After 13 years of silence, Aphex Twin is back on the scene, making 2014 a big year for his music. Today, he released a huge new cache of music that spans his career, as well as showcasing some of his son’s first productions.
Richard David James, who is known better as his stage name Aphex Twin, has been called by the Guardian “the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music.” An extremely enigmatic figure, known for his manipulation of the press and counterculture beliefs, James is making 2014 his comeback year. He released ‘Syro’ on September 19nth, his first album since 2001’s ‘Drukqs’, but what’s more is that he just last week released treasure trove of unheard music onto the web. Included in this release are a number of sound clips on the shorter side, some tracks that harken back to his earlier years, 1987 and 1988, as well as a piece that was mixed by his five year old son, whose name is Syro.
Today, November 10, Aphex Twin released another huge collection of unheard music online. There are over 30 recordings in this collection, 20 tracks of which are an album that he reportedly composed entirely with Buchla and Serge modular synthesizers over 12 years ago, which, in his words, come off as a “fucking racket”. He has also made available outtakes from orchestral performances with his ‘remote control orchestra’ in Poland. The ‘remote control orchestra’ is apparently an orchestra that is set up in four different sections, each of which is lit a separate color and prompted by James, who sits behind them at a desk, to play specific notes with varying intensities and volume levels to create a swelling wave of sound that is remotely controlled by the whims of the musical pioneer, Aphex Twin. The release also includes a series of photos of his gear collection and information about the functioning of some of his synthesizers.
Also included are several experimental tracks featuring a Roland System 700 synth, and a demo version of the Syro track ‘CIRCLONT6A [141.98] [syrobonkus mix].
In true Aphex Twin style, he adds a bit saying “I’m not really Aphex Twin lol”, but it seems most likely that it is just a bit of Aphex Twin chicanery, another instance in which he knows how to manipulate the masses and play us all like some hardwired computer chassis affecting sounds deemed unearthly at the tips of his fingers.
Check out Consequences of Sound for more info and photos about this new release, and read up on Aphex Twin on mxdwn.com with these following links.
As it seems, 2014 has been a big year for Aphex Twin. Not only has he released a really massive amount of old guarded material, he has also raised inordinate amounts of money. The days of holding carwash fundraiser to produce your albums is over, as the campaign for an unreleased Aphex Twin record called ‘Caustic Window’ has showed us on Kickstarter. He also organized world wide listening parties for the release of Syro, which came out on September 19nth to much anticipation which had built up as result of the early release of a tune off the album. Additionally, he has incited a buzz around throughout the various music news websites of the internet, showing his deft manipulation of the press by releasing his views on the World Trade Center Attacks of 9/11 and his overall impression of mass media, as well as illustrating an incident that he had with Kanye West.
We’re really enjoying the newly enlivened presence that Richard D. James has been developing in the music world, and we hope to see it continue.
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