A decade since his last album, Syro, electronica’s brilliant British outsider and pioneer Richard D James returns with a surprise fan-pleaser, a mass compilation release of many numbers played at festivals, and previously only on limited-edition vinyl sold at the merch desk of select events. Away from the standard LP-tour cycles, this been Aphex Twin’s bread-and-butter for the last 10 years. It’s a smorgasbord of scintillating, sometimes challenging creations, recapturing the highs of various festivals from London to Barcelona to Manchester across these last 10 years - playful, mischievous, spanning drill’n’bass to house to acid and very danceable bangers, but all the time bender the listeners’ senses. It’s a fans’ stocking-filler, and includes all sorts of injoke titles, such as T13 Quadraverbia N+3, referring to a niche 1989 effects unit, and harks back to his bedroom creator days, as well as other tech pointers,. But also one to dive into for the musically curious, with some highlights including the most accessible - Nightmail (sampling the WH Auden poem), then more experimental examples – T18A pole1, Soundlab20, Spiral Staircase, rozzboxv2mam+4, midi pipe2c edit +3, or korgfunk5, but there are fascinating things going on throughout with this treasure trove of oddness and innovation. Out on Warp Records.
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