Is it even possible to produce a new Aphex Twin album?

Maybe he's just busier then he was once, maybe he only has time to make music a few days a month or so, rather than 24/7!

We'll get something, eventually!

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:50 PM, very honest said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:08 PM, Joyrex said:

I think everyone needs to accept he's done what he said he'd do and stop releasing music when he no longer needed to.

it can't be true, i don't believe it...

 

seriously though, if that is the case then i think it's admirable and good that he is setting that example, demonstrating the principle that music should be for its creator more than the followers. music is a unique way of exploring one's own feelings and chronicling discoveries therein. releasing can be beneficial or enjoyable but it also appends various pressures to the process.

 

Woah woah woah now - let's not go that far - Sure, Richard makes music out of a sheer love of doing so, but only sold music and dealt with record companies so he didn't have to hold down a regular job (and nothing wrong with that) - he's gotten to the point where he obviously doesn't need to release anything commercially to maintain his lifestyle anymore, so he did what he said he'd always do - stop releasing music when he no longer needed to. It's admirable that his drive to make music isn't influenced by money anymore - if you think about it, it's not that uncommon - lots of artists more popular than Aphex Twin could have stopped making music ages ago and retired if it were not for not managing their finances correctly, living lavish lifestyles that forces them to keep making music to support them, and gettting trapped with labels that require so many releases and touring as part of the contract they are bound to produce.

i don't think it's over yet cause it's possible to produce new afx

I think he will make something enjoyable regardless of some abstract idea of whether it's original or not

up until tuss stuff I felt like oh my god everything this guy does has a unique vibe, I mean every individual track, I don't think it's measureable in a technical way though. As for the tuss stuff it has technique but I didn't get into it as much, it was too self-aware or something, no offense

Aphex has just accepted that there is no more original music to be produced. Every single posible combination of sounds has been released already. He's probably moved to a craft where there's still unexplored horizons, like crochet

According to his Wire itw, he simply does not want his new music to be heard anymore... He thinks there's enough music out there.

  On 12/24/2013 at 9:10 PM, Klopjob said:

By that I mean.. Aphex Twin music has always been unconventional and even innovative, is it really possible to be original anymore?

it is, but believing it's not isn't going to encourage anyone to actually push themselves to try and be original. Probably the most outlandish self fulfilling prophecy that has infected art in recent memory.

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:08 PM, Joyrex said:

I think everyone needs to accept he's done what he said he'd do and stop releasing music when he no longer needed to.

and in what publication or interview was this final declaration made? You say it is if it's a fact, so by all means please point us to something other than Grant's recent bizarre rant. The last aphex interview i can remember reading was the one where he said he's sitting on 5 unreleased albums and that he cant put put out any of them until his divorce shit is settled or something along those lines.

How can we 'accept' something in which the facts remain so mysterious and vague?

  On 12/26/2013 at 9:09 PM, Ragnar said:

As for the tuss stuff it has technique but I didn't get into it as much, it was too self-aware or something, no offense

YOURE FUCKINGH DEAD MATE

My cat's breath smells of cat food

  On 12/26/2013 at 9:49 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:08 PM, Joyrex said:

I think everyone needs to accept he's done what he said he'd do and stop releasing music when he no longer needed to.

and in what publication or interview was this final declaration made? You say it is if it's a fact, so by all means please point us to something other than Grant's recent bizarre rant. The last aphex interview i can remember reading was the one where he said he's sitting on 5 unreleased albums and that he cant put put out any of them until his divorce shit is settled or something along those lines.

 

How can we 'accept' something in which the facts remain so mysterious and vague?

 

Don't be obtuse; he's not going to "announce" his retirement as a public statement (yet) - might kill sales of his existing catalogue, etc.! I also never stated it was a "fact" - just my deduction of what's happened so far - Grant's "rant" (please point me to that, I haven't seen it, although that might be the whispers I've heard elsewhere) notwithstanding.

If you look back in interviews, it's pretty easy to deduce this is what it's been leading to - he only released music because he had to (financial needs) or because he was required to (contractual obligations) - he's obviously got things sorted now so there's no need.

Now, to play Devil's advocate - in El Pais, he does mention he's waiting for his divorce to be finalized, but it's not clear that's why he hasn't released anything - plus, that was in 2011 - surely by now his divorce should be finalized, and if it was him worrying about being cleaned out financially, why is he still playing gigs - surely his income from that would be subject to the same divorce rules that has prevented his releasing anything, let alone his suggested 10 or 11 albums. I have no clue how divorce in Ireland works, so perhaps there's something that is better for him to sit on releasing music commercially until he's legally divorced (although I am sure child support, etc. could possibly influence that still), but it's been almost 3 years - the fact he's traveling around and socializing (if recent pictures are to be believed) makes me think he might be over it. I suppose divorces can take years to settle, and that might be why he's not released anything yet.

