Earlier this year Aphex Twin (Richard D. James) released Syro, his first studio album since 2001’s Drukqs. Evidently the name of the album came from an utterance from one of James’ young sons—as James indicated in an interview with Dave Noyze, “My eldest son just looked at me one morning and said syrobonkus, I asked him what it meant he said he didnt know” (typography as in the original—this was an email interview, apparently).

In the same interview James revealed that his six-year-old son has made an entire album which had been published on Bandcamp but has now been removed. James stated, “He was 5 when he did most of it n all! I never showed him a thing, he worked it all out himself, mind boggling, 5!” Four of the tracks have since been moved to the Aphex Twin Soundcloud page.

In Rolling Stone two months ago, James gushed about the music his sons (plural) are generating. James said, “I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of an artist called Mark Fell—it’s avant-garde techno, not danceable. Someone said [my son’s music] sounds like a cross between that and Holly Herndon, who’s another experimental electronic artist. That’s really accurate, actually. He was five when he did it.”

James is known for perpetrating harmless media games—the announcement of Syro was executed via a number of viral pranks—so it’s hard to know if this is in that category. As Wikipedia drily notes, “He is known for untruths, including a claim that he sleeps only two or three hours a night.” Personally I think James is probably telling the truth here; he’s not unveiling a new album and the news came from a smallish blog. ... and, how shall I say, the music isn’t really interesting or elaborate enough to justify that kind of ruse, it’s just four tracks of melody-free electronic thumpery. It actually seems plausible that a youngster would compose it, given the technology that’s available today.

“Not danceable” is accurate, to be sure. Check out the tracks here:
 

 
via HUH.