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.

APHEX TWIN - WINDOWLICKER @ 25

Marking its 25th anniversary today is the unforgettable EP from Aphex Twin, Windowlicker, which was released on March 22nd, 1999. Thanks to a mind-bending and hilarious video from Chris Cunningham, the song would become one of Richard D. James' most popular releases, garnering accolades for the video production and hitting high on the music charts, even with its daring, unconventional musical arrangements.

The origin of the title track's name connects to the idea of "window shopping" for sexual partners. It derives from a French phrase, "faire du lèche-vitrine", which literally translates to "licking the windows". The act is portrayed in the video by two dudes attempting to pick up a couple of ladies on the streets of LA, until they are unceremoniously swiped aside by Richard D. James cruising into frame in his ludicrously long white limousine. The music itself reinforces the sexual nature of the piece through the use of numerous vocal samples, with sounds of moaning, groaning and other sexually tinged vocalizations intertwined with the song's erratic, glitching grooves. And those grooves present the perfect balance of accessibility against James' penchant for jarring, cutup break-beats, with the arrangements being constructed using computer editing tools, creating an unsettling juxtaposition of poly-rhythms, all strung together with melodic phrasing that tempers the jagged edges enough to engage the listener in the overall experience. It's a fine tightrope act of edginess without becoming irritating.

The cover photo and video work by Chris Cunningham all add to the perverse humour of the song by visualizing the warped fusion of sexuality and horror. The buxom babes, bouncing about the LA sunshine in showers of champagne while sporting masks of James' demonically grinning face, are accented with a centrepiece of monstrous erotica, and all work to leave the viewer reeling in a confusion of mixed signals. Contrary to assumptions, the models with James' face were achieved through practical makeup effects, masks and prosthetics, and not CGI trickery.

The video was released as a VHS single as well as on a DVD compilation of Cunningham's video works. I remember watching this repeatedly with friends after it came out, completely floored by what had been achieved on the screen. It still stands in my mind as one of the greatest music video achievements I've ever seen, along with the previous video for Aphex Twin's Come To Daddy. This sort of material simply outclassed everybody else at the time. Personally, I consider these works the high watermark of the medium. Afterwards, I don't think videos really mattered very much anymore, and even the music video networks like MTV and Much Music in Canada seemed to abandon their reason for being and moved on to the world of reality TV after this. It's as if these videos kinda killed it for everyone else. Like people just said, "Welp, can't outdo that. Guess we're done here." All I know is that I stopped caring about the art form after this. I'd seen enough. I don't think I was blown away by a music video again until I saw Sean Lennon's Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger (GOASTT) and their Animals video (2014).

APHEX TWIN - 26 MIXES FOR CASH @ 20

 

Celebrating it’s 20th anniversary today is Aphex Twin’s 26 Mixes for Cash, which was released on March 24th, 2003. As well as collecting all the key remix jobs Richard D. James had done since 1990, it showcased both his respect or disdain for the artists he remixed, depending on what he delivered as a finished product.

James was notorious for delivering remixes which did not actually incorporate any elements from the original recordings he was handed to work with. This was particularly the case when it came to artists he was not especially fond of, like Nine Inch Nails. In such cases, what they got back as a “remix” was, in fact, an entirely original work from James. On a few odd occasions, what was delivered wasn’t even anything by James, but rather work produced by his flatmate, Global Goon, who was also signed to Rephlex Records. With that as the case, what you end up with on the compilation is frequently pure Aphex Twin and generally very good Aphex Twin at that. The album features 22 remixes and 4 original, previously unreleased tracks, including a remix of the Windowlicker single title track.

The title for the collection was suggested by the late Warp Records co-founder Rob Mitchell. It is a reference to the fact that James insisted on a cash payment from the record label when he delivered the DAT master because he did not want them to have any of his bank details nor know his address. The album was only ever released on CD with only a Japanese 12” vinyl issued containing two of the unreleased original tracks.

POLYGON WINDOW - SURFING ON SINE WAVES @ 30

 

Turning thirty years old today is Surfing On Sine Waves by Polygon Window, which was released on January 11th, 1993. Polygon Window was a pseudonym used by Richard D. James, better known as Aphex Twin. Chronologically, it could be considered his second full length album, coming on the heels of the debut Aphex Twin album, Selected Ambient Works 85-92.

