Aphex Twin SoundCloud demos

In 2015, Richard D. James, who releases music under aliases including Aphex Twin, anonymously uploaded hundreds of demos and unreleased tracks to the music sharing site SoundCloud. The tracks were uploaded under a variety of pseudonyms. James said he released the music to relieve his family of the pressure to release his archives after he dies. He added more tracks in 2020, 2023 and 2025.

History

In January 2015, James began anonymously uploading demos to the music sharing site SoundCloud.[1] Some tracks dated to the late 1980s or early 1990s.[1] He tagged the first track with the comment: "like early aphex but I'd never heard of him when I wrote all these tracks im going to be uploading".[2]

Over the course of several days, James deleted and relaunched the page several times with different URLs, possibly after reaching the upload limit for free SoundCloud accounts.[2] Over the course of several months he uploaded 269 tracks,[3] including early versions of tracks later included on the 2016 EP Cheetah.[4] The user page briefly read "I AM NOT RICHARD", with a link to a YouTube channel containing all the tracks.[1] In May, the tracks were removed.[1] In 2017, the tracks "3 GERALD REMIX" and "24 TSIM 2" were compiled on a record sold exclusively at a Michigan record store.[5]

In 2018, James explained his reasons for the releases: "I've got all this music and I thought if I died what the fuck would my kids do? What would my wife do? They'd get really stressed out and they wouldn't know what to do with it all. So I just thought I'd give it away, then they don't have to think about it."[3] He said his record label, Warp, responded with confusion and that this "made me think it was even a better idea at that point. If the suits are getting annoyed then it's definitely a good idea."[3]

In April 2020, James uploaded "m11st lon", "prememory100N pt2", "tha2", "s8v1 [brooklyn]", "Tha2 [world scam mix]", and "qu 1".[6] In 2023, he uploaded eight additional tracks. The descriptions of "Short Forgotten Produk Trk Omc" and "2nd Neotek Test Trac Omc" stated they were recorded between 2006 and 2007.[7][8] In 2025, James uploaded "Zahl am1 live track 1" and "Zahl am1 live track 1c f760m1 unfinshd', writing: "Got many requests for this one from a few years back. [...] Mixed down on the Zähl, think there are better mixes, will upload them if I find them."[9]

Reception

In 2015, the Pitchfork journalist Philip Sherburne wrote that the tracks were made in different periods with different equipment, but bore the hallmarks of James' work: "You can hear the same machines, the same processes, and above all, the same ideas—if this isn't James, then it's a musician who's every bit his peer, and what are the chances of one of those going undiscovered for all these years?"[2] Mike Paradinas, one of James' collaborators, vouched for the music's authenticity on his Facebook account.[2] The Guardian journalist Stuart Aitken argued that James' experiments with SoundCloud and other digital media should encourage musicians to explore the creative opportunities of the internet.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Aphex Twin archive removed from SoundCloud". The Guardian. 8 May 2015. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Sherburne, Philip (27 January 2015). "If this Aphex Twin archive is fake, we don't want to know what real is". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Nosnitsky, Andrew. "Cover story: Aphex Twin's mask collapses". Crack. Archived from the original on 14 December 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  4. ^ Sherburne, Philip (7 July 2016). "Aphex Twin: Cheetah". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  5. ^ Ryce, Andrew (19 June 2017). "New Aphex Twin record on sale at Todd Osborn's Technical Equipment Supply shop in Michigan". Resident Advisor. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  6. ^ Bloom, Madison (8 April 2020). "Aphex Twin shares new songs". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  7. ^ Kreps, Daniel (8 April 2020). "Aphex Twin drops six new songs on his secret SoundCloud". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  8. ^ Koe, Crystal (31 March 2023). "Aphex Twin shares two archival tracks via 'secret' SoundCloud account". MusicTech. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  9. ^ Monroe, Jazz (30 November 2025). "Aphex Twin's SoundCloud Updated With New Songs". Pitchfork. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  10. ^ Aitken, Stuart (29 January 2015). "Aphex Twin: his SoundCloud dump shows how musicians can shock and delight". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
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