The tracks, titled ‘Zahl am1 live track 1’ and ‘Zahl am1 live track 1c f760m1 unfinshd,’ appear to be closely related versions of the same piece. Both recordings lean into the intricate, mechanical textures that have defined a lot of Richard D. James’ output, particularly his more experimental live material. As with many Aphex Twin uploads, the titles don’t offer much of a direct explanation, instead hinting at technical processes or performance notes.

The uploads arrived without any formal announcement, label backing, or promotional fanfare. Fans only noticed the tracks once they appeared on the James’ SoundCloud page, which has become an informal archive of unreleased works, alternate mixes, and live recordings stretching back several years. The more attentive Aphex Twin fans always manage to catch these uploads within minutes of their release.

Both tracks are accompanied by the same cover image: a photograph showing James with his partner while swimming in the sea.

In the description attached to the second track, James offered a rare personal note. He explained that many fans had been requesting this particular piece for years and that he finally decided to upload it. He also mentioned recent rainy weather in the UK and referenced the cover photo taken in Sicily. According to the description, the track was mixed on a Zähl mixer, and James suggested that the versions uploaded may not be final, hinting that higher-quality or alternate mixes could surface in the future if he locates them.

The new SoundCloud uploads follow a series of similar releases over recent years, during which Aphex Twin has used the platform to share rare recordings, live tracks, and experimental pieces. For fans, the appearance of new material, however understated, remains a significant event.

The incomparable Aphex Twin closing Field Day 2023 with mind-bending visuals from @weirdcoretv.

Thank you to everyone who made this year’s festival one for the history books.

Until next year pic.twitter.com/lyvWA6ygRh

— Field Day (@fielddaylondon) August 20, 2023

Charli XCX took to social media to post a one sentence response to Aphex Twin’s use of her face, tweeting, “i’ve officially made it.” And Charli XCX was not the only one included in Aphex Twin’s mesmerising visual display, with late producer SOPHIE, Dua Lipa and Stormzy all used in a similar fashion.

i’ve officially made it. https://t.co/9uuQQeWSa8 — Charli (@charli_xcx) August 20, 2023

Aphex Twin, whose real name is Richard D James, closed out London’s Field Day-as part of the All Points East Festival-in Victoria Park, East London on Saturday night. With a set that lasted an hour and a half, the British DJ hypnotised the crowd with his catalogue of electronic hits that included a staggering 39 song setlist.

Often regarded as one of the most influential artists on the electronic scene, Aphex Twin is well known for his mind-bending visual displays that add a surreal yet fascinating glamour to his live performances. For Field Day the artist continued his flair for visual extravagance, morphing his face onto notable figures in British culture.

THIS WEEKEND.
FIELD DAY, LONDON, UK.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE MERCH DESK. pic.twitter.com/dHdCmkC3pO

— Aphex Twin (@AphexTwin) August 18, 2023

It is little wonder why Charli XCX felt flattered at the use of her face, as the pop artist joined the likes of the England football team, the King and Aphex Twin’s fellow festival headliner, Stormzy among others-all having their faces manipulated to match the DJ’s. With the crowd delighted by the display, the performance is sure to live long in the memory for those who were in attendance.

Raised in Cornwall, Aphex Twin came to international prominence with hit singles “Windowlicker” and “Come To Daddy”-both of which reached the top 40. In 2014, the DJ won a Grammy Award for best dance/electronic album with his sixth studio effort, Syro . Last week, Aphex Twin released a new augmented reality app called YXBoZXh0d2lu. When decrypted, the encoded title translates to ‘aphextwin’ and features a collection of landscapes with a soundtrack sampled from the artist’s latest EP Blackbox Life Recorder 21f/In A Room 7 F760.


For Charli XCX, the artist is enjoying a prolific and busy period, having just appeared on Addison Rae’s new single, 2 Die 4 and released a new video for “Speed Drive” which featured in the new Barbie film. Along with these releases, Charli XCX also co-composed the soundtrack for the upcoming comedy film, Bottoms.

Amidst the wheeze of idiosyncratic synth leads, gooey bass parps and skittish yet hyper-danceable polyrhythmic drum programming, AFX manages to conjure one of his most delicate melodies to date, at times it even sounds as if RDJ’s synthesised and re-pitched his own voice, embedding himself within the tracks groove as though he were an audible apparition haunting ear drums from beyond the rave. The singles cover artwork (as well as the EP) was created in tandem with frequent AFX collaborator Weirdcore. The digital sleeve depicts what appears to be a mosaic of Menger Sponges festooned with Aphex Twin’s legendary logo.

The release of “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f” came after a slew of opaque online occurrences that were ostensibly orchestrated by the Cornish musician. Earlier this year what began as message board murmurings and group chat rumours of a headline appearance at Field Day Festival 2023 were confirmed when a new website entitled 190823.co.uk popped up online.

