Which artists have most influenced your BM composing?

I have a really broad array of general musical influences and I'm not trying to copy anyone at all but a few artists have definitely influenced my beatmaking (although not all of them would be obvious). One of the foremost has got to be Aphex Twin/Richard D James. I've listened to him for close to 15 years now and I could not create electronic music without being influenced by him. You can hear that often in the sounds I choose and in my usage of 64th and 32nd rhythmic patterns but also in my ambientish stuff. Like I said - not trying to copy him but I've just come to dig that kind of sound.

Other influences are

Major:
Early Brian Eno
Robert Fripp
Philip Glass
Apparat
Soul Junk (especially the album titled "1956")
Tom Waits
Just in general I'd say pop culture is a big influence too as evidenced by the vocal samples in some of my songs.


Not as major but influential:
Detëktivbyran
Steve Reich
Bjork (or whoever does her excellent sequencing)

Also, as a kid I listened to a lot of Nitzer Ebb and Front 242 among others so I've got to think those influence me at least on a subconscious level.

Lastly all of you are a big influence as your tracks push me to go bigger and better. <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

Who are your main influences solely as far as Beatmaker goes? (I could list a ton of general musical influences but that's not the point of this thread)

digme