It’s essentially a b-sides and rarities album. It’s not supposed to be a bunch of polished masterpieces.
On that basis I have no complaints.
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yeah the first 2/3 sound like very low-effort parts of b-sides. like hit record, cut out what sounds kinda ok and just release it like that.
yayyyyyyy rfc pt8 finally out
but the version at printworks is so much better than this one though… maybe its the people kissing and looking high…
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And some not really unreleased…
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released on warp, only on shtreaming, some stuff previously released, I wonder if this is a contract obligation release
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haven’t listened to this yet, except looking at tracklist I guess I did, because you know … a lot of it was already released…
I really like soundlab track! -
Interesting trivia from wikipedia:
The artwork for the release was based off of a bootleg T-shirt design.[9] This design was later re-used and sold by Warp during James’ live performances as official merchandise.[10]
- Thinking a bit more about this, I wonder if there’s simply no incentive for Aphex to work hard on a release.
It’s a LOT of work to put a Drukqs out, and for what? There’s better ways for him to get cash, and cred, he doesn’t really need any more cred, does he? (And drukqs was smashed critically when it came out, why go through that again?)
ps: all this being said, these tracks rock. I guess it might get a lot of dissing for the noisy and microtonal stuff.
See, the first 2 are my favourite so far. Opinions and arseholes and all that.
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No, I like it and I’m not kidding myself. Often Aphex takes a while to click, in any case. And he’s not your average artist putting out only polished stuff - it’s a different mindset at work and I’m down with that.
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I mean, you might say that that his first two stone cold classic LPs gave him so much cred that more often than not he’s been getting away with pretty much dialling it in since then. Add to that the AFX hype machine plus the irony and playfulness schtick - aka hiding behind “it’s all just a piss-take, yeah?” as and when required - and he tends to get the benefit of the doubt more than basically anyone else would.
I mean, you might say that. Personally, I wouldn’t though. Unless I wanted to chased off this board with pitchforks and flaming torches before getting banned for life.
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I feel like Syro was a return to form.
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I personally call them « out of tune ». 
(Love them though !)
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Yes it was already out on a Vinyl press in occasion of the London Field Day Festival …a Digitone test… 
No pitchforks or flaming torches from me, youve essentially articulated exactky my thoughts on RDJ
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Agreed. Of the stretch from 21TXT1+4 through SOOG e, I like 12 out of 14 tracks. That’s an entire album! Then if you add in the other tracks I like, there’s 2 albums of material here that I enjoyed. And I’ll probably grow to like a couple of the weirder ambient sketches more over time as well.
I think Syro is Richard’s best work by a fair margin. Funky, mostly melodic, playful, and weird but safe enough I can come back to it. It’s my most-listened to album every year because it’s musical comfort food.
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So yous are saying that he’s been phoning it in since RDJ album?
Fucking hell.
Man releases a b-sides album and the knives come straight out…
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Polygon Window my fav
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Since Analord/Chosen Lords actually or Tuss if being more generous. Syro is super bland and it’s better than any of the releases after.
Aphex is interesting for simultaneously releasing too little and too much.
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I don’t think it is.
I think there’s plenty going on, if you listen.
Also, there’s more funk in Serge Fenix rendered 2 than most of us will achieve in our entire lives.
Fair enough, none of it might be your cup of tea…opinions, arse holes etc. but saying he’s phoning it in seems a bit cunty.
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I’m on my second listen today. Mostly I’m happy to have the “Spiral Staircase”/“Nightmail” tracks publicly available. Some of the sketches on the first half are annoying, but that’s just normal RDJ shit–I put on I Care Because You Do just about every week, and I can’t remember the last time I didn’t skip “Ventolin.” But just like the SoundCloud rips, I just like getting a chance to peek behind the curtain at RDJ’s music-making process.
Also, I can’t stay silent on the post-Drukqs revisionism here. Every official Aphex release after the hiatus has ranged from really good (Collapse) to perfect (I wouldn’t change a single micro-tone on Syro).
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