APHEX TWIN - SYRO @ 10

 

Celebrating its 10th anniversary today is the last released full length album from Aphex Twin, Syro, which was issued on September 19th, 2014. Though there have been a smattering of EPs and singles from Richard D. James since its release, it remains a distant tent-pole in a sparse release schedule that has been the norm for James for the past two decades. It's an odd tactic given the artist's reputation for being such a prolific producer. Indeed, prior to its release, James commented that it was but one of several albums he had tucked away in his archive, though only a smattering of tunes have since seen the light of day. One may wonder whether to take him at his word, but his history, with examples like the massive Soundcloud dump of unreleased tracks in 2015, has certainly confirmed his contentions regarding the amount of music he'd managed to produce over the years.

Prior to the release of Syro, the last official Aphex Twin album to see the light of day was Drukqs, released in 2001. The seeming inactivity is slightly deceptive, however, given that the interim saw the release of the 11 volume Analord EP series throughout 2005, and a couple of releases in 2007 under the pseudonym, The Tuss. Still, there is certainly an appreciable expanse of silence in the period leading up to Syro's 2014 appearance. The unknown reasons for the lack of product have spurred a lot of speculation. Some rumours indicate James' divorce was a factor in keeping potential revenue out of the mix of a settlement, or perhaps the proliferation of file sharing has discouraged releasing material, like it has for many artists who have resorted to touring to pay the bills, because selling records no longer generates significant revenue. Whatever the case, scarcity does ultimately mean that when new releases do hit the shelves, they get a lot more publicity.

The material included on the album was supposedly recorded at various times, using a variety of studios and gear configurations, over a period of approximately six years prior to its release. Rumours of a new album from James had started circulating as early as 2009, with Warp founder Steve Beckett mentioning it in the press. The following year James was quoted as stating that he had as many as six albums in the can and ready for release.

It wasn't until 2014 when a a test pressing of James's unreleased album, Caustic Window, was listed on Discogs for US $13,500 (£8,050) that the ball really started rolling. Members of the internet forum, We Are the Music Makers - who negotiated a deal between the seller, the forum's administrator, James and Rephlex Records - launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to purchase the album. The campaign raised over $67,000 (£41,000) from 4,124 contributions, with proceeds split between James, Rephlex and the charity, Doctors Without Borders. James said the campaign was "really touching, and really sweet" and, upon realizing the continued interest in his music, he was inspired to release Syro.

The album was recorded in six different studios, including James's home studio in Scotland, which he spent three years building and which was completed in 2006. One audio engineer spent three months with James, helping him wire together patch panels before the engineer "realized he was doing it all wrong and had to start again". Describing the overall process as "brutal", James referred to the in-studio technical issues as the catalyst for writing new music that would be featured on Syro. James used various audio setups when composing Syro's material. Rearranging equipment allowed him to explore more writing possibilities; he said "that will achieve some sort of purpose, so the way I've wired it together becomes the track in itself." James also explained that when composing the "logical thing to do is not change anything and just do another one using the same set of sounds", but during Syro's recording sessions he would often "get bored and swap things out".

On the album's overall sound, James said it is his "pop album, or as poppy as it's going to get". Syro incorporates styles including break-beat, drum and bass, techno, acid and disco. While the album doesn't particularly seem to break a lot of new ground, it also manages to avoid sounding nostalgic, offering a veneer of freshness while still fitting into the pocket of approaches and styles that were not at all alien to James's prior works. Vice summarized the sound as "unlike anything else this year - but quite a lot like everything from the past thirty years".

The title, Syro, is a neologism coined by one of James' children. It is a shortened version of "Syrobonkus", a nonsense word his son blurted out while listening to the album. The majority of the album's track titles are named after the working titles stored on James' hard drives and reference individual pieces of equipment James used in their recording, as well as respective BPM values. A comprehensive list of all equipment featured on Syro is included as part of the album's packaging. Syro's cover artwork was designed by the Designers Republic, a graphic design studio that provided designs for previous Aphex Twin releases, including the 1999 single "Windowlicker" and the compilation album 26 Mixes for Cash. The cover art resembles a receipt, with the official Aphex Twin logo and album title printed on it. According to Creative Review, the receipt on the album cover details the production and promotional costs of the album, "from courier charges to photo-shoot expenses, expressed per disc and tailored for both vinyl and CD versions." Perhaps this conception is meant to remind listeners that producing these products is an expensive proposition, something that doesn't get compensated for by pirating digital copies of the album.

The promotional campaign for Syro began when a chartreuse-coloured blimp featuring the Aphex Twin logo and the number "2014" appeared over London, England on 16 August, 2014. On the same day Aphex Twin graffiti was reported outside Radio City Music Hall and various other locations in NYC. Two days later Aphex Twin's official Twitter account posted a link to a hidden service, accessible using the Dark Web software Tor, detailing the album's title and track listing. The service accumulated over 133,000 views in less than a day, according to The Guardian. In the following week several purported leaks of Syro appeared on YouTube and SoundCloud, but James subsequently denied that any of them were legitimate. I remember being briefly fooled by one of them, though not for long.

Once it was finally and officially available, the album quickly garnered critical raves and chalked up some notable chart success, cracking the upper reaches in several markets, including the UK and US. It also managed to score a Grammy award for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2015, an accolade that pushed sales of the album in the US to increase 101 percent following James' win. It also secured spots on numerous "best of the year" lists in most of the major music publications.

With all that, it's still not an album that's made a huge impression in my personal collection, though I should likely give it another spin to refresh my memory. It's certainly a pleasant enough listening experience, though it's not likely to leave a legacy as one of James' most important releases, but given the lack of titles appearing in the last 20 years, it will inevitably stand out in retrospect.