In that AnOther Man interview (1, 2), this is the first place he states the whole "six albums" business, but makes NO MENTION of a divorce holding them up, etc. - he could have avoided mentioning anything, but based on his responses in the interview, he seems pretty content with himself and his situation.

The rumours that I have heard might have been a smokescreen brought on by the whole divorce mess, but the impression I got (and those telling me these things) is that he's done - he's kept his original plans as he stated in many interviews years ago as he was a rising star in electronic music.

Still, stranger things have happened - 2014 might see a new release from out of nowhere - and on Rephlex no less - although I think WARP is more likely if he cares at all about impact and distribution. Then again, he could probably release it on Rephlex in spite of that and still sell loads.

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:34 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

I'm with OP on this one. We should stop music as a whole altogether.

 

"is it really possible to be original anymore?"

 

No, no it isn't. Music is definitely over.

haha, many chuckles. ;-] tanks.

  On 12/26/2013 at 7:42 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:50 PM, very honest said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:08 PM, Joyrex said:

I think everyone needs to accept he's done what he said he'd do and stop releasing music when he no longer needed to.

it can't be true, i don't believe it...

 

seriously though, if that is the case then i think it's admirable and good that he is setting that example, demonstrating the principle that music should be for its creator more than the followers. music is a unique way of exploring one's own feelings and chronicling discoveries therein. releasing can be beneficial or enjoyable but it also appends various pressures to the process.

 

Woah woah woah now - let's not go that far - Sure, Richard makes music out of a sheer love of doing so, but only sold music and dealt with record companies so he didn't have to hold down a regular job (and nothing wrong with that) - he's gotten to the point where he obviously doesn't need to release anything commercially to maintain his lifestyle anymore, so he did what he said he'd always do - stop releasing music when he no longer needed to. It's admirable that his drive to make music isn't influenced by money anymore - if you think about it, it's not that uncommon - lots of artists more popular than Aphex Twin could have stopped making music ages ago and retired if it were not for not managing their finances correctly, living lavish lifestyles that forces them to keep making music to support them, and gettting trapped with labels that require so many releases and touring as part of the contract they are bound to produce.

 

So the take home message in all this is that he missed his calling, as a financial planner.

  On 12/26/2013 at 10:53 PM, delet... said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 7:42 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:50 PM, very honest said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:08 PM, Joyrex said:

I think everyone needs to accept he's done what he said he'd do and stop releasing music when he no longer needed to.

it can't be true, i don't believe it...

 

seriously though, if that is the case then i think it's admirable and good that he is setting that example, demonstrating the principle that music should be for its creator more than the followers. music is a unique way of exploring one's own feelings and chronicling discoveries therein. releasing can be beneficial or enjoyable but it also appends various pressures to the process.

 

Woah woah woah now - let's not go that far - Sure, Richard makes music out of a sheer love of doing so, but only sold music and dealt with record companies so he didn't have to hold down a regular job (and nothing wrong with that) - he's gotten to the point where he obviously doesn't need to release anything commercially to maintain his lifestyle anymore, so he did what he said he'd always do - stop releasing music when he no longer needed to. It's admirable that his drive to make music isn't influenced by money anymore - if you think about it, it's not that uncommon - lots of artists more popular than Aphex Twin could have stopped making music ages ago and retired if it were not for not managing their finances correctly, living lavish lifestyles that forces them to keep making music to support them, and gettting trapped with labels that require so many releases and touring as part of the contract they are bound to produce.

 

 

So the take home message in all this is that he missed his calling, as a financial planner.

 

One of his siblings is apparently a successful solicitor (lawyer) - so I am sure depending on what area of law they practice, he's managed to negotiate the business side of things well.

  On 12/26/2013 at 10:36 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 9:49 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

Still, stranger things have happened - 2014 might see a new release from out of nowhere - and on Rephlex no less - although I think WARP is more likely if he cares at all about impact and distribution. Then again, he could probably release it on Rephlex in spite of that and still sell loads.

 

What? So the having to release one more album on warp contract thing has been resolved then?

