving dress or atmospheric diving suit), but in most cases th ...

and a cardboard cutout of James), and images of the tide. Drips of water are synchronized with the piano. The film was shot on location in Hilbre Island,

West Kirby West Kirby () is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. In the north west of the Wirral Peninsula and at the mouth of the River Dee, the town is contiguous with Hoylake. It lies within the historic county bo ...

, Wirral, UK. James was hands-off from the video's making, apart from insisting that it did not feature any

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...

. He was however satisfied with the end result, stating that it "does the job". It is available on the ''Come to Viddy'' (VHS, 1997) and '' WarpVision: The Videos 1989–2004'' (DVD, 2004) compilations.

References

External links

''On''
at the Warp Records website {{DEFAULTSORT:On (Ep) 1993 EPs Aphex Twin EPs Sire Records EPs Warp Records EPs