Syro

I wasn't a bandwagon jumper for Aphex Twin's return. As the blimp flew over London I was certainly filled with excitement, but this was tempered by reality setting in: 13 years is a long time without an album. Even My Bloody Valentine's production "m b v" was consider by some critics a magnum opus and some to be grasping at too much with too little. Even assuming that Richard was releasing old tracks from his massive vault of work, who's to say that these are particularly good or mesh well together in an album format? Perhaps they were not released because he never saw them to be good enough. In fact, when Syro's single was released, "minipops 67," my excitement still was dampened. It wasn't as exciting as Omgygya Switch 7 or Fingerbib or even Analogue Bubblebath. Certainly it still had Richard's charm in it: the layering and development were both handled impeccably. The actual material of the music is what let me down.Now, having listened to Syro in full a multitude (possibly 5-10 times), I can assuredly say this is among his best work - if not *plainly* his best work. The album really has a soul and driving conviction that carries the listener all the way through it. XMas is a skittery track, reminiscent of early Autechre. It has incredible dramatic tension over the course of the ten minutes - I do wonder if it would have been served better as a 5, maybe 7 minute track though. Following up this pseudo magnum-opus of a track is a shockingly funky and catchy midtempo jam. Produk 29 sounds quite unlike any Aphex I have ever heard previous: it has the soul and charm as if a real, in house band made up of alien instruments were performing its somewhat Jazzy groove. Perhaps this is what Richard meant in his interview when he discussed producing sounds from other planets.Following up Produk is 4bit, which if I'm honest is probably my least favorite track on the album. The Bass has this infectiously bouncy line, but the melody is more sparse and minimal. It too easily fades into the background for me; perhaps it could be thought of as a danceable version of a track from Selected Ambient Works Volume 2? It's still a great track to tune out for; there's just less to grab on compared to the other tracks. This light and somewhat airy track is then followed by 180db, easily the heaviest and most driving track on the album. And yet, despite the clear dance vibe coming from it, the melody, once again, is incredibly well composed. While it's a short track, it's always one of the highlights of the LP as it simply calls you to get active, get moving.Circlont 6A is more of an abstract track: a drum beat holds up the structure of the song while the lead line goes absolutely nuts, jumping across notes and popping in and out of focus over a surprisingly flowing bassline; interestingly and apparently an inversion of the standard Aphex/breakbeat format of a flowing melody and skittery bass. Following a brief interlude (of no real worth for discussion), the mercurial nature of 6A is complemented by 14A's much more elegiac, thoughtful melodies. That being said, the parts are shifted back on this one: the Bassline is practically going the same pace as the drums while a tender, soft melody plays in the background. Perhaps, in form, it could be compared to "4" from Richard D. James Album in its classic structure with beautiful melody.The title track follows, which is one of the most fun tracks on the LP for certain. It reminds me of a bunch of friends in a jam session based around the B-flat blues scale. Every element links impeccably well in this fun, active track. This is complemented by possibly the best melody Richard has ever written: PAPAT4. It announces itself, by itself, at the beginning and remains fairly consistent over the course of the song. Everything about this could almost fit the context of Mahlerian finale: this is another "Fingerbib" moment, to me. However, it gradually breaks down in the second half, nonetheless keeping its ethereal, sublime form.[Earth Portal Mix] is certainly the *most* abstract track on the album: the drumbeats are untraceable, with only weak backing chords to support the madness. The emphasis on this track to me is losing control: the melody at times hangs on for dear life to remain in focus when faced against the strength of the bassline. It's a pleading, honestly very beautiful melody that gradually fades into nothingness as it seems that the aggressive bassline has won. But then of course, it hasn't: for the final track, Aisatsana (a piano track) shows melody returning in achingly beautiful form. Over twittering birds and pedal, the piano plays an incredibly simple melody that instantly captivates you. Every statement of the measure-long melody is followed by silence, leading to this incredible, meditative effect that I never felt was achieved by the piano tracks on Drukqs. As the final melody statement fades away, and the birds finish their chirping, you are suddenly left awestruck that you were listening to an Aphex Twin record.In sum, the record is full of incredible surprises. Richard twists his familiar tropes into likable and catchy ways, almost never missing a beat on development or dramatic tension. The whole LP has a mindfulness of progression that is shocking for what is, to be blunt, a compilation of unreleased tracks. But then of course, Richard admitted that there are *tons* of these - several albums worth - that he hasn't done anything with. He said he released Syro so a real, physical catalog of his work could start to be made available instead of just a hard drive with dissociate tracks.And I couldn't be happier.

'Syro' by Aphex Twin is a pure masterpiece, in which an unbelievably skilled, legendary electronic artist takes music to new innovative realms. How to explain this succinctly? Well, 'Syro' plays like a symphonic masterpiece created by a future AI that is beyond current standard human intelligence with advanced capabilities persuading you to dance. Aphex Twin masterfully pushes forward the idea and concept of what music is, how it functions and is created with this work.This album is what I've hoped he would reach - what I have long believed Aphex capable of doing as the musical genius that his fans recognize him to be, but was never sure whether it would materialize as coherently as it does with 'Syro', for a growing body of fans to find, and I never knew, specifically, how exactly such a thing would even truly sound. Somewhat like believing there's a heaven, but not quite knowing how great it will be.To put it simply, with 'Syro', Aphex Twin has reached a zen state as a creator (that is beyond what the listener can grasp merely listening to this album), in revealing he has the technical proficiency to masterfully capture in sound the amazing potential he's always magnetized listeners with in his incredibly versatile discography of electronic work, providing it in a plenum of brilliant new musical energy to his listeners in what I think, unarguably, at this time in history, is the most rewarding possible way imaginable.Before purchasing the album, I did some reading on it, and I recall stumbling across Aphex describing 'Syro' as his "Pop album". I thought that was hilarious, thinking who said it, considering his obscure releases under like 10? aliases.But now I understand why he called it "pop", and it makes sense in both a comedic and yet seriously genius way when one listens through this masterpiece fully, that something so pleasantly filled with morphing, dancing, entrancing, flowing soothing, free-flowing and orchestrated electric energy, assembled, as I said before, "in the most rewarding possible way imaginable" - is what I now understand he may have meant by "pop". Aphex Twin seems to me, to be empathizing more, at least, with the mass-listener experience on a certain level. Perhaps realizing he can reach insane multitudes with this kind of musical experience. From my view as a listener, after at least 20 full listens through, Aphex Twin at this point knows what we want, and plays on that. He knows to some degree we expect to see him innovate. With "Syro", he truly does, and it's beautiful. I too am a longtime fan of Aphex Twin and I truly loved this album, it is my favorite of all of his albums. I bought it in 2021, and until posting this review I thought it was released in 2019 or 2020. That's how futuristic it is. It really is a great listen all the way through, and could be fairly described as a totally new direction for Aphex Twin.This is not a comeback. It is his finest moment so far. He arguably already had a viable claim to the Electronic throne. It would appear that with 'Syro', he's just performed a brilliant, covert coup on the "Pop" kingdom, which he would've likely scouted from afar and approached, infiltrated, undetected, underestimated, under cover of darkness... And few noticed it, as was seemingly intended. Now, ever since, it would appear a sort of chaos has slowly ensued and engulfed the kingdom. Few, if any in the realize what's occurred... But they know something's off, something just ... altered... but... what??!?