Firstly, this thread is humungous... so much love for this album (who says love doesn't involve gnashing of teeth)
I've spun the first half of the album on mp3 320 about ten times and am massively into the Sy. Before it was released I was champing at the bit and thrashing SAWI, Analord and others. Syro on the whole is a more complex beast than Analord (other than something like xmd5a which is a comparable ripper)
Glorious return of the AT moniker and apart from waiting for My Bloody Valentine's follow up to Loveless last year, this has been the most EPIC wait, and like mbv, has delivered in spades!
Syro second half is more difficult to get my head around, more impenetrable synth lines to untangle and restless drum lines to awkwardly brain dance to. I think I have two left brains.
I understand how people might think they're disappointed with Syro to begin with - it is indeed a grower, people; once our brains attune to the tunes, you can enjoy the sounds more... And there is a non conventional gas fraccing abundance of tune.
What I think makes this album hard to get, and this is alluded to in the p4k interview, is that a lot of the record doesn't follow conventional tunings. So it's possible our brains are not wired yet to know what response to make. Anyone remember the first time they heard a 20 minute Indian raga or a long Philip Glass piece? Serious WTF moments
This is probably the main reason I think it's an important record, along with the envelope and texture detail in every (mostly) analog sound. How can it be that the vocoders sound so awesome, but that even in Minipops67 which we've all heard loads by now, it's so hard to work out what's being said? (I know, there's a thread for this)
One of my fave moments which I reckon is a typically playful tip of the hat to Warp, happens at 7:30(!) of XMAS_EVET10 where a very BoC sounding synth comes in - ah, the serenity - which lasts a few seconds before a "bonk" disrupts beautifully and the acid synth bounces on.
Also love the delay sound which creeps in and beautifully grounds the track from this point on.
Listened to the full album on 24bit last night on some KRK monitors with a friend and the requisite imbibements and MAN I can recommend this particular experience... Sounded so punchy but warm, no mastering problems to my ears.. But it was a lot easier to have the first half up loud, whereas the second half overwhelmed and we had to lower the volume! Rinse, repeat, I know
180db was particularly bangin', this track may be out of kilter with some of the album, but it's a collection of tracks from a wide period, an AT catchup, so it was never going to be as disciplined as Drukqs. IMHO it is better than Classics!
Bounty is within. If you don't like it, sell your rotten ovaries.