Aphex Twin
Syro (Warp)Syro marks the return of Cornwall’s sardonic sonic Svengali, ending a hiatus since Y2K’s Drukqs. Richard D. James has gobs to answer for in pushing and pulverizing electronic music further than anyone; from defining techno in the early Nineties on Selected Ambient Works Vols. I & II, to refining acid, glitch, IDM, and deforming club music to an impure art. Aphex Twin’s derisive genius prevails by pinching pop culture by the nipple, while tugging the vanguard by the genitals. Aphex Twin pairs to UK imprint Warp like John Coltrane to Impulse Records seeing as James finds a warped nature in everything. Syro doesn’t extricate new ground, a pity given his esteem equates to an uncanny ability to shed and metamorphose unpredictably. Instead, it homes in on Aphex’s customarily demented configurations. Acidic basslines burst through spasmodic beats, melodies scatter like lost marbles, and swatches of polyphonic sheets dash about like hooves under digital rain. Once “Fz pseudotimestretch+e+3” splatters out of a contorted vocal mash, Syro begins breaking free from a subpar opening. Propitiously, “CIRCLONT14” and the subsequent track “Syro u473t8+e” find Aphex back inside a unique guise: abnormal to the nth degree and resembling swarms of mosquito drones administering dengue fever to the populace. “Syro u473t8+e” then rouses stunning awe. Like the first lot of feeble tracks, Syro‘s bookended with the blasé, especially the dryly doldrum piano piss and bird songs of closer “Aisatsana.” Aphex Twin may be the “Analord,” but he’s no Erik Satie. Even then, though Syro pales next to Richard D. James’ groundbreaking best, compared to the plurality of drivel penned as EDM, it’ll more than suffice for another decade or until Aphex’s next fix comes along. A grower not a show-er. 
This article appears in September 26 • 2014.