Aphex Twin Caustic Window test pressing sold for $46,000
Last month, proprietors of electronic music community We Are the Music Makers successfully organized and funded a Kickstarter campaign to distribute digital copies of Aphex Twin’s unreleased 1994 album, Caustic Window. Richard James, aka Aphex Twin, had recorded the album back in the ’90s with the intent to release it under the Caustic Window alias (he has a lot of those), though it never happened. And until recently, only four people (supposedly) had a test pressing of the album on vinyl. The rarity of the album — and the built-up demand from years of being electronic music’s best-kept secret — led to an eventual sum of $67,424 being raised via the Kickstarter campaign.
An ultra-rare copy of that test pressing was put up for sale on eBay after the Kickstarter campaign, with the proceeds to be donated to charity. The auction closed after 110 bids at a maximum of $46,300, making this one insanely valuable record. We Are the Music Makers are voting on which charity will receive the proceeds.
Listen to Caustic Window below.
Jeff Terich is the founder and editor of Treble. He's been writing about music for 20 years and has been published at American Songwriter, Bandcamp Daily, Reverb, Spin, Stereogum, uDiscoverMusic, VinylMePlease and some others that he's forgetting right now. He's still not tired of it.