Syro sees a master craftsman return with renewed inspiration. And while it might not technically be James' most innovative album, it way well be his best: his most complete and engaging under the guise of Aphex Twin.
Given the expectation, possibilities and hype – and the logo-driven promo campaign – it is the ‘Random Access Memories’ of IDM.
Low on frenetics, Syro is anchored by rotund and agile basslines that zip and glide, and it's decked in accents and melodies that are lively even at their most distressed.
Aphex Twin's return, Syro, bears a 2014 release date, and it might end up as the year's best album. But that feels entirely incidental—it sounds like nothing else this year, or the year before, or the year before that one.
Every spin through these 12 songs keeps revealing new structures and details that skipped past me until this moment. And the end result after each listen is a desire to just dive right back in from track one and look for more clues.
Even if Syro isn’t a radical departure, it’s still a swaggering return, a reminder of just how many varieties of warped sound remain at James’ command—and just how few of his acolytes can touch that versatility.
Richard D. James has successfully crafted one of the most stunning records of his career, and he did so by exercising a deft amount of self-control.
Always imitated, never bettered. Syro is an exceptional album.
Then again, he may just decide to go back to the Analord series and releasing songs under pseudonyms because, let’s face it, James has always marched to the beat of his own drum and we have happily filed behind and followed him.
On Syro, he is willing to let his acid burbles and exquisite melodies chug along subtly. There is craftsmanship here, but its genius lies in letting the raw quality of his sound speak first rather than arranging it into something new.
As much as anything in Aphex Twin’s back catalogue, Syro is an incredibly cohesive, immersive listen.
‘Syro’ is amazing: bug-eyed, banging rave that sounds quintessentially Aphex while not quite sounding like anything he’s done before. It makes zero concessions to the modern day.
The beauty of Syro is that every second is impeccable. That's not the sound of somebody striving to be heard - it's the sound of an influencer being confident enough to take the edge off. It isn't challenging, it's playful.
The care and virtuosity with which these tracks were assembled is immediately obvious, but nothing feels difficult; the record’s easy flow despite it all is one of its primary virtues, and there’s something new to uncover with every listen.
SYRO peaks as Aphex Twin’s most accessible album since his ambient works. But a published gear list of over 130 items attests that the production is no less technical.
Syro is an album that instantly connects.
Syro remains faithful to the very sounds and idiosyncrasies that brought Aphex Twin about, the way it transforms and rotates any feeling of assumption while managing to sound so deliciously typical.
Anyone hoping for radical revolution will not find it here, but a more complicated quiet evolution does seem to be underway.
Not a second goes by without something new and borderline batshit falling into view. Millions of milliseconds - each one containing a tiny fragment of something different - combine on a record that’s undoubtedly been worth the wait.
As is Syro. It is rare to use the phrase "easy to like" and Aphex Twin in the same sentence, even in his most composed moments, but it is useless to deny it.
Syro is less of a “comeback” and more of a reappropriation, the kind of progressive album that, through its conglomeration and shattering of today’s conventional musical ideas, seeks to unify, distort and elaborate on the entire electronic scene rather than reinvent it.
Aphex Twin's first album in 13 years, Syro, is welcome reminder of Richard D James's unfettered imagination.
While this album may not be as much of a OhmyGodwhatthebloodyfuckwasthat as Drukqs was, it’s still a welcome return and for those who have not encountered his work before (tut tut), perhaps a good place to start.
Admittedly, Syro will probably not win over a new generation of fans like the Richard D. James album once did, but as a continuation of everything that has made Aphex Twin compelling, it's a triumph. Nobody else can fabricate music as impossibly dense, funky, and nuanced as this without losing sight of the big picture.
Syro showcases the more melodic, accessible aspects of his sound, but it's still so defiantly weird that it never seems like pandering.
Unburdened of revolutionary duties, Syro is an excellent expression of James’ quirky and obsessive talent, full stop. It is as deep and satisfying as it is unpretentious.
Syro is still utterly engrossing and remains, somewhat unbelievably, on a completely different planet to almost anything else that’s been released over the last decade and a half.
Imagine a mirror which distorts not just the reflection, but reality itself, and you have a fair idea of the stunning legacy to which Syro triumphantly belongs.
Per usual, James makes halls of mirrors; ghost voices and silver ambience crest over beats you can imagine destroying a stadium while you fumble with your headphones.
Ultimately, ‘Syro’ reminds us exactly how far James’s imitators are from getting anywhere close to his versatile virtuosity.
It seems to exist in its own little vacuum; both like and unlike anything that Richard D. James has released thus far.
Despite the heaviness of the electronic and production methods at hand, Syro doesn’t feel weighted down by anything; James has simply done it again.
It's the album you point someone towards if they want to know where to start with Aphex Twin without being scared off. But also, as that statement implies, Syro is an extremely good record.
Production technology has progressed immeasurably in the last 13 years, a truth seemingly lost on Syro, and the comforting analogue warmth that the record exerts is initially appealing but grows tiresome too quickly. This record never puts Aphex Twin's legacy into question, yet it may ponder his continuing relevance.
Richard pulls off another great full-length album, although the DrukQs song titles strategy is back with it too. No seriously, what the fuck does fz pseudotimestretch+e+3 [138.85] mean? I guess it's just Richie being Richie, I mean that's what he does the best.
REVIEW REPOST #087. I repost my old reviews, which got no attention, with updated thoughts. Posted this review 2 years ago, but I'm posting it again.
Syro is the 6th and newest full-length LP from the legendary IDM, Ambient, and Acid ... read more
1hr of Aphex Twin is something I can't refuse.
Syro is the 6th studio album from the British electronic musician, released in September 2014. It was recorded throughout various from the mid-late 2000s until the early 2010s through various equipment setups.
At this point, I've become a casual listener of Aphex Twin's music over the last few months. His music is just so addictive to me ever since discovering his track "Windowlicker" last September, which has been on repeate a lot ... read more
aphex: YOOOOOO WASSSUPPPP MA TWIN
His twin: Im going to touch you lil bro
Aphex: WAIT WAITWAIT NO NO NO
like the meme
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