  On 12/26/2013 at 10:36 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 9:49 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:08 PM, Joyrex said:

I think everyone needs to accept he's done what he said he'd do and stop releasing music when he no longer needed to.

and in what publication or interview was this final declaration made? You say it is if it's a fact, so by all means please point us to something other than Grant's recent bizarre rant. The last aphex interview i can remember reading was the one where he said he's sitting on 5 unreleased albums and that he cant put put out any of them until his divorce shit is settled or something along those lines.

 

How can we 'accept' something in which the facts remain so mysterious and vague?

 

Don't be obtuse; he's not going to "announce" his retirement as a public statement (yet) - might kill sales of his existing catalogue, etc.! I also never stated it was a "fact" - just my deduction of what's happened so far - Grant's "rant" (please point me to that, I haven't seen it, although that might be the whispers I've heard elsewhere) notwithstanding.

 

If you look back in interviews, it's pretty easy to deduce this is what it's been leading to - he only released music because he had to (financial needs) or because he was required to (contractual obligations) - he's obviously got things sorted now so there's no need.

 

Now, to play Devil's advocate - in El Pais, he does mention he's waiting for his divorce to be finalized, but it's not clear that's why he hasn't released anything - plus, that was in 2011 - surely by now his divorce should be finalized, and if it was him worrying about being cleaned out financially, why is he still playing gigs - surely his income from that would be subject to the same divorce rules that has prevented his releasing anything, let alone his suggested 10 or 11 albums. I have no clue how divorce in Ireland works, so perhaps there's something that is better for him to sit on releasing music commercially until he's legally divorced (although I am sure child support, etc. could possibly influence that still), but it's been almost 3 years - the fact he's traveling around and socializing (if recent pictures are to be believed) makes me think he might be over it. I suppose divorces can take years to settle, and that might be why he's not released anything yet.

 

In that AnOther Man interview (1, 2), this is the first place he states the whole "six albums" business, but makes NO MENTION of a divorce holding them up, etc. - he could have avoided mentioning anything, but based on his responses in the interview, he seems pretty content with himself and his situation.

 

The rumours that I have heard might have been a smokescreen brought on by the whole divorce mess, but the impression I got (and those telling me these things) is that he's done - he's kept his original plans as he stated in many interviews years ago as he was a rising star in electronic music.

 

Still, stranger things have happened - 2014 might see a new release from out of nowhere - and on Rephlex no less - although I think WARP is more likely if he cares at all about impact and distribution. Then again, he could probably release it on Rephlex in spite of that and still sell loads.

 

thanks for the in depth response. You should check out's Grant statements about Richard's supposed retirement, the same ones that Sean Booth referred to in the AAA as a case of 'someone fucked up grant's brain' (not an exact quote but pretty close).

I guess the main thing that makes me think he isn't 'done' is his remote controlled orchestra. Clearly that took a lot of planning and effort and i thought it was pretty awesome. Obviously he's still very passionate about music and probably makes it privately.

As far as I know, DrukQs was that "contract ender" - 26 Mixes was put together by WARP and had naught to do with Richard - another label was trying to do similar and WARP hastily beat them to the punch.

There were rumours that Warner Bros. "owned" the name Aphex Twin, hence why there hasn't been any Aphex Twin-branded releases (other than the two tracks on Analord), but I'm not so sure about that - DrukQs fulfilled his contract that Warner was involved with, so I can't see how they would get ownership of the Aphex Twin name.

  On 12/26/2013 at 11:07 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 10:36 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 9:49 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 12/26/2013 at 5:08 PM, Joyrex said:

I think everyone needs to accept he's done what he said he'd do and stop releasing music when he no longer needed to.

and in what publication or interview was this final declaration made? You say it is if it's a fact, so by all means please point us to something other than Grant's recent bizarre rant. The last aphex interview i can remember reading was the one where he said he's sitting on 5 unreleased albums and that he cant put put out any of them until his divorce shit is settled or something along those lines.

 

How can we 'accept' something in which the facts remain so mysterious and vague?

 

Don't be obtuse; he's not going to "announce" his retirement as a public statement (yet) - might kill sales of his existing catalogue, etc.! I also never stated it was a "fact" - just my deduction of what's happened so far - Grant's "rant" (please point me to that, I haven't seen it, although that might be the whispers I've heard elsewhere) notwithstanding.

 

If you look back in interviews, it's pretty easy to deduce this is what it's been leading to - he only released music because he had to (financial needs) or because he was required to (contractual obligations) - he's obviously got things sorted now so there's no need.

