Richard D James is like that elusive friend we all have who hibernates for most of the year, before emerging briefly during festival season determined to unleash bloody mayhem.
His Sonar appearance not only launched a busy schedule of tour dates, it also coincided with the first (non-label) Aphex Twin releases since 2019.
As with those last few releases, which were only available at his previous gigs, the Barcelona EP is a limited edition 10″ made exclusively available at Sonar. (Coming soon to an overpriced Discogs listing new you.)
Around the same time, RDJ released a teaser track from his forthcoming Blackbox Life Recorder EP, set to drop next month. (Sounds promising so far, looking forward to hearing the rest.)
Barcelona’s first track, Rfc Pt8 (don’t you just love Aphex Twin track names?) starts off with a steady kickdrum followed by some trademark Aphex detuned synths and rich bubbling acid.
Course there’s no real way of telling whether this is a completely new track or whether it’s been sitting in a box of dusty DATs since the 90s.
The synths sound like they might have come from the Syro era, while the acid and drums give it more of an Analord-era feel.
Anyone expecting either a lush melodic panoply or a violent breakbeat apoplexy (or a both simultaneously) will no doubt be surprised at how sparce and minimal Rfc Pt8 is.
No impenetrable self-indulgent noise, no dizzying synth noodlings or OCD tracker-spliced nanotech percussion, though it does feature some deft 909 manipulation that would even have Jeff Mills nodding his approval.
At just under 3 minutes, Afx fme is another four to the floor 909-driven number, featuring gentle metallic modular interplay and some proper phat Sheffield-style bass.
All in all it’s fairly short and sweet, but maybe it’s there just to whet the appetite and hint at things to come.
With a new EP next month and some more tour appearances on the calendar, including one in August at Field Day in London, it’s clear that the Twin is out of his cocoon for the time being and eager to make as much noise as possible.
Is it too much to hope that more EPs and maybe a long-overdue album is on the way soon?