Today is Fat Friday.
It’s also the release date of a new Aphex Twin EP.
This rare confluence of events is the reason I’m cooking burgers and playing Aphex Twin at lunchtime.
Fat Friday was originally inaugurated by a former work colleague of mine, the weekend’s almost here, let’s go for some greasy shit on our lunch break.
I left that job (thank fuck) but I carry on the Fat Friday tradition in his honour so I can keep lying to myself that I’m eating healthy for the rest of the week.
The Blackbox Life Recorder EP is the first official Aphex Twin release since the Collapse EP way back in 2018, something which I’ve also been eagerly awaiting in mouth-watering anticipation.
Next Heap With …Ketchup
I often mix cooking and tunes. Nothing like some house bangers while whisking up omelettes or chopping onions to the latest Perc Trax EP, but with all due respect to Aphex Twin, he’s not really cooking music.
The Collapse EP was a masterful piece of nanotech beat splicing, but is it the kinda stuff you can dance around the kitchen frying burgers to? Certainly not.
Course if I start judging an EP based on that sort of criteria I might be accused of trying to rip off Fat Roland, so instead let’s just focus on the music because my stomach’s already growling and the smell of sizzling meat is driving me crazy.
The main track from this EP has been out on pre-release since June. Since then the Twin has also released his limited-run Barcelona EP at Sonar and also loaded a couple of new tracks to his Soundcloud account.
It’s a good year so far to be an Aphex Twin fan, especially considering his busy tour schedule this summer.
The thing about Aphex Twin fans is we tend to be an obsessive bunch, particularly those die-hards who declare everything he releases as “pure genius” with almost MAGA-like militance, even the stuff that’s pure bollocks.
Blackbox isn’t pure genius Aphex but it’s not pisstaker Aphex either. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking here, but then there isn’t anything that’s deliberately inaccessible either.
It’s considerably more subdued while nonetheless instantly recognisable as an RDJ release.
- Ambient Works-style pads – check
- Windowlicker-style treated vocals – check
- Signature detuned synths – check
- Random wibbly noises – check
- Obsessively programmed breaks – check
The title track is 100% prime, lean Aphex; melodic yet anomalous, relaxed and melancholic but underpinned with energetic percussion throughout.
There’s nothing here that could be described as new, except perhaps a hint of maturity and, dare I say it, restraint.
It would appear that Richard D James isn’t in the mood to bludgeon our cerebellums with snare drum shrapnel bombs on this release. Almost as though he’s saying, I’ll hang on to the kitchen sink this time round, I can always chuck it at them later.
Hemiplegic music video with distorted graphics of his face – check
What’s also immediately apparent about this EP is how cohesive it is, the tracks all complement each other, giving the impression that they were all recorded in the same session. Perhaps even on the same weekend.
(It’s a stark contrast to some earlier releases, which often felt like he was just rummaging through boxes of DAT tapes at 3am grabbing stuff at random and going, “yeah that’ll fuck their heads up!”)
Track two, Zin2 Test5, comes in at under three minutes, it’s slightly more upbeat than the previous track with a nice bubbly bassline and choral pads floating on top.
In a room7 F760, the third track, ups the tempo prompting me to start doing the kitchen shuffle, sliding around in my socks on the tiles as a whole herd of cowbells come in briefly prompting me to tap along on the frying pan with a metal spatula.
As the track progresses with new melodic elements flitting in and out, I do a quick burger flip and sock pivot combo as I slide back to the fridge to get some ketchup.
Couple more minutes for the burgers I reckon and I think I like this track best.
And so do the burgers, it would seem, the increase in tempo has them cracking with delight, spitting up misty globules of grease in all directions, encircling the hob in a halo of lard.
As the track continues the whole vocal pad theme continues plus more melodic and percussive flourishes and wait… are they (shock horror!) synth presets?
“No of course not”, the die-hard fans will say, “he’s using his own voice and mangling it in such a way to deliberately make fake Aphex fans like you think he’s using presets.”
Ah ok, not to worry, thanks for clearing that up, anyways my burgers are just about ready…
Blackbox Life Recorder 22 [Parallax Mix] is a remix of the main track, doubling down on the breaks, but keeping the slow tempo.
This is definitely a track you want to turn the hob down for and let your burgers simmer for a bit while you grab your plate and maybe some kitchen roll on there if you’re posh and want to daub some of the grease off.
This version’s a little bit darker than the original, same elements as before, same pads, same vocals, but there’s a lot more mood and menace.
The whole choral pad thing makes me feel like I’m lost in an old skool Final Fantasy dungeon, except I’m in a kitchen, cooking burgers. And just like that, the track is over.
In fact, all of the tracks on this EP are less that 5 minutes long and the entire EP is just over 14 minutes in total.
Which, it turns out, is exactly enough time to cook my burgers but as an Aphex Twin fan, means I’m left hungry for more.
Just as well I’m off to see him next month in London, should be quite the spectacle if footage of his previous gigs is anything to go by.
Anyways, love to chat but my burgers are getting cold.