Don't Call It a Comeback: Aphex Twin - "minipops 67 [120.2] [source field mix]" (Warp Records)

"Phex Twinnipicks material is still unquenched thirst... Syria, September 23, 2014, along with records of Aphex Twin's new album to be released. For the owner of Triple vinyl, CD and digital formats will be available. Bleep a very limited vinyl version you can register your interest in buying," reads Warp Records' seemingly intentionally jumbled Aphex Twin SYRO press release. While he hasn't released a full-length album in a whopping 13 years, Aphex Twin mastermind Richard D. James recently alluded to new material via both a mysterious "2014" tagged blimp and a few encrypted posts uploaded onto the more often than not corrupt underground Deep Web. Aphex Twin then unexpectedly unleashed the first SYRO teaser track, "minipops 67 [120.2] [source field mix]," just in time for the onslaught of the weekend. It's already garnered loose comparisons to Thom Yorke, Caribou, and Burial, fellow modern day veiled Electro-leaning artists who were quite arguably influenced by Aphex Twin's early 90's-2000's output. In all honesty, I had never really listened to Aphex Twin's music prior to drafting up this very piece, but it seems to be generally categorized as either Intelligent Dance Music (IDM), Electronic, Ambient, or Ambient Techno. "minipops 67" is a jittery, bass-filled nearly 5-minute long Radiohead-esque Electronic meltdown, apparently falling apart at its seems from 0:00. It's full of unrecognizable vocal fragments and distorted multi-layered bleeps and blips, which suddenly morphs into some sort of left-field "Outsider Hip-Hop" that Stones Throw could easily put out, right around the 2:40 mark. Not entirely unlike The Designers Republic's previously released mundane office supplies receipt reminiscent SYRO album artwork, the companion "minipops 67" single cover features itemized and tallied stats related to Aphex Twin's fan-searched YouTube activity for the past seven months. Aphex Twin's long-awaited sixth studio album, SYRO is currently slated for a September 23rd release on Warp Records; but that might only be the start of a virtual landslide of upcoming releases, because James has supposedly had at least "six albums completed" since as early as October 2010.