I LOVE DRUKQS+

APHEX TWIN TOP TEN: number 1 — Syro

James did release huge amounts of new music between 2001’s Drukqs and Syro, so I could complain about the press making out as though he had done nothing in this period; however, it’s also true that James appears to have considered the release of Syro as something more important than the other stuff he did—there was a build up to this release and an advertising campaign. I happened to be in NYC for work at this time and was in the Museum of Modern Art when I read that there were Aphex symbols popping up in different locations around the world, one of which was at Radio City in NYC—that’s just around the corner from the MoMA, so I popped round. I had to walk around it twice to eventually find it, but there it was, so I took a photo, although in a classic modern world, Ballard moment, I then lost the photo, but it didn’t matter anyway, because you can just download a better one off of the internet.

I was never one to take a pure punk rock view on things too seriously, e.g. short songs—good; instrumental passages—bad; complexity—bad; sophistication—bad; being able to play—bad etc. Of course, sticking to these rules is also bad and not very punk rock. Music can do so much more than just the sugar rush of a three minute single and for all the good the punk ethos did at the time, I actually think that in the long term it did more harm than good by stifling exploration of certain directions.

For me, the last twenty years hasn’t been a period of great innovation; for the most part, it’s been recycling themes from the past, so it’s nice to hear such a considered piece from an artist who constantly tries to reinvent himself—Syro is a mind-bending journey into the unknown—it’s not the sound of a tired artist just churning out more of the same. Comparing it to contemporary releases, e.g. Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories”, which whilst enjoyable, is pretty much a homage to the disco era, makes me think it’s almost as if James has studiously avoided ever listening to the music of the ‘60s and ‘70s, where the peaks of post-war invention happened. With perhaps the sole exception of Eno’s ambient LPs, that era appears to have had no influence on him whatsoever.

It’s worth considering some of the ways he’s tried to push boundaries—things he’s messed around with over the past twenty years of his music and on this LP. He talks about this in depth in an interview with a Korg synth engineer, which a friend reminded me of the other day and I’ll post a link to in the comments—it’s far more enlightening (and geeky) than his usually baffling and evasive interviews with the music press:

• Musical scales: he experiments with non-standard scales, e.g. having some of the notes in a scale out-of-tune (you can listen to examples of this in the aforementioned article)
• Structure: there’s little verse-chorus-verse, but it’s far from lacking in structure; tracks seem to have their own unique structure. There’s certainly a heritage of acid house here; however, late ‘80s acid house, exciting (and funny) as it was, is so trivially simple compared to what’s going on in these tracks
• Tuning: ISO 16 defines the A above middle C on a keyboard is to be tuned to 440hz—he sometimes adjusts this. Does this make a difference to your listening experience? I have no idea, although thinking about it, it certainly would if you adjusted middle C to be three octaves lower or higher, so it’s possible your brain registers smaller shifts in some way
• Unusual tempos: if you assume the numbers on Syro are beats per minute, then the track below is at 126.26 beats per minute—not something that’s likely to make a difference to your ears compared with 126 bpm, I expect, but this and adjusting the standard pitch does give you an insight into what’s going on in his mind—constantly trying to bend the technology into different shapes and do something unexpected with it

James refers to Syro as his most “pop” release—perhaps this is true, in relative terms, but it’s not really anything you would recognise as pop music. It’s more accessible than Drukqs and every bit as rewarding. Drukqs is darker and dare I say it, more organic sounding, if that’s ever really possible for his music; whereas, Syro is kaleidoscopic—a collection of glimmering fluorescent colours on a white background.

The structural beauty of the album itself is stunning in its simplicity: the final track is called Aisatsana, which is the name of his girlfriend, backwards—a coda to an album of entirely abstract themes—five minutes of delicate piano music about love.

I know that eight out of ten cats prefer “Selected Ambient Works 85-92”, but as I said right back at the beginning, despite this being quite different, it’s also true to say that some things do carry through. Consider the ambient melodies in PAPAT4[155][pineal mix] coming in at 00:38; it works at a stark contrast to the main synthesiser line—there is a lot of this to listen for in this LP. It’s so complex that one some level I think of it like Miles Davis records—it’s hard to get bored of it through familiarity.

