Anticipating SYRO the new (2014) album by Aphex Twin

Here's a playlist I put together of the most "ambient" of the material he's posted:

https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/aphex-twin-saw-iii-beta

guhh i mean i've only made it up to the hangable auto bulb outtakes from the first round of uploads but.. after several listens there's way more than just 1 cd worth of goodness there, imo. it's some good old fashioned 90s aphex twin. plenty of stuff that's up there with my favorites of his (suzanne, 2tone, martin's car, sam's car, the donkey rhubarb remix, with my family, no cares, high hats tune....)

I've made this into a monthly Aphex album club, living with each volume before burning the next. I'm up to album three, the ordering is wayward/alphabetical, but.

Just noticed a link to this mix by Carlos Souffront on today's RA Podcast

The first time we'd ever heard of Carlos Souffront was in 2006, when Derek Plaslaiko was encouraging us to book him for our first 3/03 acid party (alongside Mark Verbos). Derek would not shut up about a party in Detroit where Carlos just played Aphex Twin (and his many aliases) vinyl all night long and demolished the place. So it only followed that we should invite him to play an all acid set on 3/03. Carlos of course was phenomenal that night and has been a regular guest at The Bunker ever since. Earlier this year, when Aphex Twin began uploading a seemingly endless stream of unreleased tracks to Soundcloud, it was Derek once again who called us and said: you HAVE to ask Carlos do a mix of this stuff for The Bunker Podcast. Carlos obliged and did this mix for us live in one take (after a surprise practice session on RBMA radio). Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/thebunkerny/the-bunker-podcast-98-carlos-souffront

Carlos is a super solid dude and DJ. He was one of a few people in Detroit playing anything melodic during the minimal craze.

New AFX:

@AphexTwin
AFX • ‘orphaned deejay selek 2006-2008’ released 21 August on Warp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CI5vPT8UMAAcp96.jpg

nice cover.

1 serge fenix Rendered 2 4:45 AFX
2 dmx acid test 1:17 AFX
3 oberheim blacet1b 2:26 AFX
4 bonus EMT beats 6:09 AFX
5 simple slamming b 2 3:25 AFX
6 midi pipe1c sds3time cube/klonedrm 1:42 AFX
7 NEOTEKT72 3:16 AFX
8 r8m neotek beat 3:51 AFX

1 serge fenix Rendered 2             4:45 AFX  
2 dmx acid test                      1:17 AFX
3 oberheim blacet1b                  2:26 AFX
4 bonus EMT beats                    6:09 AFX
5 simple slamming b 2                3:25 AFX
6 midi pipe1c sds3time cube/klonedrm 1:42 AFX
7 NEOTEKT72                          3:16 AFX
8 r8m neotek beat                    3:51 AFX

i miss memorable aphex track titles...

http://www.factmag.com/2015/07/22/aphex-twin-upload-loads-more-old-tapes-soundcloud/

jeez dude

Meanwhile, Aphex fans are helping RDJ compile a possible future release by ranking their 30 favourite tracks from the 200-plus he uploaded to SoundCloud earlier this year.

nice!

The voting tool that is also up that RDJ is gonna use to put a comp togetgher was made by my mate xf from WATMM. He's been speaking directly with RDJ about it which is neat as.

Isn't there already a forgotten tapes thing coming out? Yes, end of Aug. Is this different?

Not that I won't happily buy them all given his recent generosity...

That comp is going to rule. I listen to these tracks randomly and I think it's like 15% brilliant, 35% okay, and 50% crap/unfinished, but the good stuff is as good as anything else he's done

Still very amused by all this, I always thought that whole "I have 300+ unreleased tracks that I'm too lazy to put out" line was just fan-baiting, what a boss this guy is

it's overload for me. i've had the initial splurt of tracks on my phone for weeks now but i've barely taken the time to listen to them properly.

yeah, been going at it slowly.. just follow him on soundcloud, some of the stronger tracks (cheetah3 Teac, 5 7z, pretend analog, 14 Cornish Spreek5b, ibiza spliff, 24 Tsim), are near the top of the heap. it's definitely too much to process at once, but if you let em trickle in, it's nice. those are some of my favorites, though i've not really listened to the bulk of the load yet.

Part of it is because i think those initial tracks must have been made at least 2 decades ago, so while they're historically interesting as artefacts, they're not THAT interesting to me as a listener. i'm much more up for hearing what he's been up to from the druqks era onwards, and possibly more recently. Sad to say Syro has failed to move me - I bought the vinyl, I tried and tried to get into it but it just hasn't clicked in any way. Part of me thinks it's just down to my tastes having changed since he went away, but i'm not so sure; Syro just didn't seem to have that mischief sparkle or maverick disobedience I used to like about his work.

The other thing is just the track titles. Same with Autechre in the last ten years. As the track titles get more and more impenetrable, so too it gets harder for me to differentiate my favourites. Maybe that's the point - Exai (by Ae), for instance, has highlights, but their work has turned into more of a hard drive lucky-dip. Whack everything into a playlist, hit shuffle, and see what comes out.

Agree with the above re. Syro. I have never fully engaged with it.

