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- #1
- Posted: 02/01/2015 04:34
- Post subject: BEA's Year-End List #10: Syro
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First off, I'd like to thank everyone who cast a ballot for the 2014 year-end list. Participation was strong and I think the results should make for some interesting discussions.
Over the next week and a half, I'm going to post one thread for each album in the top 10 so that people have a chance to discuss them in turn. After the top 10 is presented, I'll give more detailed statistics, including things like # of positive votes, # of negative votes, albums with 30-point votes, etc. At that point, I'll also present a version of the list that neglects negative votes.
Anyway, without further ado, here is the #10 entry on BEA's year-end list:
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Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Syro by Aphex Twin
Richard D. James' most famous alias, Aphex Twin, had been inactive for nearly a decade before this album finally dropped last fall. Was it worth the wait? Here are some snippets from the forums and charts:
| Skinny wrote: | | Syro is incredible. I'm still hearing new things with every listen, moments in songs that I can't believe passed me by before. And it's his best sounding record, the clarity is unbelievable. I can't wait to hear what comes next. |
| secretdad wrote: | | It's his best work, with just an insane level of detail driving these constantly evolving tracks to all sorts of really catchy, amazing moments. It's the best, most consistent showcase of the skills he has been developing since Hangable Auto Bulb (the more consistent, repetitive, awesome-in-a-different-way styles of something like Acrid Avid Jam Shred are absent here). But where so much of that density and emphasis on the drums led to a certain heaviness to the sound, everything here is just so *light* and it's easier to find air to breathe with. So much of the abrasiveness here seems like it's brought by the synths (like in the Circlont section). The drums convey speed and play with pitch to augment the melody work, but all of the really detailed compositional meat of the songs seems to be happening with the synths. And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love that stuff. But something about putting all of that work back into the synths feels like it's led to compositions that are just so much more agile and able to make insanely twisted paths to their ending that I just couldn't have even imagined. Simply amazing stuff. |
| newbands1 wrote: | | A step backwards from Druqks,do we really need tracks that sound like it could be from SAW 85-92 on a 2014 release. |
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Norman Bates
Gender: Male
Age: 52
Location: Paris, France 
- #2
- Posted: 02/01/2015 07:35
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I have seldom changed my mind so much about a record. I went from agreeing with newbands1 to almost agreeing with Skinny and secretdad. Not top 10 for me though, but among the 'surprise comebacks' the recent years have been so proficient with, this is one of the most convincing.
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- #3
- Posted: 02/01/2015 07:45
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I'll have to admit that I only listened to this twice when it first released,and now don't really remember what it sounds like apart from minipops 67.Maybe I'll give it another listen
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- #4
- Posted: 02/01/2015 09:10
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Hi guys! first post in this nice forum..I listened to whole SYRO last night for first time. I'm still in the Maze! If Syro doesn't say nothing really new I think people don't have to mind. Because this is..mmm.neoclassical Aphex twin. all those sounds and glitchy beats are intersected with an aura of perfection. Of course I have to return more times on the album, but hey! Innovation is not Always necessary when the music is so complex, well-constructed andnaturally innovative.
SYRO is a Maze videogame from Jupiter! I heard new melodies and surprises at every turn. Can't wait to discover more of them!
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Skinny
birdman_handrub.gif
- #5
- Posted: 02/01/2015 13:09
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So great. There's something extremely warm and funky about this record, an overriding sense that what you're listening to is definitely an analogue thing, crafted by human fingers. Perhaps it's the retroist breakbeat drums (which certainly evoke a time in electronic music when the software and the hardware couldn't always have their arm twisted in the way an artist intended), or maybe it's the constantly shifting melodies ('just keep swimming... just keep swimming'... consistent forward motion), but Syro pulls of that greatest and most delicate of tricks - being virtuosic without entering into gloating prog territory. To be this good, and for it to sound this natural and unforced - this can only be the work of somebody truly happy with who they are, and that contentedness shines through in every spontaneous acid bassline and every shimmering synth wash. So he didn't reinvent the wheel; who gives a shit when it sounds like Syro?