For a track, I’ll go with another great title: 4 bit 9d api+e+6 [126.26], but I’ll also post MARCHROMT30a Edit 2b 96, which was released as a single after the album came out and isn’t on the album—it features heavily warped vocals, like it’s a hit single being sung by aliens.

4 bit (track 4) is great. "s950tx16wasr10" (earth portal mix) -track 11 - is one of the deepest and most satisfying tracks on Syro, imo

Wow thanks for posting that, Keith. I’m going to do a relisten with a read along this week ahead :)

i loved syro and played it a ton at the time. kinda melancholy domestic music, gorgeous and weird iirc. perfect for winter. i need to go back to it but now that it's spring it'll be a while lol.

I stuck on Syro this morning and I think I enjoyed it more than I had before

Keith, thanks for posting these. I'll read

that was a great read Keith, thank you!

ps I love Syro

Thanks guys... The main reason for writing it a few years ago was to try and give people a route into some stuff that most I guess would view as pretty inpenetrable, or at least quite hard work, and it was inspired by the fact that Alex Needham did that for me with the Drukqs LP.

great posts, thanks for sharing

I don't know how much I listened to drukqs at the time, a fair amount I would have thought, but I listened to it about a year ago and there were swathes of stuff I didn't recall. Then I listened again last week before this bump, and again lots of it sounded completely new - e.g. track 3. Either way it's clearly an incredible album. Listening again now, will probably move on to Syro next, and read Keith's review alongside.

love the syro write-up. it's definitely maing me reconsider it, whereas before I'd thought of it as too much of a retread on past formulae to warrant the long wait between studio albums.

But I do agree, it's not something I've ever tired of through over-listening, and much like Autechre's Confield I'm left wondering if the fact it never truly clicked is more t do with me than the music.

My favourite release is Come To Daddy, and with his creative peak being Windowlicker: three wildly different tracks, each one with a central gimmick (the pop song, the experimental weird-out track, the 'ambient' track) showcasing exactly what he was capable of.

But I know I underestimate James's love (some might say fetishisation) of analogue approaches to electronic music. I'm not a tech guy i any way, so while it's impressive he's pushing these many machines to the extreme, I just find the digital-era stuff more fun I guess.

syro is so fun and funky, so light on its feet despite being packed with detail. i could put a surprising number of its tracks on the “songs that sound like earthbound” thread

Syro divides me. On one hand, there isn’t a single sound on it that doesn’t sound like “the best sound I’ve ever heard”, and it does have the feeling of listening to the greatest-ever Red Bull Music Academy session; I can practically hear RDJ grinning as he twiddles.

I like RDJ best when the thesis is clear and a track has a clear intention and Syro sounds more like a kitchen sink “every synth that has ever existed” kind of release. (“120dB” (track 5) is my favourite track on the album because of its comparative simplicity). There are so many moments of noodle nirvana on the album, that moment on the second Cirklon track when he starts messing with the swing parameters on the breakdown is just amazing amazing.

That said: the mood I’m in when I listen is one of emotional neutrality. It’s a jam-packed compendium of best-ever sounds that leave me feeling like I’m watching synth demos on YouTube. I recall when the album came out that people on Twitter were gagaing about the solo piano final track most of all. It reminds me weirdly of Gonzales, like “stop rapping and play the damn piano”— maybe RDJ is at his most appealing for people when he’s in Satie mode?

My favourite stuff of RDJs (aside from his Analord series which I resolutely stan for, forever) is the Herbert-esque prepared piano stuff on Drukqs— not “Avril 14” but tracks like that amazing third track (hold on, I’ll type it: “Kladfvgbung Mishck”).

xp Yeah, it swings in a way that Drukqs doesn't, Drukqs is dark and oppressive in parts in a way that Syro really isn't. Personally, I find them two quite different records.

Incidentally, Blackbox Life Recorder hadn't been released when I wrote all that stuff, so it didn't get considered, but tbh much as I like it, I don't think it'd have hit the top ten. I also found a mysterious header at the bottom of the document that said "Stuff that didn't make the top ten", followed by nothing, so I have managed to generate a mystery for myself.

