Aphex Twin “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments, Pt.2” (Warp): Jilk and Haiku Salut “Periscopes” (How Does It Feel To Be Loved?)

To be fair to Aphex Twin, he can’t be accused (this time) of misleading his audience. So we get what we deserve for buying “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments, Pt.2”, which is just that: snippets of analogue sound channelled loosely through whatever technology he had lying around on the floor nearby. Basically, these unformed pieces amount to Richard messing about with a drumkit and occasionally a piano, and not much more. Somebody more qualified to comment than us will no doubt tell you this EP is actually a masterpiece, and not a disappointment after the enjoyable return “Syro” last year - but I for one will simply refuse to believe them.

In stark contrast, just-out download single “Periscopes” from the formidable and newly-forged tag team of Jilk & Haiku Salut is a prime dose of electronica as it should be in MMXV: rewarding, thought-provoking, a source of inner warmth. Its ebbs and flows manage to neatly evoke both pastoral beauty and glitch-soundtracked drug comedown, making it as apt for country picnicking as for the nightbus through Dalston. Indeed, unlike “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments”, the song is an object lesson in how to incorporate acoustic sounds (brass, the trademark bells, um… yapping toy dogs) in an organic and entirely fluid way.