Richard D. James has been so far ahead of his time for so long that comebacks are clearly no big thing. In June, the EDM godfather OK'd the limited release of a shelved 1994 album that sounded utterly modern. So does Syro, his first new Aphex Twin music since 2001. Thick with Seventies jazz-funk nods, it answers Daft Punk's Random Access Memories with future-shock electronics supplanting nostalgic dazzle. Per usual, James makes halls of mirrors; ghost voices and silver ambience crest over beats you can imagine destroying a stadium while you fumble with your headphones. Graying snobs once called this "intelligent dance music." Even now, few do it better.
rollingstone
Syro
Aphex Twin (2014)
8.0/ 10
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Other reviews of Syro
metacritic
8.6
aoty
8.0
fantano
After 13 years of studio album silence, Aphex Twin makes a mild return.
6.0
sputnikmusic
8.0
thelineofbestfit
Aphex Twin - Syro
9.0
pitchfork
Aphex Twin's first album since 2001's Drukqs is sixty-five minutes of highly melodic, superbly arranged, precisely mixed, texturally varied electronic music that sounds like it could have come from no other artist. Syro absorbs many different sounds, from loping breakbeat to drum’n’bass to techno proper to hints of disco, but it has a way of making other genres seem like they exist to serve this particular vision.
8.7
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