APHEX TWIN - SYRO

http://www.factmag.com/2014/11/11/why-syro-sucks-slow-to-speaks-month-in-house-and-techno/9/

Man, this is a bad review of Syro... I mean it does change quite a bit, but I think it's anything but free-jazz to sit around with a sequencer and machines older than you recording to mixing console and tape. I'm also slightly confused as to what they determine a 'song' to be if these aren't songs. It's edge as fuck tho.

  On 9/1/2015 at 8:44 PM, Audioblysk said:

http://www.factmag.com/2014/11/11/why-syro-sucks-slow-to-speaks-month-in-house-and-techno/9/

 

Man, this is a bad review of Syro... I mean it does change quite a bit, but I think it's anything but free-jazz to sit around with a sequencer and machines older than you recording to mixing console and tape. I'm also slightly confused as to what they determine a 'song' to be if these aren't songs. It's edge as fuck tho.

Is it ever a bad review.

Guy sounds like a pretentious douchebag bro type.

edit: I don't think pretentious douchebag and bro type are a typical combination. This guy pulled it off though.

My guess is someone who's brain has been ruined by the internet, no attention span, limited intelligence.

Songs tend to be lyric/voice driven, so I think they probably just shouldn't be writing about music. I mean, yes there are voice in some tracks, but not in the traditional "song" sense. I think Syro is far more accessible than most of what I consider to be experimental music, so my guess is whoever's writing for fact doesn't really listen to what they're trying to write about.

  On 9/1/2015 at 9:00 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

so my guess is whoever's writing for fact doesn't really listen to what they're trying to write about.

or they're just trying really hard to get attention because the shit they do is painfully boring

the 2 guys who wrote it are generic house music label runners who are attempting to be Vicey and failing

  On 9/1/2015 at 9:25 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 9/1/2015 at 9:00 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

so my guess is whoever's writing for fact doesn't really listen to what they're trying to write about.

or they're just trying really hard to get attention because the shit they do is painfully boring

the 2 guys who wrote it are generic house music label runners who are attempting to be Vicey and failing

Gross.

  On 9/1/2015 at 2:25 PM, valleyinaire said:

 

  On 9/1/2015 at 2:22 PM, bitroast said:

4 has been particularly good too :)

 

Right on. 4bit has always been one of my fav Syro tracks, ever since early listens. Very under appreciated.

 

same! one of my faves

sometimes, apropos of nothing, produk 29 [101] gets stuck in your head, and you mutter fucking hell, disgusting, slut and fucking whore under your breath while the liquid, rolling bassline loops in your head for hours.

it's all part of the natural rhythm of life.

Love that track. That one, Syro U73... and Papat4 have been my favorites pretty much since my first listening. He really nailed the arrangements on those ones. There's lots going on to keep things interesting without it ever getting too messy.

Minipops and Xmas, while fun to listen to, are so cluttered in parts that it's almost frustrating to hear --makes the composition suffer for me. Also, that piano bit that echos his voice at the end section of Minipops drives me crazy due to that semitone dissonance thing. I thought I could get used to it but I can't. If the piano went down to the major third the way the vocal does it would be so satisfying! That said, he did a great job of finding a way to get all those parts to fit together sonically. The way those two tracks are mixed is inspiring. And the beat that kicks off Minipops is fucking iconic --perfect way to start an album. That may be my favorite sounding drum machine beat of all time. Both of these tracks would be favorites if done just a little differently, and both are compelling in part because of this.

Syro (the track) has got to be the funkiest thing he's done. It's like he's channeling Jackson 5 on that one... which is unexpected in a great way. One of my favorite RDJ tracks of any era.

Circlont6a is glorious... though it's always kind of upsetting when the harmonious-pad start section gets rudely interrupted by the frog farts (phrase coined by Ivan Ooze... I think?). The track goes some really great and unexpected places from there, but that beginning section deserves its own track, one where the melody gets to breathe and grow. If I could remix one Aphex track, it would be this one.

I'm surprised 180db gets such a bad rap. I've always loved the hypnotic detuned synths in that one -for me it evokes a sense of nausea (without the tangible feeling), and a disassociation from reality, sort of like the start of a bad shroom trip. That combined with the huge, dumb club beat is fucking brilliant. It's supposed to be heard at deafeningly loud volumes, with everything shaking. Highly under-rated track!

4 Bit seems to get better every time I hear it, but for some reason I can never remember it when I'm not listening to it. For that reason I always approach it with a sense of curiosity. I'm not sure what it is about it that makes it so elusive to my memory. It's not overly complicated. I wonder what the story behind the burp sample is (sounds like it's preceded by the fizz of carbonation... I like to imagine he was drinking coke near the room mic and decided to have some fun with it).

