Robert_Sofa Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 Didn't see this posted already. Very interesting... *Emphasis mine https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/watmmofficial/cat023-caustic-window-own-the-legendary-record-by http://www.discogs.com/Caustic-Window-Caustic-Window-LP/release/482493 Back in 1994, there were plans of releasing a full LP of music from Richard D. James, aka The Aphex Twin, under his "Caustic Window" moniker on his own label, Rephlex Records. This album unfortunately never saw the light of day until around 1999, when Mike Paradinas (aka µ-Ziq) granted a rare interview with the Aphex Twin fansite, joyrex.com (no longer active). In the interview, Mike described the tracks in detail, and went on to explain that only 4 people at the time were known to have a vinyl test pressing of the album - Richard James, Chris Jeffs (aka Cylob), Grant Wilson-Claridge (co-founder of Rephlex Records) and Mike himself. Each person was sworn to never make copies of the music, and for 20 years, not a single track had ever been commercially released (with the exception of two tracks that appeared on compilations). Until now. Fast forward to 2014, when a mysterious seller listed the album on the music website Discogs for sale at a high asking price. We Are The Music Makers, aka WATMM.com, which succeeded joyrex.com as the web's premiere source for electronic music, discussed the possibility of this "holy grail" of electronic music releases finally seeing the light of day, albeit from unfortunately leaking online once a buyer had obtained it. Jokingly, the suggestion that the WATMM community band together and "crowdfund" purchasing the album was made, and I began to ponder the possibility - could we band together and purchase the legendary non-release? Of course, the main issue with doing such a thing is distribution - individuals (even lots of individuals) don't have the right to copy and distribute music they don't have the rights to - then, an idea came to me - why not raise the funds for the record, buy it, then strike a deal with the record label to purchase the rights for everyone who chipped in a digital copy of the tracks? A few emails later, and such a deal had been struck - the label and Richard James himself agreed to offer one-time distribution rights so the people contributing to this Kickstarter would have a once-in-a-lifetime to own tracks from arguably one of the rarest electronic music (non) releases of all time (and some damn fine music too). So, with official blessings from Richard James and Rephlex Records, if you contribute 16.00 USD (little under 10.00 GBP or around 11.20 EUR) and become one of the only people legally allowed to own a digital copy of the famed Caustic Window LP ripped straight from the vinyl in a lossless audio format that we will as a community vote and decide on. It's a superb way to support the artist by legally purchasing something you will never get to purchase otherwise - Rephlex has no plans and will not press this record commercially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_Sofa Posted April 12, 2014 Author Share Posted April 12, 2014 I'm wondering who the hell will get to keep the actual disc if/when this goes through (it looks like the funding has already been achieved) I would hope some music archive or somewhere where people can rent it out and listen to it on site, like how they do with some rare and old books at archival libraries... remains to be seen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeTerrain Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 16 dollars for a digital copy? that seems very very steep... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexH. Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 I am sure that the people who contributed money to the Kickstarter will be the only ones to hear it, it is incredibly difficult to find content on the internet once the official source has made it unavailable for sale. Derek™ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satan Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
achillesstand7 Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 I think this is pretty cool. It will obviously be leaked after the kickstarter downloads go out. But I'm happy to pay $16 to hear a "lost" Aphex Twin album. To each their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 I feel like Richard already has enough music out there to last lifetimes. I'll check this out but he already has a trillion releases I will never get to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deletedunknown Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 Wow, this thing has become stupid from when I last saw it. whoever is running the kickstarter is making bank and getting a ridiculously rare record for it by the contributor total now. If the files don't end up spreading somehow from at least one of the 2000 people backing it, I'll be surprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jase Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 I would laugh so unbelievably hard if the discogs listing is fake, or just some other random record that's been mislabeled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eight1echo Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 Guy running the kickstarter is probably the same guy selling the record on discogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cats Are Cool Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 So im curious now that he has delisted the item, what did the seller on Discogs list the price as? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 It was originally listed as $13,500. For those confused the person who started the kickstarter is not pocketing the $$ or the record. Some is going direct to RDJ, some to charity and some to the person who put it up on discogs. The record itself will go on Ebay. All the details can be found here: http://forum.watmm.com/topic/82975-the-caustic-window-lp-cat023-kickstarter-faq-live-now/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyrobotty Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 This is probably the dumbest Kickstarter that I've seen to date. Why not just sell the digital files on a different site where they could keep all the money? If there is going to be a KS why not offer some kind of physical good that can't be pirated the same day the downloads are released? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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