Recorded at Llannerlog Studios, Cornwall, the album pays tribute to James’ home town in a number of ways. The cover photo is of Chapel Porth beach, where James spent time with his sisters as a child; James thanks the seaside village in the liner notes. Bonus track titles like Redruth School references James's alma mater, and "Portreath Harbour" references the Cornwall port. The title for the album was conceived by Warp founder and friend Rob Mitchell after James mentioned that "loads of people I knew growing up in Cornwall were poser surfers and I didn't wanna hang around with them." With all that, the album has a lot of sentimental connections to James’ roots.

Musically, the album seems to straddle his rhythmic "ambient" works, similar to those featured on the debut Aphex Twin album, with his more aggressive style featured on numerous singles and EPs, as heard on the slamming Quoth, which was released as a single itself. The album was issued as the second part of Warp Records’ “Artificial Intelligence” series and was a major success, yet James would only return to the Polygon Window imprint once after the initial album/single with a 2001 12” release, included as the aforementioned bonus tracks on a later reissue of Surfing on Sine Waves. Since its release, it has become a critical item in James’ sprawling catalogue and remains one of my personal favorites from his early canon of work.

APHEX TWIN - SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS 85-92 @ 30

 

Marking its 30th anniversary today is the debut album from Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, which was released on November 9th, 1992. Issued in double LP, CD and cassette formats, it became a cornerstone for the next evolution of electronics music, commonly referred to as “IDM - intelligent dance music”.

As the first waves of techno & house/acid house music swept the clubs in the UK through the late 1980s, cresting with the dawn of the new decade, DJs and producers like Richard D. James were looking for ways to evolve the music into more thoughtful, progressive forms. This desire became the impetus for James to found his Rephlex record label. After debuting his Aphex Twin alias the prior year with the Analogue Bubblebath EP followed by the Digeridoo 12”, when it came time to put together an album, James decided to soften his edges, He compiled a set of tracks largely based on input from friends regarding which of his recordings they enjoyed hearing most when they were chilling out.

The material for the album was reputedly all recorded directly to cassette between 1985 and 1992, utilizing a limited set of electronics, synths and drum machines, often modified and customized by James. While still pursuing his academic studies prior to committing full time to a music career, James had been focusing his education on engineering and electronics, so that expertise dovetailed perfectly with his interest in music making.

The genius of the album’s style is that it combines the contemporary electronic rhythms of the dance floor with the layering of subtle, evocative melodic textures which, when infused with the soft-focusing effect of the somewhat “low fi” recording techniques, created the album’s trademark dreamscape effect. Indeed, it’s James’ nuanced and delicate melodic sensibilities that set his music apart and above so many other electronic artists. There’s a compositional cohesion to his use of musical refrains and chord shifts which stamp his work with its distinctive surrealism. While it isn’t technically “ambient” in the classic, "Eno" defined sense of the term, it still rests inside an atmospheric landscape which avoids the jarring edginess of the more brutal material James had been releasing for the clubs.

The album was minimally packaged with the iconic Aphex logo prominently dominating the otherwise blank surface. The logo had been designed by Paul Nicholson under the guidance of James, with the two going through several iterations before they settled on a final form. James’ principal instruction was that it should refrain from the use of any sharp edges, thus the entire design is based on rounded corners with the overall shape vaguely suggesting the letter “A”. James has also suggested it has some significance as a sigil, though he has not elaborated on the specifics of its meaning or intent.

Since its original release, the album has been reissued and remastered numerous times, though its content has remained exact, with no bonus materials ever being added. Its influence and legacy have remained consistent as well. It set a standard for its genre of electronic music and pushed other producers in the field to try to keep up. Listening to it today, though it may have been produced with limited and primitive tools, it still sounds contemporary and even ahead of the times. It’s simply one of the best, most visionary electronic music albums ever created. It is the soundtrack for “dreamers of dreams”.

APHEX TWIN - COME TO DADDY @ 25

 

Marking its quarter century anniversary today is the infamous EP/single from Aphex Twin, Come To Daddy, which was released on vinyl and extended CD edition on October 6th, 1997. Along with its mind bending video, courtesy of Chris Cunningham, it would go on to become one of Richard D. James’ most iconic songs.

