TQ Editor, John Doran ventures into the strange world of Richard D James in a new short radio documentary which will be broadcast on Tuesday morning at 11.30am on BBC Radio 4.
With the help of archive recordings and interviews with the likes of David Toop, Scanner, Leila, Tom Middleton, Ryan Wyer and Vic Reeves he looks at the myths that surround AFX and the function they serve.
According to the BBC RDJ combined acid house, ambient, New York minimalism, power electronics, avant composition, techno, industrial and pop music, something that made him just about "as important as a single figure can get in electronic music"
"The more that the press wanted to speak to him the more he treated their attention with a mixture of irritation, gleeful mischief and wilful myth building.
"Realising that legend is often much more interesting than truth, he slowly began to construct a personal mythos that many still believe to this day. Does he really write songs while asleep after training himself in the practice of lucid dreaming? Does he drive a tank round Cornwall? Did he once live in a bank vault in the middle of the Elephant And Castle roundabout? Does he own a submarine? Does his DJ tech rider include a food processor and sheets of sandpaper? Does he move among his many fans on electronic dance music forums online, often trolling them and stirring up these very myths?"