Curious Aphex acolytes who clicked the web link were rewarded with a wash of undulating pixels dribbling down their screens before morphing into a digital poster adorning the illustrious Irish ‘IDM’ composers iconic ideogram (7\) confirming him as one of Field Day Festival’s co-headliners alongside fellow British beat-mangler Bonobo. Warp Records divulged further, posting a nine date UK/EU Summer tour poster across their socials.

After a five year musical hiatus spent pursuing a plethora of other projects, including programming a sound design app, teaming up with tech companies to create experimental micro-tonal software synth plugins and even releasing his very own AFX NFT (complete with secret audio info encrypted within) the proceeds of which went towards “planting trees and donating to permaculture projects“, RDJ has been busy boy indeed.

The Blackbox Life Recorder 21f/In a Room7 F760 EP consists of four tracks and will be released on July 28th through Warp Records.

There tracks are listed as follows:

1. “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f”

2. “zin2 test5″

3. “In a room7 F760″

4. “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f [Parallax Mix]”

You can pre-order your copy here:

https://aphextwin.warp.net/release/399837-aphex-twin-blackbox-life-recorder-21f-in-a-room7-f760EP Pre-order info

With the EU tour leg well underway, Aphex Twin will return at the tail end of the summer for his first live performances on UK soil since 2019.

You can acquire tickets via this link: https://ra.co/dj/aphextwin/tour-dates

Heres the UK 2023 summer tour dates:

19/08/2023 – Field Day Festival – London

02/09/2023 – Forwards Festival – Bristol

The festival comes back after their very successful debut edition last year, announcing two big headlines who are ready to rock the festival off the boat. The event is going to be lead by one of the most influential and celebrated electronic musicians of all time, Aphex Twin, known for his innovative and experimental approach to the making of his music. Backing up, expect to see the eclectic Erykah Badu. She is amongst the biggest neo-soul idols of the industry and she definitely knows how to put on a show.

A selection of other unmissable artists also have a spot in the lineup. These include Bonobo, Primal Scream, Arlo Parks, Raye, Leftfield, Amyl and The Sniffers, Viagra Boys and many more. Hosted at Clifton Downs in Bristol from the 1st September to the 2nd.

The reason why the festival adopted such a name like FORWARDS, is because it’s ideology toward a greater cause is particularly prominent within their handbook. Not only do they put their head down to put on the best live acts and musical experiences for the Bristol audience, but they take into account the particular discrepancies found amongst the public’s possible unfortunate dysfunctionalities and impairments.

As part of their schedule they include a section named The Information. An offered opportunity for fans to get involved in a space dedicated to hosting debates and discussions alongside experts, creatives, disruptors, writers and thinkers. It is a challenge to create an interactive dynamic in the affair to get people to speak their opinion. After last years success with Jack Monroe and Jay Rayner they return with further announcements down the line.

As well as the latter they have adapted a number of other improvements such as host a Social Initiative programme to create awareness towards positive change. A Capture Forwards programme which invites photographer startups to get first hand experience in shooting a live event to kick start their career.

Claimed “a progressive-minded festival” - a statement made by The Guardian. A fair affirmation after finding out that NHS workers get a discounted ticket, as a thank you for the hard work they put in for the country. As well as balanced discounts for residents and low-income customers. It is safe to say the festival has been named quite accurately.

Tickets go on sale on the 24th March at 10am. The pre sale, however, is on the 23rd March at 10am.

Click here for tickets.

The musician Tom Relleen, one half of Tomaga and a member of The Oscillation, Autotelia and more, has sadly diedhttps://t.co/kRJKGtqQrc pic.twitter.com/w04UpJBZSt

— The Quietus (@theQuietus) August 25, 2020

Relleen’s musical style is hard to describe. Comparisons to other ambient instrumentalists like Aphex Twin or Rothko can only go so far. His music with Tomaga ranges from relaxed tracks like Bluest that sounds like wind-chimes in the wind to more austere and disturbing ones like Senza. The latter could easily feature on a horror movie soundtrack, with the combination of a ticking clock and the abrasive scratching of a stringed instrument evoking a sense of impending doom.

His most recent project Autotelia, a collaboration with Demian Castellanos of The Oscillation, is more minimal and consistent in its style. Their first album, simply titled I, was released in July. It is an ambient five-track beauty that puts listeners in a trance using echoes and electronic sounds that ironically sound organic. 

The word Autotelia was coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalvi to describe people whose life purpose is internal rather than external. He argued that such people are not interested in ‘comfort, money, power or fame‘ but instead are driven simply by ‘curiosity‘.

our debut album will be release on 24th July by @RocketRecording .. … …. https://t.co/ydKeal4u3G — Autotelia (@Autoteliamusic) July 20, 2020

This is a fitting name for a band whose music shows not only a disregard for the conventions of popular genres but also pushes sonic boundaries in such an inquisitive way. This is true of Relleen’s entire body of work. Since he started releasing music back in 2007 as part of The Oscillation, Relleen has experimented with unusual combinations of sound and syncopated rhythm.

