Aphex Twin discusses ‘Syro’

Aphex Twin and Warp have confirmed 22nd September as the release date for his forthcoming album ‘Syro’.

As revealed in a recent phone interview with The Fader, Richard D James’ forthcoming album ‘Syro’ is composed mostly of previous material – the oldest of which dates back six to seven years. “I’d stockpiled up so much stuff and you can kind of have to draw a line under it somewhere,” Richard D. James explained. “By banging something out it, it’s like the end of the chapter. It properly draws a line under it and allows you to move on.”

Fittingly for an artist who has so closely aligned himself and his music with the embrace of technology, the announcement of the new album capitalised on the power of the internet with news of blimps and trans-atlantic stencils spreading over social media – closely followed by a tweeted .onion address. Anticipated as the first release of fresh Aphex Twin material in thirteen years, the early news of ‘Syro’ had many fidgeting with excitement!

In a rare and interesting interview with Pitchfork James has provided some illumination on the new album. Apparently ‘Syro’ is pronounced ‘Sigh-ro’ – a made-up word invented by James children – and the LP features unintelligible vocals from James, his wife, children and parents. Whilst the albums tracks are said to mostly reference machines used in the construction of the tracks, he also reveals that he’s currently making new music with electro-mechanical instruments including MIDI pipe organs, a Disklavier controlled piano and computer-controlled percussion.

Whilst talking to Pitchfork he also confirmed it was him behind the ‘Melodies From Mars’ album, discussed being sampled by Kanye and revealed that he still DJ’s anonymously for personal pleasure. “The good gigs are always the smaller gigs. The few I’ve done recently, just for fun, totally anonymously, were so much better than a normal gig. The soundsystem’s usually shit, but it’s really nice when nobody knows who you are.”

Since James revealed that some of the tracks on ‘Syro’ are old material, FACT have been busy at work scouring Youtube videos of his live performances for tracks that correlate with the album’s track list – and believe they have uncovered four as-yet unreleased tracks floating around in cyber space.

It is thought that album track ‘4 bit 9d api+e+6’ may have been played at his 2007 performance at ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas, and ‘XMAS_EveT10 (thanaton3 mix)’ is said to have been performed live in 2010. The latter has also been issued a copyright claim by Warp, which suggests it is due to appear on the new album. Lead track ‘minipops 67 [120.2][source field mix]’ may have also been circulating as “the Manchester track”, and according to fans ‘PAPAT4 [155][pineal mix]’ is thought to possibly be included in a video from Singapore. (Follow the links to have a look for yourself)

Either way, we at TNG are incredibly excited for the 22nd September and can’t wait to hear ‘Syro’ in full!

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