Is Syro Underrated...

  On 1/2/2018 at 8:28 PM, beerwolf said:

All I can say is I still don't like it half as much as his other LPs

 

It seems brimming and bubbling with brilliant ideas but for some reason the final result isn't as great as it could be (in my humble opinion).  I'm not bothered though because the man still has more skill in his little finger than most of the rest of the field.

  On 1/2/2018 at 8:51 PM, valleyinaire said:

of course, from a production/technical standpoint it's VERY underrated.

 

i probably wouldn't class it as one of my favourite rdj releases though. sure, it has some god tier tunes (xmas_eve, 4bit, circlont6a) but as a collective, syro doesn't stand up to stuff like drukqs, rushup, come to daddy, etc.

Agreed. The musical and technical skills have increased but the emotional connection to the tracks aren't there. Maybe they will in time? 

I guess the main question I had was 'Has the musical quality in terms of new melodies, ideas, transitions etc gone over peoples heads?' It does seem like he's made a pretty big jump from previous albums. It probably hasn't and I just haven't noticed how much people liked the album. 

  On 1/2/2018 at 9:13 PM, Kavinsky said:

another unnecessary thread about "is it good or is bad " and yes Aphex is still relevant.

  On 1/2/2018 at 10:58 PM, Chesney said:

I have literally just listened to some of Syro for the first time in ages. It was the first thing I put on as I got the new studio to a point I could set up the puter and new monitors. Fuck, Not heard it like this before, it blew me away. All the work paid off in planning as it sounds incredible.

As for the question, I always felt syro was a little meandering. Not as focussed as the Tuss stuff, they just go where they are meant to but syro seems to show that he was a little stuck for direction or tried too hard to take it other directions to not sound predictably aphex. That said, it's still a great album for all things but the sound makes it for me over the arrangements.

I agree with the 'meandering' point and it's one of the reasons I think he's 'improved' relying less on repetition and a bit more on just going where the music leads him? Agree that this doesn't always work though... I do prefer listening to Tuss tracks but Syro is just different, more of a night listen for me.

  On 1/3/2018 at 4:05 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

it got a lot of props and won a grammy, I'd say it's pretty rated. it's a great album! 

Anything he releases gets credit and is rated   I just wanted to hear whether people thought he was still improving in new aspects (composition, mixing, mastering) that I hadn't seen discussed (should have worded my original post better...)

  On 1/3/2018 at 2:50 PM, Alan Ord said:

I guess the main question I had was 'Has the musical quality in terms of new melodies, ideas, transitions etc gone over peoples heads?'

edit: no but srs from what I understood syro was tuss-era stuff and his sound/style whatever is stuck there.. or atleast thats what we get to hear. I don't dislike it but doesn't float my boat as his older stuff does... my hopes is that he has tons of crazy (edit2: NEW) stuff unreleased cuz that's just the kinda thing rdj do innit

lol, I know it's a twatish point but was interested in knowing. 

tbf I like his old stuff better too. The soundcloud release was amazing. 

I listen more to his new stuff nowadays. Syro is still fresh and levels above everything else in the electronic music world, especially in terms of production, composition.But i must admit, i do usually skip over Produk 29 and 180db_. The Circlons still blow my mind, no-one else is this good.

  On 1/3/2018 at 5:57 PM, Mcdergbit said:

I listen more to his new stuff nowadays. Syro is still fresh and levels above everything else in the electronic music world, especially in terms of production, composition.But i must admit, i do usually skip over Produk 29 and 180db_. The Circlons still blow my mind, no-one else is this good.

Yeah, exactly. Personally only Autechre is near him and they make completely different stuff. I get the feeling that expectations for Syro were so massive that it couldn't help be a disappointment. 

Produk 29 is too funky for me to skip 

from a technical perspective, it's impossible to say that it's not impressive. Art is subjective, though. Yer onions are yer own oponions an't don't let people make you feel dumb

  On 1/3/2018 at 5:57 PM, Mcdergbit said:

Syro is still fresh and levels above everything else in the electronic music world, especially in terms of production, composition

No. Autechre.

  On 1/3/2018 at 5:57 PM, Mcdergbit said:

no-one else is this good.