The title track began as something of a drunken joke when James was at home messing about with some death-metal riffs fused with furious break-beat rhythms. Some say it was a piss-take parody of Prodigy’s Firestarter hit. James went ahead and released it, but then withdrew it shortly thereafter for a week in order to prevent it from going to the #1 spot on the charts. It ended up peaking at #33.

The video for the single is a primary reason for the song’s longevity and lasting impact. It was shot in the same area as many of the exterior scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and offers a dismal, apocalyptic scenario where an old lady is terrorized by a gang of rampaging children, all with Richard D. James’ sinister grinning face, a motif that would be repeated with various record covers and videos. Grandma is eventually confronted by a screeching TV summoned demon who gathers the kids around him in a manner which seems intended to be a parody of a similarly framed scene in one of Michael Jackson’s videos. The oblique references to Jackson would continue in the Windowlicker video, which was the followup from AFX and Cunningham.

Reissues of the CD have expanded it to 11 tracks and a pretty much full LP runtime of 45 minutes. What may have started off as a bit of a laugh turned out to be one of Aphex Twins most enduring and memorable releases. 

 

APHEX TWIN - DRUKQS @ 20

 

Released on October 22, 2001, Aphex Twin’s Drukqs turns 20 years old today. It was the fifth studio album released under the Aphex Twin name and was one of Richard D. James’ most divisive albums.

Drukqs is so controversial because it refuses to adhere to anyone’s expectations nor to conform to any particular style across it’s two CDs / four vinyl LP mammoth 30 song, 1 hour & 43 minute runtime. It runs the gamut from hyperactive break-beat overloads to gently pastoral mechanical piano interludes and all of it seems to be thrown together with little to no consideration for track sequencing. Indeed, James himself has said that most people just import music into their computers and play albums in any order they like, so he anticipated that people would reconstruct the album to suit their own tastes anyway. As such, there wasn’t much point in spending a lot of time painstakingly arranging tracks into a particular order.

With this in mind, Drukqs can be seen as both a banquet of potential goodies or a confused amalgam of stray ideas. It only seems to make sense when the listener intervenes and puts the music together in a way that works for them. I know I found it an impossible listen when I first encountered the album when it was released and it was only much later when I took the time to reorder the tracks that I was able to find a way to appreciate it for what it had to offer. Personally, I found splitting it into “ambient” vs “rhythmic” tracks created two albums that I could listen to in their entirety, though I'd say I favor the more mellow side of this collection.

Part of the reason for the inconsistency in terms of styles can be found in its genesis, which was largely spurred by the theft of a laptop computer containing a massive collection of unreleased tunes which James lost while traveling. In order to thwart potential bootlegging, James put together Druqks as a stopgap measure, which is a predominant reason for critics often citing the album as merely a collection of random unreleased tracks from the previous few years. For many, it didn’t offer any new groundbreaking material and seemed to be no more than restatements of ideas already explored on more coherent releases like I Care Because You Do & the Richard D. James album.

Ultimately, the album relies on the listener to pick up the pieces and make something listenable out of it. There are some brilliant moments on it, especially with unexpectedly subtle compositions like Avril 14th, one of the mechanical piano tracks alternating between the more furiously complex break-beat excursions. James has provided a pile of puzzle pieces and left it up to the listener to sort them out. It would also have to suffice as the last Aphex Twin album until 2014’s Syro release. Not that James was completely silent all those years, releasing the Analord EP series as “AFX”, among other scattered side projects like The Tuss, but he’d stay away from Aphex Twin for over a decade. Part of that may have had to do with a nasty divorce from his wife and an effort to keep her from benefiting from potential royalties. Whatever the case, it left the Aphex Twin legacy in something of an uncomfortable limbo while fans tried to figure out what was going on.

THE APHEX TWIN - ANALOGUE BUBBLEBATH @ 40

 

 

In September of 1991, the world of techno music would welcome the debut release from The Aphex Twin as the Analogue Bubblebath EP hit the shelves for the first time.

