One of Electronic Music's Most Legendary Figures Just Announced His First Album in 13 Years

Culture
By Abdullah Saeed

When a green blimp bearing a strange logo floated over London this weekend, every electronic music fan knew the unthinkable was about to happen. According to the Guardian, Aphex Twin, the influential electronic music pioneer, is releasing a new album, his first since 2001's Drukqs.

The announcement has only gotten more intricate since the blimp, though. Pitchfork reported that Aphex Twin, real name Richard D. James, tweeted a link that only works in the ultra-secure Tor browser. The link reveals all the album details, including the cover, track list and title: SYRO. You can see the info here using any browser.

Image Credit: Aphex Twin

Aphex Twin became a fixture in electronic music with the release of Richard D. James Album in 1996, and his subsequent releases Selected Ambient Works and Drukqs were critically acclaimed, influencing and inspiring the next generation of electronic producers. Flying Lotus, arguably the biggest indie electronic producer in the world today, told the Creators Project in 2012, "Do I find [Aphex Twin] influential to my stuff? For sure. Especially in the feeling of it. I think people definitely make the association."

Since he released Drukqs, James has continued to put music out under various monikers other than Aphex Twin, a cryptic tradition since he first began producing music. In 2007, he released an earth-shattering EP and album under the name the Tuss, claiming that the producers behind the album were a couple named Brian and Karen Tregaskin. He has also issued previously unreleased music produced under his aliases Caustic Window and Analord. But SYRO is the first real deal Aphex Twin album in well over a decade, and if his previous albums are any indication, it will include his hardest, fastest styles, interspersed with his newest experimental work.

Whet our appetite for SYRO by watching Aphex Twin's most famously disturbing video — a pleasant reminder of what horrifying, good things surely await.