Okay, Richard D. James, we know this is you. Can’t you just admit that, and let us move on with our lives of waiting for whatever album you’ll be releasing the next decade, since Rephlex has sort of fallen by the weirdo English wayside. And that “Braindance” label never really took off, sorry to say.
Let’s move on to the music contained within. I’ve never been a huge Aphex Twin fan (I thought a lot of his stuff got overrated compared to his contemporaries) but I do acknowledge that he sort of “paved the way” for a bunch of IDM artists. Here he’s probably created some of the most dance-orientated music of his career.
The construction of each song is so tight, and his funky rhythms are better realized here than on anything else I’ve heard him do. “Synthacon 9” is pretty much what I wish so much techno was. Multiple sections, all of them are flowing seamlessly into one another, with so much muscle makes this true joy. I enjoyed the “Rushup” songs as well, particularly “Rushup I Bank 12” with its fractured melody.
If you ever wanted to get somebody into Aphex Twin, I’d say this would be a perfect place. Unlike some of his earlier stuff, it hasn’t aged badly, and it doesn’t really sound like anything else of his that’s easily search able (I’m more than well-aware of some of his excellent, difficult to find tracks).