APHEX TWIN - SYRO

[AliceS]

Oh my God s950txwasr10 is so good. I love how everything comes together and goes all lush at the end. Makes me think of Christmas 2014... I'm somehow getting nostalgic over an album that isn't even a year old yet.

[Alfreddo]

Oh my God s950txwasr10 is so good. I love how everything comes together and goes all lush at the end. Makes me think of Christmas 2014... I'm somehow getting nostalgic over an album that isn't even a year old yet.

Yeah I'm getting that too. think it's also case Xmas and minipops have been floating about for years now

[Rubin Farr]

Rough Trade East toilet, LOL

 

[psn]

Rough Trade East toilet, LOL

 

 

Image doesn't show up.

[Plarkreluke Banloboh]

 

Syro's out!?

 

Minipops_67_(Source_Field_Mix) I could be wrong, but it sounds like the high-percussion sounds were made from tapes of early gigs, rerecorded and reprocessed through the dust-clouds of ancient digital reverberation units. This process repeated until all the tapes turn to sand. Then I imagine the sands would have to be returned to their source field, to be scattered on a beach in Cornwall as ritual to honour some wicked, early 90's beach raves.

 

A lot of the equipment Richard uses is modified, and it would have to be! I don't care what limiters are supposedly listed, there's no way anyone is getting a sound this big out of regular, off the shelf components! I'm picturing massive, cabana-sausage-sized resistors which are the only way to achieve this perfect paradox coefficient of weightless, man-sized beats!

 

XMAS_EVET10_(Thanaton3_Mix) An octave divided entity introduces this track, part morbidly obese Santa, part trollish elf. It may be this entity who has an brain that makes a bassline that sounds like synapses growing at 120 BPM! At this stage it is still unconfirmed by The Infinite 24/7 AFX Soundcloud AMA!

 

Then when that fat chubby bass voice comes in to introduce the second part of the track, which was already a fan-favourite to begin with: oh god! There are epiphany tracks, and then there are epiphany tracks, but THIS is an epiphany track baby! I wonder if this was the Christmas costume orgy song..

 

Those bells at the end are realisations.

 

Produk_29 An humpback poultry waddle, by none other than the Tregraskins! This must be in the elevator shaft of the cottage-dungeon studio. It's even got the sheep-activated Tuss reverbs (given that the spring-coils would be stretched out across several lush green fields, it's inevitable that the sheep would occasionally gnaw on them).

 

Wait, there's some talking on this. I hear: “Like, we were at that club (inaudible) while you were swanning about in your cape like Phantom Of The Opera, (inaudible) fucking whore.” Rude.

 

4_bit_9d_Api+e+6 Subliminal whisper funk. This track is a prime example of something I've been wanting to bring up about this guy, which is the phenomenon of 'twinsounds'. For example, there are awesome organ plucks which serve to offset and accentuate their 'twinsounds', but would make little musical sense outside of that context. Further scholarship still needs to be done into this area.

 

Wispers again. Look, if they're going to get so close to the microphone, they should at least finish their soup or whatever it is they're slurping first.

 

180db These Vibert synth vamps sound like they were keyed in at the elbows, giving off the most boistrous of shimmies. Yet somehow, they go remarkably well with the hair-raising, squeaky horror-pads from the other room, creating perpetually ascending, barber-poll effects with my sense of apprehension..

 

CIRCLONT6A_(Syrobonkus_Mix) A reinactment of a call and response battle between the two great factions of electronic music: the Bleeps and the Bloops. The Bleeps attack first with Cossack dancing synth-fingers, but the Bloops retaliate with piping hot Turkish coffee basslines.

 

Fz_pseudotimestretch+e+3 If the medium is the message, then the message undoubtedly is Casio FZ-1. However, does anyone else think that there might be a bit of strategic misdirection going on here? I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the 'pseudo-timestretch' effect may in fact be a Max/MSP to Arduino controlled reel-to-reel motor-speed modification. In addition to this, kettle steam can be used on the tape for further pitch modulations. Without the use of these techniques, all of the tracks here might simply sound like elaborate versions of Amazing Grace.

 

CIRCLONT14_(Shrymoming_Mix) How can it be that these sympathetic synths seem to shimmer so magnanimously, so as to reassure the listener that they really understand what we have all been through in life? Then there's always a bit at 5:06 that really gets to me.

 

Syro_u473t8+e_(Piezoluminescence_Mix) “So how was your day today,” “Effortlessly busy.” Cue Syro_u473t8+e_(Piezoluminescence_Mix).

 

The great thing about an electronic tabla with CV controlled circumference, is that it forces you to think outside the box, because it literally gets bigger. You have to think creatively about where you are going to store it.

 

PAPAT4_(Pineal_Mix) I didn't think Richard would jump so readily into the Naturewave trend but you simply can't argue with these stunning desert mirage pads. Then there's those snares that drop their tails and escape like lizards when you try to grab at them.

