Anticipating SYRO the new (2014) album by Aphex Twin

yeah it definitely has the feel of dude just jamming out & enjoying himself rather than trying to make a statement or w/e

really a challop? seems to be the consensus at least with the RDJ fans i know. i've had this conversation at least a dozen times the past few weeks... "Syro? yeah, it's good, but the Caustic Window LP..."

that's bollocks

I prefer the Caustic Window release, new one hasn't grabbed me in the same way.

* cornflakes everwhere * NOT AGAIN!!?!

yeah, you need to lock that labrador out of the kitchen.

nice to see so many knowledgable music buffs chime in on this. the pitchfork boys "hit it out the park" with their review but i had to unsub fatando after taking his take on things. he didn't quite get the vibe that aphex is going for or how it reflects to the state of edm in 2014. i think this is a very musical album that "hits all the right buttons" but it's not going to be everybody's "cup of tea". but saying that it is definitely in the top 20 twins' releases, if not top 10. one for the buffs and not the casual "johnny go latelys"? go figure. but saying that this is album of the year material and i can see this being very high in the coveted lists of the year

just my $0.2

gets better and better with each listen for me, and it was excellent on first listen. Can't say the same for much recent stuff I've listened to where the returns seem to always be ever-diminishing.

minipops 67 is so sick.

anybody else hear the opening beat and chords/keyboard sound in "minipops 67" as basically pushing off from the sunny beats/keys point 3/4 of the way into window-licker? I sorta hear echoes of that, and if so, it's a savvy way to start things off, since it instantly primes you to remember one of the high-points of his back catalogue before setting out into the more Tuss-like album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBS4Gi1y_nc

I'm thinking it resembles 7:27

(people have a style / like to hit certain pleasure centers)

Yeah it's defintely a descendat of Windowlicker, which is a good thing. Got a similar mutant rnb thing going on.

XMAS_EVE alone makes this record >>>>>>> 90% AFX musical output.

ALBUM REVIEW: Aphex Twin: "Syro" reviewed by el tomboto
HEADNOTE: Wherever you see the following symbol: "λ" that means that the track basically sounds like if Aphex Twin was hired by somebody to be a content farmer for Aphex Twin music, like if you just walked up to a vending machine in Tokyo and hit "AFX" and paid ¥3000 or whatever for some music to happen to you. In other words, motherfucker phoned it in.

1. λ

2. I had to think about it for a minute but λ

3. A. Where is Drake on this? B. Oh there's some random person (not Drake). C. OK I guess we're just in the usual fuck it mode. λ-2

4. λ

5. I'm at a rave at a ren faire in a science lab next to a sketchy baltimore nightclub in the year 1997. And there is shadow magic.

6. Showing off doesn't save you from being λ. If you're going to be awesome for 52 seconds, don't hide it in six minutes of fart sounds. To reiterate, λ.

7. λ if λ meant accidentally recording a butt dial and then editing the result in garageband while soaked

8. λ

9. λ for some reason this one makes me really aggravated. It's really all showing off and no hooks at all. I know how to use computers too, you jackhole. I have a kid and a day job. Your main thing is having nothing else to do. I paid you to blow my mind a little bit. Please act like you're trying.

10. OK we're starting to get some of that karma back. At one point I rewound so I could snap my fingers during the break. and then IT ENDED. I HATE YOU.

11. This is basically your first album schtick with breaks and acid sounds from fourteen years ago. Give me a reason to care. No? OK. λ

12. slow pianos.

DO NOT BUY THIS RECORD. THE APHEX TWIN HAS DECIDED THAT WE ARE ALL JOKES. DO NOT GIVE HIM MONEY. THE END.

fuck off

Yours truly

tombot fantano

Whatever the title is on track 5, go for that. The rest, you can make it at home for $1 with "Figure" available on iPhone and iPad, and some appliances, and maybe if you can't sing, you can do it all. Music is awesome, just think twice before you pay for it! BTW check out Kirlian for something better. When you're ready.

argle bargle generic hardman nihilism goes here

good.. job?

i'm syro

one could play "2002 blog dork's IDM album review" bingo w/ that post

anybody else hear the opening beat and chords/keyboard sound in "minipops 67" as basically pushing off from the sunny beats/keys point 3/4 of the way into window-licker? I sorta hear echoes of that, and if so, it's a savvy way to start things off, since it instantly primes you to remember one of the high-points of his back catalogue before setting out into the more Tuss-like album

yeah, definitely feeling a sort of toned-down windowlicker residue (in accordance w/(chap)).. before Syro, when it was known as "the Manchester track," i didn't make the association. it seemed like a natural progression of Tuss-like music into prettier terrain, its similarity to Windowlicker wasn't so obvious. now i hear traces of xmd5a (analord 10) in minipops, and there's a lush piano bit that recalls SAW II. it's a weird sort of composite. kinda miffed that the kicks and snares are so 'hot'-sounding, as it seemed like this track had more elegance about it originally, as XMAS_EVET10 has. feels like they wanted it to sound more hard-hitting, when it's not that 'hard' of a track. curious about the sound of the vinyl, as the whole album is mastered by the fellow (Beau?) who did minipops on the cd, where the rest of the tracks on the cd were done by some Mandy character.

windowlicker residue, ewww...

one could play "2002 blog dork's IDM album review" bingo w/ that post

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_images/130315_iraqslide%20Mission%20Accomplished.jpg

it's funny I read the most hilarious post by you like two days ago and i was like "where's tombot?"

and here you are!

