Get ready to hear Taylor Swift like you never have before. While the pop star has created a lot of buzz over her newly released album 1989, she's also been featured on another album making the rounds online. Swift's songs have been mixed with the music of influential electronic musician Aphex Twin to create Aphex Swift, an unexpected mashup that surprisingly works. If you've ever listened to "I Knew You Were Trouble" and wished it had more synths, this is the album for you.
The idea for Aphex Swift came from the mind of David Rees, a fan of both artists. Rees, who hosts the show Going Deep with David Rees and is the author of the comic Get Your War On, wanted to take on the challenge of seeing whether these two disparate styles of music could be combined.
Rees aside, Swift and Aphex Twin fans don't have much overlap. However, Rees makes an interesting point that the two artists may have more in common than people think. For starters, Aphex Twin (real name Richard D. James) seems to have a romantic side.
"Taylor Swift made her name by writing big-hearted confessional songs for tween girls. But a lot of Aphex Twin's music (especially on the Richard D. James album, from which most of these tracks are culled) is also super romantic - saccharine, even," Rees notes on his Tumblr.
He also observes that Swift's ultra-perfect image can be very off-putting.
"Aphex Twin is famously camera shy, and employs a lot of cryptic/creepy imagery in his videos. Of course, I wouldn't describe Taylor Swift as camera-shy ... but her incredible poise and superhuman competence are, to me, just as alien and intimidating as Aphex Twin's photoshopped leering ghoul-faces," Rees said.
Hearing Swift's pop songs over an electronic beat is odd at first, but the sounds do strangely compliment each other. A lot of credit goes to Rees, who somehow made "You Belong With Me" sound sad and haunting. No matter what your music tastes are, Aphex Twin is definitely worth a listen.
