You know when you open up a streaming player or a YouTube video and there are some dischordant mixture of sounds that you sometimes have to pause to make sure there aren't other players or ads somewhere flooding your sound?
It's around the 0:34 mark that I did that the first time on the new Aphex Twin song “mini pops 67 (source field mix).” These dissonances continue in patches, sometimes when least expected. Gorgeous piano rhythms bubble, only to be derailed in vocal slips and sythesizer half-tones. The beat continues, but the downbeat will switch places as the phrase ends, or a flurry of hits come ahead of the “1.” Richard D. James' voice falls right in line, but gets manipulated, auto-correct, slurred and fuzzed out in an unexpected — and delightful — fashion.
Yup, it sure is an Aphex Twin song. On repeated listens, these tonal experiments become less like studio accidents and more like structured, exciting, intricate and sassy-ass lab work. It's a trip, at high volume. Get all the texture by putting on those cans and chugging through your Friday.
“mini pops 67 (source field mix)” is on Aphex Twin's new album “SYRO,” the producer and songwriter's first album in 13 years. It's out Sept. 23 via Warp.
Here is the tracklist for “SYRO”:
1. minipops 67 (source field mix) (aka the manchester track)
2. XMAS_EveT10 (thanaton3 mix)
3. produk 29
4. 4 bit 9d api+e+6
5. 180db_
6. CIRCLONT6A (syrobonkus mix)
7. fz pseudotimestrech+e+3
8. CIRCLONT14 (shrymoming mix)
9. syro u473t8+e (piezoluminescence mix)
10. PAPAT4 (pineal mix)
11. s950tx16wasr10 (earth portal mix)
12. aisatsana