Before EDM became passe, there was IDM — intelligent dance music, that is. Today’s sounds, from maximalist house-pop to arena dubstep, appear astonishingly conventional compared with the boundless experimentation and extremity Aphex Twin and his peers refined beginning in the early 1990s. But the bold sonic future they plotted out never quite happened, and Aphex, the scene’s most revered and most irreverent figure, unceremoniously dropped out more than a decade ago following the double-disc hard drive dump Drukqs and its cynically titled follow-up 26 Mixes for Cash.
A lot has happened in his absence, but the producer, real name Richard David James, seemingly hasn’t paid it much mind. From the curious appearance of an Aphex Twin blimp over London to his logos stenciled mysteriously on Manhattan sidewalks, the marketing rollout for Syro, his first proper album in some 13 years, matches the retro charms of the record itself. A multichambered love letter to the sprawl of ’90s rave, the album hums with sentimentality. Throughout, Syro revisits identifiable touch points from James’ considerable discography, as on the drill’n’bass reboot “PAPAT4 (pineal mix)” or the swinging techno of “180db_.” Closing number “aisatsana” is a direct descendant of Drukqs‘ striking piano set piece “Avril 14th” (famously sampled on Kanye West’s “Blame Game”), exuding a calm, pastoral beauty that encourages quiet reflection on the wild hour-long ride that precedes it.
But despite the obvious reach backs (and Aphex’s signature confusing song titles), Syro shouldn’t feel too foreign to fans of contemporary club sounds. Much of the record’s first half depends on downright danceable beats, as on the rubbery electro-funk of “XMAS_EVET10 (thanaton3 mix)” and the hip-hop-hued “produk 29.” And while throwback acid melodies color “Circlont6A (syrobonkus mix)” and “syro u473t8+e (piezoluminescence mix),” they provide a natural bridge to what unhinged bass producers like Skrillex — who cites Aphex as one of his influences — and Skream have been cooking up. Technological advances, the explosion of modular soft synths and the plethora of freeware may have granted today’s electronic producers easier access and streamlined the learning curves, but there’s no escaping their Aphex ancestry.
-Gary Suarez