Wales’ new climate change minister is Aphex Twin’s sister: “A lot of his ambient stuff is lovely”

Wales’ new climate change minister Julie James is the sister of Aphex Twin – and she’s revealed what she thinks of his music.

Julie James, who was appointed to the role of minister in May, is the sister of Richard D. James, better known as the enigmatic DJ/producer Aphex Twin – a connection that emerged in a BBC interview yesterday (August 4).

The politician mentioned that her brother, a notoriously reclusive artist, visits her “all the time”. She is “very much” a fan of her brother’s work, she reveals, but “not all of it”.

“Some of it’s, I think Charlie Brooker once said, it was like being inside a CT scanner for an hour,” she said. “But some of it is glorious. He writes beautiful jazz. He did a collaboration with Phillip Glass, which is glorious, and a lot of his ambient stuff is lovely.”

James said that she and her family are “very proud of him”. She also revealed that she gifted a vinyl copy of his 2018 ‘Collapse’ EP to fellow Welsh politician Carwyn Jones, when he stood down as first minister and Welsh Labour leader in December 2018.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Aphex Twin was working with developers ODDSound to deliver a pioneering new synth plugin, named the MTS-ESP plugin. The producer also made headlines for selling his first NFT in March at a cool $128,000 (£91,000).