I am taking an offspring to school tomorrow. time is nuts

time flies when you're having fun

i remember listening to an el tomboto song once and thinking "not good. probably still a fan of ender's game."

well crafted. not liking my trax? ok, I don't like a lot of them either. still a fan of ender's game? FEEL BADS

what i wanted to say was being incredibly braggy about your job and kid doesn't help your music criticism or music, sadly, it does make you sound like chris ott though.

"i am taking an offspring to school tomorrow" hardly reads as braggy about your kid unless "i am having a sandwich" is braggy about your gastronomy?

tombot be not proud

tombot is a man's man, it's what makes him so great

Tombot the only way out is to refuse to take your kid to school

90k w/ bennies, how u living son

tombot can u do a similar review for drukqs plzzzz

5. I'm at a rave at a ren faire in a science lab next to a sketchy baltimore nightclub in the year 1997. And there is shadow magic.

lmao

to be fair, that is the least inspired track on the album... possibly of his career to date.

actual review:

http://forum.watmm.com/topic/85015-aphex-twin-syro-alcofribas-review/

Is the "Anticipating SYRO the new (2014) album by Aphex Twin" thread on ILM a cold, dead place?

killed by old ilx

I need to spend more time with this album but I've still not managed to get it onto my laptop. :-/

this is a great record

I don't get tombot's review, because it is obviously not at all a phoned in record, it's artisan & fussed over and all polished considered angles. for me the appeal of his 90's stretch was exactly how slapdash & effortless it seemed, so many of his early tracks seemed like live mixdowns, and even when he got into microediting by Hangable, he was still evolving his soundset faster than everyone else. then a three year pause, during which time many people moved entirely to software and techno really blossomed into weirdness & total abstraction -- when he came back, it was with something micro-edited and sweated over, but kind of acid-retro in sound, and the knives came out from all the quarters who felt like the guy had been sneering at them over his shoulder for a decade

Syro's chords & melodies are more present than on Chosen or Tuss, and his tunings are always his secret weapon, and I'm middle aged now and can totally appreciate a record that consolidates instead of piledrives

the level of curlicued intricacy and precision on syro might just be the sort of watershed that allows him to go to more freeform material

some of those cruder analord tracks are among his best work, he has the sort of talent that can apply itself to simple process tracks or refined heavily edited windowlicker/'xmas evet' types of things with equal success

did he ever have a three year pause?

between rdj album and drukqs?

windowlicker to drukqs was a pause during a very busy three years. if you want major label signposts, the same period as LP5 to Confield, though there was a mountain of abstract techno that paved the way for Confield -- I could name my favorite 5-6 artists but there'd be 40-60 others, taking in shows here in SF felt like riding the edge of a wave.

xp it's funny, I like the dense Syro tracks but the most instantly likable thing for me is still 180db, which sounds like the closest thing to a livemix

that was slightly before my time although ive always felt the compression of formal/technical 'progress' to be particularly acute then

what are you thinking of in terms of confield precursors

drukqs sounds like it took several years to make, don't know if that period of time would qualify as a pause.

syro is packed with great moments, it's difficult to really digest in one sitting. i've got a similar misgiving with the 'title' track, it feels sorta showboat/lacking tunefulness for the first half, then gets melodically interesting with its progression. definitely have warmed to the 2nd to last (squarepusher-y/ceephax-like?) track, which seemed to meander a lot at first. where the melodies once seemed haphazard, they've taken hold in a pleasant way. PAPAT4 never gets old

Windowlicker to Drukqs is only a couple of years, it's the same gap as between Come To Daddy and Windowlicker and it contains a lot of material. Obviously both of these period are a big gap for a dude who was knocking out at least an album's worth of music a year for most of the 90s, and usually completely different from what preceded it at that.

Hmm.... I feel like a terrible terrible person for sating this but I sort of slightly agree with tombot's post. It's not that I don't appreciate the artisanship that went into this record, it's just that I find myself forcing myself to put it on. And even when I do, I get through a side and switch it off. Maybe it's something to do with the Autechre poll happening around the same time as Syro and getting engrossed again in their sound, but I dunno.... This one is a fine listen. There's nothing explicitly wrong with it, I just feel a similar way to this as I do to Campfire Headphase or Scintilli or other latter-period Warp acts who released records that sounded like a good-but-nothing-new crystallisation of their sound. The idea of Aphex-by-number's just doesn't compute in my world, and while many might be very satisfied by this - a polished, familiar sound; a welcome return to form- I just can't pretend that that's what I'd been holding out for, especially in light of all the electronic music that has come out within his sabbatical period. I mean, the prospect of listening to the new Objekt album appeals to me more than Syro - a fact i just can't fathom right now. Maybe in a few months I'll get to hear Syro with less eager ears and appreciate it for what it is, but for now it feels like work as opposed to something I get super excited about listening to.