Okay, that's enough Syro rambling. I just listened again earlier today and felt the urge to jot down a few thoughts about it, now that I'm well past first impressions. It's definitely standing the test of time. While I have all sorts of insignificant gripes about this and that aspect of whatever, those imperfections keep the album interesting. There are other albums where I'm satisfied with almost every detail, but I'm less compelled to go back to them.

I can't edit my post anymore, but I just remembered that burp/fizz sound occurs at least twice in 4 bit, so that kills my room mic fantasy. Must actually be part of a sample he's using. (I remember this detail, but nothing about the music surrounding it for some reason, other than the fact that the drum sounds are bit crushed).

  On 9/1/2015 at 10:00 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

 

  On 9/1/2015 at 9:25 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 9/1/2015 at 9:00 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

so my guess is whoever's writing for fact doesn't really listen to what they're trying to write about.

or they're just trying really hard to get attention because the shit they do is painfully boring

the 2 guys who wrote it are generic house music label runners who are attempting to be Vicey and failing

 

Gross.

 

Probably to be expected from a couple of guys who's default pose is 'squatting on the rocks'.

  On 9/1/2015 at 2:22 PM, bitroast said:

Current faves are 6 8 9. So god damn good. 4 has been particularly good too :) definitely an album that fares well over maxo relistening and time.

 

On anutha note, fred 6 from tuss ep has kicked in again as another favourite. I kind of got bored of it for a bit and thought it was too bare bones. Then on recent relisten that bass synth that kicks in at 2:30 and again at 2:50 came to my attention and faaaar out its almost like i wasnt even hearing it before or something. So much of the songs rhythm relies on it and it was ghost bass note but now i can hear it again. Welcome back, fred!

  On 9/2/2015 at 11:53 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Love that track. That one, Syro U73... and Papat4 have been my favorites pretty much since my first listening. He really nailed the arrangements on those ones. There's lots going on to keep things interesting without it ever getting too messy.

 

 

 

Syro (the track) has got to be the funkiest thing he's done. It's like he's channeling Jackson 5 on that one... which is unexpected in a great way. One of my favorite RDJ tracks of any era.

 

 

 

The Syro track is definitely my favourite track. It took me a while to get in to it, but man, what a diversity there is in that track.

The Circlont14 track is probably my second fav, just for one reason, the break at around 3:00 min, the voice is so soothing and when the drums come back in I just lose it every single time...

  On 9/2/2015 at 2:21 PM, Time Tourist said:

 

The Circlont14 track is probably my second fav, just for one reason, the break at around 3:00 min, the voice is so soothing and when the drums come back in I just lose it every single time...

 

Yeah, same here. This is the track I meant when I mentioned "circlont6a", which is also fucking killer start to finish. There's an abrupt section change somewhere in the middle that always bugs me, but the track resumes its badassery so quickly that I'm quick to forget it. Love the drum programming in that one. It's crazy to think he can bring all these parts together in one take. My assumption with a track this complex is that there must be a ton of edits. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see how this was done.

  On 9/2/2015 at 10:55 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

 

  On 9/2/2015 at 2:21 PM, Time Tourist said:

 

The Circlont14 track is probably my second fav, just for one reason, the break at around 3:00 min, the voice is so soothing and when the drums come back in I just lose it every single time...

 

 

Yeah, same here. This is the track I meant when I mentioned "circlont6a", which is also fucking killer start to finish. There's an abrupt section change somewhere in the middle that always bugs me, but the track resumes its badassery so quickly that I'm quick to forget it. Love the drum programming in that one. It's crazy to think he can bring all these parts together in one take. My assumption with a track this complex is that there must be a ton of edits. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see how this was done.

 

How cool would it be if he would stream the live recording process for some tracks of his next album...

RDJ or WARP: if you see this please get it done :)

Think I might ask him on Soundcloud!

  On 9/3/2015 at 8:08 AM, Time Tourist said:

 

  On 9/2/2015 at 10:55 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

 

  On 9/2/2015 at 2:21 PM, Time Tourist said:

 

The Circlont14 track is probably my second fav, just for one reason, the break at around 3:00 min, the voice is so soothing and when the drums come back in I just lose it every single time...

 

 

Yeah, same here. This is the track I meant when I mentioned "circlont6a", which is also fucking killer start to finish. There's an abrupt section change somewhere in the middle that always bugs me, but the track resumes its badassery so quickly that I'm quick to forget it. Love the drum programming in that one. It's crazy to think he can bring all these parts together in one take. My assumption with a track this complex is that there must be a ton of edits. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see how this was done.

 

 

How cool would it be if he would stream the live recording process for some tracks of his next album...

RDJ or WARP: if you see this please get it done :)

 

Think I might ask him on Soundcloud!

