Review Summary: Nobody does it better.
Aphex Twin - Syro
The legend is back. Richard D.James, the man who inspired all our current electronic music heavy-weights like Burial, Four Tet, and Skrillex has emerged from his thirteen-year slumber with a new album. Syro's announcement was made to us by the cryptic appearance of Aphex Twin's logo on a blimp. In the ensuing months anticipation has steadily grown as people have become aware of Aphex Twin's resurgence in the limelight. Could Aphex Twin be relevant in the 21st century? How could this new album possibly live up to the legacy he established twenty years earlier? Luckily, repeat listens of Syro have made it certain--Aphex Twin is back, and better than ever.
"Minipops 67 [120.2]" opens the album and is the perfect reintroduction to what made Aphex Twin so special. The track is skittery and frenetic, yet focused in its energy. Ghostly vocals underpin the trick as you're made aware of the sweeping level of production mastery Richard D.James employs. "XMAS_EVET10 [120]" is a 10-minute epic that ramps it up even more. We're back in Aphex Twin's world, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The songs are insistent and don't hold onto one idea for long, as each song takes a reference point and adds layers upon layers to it, until finally it is unrecognizable. My personal favorite track, "PAPAT4 [155]" (pineal mix)", sounds exactly what listening to Aphex Twin in 1996 must've felt like. It is alien and yet somehow stunningly pretty at the same time. In between all the breakbeats in the song there is a recurring synth phrase that just ties everything together perfectly. You feel like Aphex Twin is returning to his home planet, a place we visit but will never fully understand.
The final track "aisatsana [102]" , is a return to some of the more delicate elements of Aphex Twin's 2001 album Drukqs. "Aisatsana [102]" was a song Richard D. James's wrote for his wife and it shows. It is just lone piano phrases against thesound of nature. The rest of the album feels so wild and alien, you never really truly understand it yet you're enthralled at the same time. But with this final track there's nothing to understand--it is simply Aphex Twin at his most beautiful and heartfelt. The song is reminiscent of Brian Eno's ambient efforts in that time stretches by and yet you hardly notice. It takes you into its world and never lets you go.
Syro is a masterful return for the man that has so much to do with why electronic music is as popular is it is today. Sure, there's nothing as jarring as "Come To Daddy" on here but there really doesn't need to be. What we have here is an album that takes Aphex Twin's greatest strengths--technical profficiency and heartfelt emotion--and compiling it into a selection of songs that show he is still truly a virtuoso rather than an electronic music producer. If one were to make a comparison, Syro has the best qualities of Selected Ambient Works 85--92 and Drukqs. That may be a loaded comparison, but you need only a few listens to Syro before its world evelops you in the ways that those two albums did all those years ago.
In the end there may still be Autechre and Squarepusher. There may still be the new-school of electronic music producers like Burial, Four Tet, Skrillex, Jamie XX, and so many others. One fact remains true however--there is only one Aphex Twin. And nobody does it better. In a world where an Aphex Twin record can still feel relevant in 2014, that's something to take comfort in.
