Aphex Twin

MARCHROMT30a Edit 2b 96 (ep)

Warp Records

Last year Aphex Twin re-emerged. We had the very worthwhile Syro album, the eventual mainstream release of his Caustic Window project, then there was the ep, Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt. 2 (to my ears some of the very best Aphex work ever – and who really knows if this music was created way back when or the week before it was released?) and then, as user487363530 he gave away a whole heap of music – first on Soundcloud and more recently in protest of Soundcloud’s rules and regulations. Whatever is going on Richard D. James – and/or someone else pretending to be Aphex Twin – is making up for a decade hiding out in that mansion raising children, or in a scrapyard feasting on e-waste. Either answer could contain some of the truth.

Here now we have a new EP – well, it’s a white label, a 12” released of Syro’s Japanese version bonus track, MARCHROMT30a Edit 2b 96 – another one of those whole-career-in-snapshot tracks, taking in the palatable end of his drill’n’bass and machine-sex sounds before morphing into a cool, slow-grind hip-hop/dance blend.

Fleshing this out to a 20-minute listen we have a new version of Syro’s XMAS-EVET [120] (thanaton3 mix) and an alternative take of MARCHROMT – it plays out, the three tracks, like a tiny DJ set for daydreaming.

Another burst of activity from Aphex then. And as with most of what has been dumped on us recently it’s as good as you could hope for. Never straying all that far, never quite repeating himself.

Plenty to satiate lately from one of modern music’s pioneers. I’ve been taking MARCHROMT out for a daily stroll, it forms part of the soundtrack of my daily routine – and the opening track is even my early-morning wake-up alarm tone.