Caustic Window – Caustic Window LP

So the story goes …. Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin decided to release his album under the alias "Caustic Window." However, he decided to abandon the project when only five copies were pressed.
Luckily, one copy escaped the destruction and appeared in 2014 on Discogs. The asking price was $13,500. The vinyl copy was sold on eBay for $46,300, Minecraft creator Markus Persson bought the lucky copy.

Looking for a vinyl copy in the Uk. Ping me if you’re selling.

Bought a copy today and I'm totally fine with this bootleg. Sounds just as I expected it to be and it came in a nice looking black sleeve with AFX logo.

hmu up if you want a copy At least 10 words must be entered. Please enter at least 3 more.

Sides B and D are waaaaay off center on my copy. I had to extend both center holes over quite a bit to get those sides to play without the pitch warbling. Other than that the edges are sharp and there's some noise but the overall sound quality is able.

Serge from Clone.nl seems to be in possession of a copy

https://www.discogs.sitioby.com/digs/collecting/dj-serge-rare-records/

Someone please update the listing

clear NM copy in the US. DM me if interested

Description 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day until around 1999, when Mike Paradinas (aka µ-Ziq) granted a rare interview with the Aphex Twin fansite,joyrex.com (no longer active).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 the artist by legally purchasing something you will never get to purchase otherwise - Rephlex has no plans and will not press this record commercially.Be a part of this unique opportunity and show your hardcore fan for Richard's music and own some awesome electronic music!The Kickstarter was a resounding success, and now is your chance to own one of the most rare and expensive records in history!More info: http://www.discogs.sitioby.com/Caustic-Window-Caustic-Window-LP/release/482493A portion of this auction will be going to charity, as chosen by the WATMM community: http://forum.watmm.com/topic/83473-time-to-choose-which-charity-will-get-half-the-proceeds-from-the-ebay-auction-of-cat023/PLEASE NOTE: Grant @ Rephlex HQ has the record in his possession, and he will be shipping it out to the winner from the UK - we will you in regards to how it will be shipped, insurance, etc. once the auction ends. Please me if you have any questions. On Jun-19-14 at 14:21:48 PDT, seller added the following information: Just so there is no confusion about the sale of this record: No rights of duplication, public performance or distribution are given or implied. This is simply the sale of a very rare, very famous second-hand record for private consumption.

Im actually really pleasantly surprised how good this sounds when you consider its the birth child from a recording of the original vinyl being played and then recorded digitally and then pressed onto a vinyl.

With that it mind, its never going to be full and dynamic sounding as an original pressing but as someone else mentioned it really doesnt sound that different from some of the other early AFX / Caustic Window releases that i own. It sounds slightly compressed but not too lo-fi, overall the reduction in quality doesnt take too much away from listening experience at all whatsoever.

The actual pressing itself there are a few snap crackle and pops but nothing major. My second LP the hole is slightly off centre so the needle travels a bit !

But basically if you're reading this then you already know its an absolutely WICKED album, and as an AFX obsessive myself I personally would much rather own and be able to listen to this album at say 70% quality than not at all :) Is this this bootleg worth £50? Not in the normal world no, but in the parallel universe that is Discogs Aphex Twin Collectors World its basically in the bargain bin. :)

Originally sent to joyrex.com on 14 Sept 1999:

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This was an email that was sent to me (Joyrex) about the rumored "CAT023" a white label Caustic Window album that Rich has had done for about 3 years now. What follows is Bowgie's description of the album, as he is one of four (4) people who have the album. It is rumored that Bowgie is actually Mu-ziq (aka Mike Paradinas). This has not been confirmed. A full tracklisting is impossible since it's a white label.

There are no titles: Untitled.

It has hand written labels by RDJ:

SIDE 1 in black marker pen: "CAUSTIC WINDOW LP 33 1/3 SIDE A REPHLEX" in the run out groove: "CAT 023-A1 A PORKY PRIME CUT":

There are two tracks on side A,
the first is a subtle melodic grower, with hi q's; pianoish DX sounds & woodwind type synths.nice but not very immediate.

Track 2 is *much* more like it: Industrial type drums straight out of J5 and the catchiest afx acid line (not 303). Builds and builds with pad sounds & percessive held chords in a spooky fashion.

