No Pain In Pop

Bliss burst the gut who forgot

There are some loops I could listen to for days - lungs seem to leap every time they return, the oxygen within alloyed into some new, ecstatic gas; disbelieving ears hooked to check once again that the sound did and continues to exist. The chest of Aphex Twin’s ‘Xtal’ swells with one such loop, driving on in its own lean, buoyant techno drift, grounded by subterranean bass and vocal murmurs that stretch upward to glance the outer bounds of the stratosphere. Its divinity dangles between the points of stars – empathetic to the repetition our hides feel in their blood and in their water, ‘Xtal’ drifts down to enrich the everyday, a glimmering deus ex machina going from innocence to experience and back again in the space of four seconds.

The MP3 comes courtesy of Belgian label R&S Records, who are heralding their return with the release of some of their most seminal archive material. Issued under the ‘Master Series’ banner, Aphex Twin’s Ambient Works 85-92 – from which ‘Xtal’ is pulled – will arrive on the 7th of April along with a Classics collection from Model 500 (Juan Atkins). May 12th sees the re-release of Model 500’s Deep Space and Derrick May’s Innovator as well as further Classics collections from both Aphex Twin and Joey Beltram. Other digitally re-mastered re-releases – from the likes of Ken Ishii and Dave Angel – will also find a way out through R&S in the spring months. You can grab another free track from R&S by signing up to their mailing list, here.



MP3: Aphex Twin - Xtal

Tags: aphex twin, r&s records