Mesmerizing 'Syro' Marks an Expert's Return

More than a decade after the release of “Drukqs,” his gargantuan fifth album, electronic musician Aphex Twin has released “Syro,” a highly anticipated 12-track work. Richard David James, the elusive man behind Aphex Twin, promoted Syro by flying a lime-green blimp over London, making an announcement on the deep web browser Tor, and listing the 138 pieces of music equipment used on the album—all signs that “Syro” would be one eccentric, hectic collection of beats. Long-deprived fans of James waited with anticipation to see what sort of outlandish sound Aphex Twin spent the last 13 years crafting.

But when listening to Syro, “outlandish” isn’t the first word that comes to mind. Yes, the album is inventive and enchanting—but not explicitly bizarre. Other than song names like “4 bit 9d api+e+6” and the occasional series of futuristic bleeps, Syro doesn’t aim to alienate or shock its audience. Rather, unlike its predecessor “Drukqs,” it presents a collection of unified, balanced tracks that can fade into the background just as easily as they can captivate listeners with every beat.

While “Drukqs” tossed listeners between hyperactive techno tracks and minimalist piano solos, “Syro” is laced together by elements of the breakbeat genre and soothing synth undertones found in nearly every song. “minipops 67,” the first song on the album, announces this theme immediately, launching into foot-tapping percussion before James adds subtle layers of humming synth, whispers, and delicate piano notes. “produk 29” takes on a similar form, starting with a heavy bass line and progressing into a gentle rhythm of beeps, electronic tones, and spoken words.

This isn’t to say that “Syro” is repetitive or tedious. In fact, given the complexity of James’s instruments and beats, it’s amazing “Syro” achieves such a sense of unity. Aphex Twin’s brilliance is evident in the way he combines his 137 instruments into one cohesive album, interweaving them into tracks made unique by nuances in rhythm and synthetic tones. “XMAS_EVET10,” the album’s 10-minute-long second song, never seems to drag and is far more hypnotizing than it is mind-numbing. It flows patiently through changes in tempo, taking its time to introduce new layers of ambient sound, all while leaving the listener wondering which direction the song will take next. Even “180db_,” defined by one repeating, rhythmic theme, engages listeners in the twists and turns of its quieter melodies.

The album’s single departure from its throbbing techno elements is the final track, “aisatsana.” With one of the only articulable song titles on “Syro,” “aisatsana” is composed of a gentle series of piano chords interspersed with nature sounds. Perhaps meant to recall the quieter moments of “Drukqs,” perhaps meant to calm the senses after the rhythmic agitation of preceding songs, “aisatsana” is an unsatisfying ending. Although the album so expertly manages to find a common ground between the two rival descriptors “ambient” and “techno,” “aisatsana” falls too squarely in the ambient camp and fails to push the boundaries of either genre.

But the inclusion of fragile “aisatsana” is more than made up for by “CIRCLONT6A” and “CIRCLONT14,” the energetic highlights of the album. Brimming with frenzied beats and beeps, the CIRCLONTs make it tough to decide between dancing and focusing on decoding the endless layers of sound. “CIRCLONT14,” the eerier of the pair, deftly weaves a haunting melody with the song’s restless foreground. “CIRCLONT6A” embraces the restless, taming it into one ambient piece.

James is known to recoil at the label of Intelligent Dance Music (IDM), the term so often used to describe his work. But it’s hard to deny that “Syro” is indeed intelligent: balancing Aphex Twin’s distinctive ambient feel with the frenzy of multiple drum machines and weaving a plethora of man-made sounds into a cohesive, digestible album is no easy feat. After his 13-year hiatus, 43-year-old Richard James proves that the way to push electronic music forward isn’t by searching for the ultra-bizarre, but by taming and combining the sounds we know into a work as mesmerizing as “Syro.”