 

Now, to play Devil's advocate - in El Pais, he does mention he's waiting for his divorce to be finalized, but it's not clear that's why he hasn't released anything - plus, that was in 2011 - surely by now his divorce should be finalized, and if it was him worrying about being cleaned out financially, why is he still playing gigs - surely his income from that would be subject to the same divorce rules that has prevented his releasing anything, let alone his suggested 10 or 11 albums. I have no clue how divorce in Ireland works, so perhaps there's something that is better for him to sit on releasing music commercially until he's legally divorced (although I am sure child support, etc. could possibly influence that still), but it's been almost 3 years - the fact he's traveling around and socializing (if recent pictures are to be believed) makes me think he might be over it. I suppose divorces can take years to settle, and that might be why he's not released anything yet.

 

In that AnOther Man interview (1, 2), this is the first place he states the whole "six albums" business, but makes NO MENTION of a divorce holding them up, etc. - he could have avoided mentioning anything, but based on his responses in the interview, he seems pretty content with himself and his situation.

 

The rumours that I have heard might have been a smokescreen brought on by the whole divorce mess, but the impression I got (and those telling me these things) is that he's done - he's kept his original plans as he stated in many interviews years ago as he was a rising star in electronic music.

 

Still, stranger things have happened - 2014 might see a new release from out of nowhere - and on Rephlex no less - although I think WARP is more likely if he cares at all about impact and distribution. Then again, he could probably release it on Rephlex in spite of that and still sell loads.

 

thanks for the in depth response. You should check out's Grant statements about Richard's supposed retirement, the same ones that Sean Booth referred to in the AAA as a case of 'someone fucked up grant's brain' (not an exact quote but pretty close).

 

I guess the main thing that makes me think he isn't 'done' is his remote controlled orchestra. Clearly that took a lot of planning and effort and i thought it was pretty awesome. Obviously he's still very passionate about music and probably makes it privately.

 

Oh, no doubt - he's certainly going to make music until the day he dies, but as for commercially releasing it anymore - that's unclear at best, and pretty certain at worst. The fact he sprinkles in unreleased material into his DJ sets adds to that.

What I can't get my head around is how he can make music just for himself - if I could make music, I would want anyone and everyone to hear it - when I used to draw and paint a lot, I would do a lot of things for myself, but I wouldn't hide it away, for nobody to see - anyone who was interested I would show it to them. Same goes when I was a graphic designer - I did many things for exposure and to show off my skills - me just seeing it wasn't enough.

  On 12/26/2013 at 11:07 PM, Joyrex said:

As far as I know, DrukQs was that "contract ender" - 26 Mixes was put together by WARP and had naught to do with Richard - another label was trying to do similar and WARP hastily beat them to the punch.

 

There were rumours that Warner Bros. "owned" the name Aphex Twin, hence why there hasn't been any Aphex Twin-branded releases (other than the two tracks on Analord), but I'm not so sure about that - DrukQs fulfilled his contract that Warner was involved with, so I can't see how they would get ownership of the Aphex Twin name.

oh, it's all so complicated. Kids today self releasing through bandcamp or similar, and promoting themselves via youtube whilst having free to cheap soundcloud storage, don't know how lucky they have it. You can hopefully avoid the predators whilst still growing and owning your brand.

  On 12/26/2013 at 11:12 PM, delet... said:

oh, it's all so complicated. Kids today self releasing through bandcamp or similar, and promoting themselves via youtube whilst having free to cheap soundcloud storage, don't know how lucky they have it.

I know - I wonder how I would have approached my artwork if I had all the self-promotion channels available these days...

You'd be a star in the artwork thread for starters ;-p Then tumblr and devientart and CGhub. And your own website/blog. Seems to be the way most jobbing artists do it.

  On 12/26/2013 at 10:12 PM, LUDD said:

  On 12/26/2013 at 9:09 PM, Ragnar said:

As for the tuss stuff it has technique but I didn't get into it as much, it was too self-aware or something, no offense

 

 

YOURE FUCKINGH DEAD MATE

Well, as I'm re-listening to some of his old stuff after like two or three years of Aphex-Abstinence (except S.A.W.), I keep discovering new bits I like about it, even though I thought I already "got" the tracks years ago. Especially the Chosen Lords are interesting to me at the moment, from a production point of view. They're relatively simple in terms of melody but the execution really is quite masterful. He has a pretty big spectrum, so I guess, if he was able to produce groundbreaking stuff back then, why wouldn't he be today. If he could be arsed to try, that is.

FUCKINGH

  On 12/26/2013 at 11:32 PM, 2WV said:

FUCKINGH

It's like it's got added sphincter compression with the addition of the H.