"Collapse EP" is an EP by British electronic music artist Richard D. James, released under his pseudonym Aphex Twin on September 14, 2018, by Warp Records. The record received universal acclaim from music critics, who praised James for returning to his signature Aphex Twin sound.
In late July 2018, stylized Aphex Twin logo posters appeared at London's Elephant and Castle station. By August, similar logos were spotted in cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, and Tokyo. Around the same time, an Amazon listing for Collapse indicated a release date of September 14, 2018.
On August 5, 2018, Warp Records issued a press release via Twitter featuring an image of a document obscured with the Aphex Twin logo. When edited, the document revealed nonsensical, rambling sentences, including phrases like "Y'wd Aphex Twin The legendary summer for this summer of love! love epoch, global phenomlomenamental," and even some words in Cornish, echoing track titles from James' 2001 album Drukqs.
The following day, August 7, Adult Swim was set to broadcast a track from Collapse but canceled due to the track's music video failing the Harding test. Later that day, the music video for "T69 collapse" was released on the Aphex Twin YouTube channel. Warp Records confirmed that the video, along with the metropolitan logo posters, was created by London-based video designer Weirdcore. Weirdcore explained to Fast Company’s DJ Pangburn that the "T69 Collapse" video involved processing collaged 3D scans of Cornwall using Transfusion.AI, an After Effects plugin that re-composes images or video based on another media's style.
Pre-orders for vinyl, CD, and cassette copies of Collapse were launched on this day via the Aphex Twin store page and online store Bleep. The music was leaked on the internet on August 13, 2018.
