Bleep

Aphex Twin had an entire generation of ravers in the palm of his hand throughout the 90s. From his first full length, Selected Ambient Works 85-92 on R&S Records, through a longstanding relationship with Warp Records to his 2001 album Drukqs, Richard D. James had consistently turned the electronic continuum on its head for a decade. While he had far from disappeared, dropping further releases a little more under the radar, his next album wouldn’t arrive until thirteen years later making the buzz about it all the more potent. So much so that his sixth Aphex album Syro woke up a whole new generation of teenagers to sounds they’d never heard before. Another decade later, those fans are leading the omnipresent Aphex obsession of the 21st century, and Syro remains one of his most dazzling LPs to date.

Promoting mass hysteria and excitement in equal measure, the lush, intricate pieces of Syro are some of the poppiest in the Aphex Twin discography, yet they could only be attributed to Richard D. James. Take the pensive sonic interplay on ‘XMAS_EVET10 [120][thanaton3 mix]’, where breakbeats move at a leisurely pace allowing a melodic feast of pianos, chimes, tablas, prickly synths, and harmonic acid stabs to unfold. Then comes the percussive feast on ‘4 bit 9d api+e+6 [126.26]’, with drum machines gone joyously haywire, a testament to James’s songwriting skills as he works mindbending structures into accessible, danceable passages.

Syro is proof enough of Aphex’s stamp on music history: pummelling pneumatic rhythms, swarms of fizzy wasp-like synths and hyperventilating bleeps, and the pure salve of ‘aisatsana [102]’ sourced from a suspended pendulum swinging Disklavier piano. It’s an astounding collection of material that has persevered long after the dust settled, reminding us of one of the most relevant, important artists of our time.