Anticipating SYRO the new (2014) album by Aphex Twin

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?

That's what I thought I was referring to?

Caustic Window is great yeah, and a more manageable way into the 'lost' material than the huge Soundcloud dump.

I felt like CCAI2 felt a bit similar to that Squarepusher thing he did with all the robots..?

xxp I thought SM meant this: http://www.discogs.com/Aphex-Twin-MARCHROMT30a-Edit-2b-96/release/6844178 bonus tracks from the Japanese release of Syro

there is too much aphex

oh oh right

DID SOMEONE SAY TOO MUCH

https://twitter.com/AphexTwin/status/627149600114221056

https://soundcloud.com/richarddjames/marchromt30a-edit-2b-96-mastered

? that is the Japanese bonus track/single that Neil S linked to a few posts above

Bizarre, Aphex made a thing about posting it today and all.

https://www.mixcloud.com/keyfumbler/aphex-twin-glastonbury-1997/

fuckin nice

new ep, AFX • ‘orphaned deejay selek 2006-2008’, is pretty sweet, playable

playable always good.

where else to hear this than the one spotify track?

not sure what's featured on Spotify, is it https://soundcloud.com/richarddjames/serge-fenix-rendered-2 ?

there's a link to "simple slamming b 2" (radio broadcast excerpt) if you scroll up a bit..

That Marchromt track is better than 90% of Syro.

disagree, though it reminds me of autechre a little bit. no love for the earth portal mix?

Wasn't the marchromt track released as part of an EP a few months ago? I swear I've heard it before.

it's the bonus track for the Japanese version of Syro.. it's been up on youtube for a while.

I'm surprised the Caustic Window album got as little attention as it did. It seems pretty superior to Syro

Is there any legal way to obtain CW?

that's the point, it got less attention because it wasn't something you could just buy in shops.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/watmmofficial/cat023-caustic-window-own-the-legendary-record-by/posts/881739

http://cat023.watmm.com/

You can get a nice blank CDr and case for your burnage..

xp and it's all old material.

I've been thinking since Christmas that SYRO might actually be my favourite album of all time. MARCHROMT is just the icing on the cake: an amazing song, sung by aliens, not on the album.

It's the most spectacularly modern sounding thing, almost unbelievable in its intricacy. I don't buy the idea that it didn't move things on for Mr Twin. Drukqs was one of my favourite records of the last decade and the most annoying thing about SYRO is that it makes DRUKQS sound a bit dull - I'm sure I'll get back into it.

yeah I am not on board with the Syro complaints, I like it a lot, you can just surface-listen and enjoy it or you can go deep and enjoy it even more

I think what it misses for me is the humor, energetic playfulness and experimentation of RDJ/Come to Daddy/Windowlicker era AFX. It sounds like the editing/timbres are more consistent and the songs especially in the middle of the record bleed together a bit too well. The beginning and end of the album are utterly spectacular, though. Overall it's a fantastic release, but I can empathize with the criticisms.

think what it misses for me is the humor, energetic playfulness and experimentation of RDJ/Come to Daddy/Windowlicker era AFX.

To me all those things are definitely still present, albeit in a more subtle manner.

I mean yeah there's none of the abrasive, trolling humour he used to specialise in, but there's playfulness in spades.

serious RDJ is usually my favorite RDJ

yeah, same. it's a hare-brained theory with minimal supporting evidence and as soon as anyone challenges me i'll distance myself from the assertion and probably just not respond at all, but it seems like serious ages better than playful, across mediums

https://soundcloud.com/richarddjames/simple-slamming-b-2-ten-eight-seven-masteredwav

now we know what's "simple slamming," and what's not. kick/hi hat pattern recalls Backdoor.Netshadow -- https://youtu.be/llSB9kDAFis

i agree with octobeard, personally.
as an album, if Syro had been made by anyone else my reaction would be 'yes, this is fine electronic music in the tradition of aphex'.
but as an aphex album proper i find it's missing some of that skeltering 'woah' factor which was present even on druqks. yeah the sound design is excellent but if i wanted to listen to music on an intensely technical level like that, i'd turn to something like autechre's exai.
aphex for me is all about wild ideas executed without restraint. whether it's on SAWII or ICBYD or Windowlicker, he's like a magician pulling trick after trick out of his hat without ever repeating the same trick twice. i like aphex for his gimmickry, often because he makes the gimmick transcend itself and come into its own.
Syro is straight-up C21 IDM in its purest form and I get why it's good, but sadly i find myself getting a bit exhausted and disengaged after just a short while.
i like the opening track and a couple of others, but for me there just doesn't seem to be enough variety or dynamism to discern between the tunes on offer - they generally meld into one noise, and i'm just not used to that kind of consistency from the guy.

I like it, but I prefer the ILX pre-version

otm

Where can one listen to that?

and i'm just not used to that kind of consistency from the guy.

let's not pretend that drukqs never happened

but as an aphex album proper i find it's missing some of that skeltering 'woah' factor which was present even on druqks. yeah the sound design is excellent but if i wanted to listen to music on an intensely technical level like that, i'd turn to something like autechre's exai.
aphex for me is all about wild ideas executed without restraint. whether it's on SAWII or ICBYD or Windowlicker, he's like a magician pulling trick after trick out of his hat without ever repeating the same trick twice. i like aphex for his gimmickry, often because he makes the gimmick transcend itself and come into its own.

by gimmicky do you mean like the videos or something? or his sillier music like "come to daddy"? that's definitely my least favorite aspect of him. i like the melodies/tunings/synth sounds. thank fuck he didn't go the autechre route and make a bunch of "wild" magic jerkoff DSP flexing garbage.

i really don't understand this whole thing where people want musicians to produce music ~in a certain way~ (playful, gimmicky) rather than describing the kind of music they want to hear. schpongle are quite playful, but i doubt any people critiquing latter day afx care for schpongle at all.