EDIT: Oh yeah, and here's some shit I wrote a while back about one of its tracks...
| Skinny wrote: | 3. Aphex Twin - XMAS_EVET10 (thanaton3 mix)
Unfortunately no YouTube link for this one, but you probably already know what it sounds like. The epic ten minute 'Metz Track' - the name under which it's been circulating in live recording form for years - finally arrived in full high-def on Syro, and it was worth the wait. An amorphous beast that keeps at its core a funky acid bass squelch (which provides the subversively melancholy melody), bringing along for the ride some relatively austere - by James' standard - boom-bap drums and seamlessly working in Tangerine Dream-style synth washes and those bittersweet bell-chimes that Pantha du Prince has built a career on, 'XMAS_EVE' is a quintessential James song, sounding like the realisation that this is the end of the rave dream or perhaps like that last night out at Uni before everybody goes their separate ways, determined to live it up but entirely uncertain of what we're all gonna do next and whether we'll even/ever see each other again. Truly beautiful. |
_________________
2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
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- #6
- Posted: 02/01/2015 14:02
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I love that this claims the number TEN spot. It's EXACTLY where it belongs. Great job, BEA!
And I'm totally with Skinny and SecretDad on this one. This is like classic Aphex Twin, BUT in high-def. Brilliant & jaw-dropping at times but always natural sounding, never forced. Incredible attention to detail. It's like a proper english muffin - crannies within the crannies. And I just pretend I'm the butter.
An album that delivers new treats with every spin.
Honestly, Skinny said it perfectly & better than I ever could. I hate you, Skinny! Why do you always have to say everything so perfectly. LOL.
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- #7
- Posted: 02/01/2015 17:32
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My experience with Syro was similar to Norman's. I was underwhelmed on my first few listens, but when I went back later, it opened itself up to me. I do think it's a masterpiece, but I can't help thinking of something secretdad said when I was doing his chart study:
| secretdad wrote: | | ...the further things get away from "primal", there's kind of the greater chance of a thing being nerdy. Like of course that's a gross oversimplification, but like the new Aphex Twin album. I love that to death, but it's totally nerdy (requiring an enthusiasm for a specific type of thing) |
I was playing it casually over the holidays while I was visiting with my family and they asked me if I was listening to the soundtrack from "some weird '80s sci-fi film." It's very much a niche thing and I've found it hard to incorporate into my daily life.
Side note, I find his latest EP Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 by Aphex Twin much more accessible in this regard.
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Tap
to resume download
Gender: Female
Age: 40
- #8
- Posted: 02/01/2015 20:46
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#12 on my overall list, been listening to Aphex for about 15 years now. And yeah I think making it to #10 here makes sense, because it seems like it just isn't going to line up with a lot of peoples interests. And that's cool! Music is huge and has lots of pockets. And this is a really nerdy one.
I will say though that I very very very very very very very very very strongly disagree with any assertions that this sounds like SAW 85-92. That album is the most beloved one for many people, because it's one of the least nerdy. There's synthing and stuff, sure, but there's also consistency and repetition, more straightforward structures, and less overall clutter. Syro is very far from that.
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- #9
- Posted: 02/02/2015 04:08
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I probably find it Aphex Twin's most dynamic LP that revisits his previous albums and incorporates elements from each of them. I don't find it the best thing he's ever done (I prefer the absolutely bonkers and at times menacing drum and bass plus piano freak outs that are Drukqs) but definitely an amazing come back album.
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craola
crayon master
Location: pdx 
- #10
- Posted: 02/02/2015 06:24
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I have very little to say about this album that hasn't already been said, but I will add that I'm happy this is in the top ten. One of the few high-ranked albums in our overall chart that I was really excited about.
_________________
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