Aphex Twin: Music From The Merch Desk (2016 - 2023) (Warp Records)
You thought you could get away with it, didn't you. Sneaking this album out a week before Christmas while I'm busy wrapping all the wet beef mince I'd bought for friends. Well, I spotted you. No album can escape the clutches of Fat Roland.
I try not to include compilation or archive albums in my end-of-year lists. But by that count, this would disqualify Selected Ambient Works 85-92. So here it is. Music From The Merch Desk, a compilation of compositions that were literally available at the mech desks of his live shows.
This album is brilliant. Relieved of the pressures of producing a studio album, this is Aphex Twin at his most relaced. He's loosened his shoulders and he's having a ball, with throbbing fuzz, detuned house blaps, tweeting ambient interludes and a bunch of fun with breaks.
We get classic Twin in the hissy hi-hats and roomy reverb of T16.5 MADMA with nastya [London 03.06.17]. Meanwhile, pretend analog extmix 2b,e2,ru [Manchester 20.09.2019] takes a poppier direction, with its squelchy electro and bouncy beat. MT1T2 olpedroom [London 03.06.17] has a serene chord sequence that's punched through by a dumb face-plant of a synth line. It's a lot of fun.
It's nice to see his September 2019 show at Manchester's Warehouse Project represented here. I was at that gig, with my boogie trousers on, and my disco pants, and my macarena salopettes.
Side note: One of the best tracks on this album is Spiral Staircase. Interesting story. This was a track that Aphex Twin submitted to a 2004 remix competition held by Luke Vibert (under his alias as Wagon Christ). Aphex won the competition with this track, which was a complete stitch-up but was also totes hilarious. He donated the prize to the runner-up.
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