 

S950tx16wasr10_(Earth_Portal_Mix) Drum and Bass from the future, which is now. You know how Luke Vibert said that when he was making Drill and Bass tracks, sometimes he was just drawing funny pictures on the piano roll? I imagine Richard is doing that here, drawing his big grinning face out of obscure scale patterns procured illegally from the deep web.

 

Anthony Fantano might call a track like this “exercising in order to avoid entropy” (OK he didn't, he was talking about Damogen Furies) but I reckon if there are any asthmatics out there who are disappointed in medical science, get youself a MIDI wind controller and start fucking carving it up like this!

 

Aisatsana Hearing the wooden levers in the MIDI piano moving, gives this a bit of a behind the stage curtains feel. Like a Punch and Judy show but more sweet and less violent.. and the audience is all birds.

 

Overall, great fucking album.

[Will21st]

Syro's out!?

 

Overall, great fucking album.

 

 

Love your review Sir! Been listening to Syro since it came out and it's still a mystery to me.... musicality out of this world. 10/10

[silentvision]

Comment posted on Nightmail 1 SoundCloud:

 

HrrJn says at 3:59:

Unrelated but I just upped your bonus Syrobonkus track - opinion on the result of the rip :)?

 

 

[Hugh Mughnus]

Nice!

[perunamuusi]

best post 2015 award goes to webby

[Rubin Farr]

Comment posted on Nightmail 1 SoundCloud:

 

HrrJn says at 3:59:

Unrelated but I just upped your bonus Syrobonkus track - opinion on the result of the rip :)?

 

 

ripped

[Herr Jan]

 

Comment posted on Nightmail 1 SoundCloud:

 

HrrJn says at 3:59:

Unrelated but I just upped your bonus Syrobonkus track - opinion on the result of the rip :)?

 

 

ripped

 

Ha, that was me who posted that. Someone posted that version on watmm a few months ago - just like the initial rip consisting of .wav's for the 33rpm and 45rpm version. No response from the 'Phex yet though, was curious if he thought it was anything resembling what he had in mind.

[Utter Ninja]

 

 

Comment posted on Nightmail 1 SoundCloud:

 

HrrJn says at 3:59:

Unrelated but I just upped your bonus Syrobonkus track - opinion on the result of the rip :)?

 

 

ripped

 

Ha, that was me who posted that. Someone posted that version on watmm a few months ago - just like the initial rip consisting of .wav's for the 33rpm and 45rpm version. No response from the 'Phex yet though, was curious if he thought it was anything resembling what he had in mind.

 

Is that the pendulum track Richard did at the Barbican?

[youtubehd]PCzNEkL9zLQ[/youtubehd]

Maby somewhere in the second half of the video

[phudoshin]

After a massive SC dump listen-fest along with squarepushers last album and accompanying live sets, I've come back to Syro and really really love the shit out of it all over again now that its like a familiar old pal i'm having a pint with.

 

Good old RDJ

[Kennylogg Bubblebath]

[Leonod33]

That Syro effort is quite good eh. There's still bits popping out from songs that I didn't really pay attention to before, RDJ specialty. It's magic sounds. It's still sinking in that Aphex released this, and that it sounds like this, and that he's releasing more stuff...

 

Yeeeeee-haw.

[AliceS]

After a massive SC dump listen-fest along with squarepushers last album and accompanying live sets, I've come back to Syro and really really love the shit out of it all over again now that its like a familiar old pal i'm having a pint with.

 

Good old RDJ

 

"I've come back to Syro and really really love the shit out of it all over again now that its like a familiar old pal i'm having a pint with." What a perfect description. This applies to most of his albums for me.

[Friendly Foil]

earth portal!!!

[Guest bitroast]

syro is grand. i was very suspicious about those who were critical at the time

 

yeaaah. ^this. agreed^^ ^^^^

[Will21st]

I loved Syro from the start and still do.... the musicality and playfulness is just amazing, the mixing is sublime, especially on headphones. Masterpiece and an album that actually deserved the grammy.... heck, it should've won album of the year.

[reapersquush]

This is my third time revisiting the album since it's release. It really becomes better and better as time passes. There's so many little nuances to every track, I'm still picking up on things I didn't notice before. This record will age like wine, just like Drukqs.

 

Also, why isn't this topic pinned any longer? It's not lik there is a new album on the way.

Edited July 20, 2015 by reapersquush

[triachus]

Also, why isn't this topic pinned any longer? It's not lik there is a new album on the way.

[delet...]

 

Also, why isn't this topic pinned any longer? It's not lik there is a new album on the way.

 

 

[usagi]

I heard minipoops in a JB HiFi the other day.

[Guest bitroast]

I heard minipoops in a JB HiFi the other day.

 

hearing manchester track in a record store = 2 lush points credited to watmm account

[Hugh Mughnus]

 

Also, why isn't this topic pinned any longer? It's not lik there is a new album on the way.

 

That's what you think ;)