SIDE 2 Same hand written info except it says: "SIDE B" in black marker pen and in the run out groove it's the same but says side "L"5 Tracks on B:

Track 1) called "muttley" by Richard.It features samples from "dastardly & Muttley"(Wacky Races Cartoon) starting off with Dastardly shouting "Muttley!" then Muttley the dog going "RashingFrashingWrarraFrarraWrash". Other samples: A girl speaking: "You know I don't even know why you bother talking" and the track ends with "what an utterly fantastical journey" (unknown sample) As regards to the music, it starts with a monophonic synth line doing a percussive riff up 4 notes, ed by another sound a few bars later. Then the drums kick in. Bass and snare from Phloam, sort of metallic guiro and clangs from Schottkey. Halfway through an orchestral string chords sample comes in, and the girl speaking sample appears. It's a great track, very SAW85-92 in period.

Track 2) Happy, jolly little track with high pitched bell-like hihats acid sounds and long square wave bass note. Random dat glitches spice up the percussion. The melody comes from the interplay of tuned bass drum & tuned metal hihats.

Track3) Wow!This is a treat for fans of SOSW. Starts with Roland R8 hihats, then a marimba melody & the BD Kikkz in with an acidicish line.marimba fades in again. Then a BB1 DX pad in 5ths (lots of reverb) makes it fuckin lush. Drum break then the track restarts with stabs from Audax powder, then acid & marimba. Track ends wth drums.

Track 4) My favourite: Noisey drum loops (Tuned white noise?) acid pokes. Bass drum from Hedphelym or the B-sides to ABB2. Also odd bell like High melodies & metallic sampled melodies! very odd track.

Track 5) Tribal bongos, Quoth Bd kik & "a,aphex-a,aphex"samples. About 1 min. long.

SIDE 3 Handwritten on label: "CW LP side C" and in the run out groove it says; "THIRD REICH VETERANS WILL NOT VICTORY WAR PARADE. CAT 023 -01" 4 tracks

Track 1) Very simple synth melody & 4/4 kik drum / snare ed later by emotional sounding soft detuned string notes. Hihats and hi Q's later and lo-bandwidth metallic samples.

Track 2) A very early track.One of the 1st he did. Childish squeaky acid line. Crap piano riff. Redeemed by lush strings & reverb on certain drum sounds,which might have indicated Here was a future talent.

Track 3) Square wave bassline, melodic held acid line, R8 drums. Simple lovely very Aphex.

Track 4) Jazz fusion aphex! Drum sounds similar to Gak. Sounds like Gak in fact except for a low farting bass and muted jazzy piano riff & overlaid solos.

SIDE 4 "CAUSTIC WINDOW LP . side D" handwritten in black on label in runout groove:"CAT 023 - G1 A PORKY PRIME CUT " 5 tracks

Track 1) An ambient track. This was a reject from SAW85-92 and is unspeakably lovely. A monophonic synth weaves around soft flutes to devastating effect. The synth filter opens & closes to emphasise the riff at certain times, & the flute goes freestyle towards the end. Metallic percussion invades the song at times complementing the groovy momentum gathered by the main riff.

Track 2) This is Phlaps off the criminal justice bill comp. [Totem Records – TTPLP 005 / TTPCD 005]

Track 3) This is Cunt off TEX 3 [Label: Volume – teex lp 3 / teex cd 3]

Track 4) This is a phone call between Mixmaster Morris & Scanner [Morris Gould, Robin Rimbaud]. Richard got 2 phones, rang them both (one to Morris, one to Scanner) and luckily they both answered simultaneously. What follows is very funny. Both Morris & Robin think each other has initiated the call and confusion reigns. This increases as a third voice enters the fray (RDJ). Eventually they recognise him as Richard: "If you put the phone down your gonna die.. "

Track 5) Same trick between Chris Jeffs & Mike Paradinas. This time Cylob figures it out straight away but the funniest bit is where he says "I think Richard wants us to talk to each other", to which Mike replies "Oh great... " track (& album) ends.

You can post this info on the joyrex site (is that you?) or wherever. I promised Richard not to let anyone have copies. I stick to that.

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