Adam Curtis‘ six-part docuseries, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, premiered today, February 11th via BBC. He’s revealed that the soundtrack includes music by IDM figurehead Aphex Twin as well as selections by the late SOPHIE.
Can’t Get You Out of My Head offers a broad cultural analysis of the history leading up to current affairs around the globe. Curtis told AnOther Magazine that isolation and paranoia are recurring themes throughout the series, saying that the experimental styles of SOPHIE (full name Sophie Xeon) and Aphex Twin (real name Richard James) captured such feelings.
“What I think is brilliant about Aphex Twin is that he does two things. He combines in his lyrical work a wonderful expression of that yearning for something beyond,” Curtis said. “But then also expresses in other pieces the fractured and uneasy mood of the present moment. And to combine the two together is really what art should do I think. Showing you in a heightened way the mood of now – and the feeling of what might be beyond that.”
He continued: “I think that that is also what SOPHIE did beautifully as well, jumping back and forth between the two without having to bother with the old idea of transitions.”
James’ big breakthrough came nearly three decades ago with the 1992 release of Selected Ambient Works 85-92 via R&S Records sub label Apollo Records. He’s been cited as an influence by a pool of artists diverse enough to include Daft Punk, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead.
With tracks like “Bipp,” “Lemonade,” and later her 2018 debut album OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES, Xeon introduced the world to a “hyperpop” sound that earned her collaborations with pop artists like Charli XCX and Lady Gaga. She died on Saturday, January 30th after falling from an apartment balcony in Athens, where she lived.
Can’t Get You Out of My Head is available to watch via BBC iPlayer.
