Aphex Twin archive removed from Soundcloud

[Cupe]

It’s not often you get to say this, but it looks as if Aphex Twin has followed in the footsteps of Adele, Hozier and Kelly Clarkson – in this case, by deleting his Soundcloud account.

Last year, in the run up to the release of Syro, his first album in 10 years, the musician had claimed that he still had a large vault of unreleased music. Then he unveiled a 13-track EP, Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2, and has since been drip-feeding material to the public via a Soundcloud account, initially set up in the name of user48736353001, then Caustic Window, and then 8user48736353001.

Last weekend, the artist, real name Richard D James, uploaded a batch of tracks, some of which dated back to the late 80s and early 90s. While now completely removed from Soundcloud, these demos can still be found online: according to Mixmag magazine, the page, which is now empty, momentarily read “I AM NOT RICHARD”, with a link to a YouTube channel containing all of the demos.

Warp records, James’s label, has not yet explained the reason for his departure from the streaming service. But on 8 May, several artists signed to Sony Music and Columbia Records had their music removed from Soundcloud, with Billboard reporting “a lack of monetisation opportunities” to be at the root of the problem.

While we await an official explanation, you can get to know the finer details of the 200-plus newly available Aphex Twin demos, which now come with a multipage Google Doc including James’s own release notes and further minute details about the recordings.

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