Aphex Twin announces album over anonymous browser Tor

19 Aug 2014

Musician and DJ Aphex Twin. Image via Wikimedia Commons

Irish-born musician and enigmatic DJ Aphex Twin has released details of his first album in 13 years – that are only accessible through the Tor anonymous browser.

Described as the portal into the murky world of the ‘deep web’ where illegal activities free of government snooping can be done, Tor’s popularity with web users has grown tenfold in the last two years, with revelations surrounding the US National Security Agency (NSA), as well as its ability to bypass government-controlled websites on the traditional internet.

Now, Aphex Twin – or going by his real name, Richard James – decided to simply post a link on his Twitter account that while capable of being accessed through mainstream browsers would not reveal his album’s track list and song titles unless it was accessed through Tor.

The track list that appeared on the link posted by Aphex Twin

According to The Guardian, when Tor users followed the link, they were presented with Aphex Twin’s familiar logo along with the track listing that resembled something more akin to source code, rather than an official release.

This is not the first piece of marketing that he has done for the new album. In the past week, a blimp featuring the Aphex Twin logo has been spotted flying around London, while graffiti also bearing the logo has appeared on streets across the city.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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