I think maybe if rdj had not sped druqks up to fit it on 2 CDs, syro wouldn’t seem as far away

“120dB” (track 5) is my favourite track on the album because of its comparative simplicity

Ha funny, I was listening today and it's the only one I don't like, but there you go. Maybe I need to pay more attention.

I like RDJ best when the thesis is clear and a track has a clear intention and Syro sounds more like a kitchen sink “every synth that has ever existed” kind of release.

It's interesting this--I know nothing about synths, so couldn't tell one way or another, and no doubt you are right, but to my ears, Syro sounds like one of his most coherent records, in terms of sound, certainly more so than Drukqs. I love its structure too: a whole bunch of electronic stuff, followed by a single piano track with birds tweeting in the background.

i always liked this "reaction" video to drukqs but ymmv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_zMfLpjqI

Oh god I want to watch that video very badly but I also would rather just listen to Drukqs again. 90 minutes! Wow

wait, sped up? by how much?

Nothing super drastic, iirc, like 5% or less… it’s been literally decades since I heard that piece of info and can’t find a source now but I know I downloaded a plugin for Winamp at the time to slow it down.

I think I get what fgti means by "when the thesis is clear". It's the same as what I meant by a "gimmick". For a lot of Aphex's imperial 90s phase and his most famous tracks, there's a clear idea:

Ventolin has the high pitched whine
Alberto Balsam has that "WHUM" chair creak thing
Nannou sounds like a musical box
Come To Daddy is what you wanted Marilyn Manson to sound like
Flim is just really really pretty
Windowlicker is deconstructed RnB with Arabic scales
4 has that tiny sample of him talking to his dad

But Syro, no matter how smart and ostensibly funky it is, sounds a bit hermetic to me, it sounds like machine work outs, as fgti says not unlike a very cool demo of how to do cool stuff using machines; but I couldn't tell you the "thesis" of any of the tracks

You sound like you're trying to convince yourself not to like it!

That it sounds like only things machines could make is one of the reasons I love it (and that applies to a bunch of his earlier stuff too).

That reaction video is well worth watching! It's so great.

i don't think that's otm!!! analord and syro are both wildly different projects and soundworlds from drukqs imo

Yeah Analord was a separate development (felt to me more like a side project) but didn't really feel "fresh". The tracks often lack the personality his other work has because it feels more nostalgic or conceptual rather than expressive. Stuff like Analogue Bubblebath was him purely channeling ideas through his gear dealing with the limitations at the time, while the Analord tracks sound more like an attempt to recapture something and falling short (or a conceptual protest reaction to so many "going plastic"). I rarely listen to any of it with the exception of Analord 10.

I feel AFX's percussive sound palette is not all that much different between Drukqs and Syro. Syro is also very samey to me once you get past the first four songs. While the samples on Syro are less abrasive and melodies more prominent, the tempo, editing and aesthetic are pretty similar to my ears. I go back and listen to both Come to Daddy and RDJ and I'm continually blown away at the surprises, especially the cryptic vocal samples and creepy lyrics (Beetles, Milkman, Come to Daddy). I miss the juxtaposition of a casual drum loop following the most extreme breakcore. The liberal use of classical instrument samples (pizzicato, strings on RDJ, see Goon Gumpas, Girl/Boy). The crazy explorations into pop with Windowlicker and Come to Daddy (and how about the music videos! I miss them too). All of this is pretty much killed off in his work moving forward with a few exceptions. He distilled his sound to a narrowly defined percussive and rhythmic production style with varying elements of acid and melodic synths draped around it, while occasionally peppering it with lush prepared piano pieces or conceptual works (Analord, Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt 2).

He's simply not the crazy unpredictable deity he was for a good decade. He's just settled into a long tail of "good". So goes it with most artists; it's usually a best case scenario! Drukqs just felt to me on release like the canary in the coal mine signalling the direction of his remaining career (if he was going to release anything at all). Still sounds that way to me to this day.

BTW when can we do a ballot poll for this dude?

Octobeard OTM once again

I find both Analord and Syro super boring, but maybe the problem is me. Regardless, “canary in the coal mine” is on-target.

