Proving our theory that Aphex Twin fans are, on the whole, insanely rich people who use his glitchy electronics to score their champagne orgies, a copy of 1994’s unreleased Caustic Window has sold on eBay for $46,300. The piece of vinyl—recorded under one of many of Richard D. James’ aliases—is believed to exist solely in the form of a handful test pressings, one of which surfaced earlier this year first on Discogs (where it was being offered for the relative bargain of $13,500), then via a Kickstarter campaign launched by electronic music forum We Are The Music Makers. It sought to release Caustic Window in 500 digital copies, but only after the physical copy was auctioned off, James and Rephlex Records got a third of the proceeds as royalty, another third was split among the Kickstarter contributors/idle rich Aphex Twin fans who’d donated $67,424, and the final third went to charity.
This month, digital copies were sent out to the 4,124 people who’d donated $16 or more to hear it—and, of course, another copy was uploaded to YouTube, for the people who just sat here, waiting for someone else to pony up before it inevitably ended up on the Internet for free. And after 100 bids, the physical vinyl is now in the hands of Markus “Notch” Persson, designer of the incredibly popular—and profitable—Minecraft video game. Indeed, the hours you and your kids have spent playing it have made it so Persson, a longtime Aphex Twin fan, can think nothing of spending $46,300 on an album, because he’s rolling in block-money.
“[Persson]’s a really cool guy, and didn’t even consider the charity aspect when buying it (but was really happy to hear that half is going to charity) – he’s been an Aphex fan since he was young,” writes “Joyrex,” the man behind the original Kickstarter campaign. “My daughter was blown away that the guy who made the game she endlessly plays bought a record off her dad for 46K.” All other Aphex Twin fans will just have to find something else to blow their vast reserves of disposable income on.