After the release of Drukqs, Richard James retreated from the spotlight, and for the next decade the only new music he released was through his own Rephlex label. The Analord series comprised 11 EPs, available only on vinyl, and due to Rephlex being much lower profile than Warp went under the radar for more casual listeners. The format and release schedule was seen by many as a bit of a cash cow – creating a numbered series to motivate collectors and inducing scarcity by only making it available by vinyl – but maybe it was just another of Aphex’s games with his fans.
The vast majority of the 40 or so tracks from the Analord series have never been officially available on streaming, and though some have since gone on to achieve cult status in the hands of various DJs, I’d still say it’s an underrated section of the Aphex discography.
Stylistically, a complete about-turn from the kind of music he’d been releasing at the time, and a return to classic acid house and electro, produced on old-school analogue gear. I’ve no idea why the first release to come out was number 10, but it kicks off with possibly the best track in the entire series and one of my all-time favourite Aphex tracks: Fenix Funk 5.
The rapid breakbeats and fizzing synths are closer to the style of the Tuss EP he put out a few years later than the rest of the Analord series, and we see a return of the robotic vocal-morphing technique he used on the Flow Coma remix, which gives the track a deliriously obnoxious edge. But there’s a sudden pivot at the 2-minute mark into this sleek acid bassline and it’s just one of those moments that does something to my brain where it feels like the world’s falling into place. Hearing this track played out by Luke Vibert is up there with one of my top musical experiences. After those uncanny bass notes do their thing for a minute or so over some classically Aphex whizz-kind beat programming, then the melody resolves into a much more reflective outro and it’s like the whole thing was a dream.
On the b-side, XMD5a is a moodier piece that takes a while to come together with competing melodic themes vying for supremacy. One particular refrain comes to the fore in the final third with that distinctly Aphex sinister cheekiness; and it’s a chord pattern that I’m sure appears again later in the series like a meta-theme.
With only two tracks, Analord 10 is a just a little taste of what’s to come, but if you like your morsels squelchy and acidic then it’s one to savour.
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