Richard D. James wasn’t initially interested in releasing his music. He was content to hand out cassettes to friends and play his tracks occasionally during his DJ sets, but the idea of putting out records didn’t hold any real interest for him. It wasn’t until James was tripping on LSD during a rave at the Academy in Plymouth that he was cornered backstage by Mighty Force record shop owner, Mark Darby, and Rich’s friend, Tom Middleton, that he was browbeaten into submission as they dangled money and contracts in front of him until he relented to have his music become the debut release on Darby’s newly minted indie label. Middleton had been playing Darby cassettes at his record shop and the two were amazed that James wasn’t bothered about putting anything out officially, so they set up this ambush to convince him to change his mind and it finally worked. If not for this acid trip, the world may never have heard of Aphex Twin!

It didn’t take long for the EP to take on cult status as the initial pressing of 1000 while label copies sold out within a week and demanded immediate subsequent re-pressings. Critical response was also instantly positive as people recognized an entirely new breed of UK techno had been birthed by the record. James had put a distinct personal stamp on the world of electronica, one that would soon catapult him to legendary status within the span of a few short years. The release of Selected Ambient Works 85-92 a year later would quickly consolidate his status as the premier producer of the most original and advanced form of techno in the country, or the world, for that matter. The music on this EP was so far ahead of the curve that it still sounds fresh and current some 40 years after its release.

The impact of James’ music is incalculable at this point. So many people have been influenced by him and so many of his releases have achieved iconic status over the years. He’s still able to stir up excitement and controversy with his releases as he’s continued to carve his own path through the record industry. He’s remained enigmatic and aloof from the business while securing his stature for the foreseeable future. It all started with this one most exceptional collection of four tracks. Music that set new boundaries and then broke them just as quickly.

MIKE & RICH - EXPERT KNOB TWIDDLERS @ 25

 

Celebrating its 25th anniversary today is the one-off collaboration between Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) and Mike Paradinas (μ-Ziq), Expert Knob Twiddlers, which was released on June 24th, 1996.

The album came about as a result of James sending out a number of invitations to various electronic music producers in 1994 offering the opportunity to collaborate with him. While invitations were sent to the likes of Luke Vibert, Squarepusher and Cylob, it was Paradinas who managed to get it together to actually make the sessions happen. Once in the studio, the two found themselves indulging their mutual senses of humor as well as their penchant for electronic instrumentation. They also found that, stylistically, they were plumbing the depths of the retro-lounge music sensibilities which were just beginning to experience a resurgence at the time.

The roots of this revival actually go back to the late 1970s with Industrial music pioneers, Throbbing Gristle, and their habit of ending their live shows by playing Martin Deny albums and eventually parodying his LP cover style on TG’s Greatest Hits release. But it would take another 15 years for the resurgence to hit its peak in the mid 1990s, propelled by the publication of the ReSearch books, Incredibly Strange Music (Vols. 1 & 2). The album that resulted from James & Paradinas’ collaboration would be a kind of fusion of easy listening with funky electronica.

The humor of the album can be plainly observed in every aspect from the cover graphics, which portray the two producers playing a game of Downfall like the box packaging of a classic 1970s Milton Bradley kid’s game, to the song titles (Giant Deflating Football, Eggy Toast, The Sound of Beady Eyes), to the often crudely funny sound samples used in the songs, which includes things like belching in Upright Kangaroo. It’s clear that they were having a lot of fun in the studio while working on this album, though that irreverence may have left some critics a bit ambivalent and wondering if they were just pissing about or trying to make a serious album. Personally, I’ve always found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience from start to finish and lacks some of the more frustratingly self-indulgent edgy elements that can make their respective solo works often mixed bags when it comes to being able to play the whole album without having to skip that one track that just makes you want to bat the needle off the record.

After 25 years on the shelf, I think it still holds up well, though it probably should have been released earlier than it was. It was in the can as early as 1994 and, had it been issued then, it may have seemed more ahead of the curve in terms of embracing the easy listening revival, which hadn’t quite kicked into high gear like it did by the time Expert Knob Twiddlers was actually released. It would have been seen as more of a trend setting record than a bandwagon jumper. Despite it’s inside-joke indulgences, there’s still a forward looking innovation in terms of integrating the feel of the lounge era with the experimentation of ‘90s electronica.