'Music from the Merch Desk (2016 - 2023)' Has Perfect Playlist Fodder for All Types of Aphex Twin Fan

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BY Alex HudsonPublished Jan 6, 2025

I tend to prefer fairly nice-sounding electronic music over punishing beats, so even though Aphex Twin's recent two-and-a-half-hour compilation of merch table rarities isn't always to my tastes, its 38 tracks contain a range of material to both push my boundaries and appeal to my delicate sensibilities.

In particular, Track 15 ("T16.5 MADMA with nastya") is a mellow groove drenched in cavernous reverb that's pure Selected Ambient Works 85-92, while the free time echoes of "sk8 littletune HS-PC202" resemble a shortened version of something that might have been on Selected Ambient Works Volume II.

Tracks 23 ("21TXT1+4 ds8 glngchrods[sketch0.1b]"), 29 ("rozzboxv2mam+4") and 32 ("rfc pt8") blend those calming textures with slightly more frantic rhythms, while a run of squelchy, fun and funky grooves toward the end resemble Aphex Twin's last "proper" album, 2014's Syro.

At the very least, Music from the Merch Desk (2016 - 2023) offers some perfect playlist fodder for Richard D. James fans of any persuasion.

(Warp Records)

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