"Ventolin" is a 1995 EP 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 ...

artist and 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 ...

. It is noted for its harsh, abrasive sound. James recorded numerous versions of the piece. The record entered the Dance Singles Chart at number 15 in April 1995. The piece is named after a trade name for the drug

salbutamol Salbutamol, also known as albuterol and sold under the brand name Ventolin among others, is a medication that opens up the medium and large airways in the lungs. It is a short-acting β2 adrenergic receptor agonist that causes relaxation of ...

, which is prescribed for the treatment of

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

. A reported

side effect In medicine, a side effect is an effect of the use of a medicinal drug or other treatment, usually adverse but sometimes beneficial, that is unintended. Herbal and traditional medicines also have side effects. A drug or procedure usually use ...

of this drug is

tinnitus Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sound when no corresponding external sound is present and other people cannot hear it. Nearly everyone experiences faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely ...

, a high-pitched ringing in the ears. James utilised this effect in "Ventolin", incorporating a piercing high-pitched ringing sound throughout the track. The music also incorporates heavily distorted

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

beats. The resulting effect has been cited as "one of the harshest singles ever recorded". The song is sampled by the

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

industrial band

Front Line Assembly Front Line Assembly (FLA) is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 in music, 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. FLA has developed its own sound incorporating elements of electronic body music and electro-industrial. The ba ...

in the song "Retribution" on their 1999 album '' Implode''.

Album/video version

The first recording of "Ventolin" (the "video version") appeared on a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

produced to accompany the track. The video consists of a woman being trapped in an elevator with other industrial images interspersed. The "video version" of the track was released a month later on the 1995 Aphex Twin album '' ...I Care Because You Do''.

Single releases

In 1995

Warp Records Warp Records is a British independent record label that specialises in Electronic music, electronic, indie rock and experimental music. It was founded in Sheffield in 1989 by Steve Beckett, Robert Mitchell and Robert Gordon. It has released recor ...

released "Ventolin" as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

in the United Kingdom, on 12-inch vinyl and CD in two parts, ''Ventolin'' and ''Ventolin Remixes''. Between them, these EPs have a further 12 tracks, ostensibly versions of "Ventolin". The record entered the Dance Singles Chart at number 15 on 8 April 1995. Designed by Dan Parkes (who also designed the artwork for '' On''), the single's artwork has

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

-style

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

drawings of a human head and upper torso, together with an asthma

inhaler An inhaler (puffer, asthma pump or allergy spray) is a medical device used for delivering medicines into the lungs through the work of a person's breathing. This allows medicines to be delivered to and absorbed in the lungs, which provides the ...

and the Aphex Twin logo.

Notes on the various "remixes"

Whilst all twelve versions of "Ventolin" on these singles are labelled as ostensible

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

es, in many cases they appear to be almost entirely new pieces of music, bearing only nominal relation to the original. The "Wheeze" mix is the only remix that utilises the high-pitched ringing and sounds from the original "Ventolin". *The "Salbutamol Mix" is an extended version of the "video version". *Several of the apparently bizarre remix names are actually Cornish place names: Praze-An-Beeble, Marazanvose,Map
/ref> Carharrack and Probus are all Cornish villages. There is a

Coppice Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a tree stump, stump, which in many species encourages new Shoot (botany), shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest ...

Inn in the village of Lanner, near

Redruth Redruth ( , ) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. According to the 2011 census, the population of Redruth was 14,018 In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, ...

. Plain-An-Gwarry is an area within Redruth and also the generic name for a Cornish medieval amphitheatre used for the performance of mystery plays and sports. *Other mix names refer to the medicinal Ventolin: "

beats", "

wheeze A wheeze is a clinical symptom of a continuous, coarse, whistling sound produced in the respiratory airways during breathing. For wheezes to occur, part of the respiratory tree must be narrowed or obstructed (for example narrowing of the lower ...

" (a

symptom Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition. Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...

of asthma) and

Salbutamol Salbutamol, also known as albuterol and sold under the brand name Ventolin among others, is a medication that opens up the medium and large airways in the lungs. It is a short-acting β2 adrenergic receptor agonist that causes relaxation of ...

. *The "Praze-An-Beeble mix" ends with manipulated samples of James' mother Lorna laughing, whilst the "Marazanvose mix" ends with a child counting in

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

mixed with manipulated animal sounds. *"Crowsmengegus mix" closes with a

speech synthesizer Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conv ...

(

MacinTalk PlainTalk is the collective name for several speech synthesis (MacinTalk) and speech recognition technologies developed by Apple Inc. In 1990, Apple invested a lot of work and money in speech recognition technology, hiring many researchers in the ...

"Whisper") intoning an MC's toast to a list of names ("Respect going out to..."), almost all of whom were collaborators with James. This was later issued as a separate track on '' 51/13 Aphex Singles Collection'', named "Respect List". *The "Plain-An-Gwarry Mix" was partly used in the making of the song "Cow Cud Is a Twin" from the ''

…I Care Because You Do ''...I Care Because You Do'' is the third studio album by the British electronic music artist and producer Richard D. James under the alias of Aphex Twin. It was released on 24 April 1995 through Warp Records and contains material recorded be ...

'' album. They have very similar drum beats and similar infrequent bass lines.

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 1995 EPs Aphex Twin EPs Elektra Records EPs 1995 remix albums Elektra Records remix albums Remix EPs Sire Records remix albums Sire Records EPs