That's a good point about the track titles. For Aphex at least the titles would be funny or utterly unique in some way - the small photos on SAWII, the anagrams of "Aphex Twin" on I Care..., the math equation, the computer virus names on Analord (which I thought was truly clever). Ae is pretty obnoxious with it.

Will need to spin Syro again - probably was my most listened-to of 2014, though tbh a lot of that time was kinda spent trying to figure out how much I like it - like Daft Punk's RAM there's a lot of baggage attached to a release like that, and it's neither obviously great nor obviously bad, and if nothing else both these albums sound incredible. But outside of "minipops" and "180 db" I don't remember much of it!

Metz track is the one for me, like a late-career statement of purpose

4 bit, papat4, and the 'earth portal mix' track are enduring favorites, as well as the metz track. the earth portal mix (2nd to last track) especially, there's a lot to chew on.

Never really got into Syro, nothing really stands out for me on that album. I did enjoy the EP he released early this year quite a bit (which seems to have been mostly forgotten since the huge dump of unreleased tracks has come shortly afterward), it makes me optimistic about what he's going to do in the future.

I only gave Syro a proper listen about a fortnight ago and I flat out loved it tbh, one of his best.

At first I felt like it was a lovely sonic item on a technical level, but I wasn't convinced that the tunes / melodies / ideas were quite there. But then I just found myself listening to it more and more and more - it helped that Nora seemed to respond really well to it - and feeling like it might be my favourite. I think I wish it was shorter, just so it was more easily consumable, but I'm also glad it lasts an hour or so, because I just enjoy listening to it and don't want it to stop, if that makes sense.

Not listened in a couple of months, thinking about it. Must revisit.

I thought initially it was his 'bossa nova record', something light that might sell (he's admitted as much) but it's been a grower for me too

I'm with Scik, it kind of whizzed by me on the first couple listens but by the third or fourth, it all opened up. Besides the fact that it just *sounds* incredible (the drums especially), there's a ton of great melodies and ideas that are so densely packed. But it never gets obnoxious like all the 00s autechre clones that would just splatter random frenzied beats everywhere, it's very purposeful and pleasant.

Is there a stand out track or two from the sound cloud stuff that you guys have enjoyed and can recommend?

28 organ
Martins Car

28 organ

4 red calx(slo)

(suzanne, 2tone, martin's car, sam's car, the donkey rhubarb remix, with my family, no cares, high hats tune....)

― brimstead, Tuesday, June 9, 2015 11:13 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for your consideration:

parking lot
plinkyplonk
sline
SomewhereOTTGTBAG
(watery big ez)
26-5a
Scorrier
Just Fall Asleep
1.5 dp5 beats

Made a playlist of your recommendations here:
https://goo.gl/Q40bew

Very much continuing to enjoy all of this. He has basically handed his baseball card in with this thing and faxed one gigantic middle finger to all the haters and lamewads out there.

some favorites:

5 7z - hard, gnarled. barreling down a hairy piste, lot of terrain features. one of the hardest, most chiseling of the whole batch.
34 ibiza spliffs - "dreamy," a brain balm, aural salve.
cheetah3 teac - sounds later period-ish. dry, funky bass w/minimal percussion. sort of a gussied-up analord vibe. pleasant, understated.
pretend analog extmix 2b - also sounds mid-later period. has a relaxed Tuss vibe. proper funk, dreamy, phex-ian, soft washes of color/melody.. pads?
24 tsim 2 - repetitious piano riff goin on in the middle section is excellent. overall sorta bangin/bouncing obnoxiousness.
5 scorrier - sort of axel foley siegin' for 12 minutes. has like that 'sharpening knives' percussion that kinda gets old.

https://clyp.it/jngbfmuf

But then I just found myself listening to it more and more and more - it helped that Nora seemed to respond really well to it - and feeling like it might be my favourite

You won't be so favourably disposed when her first words turn out to be "fucking whore".

parking lot
plinkyplonk
sline
SomewhereOTTGTBAG
(watery big ez)
26-5a
Scorrier
Just Fall Asleep
1.5 dp5 beats

Some of these are spoof Aphex Twin song titles right?

Nora's first words are likely to be extravagantly disgusting based on how I speak around her.

Super thanks, calstars; I've avoided engaging with all the soundcloud stuff because baby etc, but that playlist is all lush stuff.

Holy shit 5 scorrier [101 rainbows]

Did you give Caustic Window a listen when that appeared?

Nah, never got round to it; anything that hasn't had a pretty straightforward release in the last 12 months has pretty much flown straight past me. I assume I should?

ty lowell for your little rundowns, v useful for those of us who haven't been wading through it all

no sweat, a couple more that i dig on: (mortal 1) is hard hitting and spare, mostly atonal. it reminds me a bit of rsdio (tri rep) by autechre. 4 Acid Organ is pretty great, too. sort of an obvious highlight, like 28 organ, (HAB un23)(unfinished), and 18 Mello Punchy.

T13 Quadraverb was one of the original tracks shared in that two-part interview that was taken down, and it remains a favorite. pleasant, ear-rubbing effect on several elements in the track. pretty low-key, melodically

What's the EP like that was released towards the end of last year?

pretty good I thought, and the Electro-Acoustic record was also good although I need to listen to it a bit more. So much RDJ!

wait ... there was an EP released that _wasn't_ Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt 2?