10 iconic Aphex Twin moments
Blimps! Female bodybuilders! The deep web!
Anonymously dropping 200 unreleased demos on Soundcloud
A year after the ‘Syro’ release, James was clearly not done screwing with people on the internet. user48736353001 quickly ammassed a large number of followers after it went viral that the account might belong to James. It was later deleted, but he came back with 8user48736353001 and a whole bunch more tracks, some dating back to the '80s and '90s. Again, he removed the account but not before the page momentarily read “I AM NOT RICHARD” and a link to a YouTube channel containing all of the demos.
Basically lying about everything
At the core of Aphex Twin’s legacy is that, potentially, all the stories are bullshit. Fans have always tried to find reason to James’ rhyme and everything is handled with such a cultish, mysterious fervour. Does he really have a dead brother? Did he really remix a Craig David track just to annoy him? Did he really live in the middle of the Elephant & Castle roundabout? Did he really play with sandpaper at a club night? No, but that didn’t stop a fan selling it on eBay for $232. In his own words to The Guardian, "I'm just some irritating, lying, ginger kid from Cornwall who should have been locked up in some youth detention centre. I just managed to escape and blag it into music." The joke is probably on everyone else.