I find these kinds of divergent pathways, restlessness and REFUSAL TO DO WHAT I REALLY WANT to be part of the Aphex journey. He reminds me of someone like a Todd Rundgren (or, perhaps more obviously, Prince) in that way -- how he just has too many interests and research projects underway at once to really maintain a "proper" career. At the same time, RDJ just as frequently will do some completely boring acid jam simply because he enjoys that kind of music (much as Rundgren or Prince may do a straight ahead soul thing). How else to explain his Soundcloud dumps? The guy just lives and breathes this stuff.

I can't be the only one here who is waiting for Keith to now writeup his top 20-thru-11, am I?

The Prince comparison is good (only listened to a bit of Todd Rundgren)... I'm not really much of a fan, although some stuff I love, but I can totally see it... If you're into it, there's this massive mine of stuff to get into and it can take years that in of itself, but if you're not, it mostly sounds terrible, even if there's some stuff that basically everyone loves.

Haha, thanks for that... TBH I kind of want to rewrite at the very least the Come to Daddy one, which as far as I can tell given some years' distance, I just wanted to make a cheap joke around naming all of Britain's most famous horses.

Kind of surprised no-one ever asked what happened to "I care because you do", given loads of people seem to love it (I find it a bit of a mess).

I've actually spent the last couple of days on holidays listening to all the Analord stuff and trying to properly process it... Just getting around to it after almost twenty years.

To that point, Premises says:

That said: the mood I’m in when I listen is one of emotional neutrality.

And I totally agree with that for the vast majority, it's kind of emotionally neutral music... I remember him saying in the '90s that he wanted to make music where the listened was unclear what emotion it was evoking, and I think he's very much succeeded in that. For me, most of it doesn't sounds happy, and it doesn't sound sad; I'm not entirely sure what it sounds like, which of course leaves it shrouded in mystery, which in of itself improves it. Oddly the only exception, right the way through (which would suggest it's deliberate) is Analord, which is quite a downer, musically... It sounds quite like Joy Division and in particular some of the early New Order b-sides (Hurt; Mesh; Cries and Whispers, that sort of thing).

Something that makes me feel uncomfortable when I listen to RDJ (the harder stuff) is that he tends toward making harmonic decisions that are kind of clumsy. There are moments (esp in Syro) where the harmonic choices are so stoopid that I get the impression that he either doesn’t know how, or doesn’t care, to write “good progressions”. The ambient albums and his solo piano stuff make it clear that he does know how to write “good harmony”, and the non-functional stuff he dips into is likely intended to achieve exactly what he’s achieving: to make me feel uncomfortable

It’s funny that Squarepusher never does this, even when he’s going full dissonant madness (Rotted One Note) it’s always very harmonically “well composed”

I can't say I really notice that--I assume you're meaning from a theory point of view? Which bits of Syro?

It’s not so much “from a theory point of view”— the harmony sounds intentionally bad at times. The ending of track 3 on Syro is the example that springs to mind (that’s “Produk 29”). The relative tension from chord to chord is weird and off and wrong. But deliberately so? is what I’m getting at

Okay... Let me listen again.

Yeah I just put on “Music Is Rotted One Note” to refresh my own memory.. it’s crazy!! What a crazy amazing album. Pure Zawinul-style throughout.

His harmonic decisions are glorious, like, umm hedphylum or whatever from SAW85-92, the “out of tune” bendy chords.. I don’t get into the wacky “what an innovator mind blowing stuff” I enjoy him on a purely musical level. His melodic/harmonic skills from his 90s peak just leap over everyone, just next level imo. And the textures, the dorky comparison I make is that other idm sounds like Star Trek and 90s afx sounds like patched together Star Wars rebel shit

xp

Wow, that is interesting, in that I can't hear that at all... It had a nice side effect of making me concentrate on it like nothing I've ever done before, and it sounded better than it ever has before, but I'm not picking up what you're picking up... You're hearing something I'm not, so I'll listen a few more times and see what happens.

