IDM/downtempo/experimental

Aphex said he had a bunch of unreleased material to sift through and turn into albums, and he’s making good on it. As promised, this one runs more experimental and less accessible than “Syro” (the “pop” one of the bunch, haha), but there are still plenty of catchy parts. This one’s less obsessed with sound design (though there’s still lots of great texture), and more concerned with making the most out of restrained arrangements and fewer elements. Nothing too spazzy here. Lots of IDM flavor, but also lots of downtempo flavor. Supposedly this was made by rigging up machines to play analog instruments, which makes me imagine RDJ feeding gray-market tryptamines to the Chuck-E-Cheese band and culling the best parts of the jam sessions. Beware the short tracks, or find some suites to play.

RIYL: Aphex Twin, jazzy Squarepusher, old Mo’ Wax stuff (90s DJ Shadow/DJ Krush/etc)

1. begins droney but turns into slinky trip-hop slow-burner. shuffling rhythm, crisp snares, twinkling sparse night time piano. drums get busy and things get a little more energetic for around a minute in the middle. drums drop out at the end and leave bassy reverby keys. 5:22 diskhat ALL prepared1mixed 13

2. 19 seconds of snare roles 0:19 snar2
3. strong bassy reverbed piano. strutting heavy kick drum, ringing echoing bells and other melodic rhythmic clatter. builds up, breaks down for a bit around 1:00, comes back, breaks down around 1:30. funky. 2:26 diskhat1

4. pretty sparse piano with background static hiss. a little melancholy, but not nearly as much as “avril 14th” or “aisatsana”. 0:50 piano un1 arpej
5. foreboding clockwork piano and drums. drums keep steady tick-tock while low spare keys let a variety of plinky bright keys weave around them. 1:52 DISKPREPT4

6. slightly stiff but still funky drums accented by spare bright bell tones. drums are hollow but kicks are still heavy. 1:25 hat 2b 2012b

7. free-jazzy piano run. this one’s pretty short. 0:08 disk aud1_12
8. funky drum breaks. 0:26 0035 1-Audio
9. chugging boomy melodic percussion (gamelan?) which slowly builds up. no proper melody, but lots of texture and melodic atmosphere. some new tonal element gets added around :45 before the end, but this track pretty much wrings all its drama out of the little it starts with. 4:22 disk prep calrec2 barn dance [slo]

10. more melodic percussion, maybe gamelan again, but also what sounds like steel drums. similar idea to the prior track, but a little less spooky and dramatic. slow ticking snare w/ no decay in the background. gets a bit more upbeat in the second half with some bassy piano and slightly more energetic drums. breaks down around the 3/4 mark and starts dissipating. 3:29 DISKPREPT1

11. funky strutting dark drums and piano interlude. 0:38 diskhat2

12. pretty wistful piano, maybe treated a little, bits of room and instrument noise way in the background. 1:48 piano un10 it happened

13. jazzy 60’s spy music is stripped for parts and reassembled. funky heavy kicks and bassy spare piano, little decay on the drums, none on the keys. bouncing cymbals get added around :30, watery mid-range piano shimmers get added just after 1:00. luke-warm fuzzy synth starts rising up just before 2:00, and some shimmery dark bells way in the back not long after. 4:46 hat5c 0001 rec-4

recommended: 10, 1, 9, 13