 

a "in the studio" video with aphex would be, like, too much for me to handle. like seeing that video of avicii working in fl studio on youtube but 34980239489389 times more interesting. or visiting kling klang in 1973. or hanging out with stockhausen at wdr in 1959. or jamming on a arp 2500 in a ufo in the outer regions of space with those aliens in "close encounters".

but even better.

  On 9/2/2015 at 11:53 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

 

4 Bit seems to get better every time I hear it, but for some reason I can never remember it when I'm not listening to it. For that reason I always approach it with a sense of curiosity. I'm not sure what it is about it that makes it so elusive to my memory. It's not overly complicated. I wonder what the story behind the burp sample is (sounds like it's preceded by the fizz of carbonation... I like to imagine he was drinking coke near the room mic and decided to have some fun with it).

 

Alright, so it's finally been engrained in my memory... like almost every part. I think just writing that out made my unconscious mind do some overtime to remember what this track sounds like. Also, the "burp" sample I mentioned has the fizzy sound proceeding, not preceeding it. It's part of what's jogging my memory right now. Shit, this is a fucking cool track.

I really think Xmas would have been the perfect album closer, and Aisatsana should have been left off/possibly released on CCAI part 2.

  On 8/24/2015 at 9:32 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 8/24/2015 at 3:38 PM, psn said:

 

  Quote

 

on Nightmail 1

@indulin: yeah syro is all live apart from marchromt which has got some edits, live or not live dont matter, i just prefer to do it like that most of the time, for a few diff reasons.

 

xmas evet10 or minipops as a 'live' track doesn't seem believable to me, but all the others do.

 

yeah both of those would have to be at least partially multitracked into the computer - acoustic instruments on xmas eve (robot drums, zither, udu) vocals on both songs, disklavier on both songs. synths might have been live along with multitracked elements tho,

all of that live stuff could easily have been sampled and triggered from a hardware sequencer.

  On 9/4/2015 at 5:12 AM, caze said:

all of that live stuff could easily have been sampled and triggered from a hardware sequencer.

some of them, yes, especially the vocals. but the drums, piano, and some other bits are too long. also he listed multichannel audio recording interfaces on the gear list for those tracks, and no hardware sequencer.

  On 9/4/2015 at 5:19 AM, Ingwe said:

 

  On 9/4/2015 at 5:12 AM, caze said:

all of that live stuff could easily have been sampled and triggered from a hardware sequencer.

 

some of them, yes, especially the vocals. but the drums, piano, and some other bits are too long. also he listed multichannel audio recording interfaces on the gear list for those tracks, and no hardware sequencer.

 

too long? what's the sample length of a hardware sampler these days, I can't imagine that would be problem. also, it's not possible to tell just from listening what length the samples are. He never denied using multi-channel recording, just computer edits.

Fuck how good is Syro u473...some serious luminescence going on in that track. That mini jazz fusion breakdown at 3:30 or so...then it just turns into this mind-meltingly fucking jam of jams.

I think that one's my fave.

  On 9/4/2015 at 5:41 AM, caze said:

 

  On 9/4/2015 at 5:19 AM, Ingwe said:

 

  On 9/4/2015 at 5:12 AM, caze said:

all of that live stuff could easily have been sampled and triggered from a hardware sequencer.

some of them, yes, especially the vocals. but the drums, piano, and some other bits are too long. also he listed multichannel audio recording interfaces on the gear list for those tracks, and no hardware sequencer.

 

too long? what's the sample length of a hardware sampler these days, I can't imagine that would be problem. also, it's not possible to tell just from listening what length the samples are. He never denied using multi-channel recording, just computer edits.

 

right as ingwe noted, there's no hardware sequencer listed on some of those tracks. w/o hard sequencer, we're down to computers i'd say? the tracks on syro that sound one take(i.e. the ones made after 2010) totally sound like they're one take mixed through live, and the earlier ones like 1-5 & papat do not. i'd say he's goofing lying misremembering or most likely simplifying. maybe they're "one take" in that the DAW played out all the samples in one take as it was being bounced ::troll::

it's funny that macromat is the one he says he edited because that track is the one that most barely sounds like it's holding itself together through ahuge pile of live sysex patch switches, midi gates and eq switches... love it - the bedroom cirklony tracks are a lot more tame

  On 9/5/2015 at 12:11 AM, chenGOD said:

Fuck how good is Syro u473...some serious luminescence going on in that track. That mini jazz fusion breakdown at 3:30 or so...then it just turns into this mind-meltingly fucking jam of jams.

  On 9/5/2015 at 12:21 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

I think that one's my fave.

Yeah that one's been my favorite since early on too. I may have commented before on how apt it is that it's the title track, to me it has a bit of everything that makes the album so great. Playfulness, melancholy, strange danceability, feels a bit like it comes from a different planet...

Hard to believe it's been a year give or take since Syro was released. Still feels remarkably fresh considering the amount of times I must've heard it by now.

Feeling strong connection vibes with Drexciya