The newest Aphex Twin since Richard D. James returned from his extended hiatus shows a simpler side of his music, with slower tempos and spine-tinglingly rich tunes and timbres.
Rojus continues in the vein of 2014's mini-LP Music for the Uninvited, but it boasts a bigger sound in almost every way, with more layers, bolder basslines, and harder-edged drums.
He doesn't reveal many new tricks, but his knowledge of his own palette is masterful in every moment. More poetic and thoughtful than ever before, Jaar maintains an ability to fit seemingly disparate sounds together as if they were always meant to find each other.
Four tracks is only so much to go on, but if this short-but-sweet project was their litmus test, then they should race back to the studio and cut a full-length project.
Their work continues to mine a deceptively narrow emotional world—new love, childhood playfulness, wistful sadness, happy feelings of connection—but renders it better than just about any music ever made.