Cheetah (EP)

Cheetah
The cover artwork for Cheetah, an extended play by the electronic musician Aphex Twin.
EP by Aphex Twin
Released 8 July 2016 (2016-07-08)
Genre Techno[1]
Length 33:49
Label Warp
Producer Richard D James
Aphex Twin chronology
Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2
(2015)		 Cheetah
(2016)

Cheetah is an extended play by the British electronic musician Richard D. James, released under the pseudonym Aphex Twin on 8 July 2016 on Warp.[2] The name is a reference to Cheetah Marketing, a British manufacturer of microcomputer peripherals and electronic musical instruments in the 1980s (such as the MS800 namechecked in two of the EP's track titles).

Release

In 2015, Richard D. James uploaded several tracks with names like "Cheetah3 Teac" and "CHEETAHT7" to his SoundCloud 'user18081971' account; these have since been removed.[3]

A flyer teasing the EP release was sent to various record shops in the UK in early June 2016. The flyer parodies the luxurious writing style of 1970s adverts.[4][5] The album was announced on 9 June, with James tweeting a link to a website for the EP.[2][6]

The Cheetah EP was made available on vinyl, CD, cassette and a digital download in various digital formats, including MP3, WAV and FLAC.[7]

It was later revealed that mastered versions of the Soundcloud tracks, "Cheetah3 Teac" and "CHEETAHT7", would appear on the EP as "CIRKLON3 [Колхозная mix]" and "CHEETAHT7b", respectively.

A video for "CIRKLON3 [ Колхозная mix ]" was released on 21 June. The video was James' first since the Chris Cunningham-directed video for "Windowlicker" in 1999 and was directed by 12-year-old Ryan Wyer. James and Warp commissioned Wyer to direct the video after James discovered Wyer's "epic1:40d Gaming" YouTube channel.[8]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic74/100[9]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Consequence of SoundB[10]
Exclaim!6/10[11]
NME3/5[12]
Pitchfork Media8.2/10[13]
PopMatters8/10[14]
Pretty Much AmazingB+[15]
Spin7/10[16]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Cheetah received an average score of 74, based on 11 reviews.[9] Writing for Exclaim!, Daryl Keating gave the album muted praise, calling it "fine but unremarkable, especially when pitted against the behemoths of his back catalogue."[17]

Track listing

All tracks written Richard D James.[18]

No. Title Length
1. "CHEETAHT2 [Ld spectrum]"   5:53
2. "CHEETAHT7b"   6:43
3. "CHEETA1b ms800"   0:27
4. "CHEETA2 ms800"   0:37
5. "CIRKLON3 [Колхозная mix]"   8:13
6. "CIRKLON 1"   7:17
7. "2X202-ST5"   4:39
Total length:
 33:49

"2X202-ST5" is on the CD, cassette and digital download editions, and included as a download available with the vinyl and cassette editions.[6]

Credits

Credits adapted from Cheetah liner notes[18]

Charts

Chart (2016) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[19] 63
Irish Albums (IRMA)[20] 48
Italian Albums (FIMI)[21] 97
New Zealand Heatseekers Albums (RMNZ)[22] 5
Scottish Albums (OCC)[23] 11
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[24] 63
UK Albums (OCC)[25] 14
US Billboard 200[26] 140
US Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[27] 1

References

  1. 1 2 Simpson, Paul. "Cheetah - Aphex Twin". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 July 2016. Similar to the Analord EP series, 2016's Cheetah contains some of Richard D. James' most stripped-down techno tracks.
  2. 1 2 "Aphex Twin Announces New EP Cheetah". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "Aphex Twin's Cheetah EP Appears Imminent". Stereogum.com. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  4. ↑ "Aphex Twin teases new EP 'Cheetah'". Nme.com. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  5. ↑ "Aphex Twin Cheetah EP Teased". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  6. 1 2 "New Product information: Cheetah EP". Cheetah-ep.com. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  7. ↑ "Aphex Twin - Cheetah EP - Warp - Bleep". Bleep.com. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  8. ↑ Twells, John. "Watch Aphex Twin's new video, directed by a 12-year-old". Factmag.com. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Cheetah [EP]". Metacritic. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  10. ↑ Bray, Ryan (8 July 2016). "Aphex Twin - Cheetah EP". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  11. ↑ Keating, Daryl (7 July 2016). "Aphex Twin Cheetah". Exclaim!. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  12. ↑ Pattison, Louis (5 July 2016). "Aphex Twin - 'Cheetah' Review". Nme.com. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  13. ↑ Sherburne, Phillip (7 July 2016). "Aphex Twin: Cheetah Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  14. ↑ Gu, Marshall (14 July 2016). "Aphex Twin Cheetah". PopMatters. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  15. ↑ "Review: Aphex Twin, Cheetah EP". Prettymuchamazing.com. Retrieved 2016-07-08.
  16. ↑ Weiss, Dan (July 2016). "Review: With 'Cheetah,' Aphex Twin Isn't Just Back, He's Prolific Again". Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  17. ↑ "Aphex Twin Cheetah". Exclaim!. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  18. 1 2 Cheetah [sleeve] (Media notes). Aphex Twin. Warp. WAP391.
  19. ↑ "CHART WATCH #377". auspOp. 16 July 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  20. ↑ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 28, 2016". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  21. ↑ "Album – Classifica settimanale WK 28 (dal 2016-07-08 al 2016-07-15)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  22. ↑ "NZ Heatseekers Albums Chart". Recorded Music NZ. 18 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  23. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  24. ↑ "[EP&cat=a Swisscharts.com – Aphex Twin – Cheetah [EP]"]. Hung Medien. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  25. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  26. ↑ "Aphex Twin – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Aphex Twin. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  27. ↑ "Aphex Twin – Chart history" Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums for Aphex Twin. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
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