The remote user48736353001, aka Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, yesterday posted his first SoundCloud track in two months. It was #174 in his account’s feed, and of course the question lingered whether the dam was about to break again.
We have a partial answer. In the past 24 hours, another pair of tracks appeared. “36 Shroommdot [miCro3] [8th dimension transmission]” is an expansive piece, at over 20 minutes perhaps the longest in the user48736353001 account. It’s an apparent improvisation of rangy sounds, tea-kettle whines and morphy noises and shrill waves. It sounds less like a “track” than much of what he’s posted, and more like a free-form run-through of a range of different tools and techniques. In contrast, the brief — well, relatively compact, at 6:24 minutes — “25 rogphlange 1” places a backbeat behind a select number of such sounds, rendering it more approachable, attractively abrasive. Both tracks are from the 1990s, “rogphlange” listed as “199?” and “Shroommdot” as “1993.”
None of the past 24 hours’ three uploads falls into the ambient category that made 10 user48736353001 tracks fit into the Selected Ambient Works Volume 3 (Beta) playlist I’ve put together.
Check out “36 Shroommdot [miCro3] [8th dimension transmission]” and “25 rogphlange 1” on their respective SoundCloud pages.
I can’t help but think that most commenters would not care about some of these tracks were the account not associated with AT.
It’s true for everything. Lots of people show up for comic book movies who never read the book, and think buying an iPad makes them a “geek.” So be it. Best to just enjoy what you enjoy. To each their delusion. Thanks for listening.