I think the story was he didn’t want anyone to release his work before him. But I might have been naive indeed
I’ve checked my sources: it was actually a mp3 player he claimed having lost.
Why is the album coming out now, five years after your last album „Richard D. James“?
(laughing) The reason I release this actually is that I lost one of those mp3 players and I had 282 unreleased tracks of mine on it and 80 unreleased Squarepusher tracks and I left it on a plane. I was with Grant (Wilson-Claridge, Rephlex owner) on a flight to Scotland to do a gig about four months ago. I’ve had the mp3s for like six months and he was laughing at me saying „Are you going to lose that?“ and I was like „I’m never going to lose this!“. And then five minutes later I left it on the plane.
Didn’t you have a copy of the music on your harddisc?
Oh, I didn’t lose anything. I have the copies. I think I would‘ve commited suicide if I‘ve lost the masters. Since then I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled on the internet. I thought that they would appear somewhere in about five seconds. I had written „Aphex Twin – Unreleased Tracks“ on it! (laughs). If they’d started to put the tracks on the internet I’d be round their house – wherever it would be in the world – and get my fucking things back. But probably an air stewardness nicked it off the plane and they looked about 35 and they were probably into Bryan Adams or something like that. And if they would’ve heard it they would’ve probaly just deleted it. If a fan would have got it I wouldn’t mind at all. It’d be a very nice present for someone to get it. I’d like that as long as they wouldn’t put it on the internet and destroy my earnings for like the next ten years. I told Tom (Jenkinson) very quickly but I think he didn’t listen to what I said. (laughs) So that’s why I wanted to put out as many tracks as possible as soon as possible. I was gonna stick out four cds but it would’ve just been overkill and it would have been too much work. A double is already a headfuck – just to get everything right, the artwork, the mastering, the cutting and all that.
[…] So the only real reason why you are putting an album out now is because you wanted to officially release as many tracks as possible before they get around unofficially?
Yeah, pretty much. It’s kind of like an mp3 album really. I don’t reckon that many people will do it, but the way I listen to music now is that I buy a CD, put it on the computer and just take the tracks I want anyway. I’d hope that people would to the same with this CD.
I have a pre-release distributed to the press that dates from very shortly before the release where the mix and the order of the tracks are very different from the final release, so I am inclined to read panic and haste there.
So I believe in this loss.
“Looked about 35” means young not old these days!?
I am really enjoying listening to the whole playlist/album. Some of the 2019+ stuff especially - lots of TB-303 and some a bit reminisicent of Roy of the Ravers, in a good way.
I’ll be honest, I don’t understand the idea that this is full of unpolished or throw-away tracks. I’d be willing to bet pennies to pounds that some of his beloved classics were put together quite quickly too. Go back and listen to Avril 14th, he could’ve sat down, happened across lightning in a bottle and knocked it out in jig-time. Or, he could’ve been slaving away for months just trying to get the right notes, cadence, etc etc… we’ll never know.
Anyway, finally had a chance to listen to all 38 tracks… there’s some pretty good stuff in here and a good amount that I’m neither up nor down with. I guess that’s what I expected, even going back to his classic stuff I’ve always found his stuff to have massive highs punctuated with meh. I’m glad it’s been released, I’ll enjoying dipping in and out of it though I can’t imagine I’ll ever sit through 38 tracks in a one’er…
On my first impression I thought that everything from the 2017 session seemed crappy. 2019 and on was great though.
But on a second listen however, there’s not actually that much bad in the first half of the compilation. There’s definitely a few tracks that should have been like 1 minute long tops as they don’t sound like songs but more like an element to a song. But actually the 2017 part isn’t that bad.
I think this is actually a pretty good release overall. Definitely give it a couple listens.
Be careful, you’re talking about 90% of the music people make in this forum.
Jokes aside I find this interesting. Does everything have to be a song. A lot of my favourite electronic music could be called an “element”. I don’t like the word but sometimes I just try and create a “vibe”without any traditional or formalised structure. Maybe our expectation with afx is wondowlicker style epic compositions, but like all of us sometimes he just turns on a few machines and records a moment?
Yeah, I mean, it definitely feels like some of these are just him experimenting and the thing is… people don’t necessarily want to hear that.
But I do think if some of these experimentations were chopped down to 1 minute it wouldn’t be so bad. But there’s songs like Sk8 Littletune, where it’s a nice little loop but that’s all it is. And it repeats too long. If this was a small portion it’d be fine but it’s 2.5 minutes of an A and B section that loops two times without change.
But a lot of the problem with the “bad” that’s in that first part is that they go on too long for a sketch or idea. I know it’s supposed to be raw and uncut and sketches and for the nerds but that doesn’t mean things have to loop for an unnecessary amount of time either.
But still, there’s far more traditionally composed stuff within that first part then I feel like I heard on my first impression. But the whole thing is definitely a lot better on the second part.
Yes, there are better chefs… but they somehow always miss the magic. They always make you pay for every bit of it and it’s sometimes kinda paltry.
Yes, sometimes grandnan messes it up a bit… but it’s still usually pretty good anyway, and there’s plenty of it, and even if it’s REALLY messed up, you know she’ll be making something else good sooner or later.
Yes, sometimes gradnan’s recipes are somewhat odd, like, not everybody is going to like the cardamom spaghetti sauce, but you’ve gotten used to it, in fact you were somewhat surprised when you found out that cardamom spaghetti sauce is weird. Maybe that’s how they did it in the old country?
You find grandnan’s cooking inspiring, you know you’ll never cook as much or as well as she… but you hope that you could maybe throw together something along the same lines, maybe pretty good too. You’ve seen her do it a million times. You often try to watch carefully when she’s cooking. Holy shit did she just ash her cigarette into the pasta water!? Oh grandnan!
I think he’s doing whatever he wants… and if ppl like it, good… if not, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t have to prove himself to anyone at this point. It’s all gravy on top of his massive, amazing meatloaf from the last few decades.
