In 2015, Richard D James, who releases music under aliases including

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...

, anonymously uploaded hundreds of

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

and unreleased tracks to the music sharing site

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

. 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.

History

In January 2015, James began anonymously uploading

to the music sharing site

. Some tracks dated to the late 1980s or early 1990s. 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". 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. Over the course of several months. he uploaded 269 tracks, including early versions of tracks later included on the 2016 EP ''Cheetah''. The user page briefly read "I AM NOT RICHARD", with a link to a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel containing all the tracks. In May, the tracks were removed. James uploaded more tracks in April 2020. According to the ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' journalist Philip Sherburne, the tracks were made in different periods with different equipment, but bore the hallmarks of James's 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?"

Mike Paradinas Michael Paradinas (born 26 September 1971), better known by his stage name μ-Ziq (pronounced "music" or mu-zik), is an English electronic musician from Wimbledon, London. He was associated with the electronic style intelligent dance music (IDM ...

, one of James's collaborators, vouched for the music's authenticity. In 2017, two of the tracks, "3 GERALD REMIX" and "24 TSIM 2", were compiled on a record sold exclusively at a Michigan record store. The ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...

'' journalist Stuart Aitken argued that James's experiments with SoundCloud and other digital media should encourage musicians to explore the creative opportunities of the internet. In 2019, James explained his reasons for the release: "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."

References

{{Authority control Aphex Twin Demos Aphex Twin songs Songs written by Aphex Twin