His inquisitive nature will be remembered by his friends and fans. Many took to Twitter to share their sorrow at his passing, calling him a ‘generous‘ and ‘kind‘ man.Musical collaborator Castellanos called him a ‘beautiful, inspiring friend who helped, encouraged and motivated many people‘. Marie-Peirre Bonniol of the Julie Tippex agency said his musical endeavours ‘not only shaped the London scene but also the European one‘, continuing that he did much work ‘connecting people and organising collaborations‘. His was an unselfish and prolific career, that will not be soon forgotten.

The event is set to host major names from across the electronic dance music scene, including Fatboy Slim and Aphex Twin. They will be joining names already billed for the season, including Skepta, Chase and Status, Flume, Nina Kravitz and Disclosure. Annie Mac will be headlining a Halloween event on November 2.

Other names set to perform at shows across the four months include Skrillex and Underworld. The event is set to conclude on New Year’s Day 2020, with acts yet to be confirmed for the date.

The full line up of shows are listed below, with tickets going on sale at 9am on July 19, via Ticketmaster. The dates previously revealed for the event are currently still on sale.

20/9/19 – Aphex Twin Curates, Depot
21/9 – Welcome to the Depot, Depot
28/9 –  Warehouse Project, Depot
04/10 – The Martinez Brothers – All Night Long, Mayfield Depot
05/10 – Metropolis, Depot
11/10 – WHP Presents, Mayfield Depot
12/10 – FAC51 – THE HACIENDA, Mayfield Depot
18/10 – Mura Masa presents Raw Youth Collage, Depot
19/10 – Adam Beyer presents Drumcode, Mayfield Depot
25/10 – WHP presents Camelphat, Mayfield Depot
26/10 – Curated by Four Tet, Mayfield Depot
02/11 – Annie Mac’s Halloween Spectacular, Mayfield Depot
08/11 – Trick, Mayfield Depot
09/11 – Homobloc Festival 2019, Mayfield Depot
13/11 – Flume, Depot
15/11 – SONNY FODERA – RISE UK TOUR, Victoria Warehouse
22/11 – Metropolis presents, Mayfield Depot
23/11 – Skepta, Depot
29/11 – Anjunabeats, Mayfield Depot
30/11 – Feel My Bicep, Mayfield Depot
05/12 – Underworld, Mayfield Depot
06/12 – Paradise, Mayfield Depot
21/12 – Fatboy Slim, Mayfield Depot
31/12 – New Years Eve at the Warehouse Project, Mayfield Depot
01/01 – New Years Day – All Day Long, Mayfield Depot

The Co-founder of the project, Sam Kandel said, “Without doubt, WHP19 has been the most challenging and exciting season to program since WHP began. As has been the case with every WHP venue that has gone before, we don’t really know how long it will be around, so our thought was that we need to make the most of it for the time it’s available.” 

The venue known as Depot, also contains two smaller venues, Archive and Concourse, set to be used for events throughout the remainder of 2019.

Fans had begun to speculate about the Twin’s (whose real name is producer Richard D. James) return a few weeks back, when a 3D version of his logo appeared on the walls of Elephant and Castle’s tube station in London. The logo also appeared in several other locations worldwide, including New York and Los Angeles.

pic.twitter.com/eZ64rd3MP5

— NTS Radio (@NTSlive) July 30, 2018

Earlier this week, the official title of the EP was unveiled by James’ record label, Warp Records.

pic.twitter.com/yO1D0JPLDj

— Warp Records (@WarpRecords) August 5, 2018

Now an official release date and a full tracklist has been revealed. An official video for ‘T69 Collapse’ had been scheduled to premier on Adult Swim, but was pulled very late in the day, after it transpired that the video had failed the Harding Test, which is designed to decide if videos may potentially cause reactions to viewers with phtosensitive epilepsy.

The tracklist for ‘Collapse’ EP is as follows, and will be released on September 14:

‘T69 Collapse’
‘1st 44’
‘MT1 t29r2’
‘abundance10edit[2 R8’s, FZ20m & a 909]’
‘pthex‘

Despite 2016’s previous EP, Aphex Twin’s last full-length project came in 2014, in the form of Syro, which itself came 13 years after 2001’s iconic LP Drukqs.

Last month, an in-depth documentary aired on BBC Radio 4, titled ‘The Cult of Aphex’ , aiming to explore the mystique and intricacies of the iconic producer, including (but not limited to) a period spent when James lived in a bank vault in the middle of the Elephant and Castle roundabout.