No. Autechre

the post above is correct

Well, it's just my opinion i guess :)

what's an owteekraaah

Aphex is underrated

and btw syro is a strange name for a band

awtek her? I hardly know her!

It's quite good, but doesn't hold a candle to drukqs, which is a masterpiece.

Quite good, indeed.

Seriously underrated among the fanbase. Interestingly I find the more casual crowd (respectfully) to like it more than the fans do, seemingly because they 'have to', in the sense that when Syro came out it was announced with so much fanfare of an IDM legend returning with a new release, the casual crowd was kind of told to like it by the media outlests.

Anyway, for me similar to Druqs, the record just becomes better every time I give it another listen. The only real criticism I have is that from a mastering p.o.v. the record just always sounds kind of 'flat' to me. I'm sure it's an aesthetic choice. Maybe the tracks would sound more unrelated to one another with mastering that has more fidelity, considering that many of them were produced years apart from one another, but personally I sometimes wish that tracks like XMAS_EVET10 [120][thanaton3 mix] had more of an 'umpf' quality to them, especially during the parts where the track really escalates.

Just my 2 cents.

awtek her? I hardly know her!

Flol, funny in the sentence above but I find that last man on earth comedy really tedious and overrated (only place I've heard this joke)...

This is the exact opposite of syro...

  On 1/4/2018 at 2:20 AM, JUVITH SITH said:

awtek her? I hardly know her!

 

Flol, funny in the sentence above but I find that last man on earth comedy really tedious and overrated (only place I've heard this joke)...

 

This is the exact opposite of syro...

I don't remember where I first read the awtek her joke, somewhere here in the  forums.

I thought it was a WATMM Classic dad joke by now, must have been mistaken.     

Syro=Tuss>drukqz>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>auteker

  On 1/4/2018 at 2:49 AM, HexagonSun said:

drukqz>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>auteker

It's not quite as complex as some of the tracks on drukqs, but the tracks subtly mutate a lot more. I don't think 4 bars repeat in the whole album besides maybe on aisatsana, but even then the bird noises in the background consistently change. It's his most psychedelic release by far.

Yeah man... I think a key difference is the place RDJ was coming from, in comparison to the sharp, manic energy of drukqs, and the fuzzy laid back energy of RDJ in his mid 20s, and the weird, unearthly sound of discovery from his teenage years. Syro is a middle aged dad IDM album, in the best sense possible. It's wise and quirky, with a sense of humor, but also a deep darkness lurking in places, rather than the angst of earlier dark 'phex. I feel like the darkness in certain tracks from Drukqs & Syro all perfectly describe the adult experience of mental illness and unease. Drukqs being a manic dive into those feelings, and Syro being a mature reaction to it, where he cherishes the moments of victory and beauty, but the dark just kinda keeps creeping back into the tracks and he lets it. It's unforced. I dunno. Hard to describe. I find them both very relatable.

  On 1/4/2018 at 12:51 AM, reapersquush said:

The only real criticism I have is that from a mastering p.o.v. the record just always sounds kind of 'flat' to me. I'm sure it's an aesthetic choice. Maybe the tracks would sound more unrelated to one another with mastering that has more fidelity, considering that many of them were produced years apart from one another, but personally I sometimes wish that tracks like XMAS_EVET10 [120][thanaton3 mix] had more of an 'umpf' quality to them, especially during the parts where the track really escalates.

 

Just my 2 cents.

To my ears Syro (especially the vinyl) sounds more phat and full-sounding than his other records.  Minipops, Produk and Xmas in particular.. oof they sound amazing

  On 1/3/2018 at 7:58 AM, goDel said:

It's an Aphex Twin album! Initially every one of them has been notoriously underrated. Who gives a ...

 

Anything imminent is all I give a fck about currently. Still a lot missing in the bleepstore. Dammit... :(

yup this, I wonder what's up with the bleep store, maybe it's the calm before the storm, anyway can't wait to hear what's next ! 

I love syro, its funkier and tussier than drukqs, even if it isn't as intricate or varied, and maybe the best moments of drukqs are better than the best moments of syro, but the only track that falls flat for me is 180db, and of the rest i'd have a hard time picking a favourite

i'd love more of those circlon tracks

  On 1/6/2018 at 2:18 PM, Sally Vingoe said:

i'd have a hard time picking a favourite

The title track for sure.