Cheetah (EP)

Cheetah is an extended play record by the electronic music artist and producer Aphex Twin. It was released on 8 July 2016 on Warp.^[6] 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).

Cheetah
EP by Aphex Twin
Released	8 July 2016 (2016-07-08)
Genre	Techno[1] IDM[2] acid techno[3]
Length	33:49
Label	Warp
Producer	Richard D James
Aphex Twin chronology
Orphaned Deejay Selek 2006–08 (2015) Cheetah (2016) Collapse EP (2018)
Singles from Cheetah
"CIRKLON3 [Колхозная mix]" Released: 21 June 2016[4] "CHEETAHT7b" Released: 1 July 2016[5]

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.^[7]

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.^[8][9] The album was announced on 9 June, with James tweeting a link to a website for the EP.^[6][10]

The Cheetah EP was made available on vinyl, CD, cassette and a digital download in various digital formats, including MP3, WAV and FLAC.^[11]

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 "Ryan Wyer" YouTube channel.^[12]

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	74/100[13]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Consequence of Sound	B[14]
Exclaim!	6/10[15]
Louder than War	8/10[16]
NME	[17]
Pitchfork	8.2/10[18]
PopMatters	8/10[19]
Release Magazine	6/10[20]
Spin	7/10[21]
Tom Hull - on the Web	B+ ()[22]

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.^[13] 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".^[23]

Accolades

Accolades for Cheetah

Publication	Accolade	Year	Rank	Ref.
Pitchfork	The 20 Best Electronic Albums of 2016	2016	—	[24]

Track listing

All tracks were written & produced by Richard D. James.^[25]

Cheetah track listing

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

aphextwin.warp.net 2018 bonus track

No.	Title	Length
8.	"CIRKLON3 (concentrate edit)"	2:37
Total length:		36:26

• "2X202-ST5" is contained on the CD, cassette and digital download editions and is included as a download available with the vinyl editions.^[10]

Personnel

Credits adapted from Cheetah liner notes^[25]

• Richard D. James – producer, writer
• Beau Thomas – mastering
• The Designers Republic – artwork

Charts

Chart performance for Cheetah

Chart (2016)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[26]	63
Irish Albums (IRMA)[27]	48
Italian Albums (FIMI)[28]	97
New Zealand Heatseeker Albums (RMNZ)[29]	5
Scottish Albums (OCC)[30]	11
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[31]	63
UK Albums (OCC)[32]	14
US Billboard 200[33]	140
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[34]	1