All that aside, I can, I think, understand what you're getting at, in that he does push around these boundaries a lot; I was listening to this one earlier today, which has all manner of funny in-between-notes stuff going on, but it still sounds coherent and musical to me (to be fair, probably not my mother):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcM4MJIb1Pc

yea I've always thought the weird flanged out chord progressions on Syro were intentional, all his music is supposed to make you feel weird I guess. he was doing this sort of thing on the Analord series too

imo the thing with Syro, and probably drukqs too, is that it really does demand a lot more attention than his 90s stuff does, because as many have mentioned there isn't really a central 'hook' in any of it. it's kind of gone beyond that. also Syro is one you really do have to hear on a good system, once I got a vinyl copy and played it on the big stereo I was really blown away by how amazing it sounds. I mean all his albums sound good more or less but this one you can really get lost in.

Couldn't agree more... If you just stick it on in the background it's just annoying--you need to actively listen to it with as few distractions as possible.

I like RDJ a lot and always check in (I have a Syro CD somewhere in this house) but have never quite been able to click with him, fully click and commit, the way I can with Autechre.

(I do love this discussion and will relisten a bit based on it.)

I love Music Is Rotted One Note

i recommend ppl who struggle with syro try shaking their butt to it

My butt is inert even at the shakiest of times

other idm sounds like Star Trek and 90s afx sounds like patched together Star Wars rebel shit

Yeah I get that... his 90's shit just had this confident/punk/jester quality (Han Solo?) to it along with this sheer joie de vivre (Luke?) or even spiritual quality (Yoda?). I miss that. At every turn it seemed like he was trying something new. Even the conceptual stuff like SAW II turned out to be all time.

I listened to Syro again today, and again the latter half the of the album sorta just slid in and out of my consciousness. Felt like a bit of some listless jazz in that respect, was hard to focus on it. Never seem to have that issue with Autechre (except for some of the longer bits from Elseq or NTS). It's a good record and I totally understand the "mass" appeal of it relatively speaking. XMAS_EVET10 is an all timer AFX track imho.

Regarding Autechre... I'm still floored at how their latter career has turned out. One of the few artists I can think of to remain at the peak of their powers after 3 decades. WTF. I thought Confield was a similar canary in the coal mine, but it actually was NOT. While they aren't dropping new studio records of late, their most recent live set bootleg (Sydney iirc) showcased some absolutely sick developments and sounds yet again. Their creative well just continues to overflow, and it feels truly unprecedented to me.

Yeah, Confield sounds BAD to my ears, more a problem with the medium within which they were working than any of their programming brilliance. Everything I’ve heard recently (Exai, NTS, elseq) has been sublime

ok I put Syro on now - what Keith says is all OTM of course, also explains why so much of this feels just 2% off. and yes good point about Aphex trying to reinvent himself here (though the Analord/Tuss stuff isn't too far off from this?). like if you can imagine someone obsessed with RDJ in 1999 hearing this via a time traveller or something...I'd imagine they'd be all what the fuck in a good way. when you actually sit down and listen to it it really is bonkers. maybe to a fault. there's so many weird things hidden in there too. if he'd taken some of these tempos down 10-20% it might be a tad more apparent what he was trying to do. I dunno if the 2nd half is actually weaker than the 1st or if the human brain can only tolerate so much of this music at once. in retrospect pretty funny how when this was released the one track most people singled out was "Aisatsana" - like thank god, there's something I can actually get a grip on here

I mean like go listen to Track 11 (the one that says "Earth Portal mix" on it) and just bask in how many fucked up video game noises there in it. I can think of so many artists trying to do this sort of thing *now* but none of them can capture this level of absolute insanity. but in the context of the album either your brain has reduced it to background noise or you're just going Jesus Christ dude, dial it back a little. Autechre don't really seem to have this problem despite making albums that are way longer and more abstract

Even "Aisatsana" isn’t as good as the Drukqs piano pieces though…

This is pretty relevant to what we've been talking about: https://thequietus.com/articles/33961-just-another-idm-lp-squarepusher-s-dostrotime-continuity-revolution

Sorry, just to complete my thought… I don’t get any emotion from Syro, maybe it’s as basic as that. It feels cold, I can’t connect with it on any level… whereas old Aphex seeped with emotion, a glint in the eye, a clear intention, a “point of view”… whatever it was.