Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760
Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760 is the fifteenth EP by British electronic music artist Richard D. James, released under the pseudonym Aphex Twin on 28 July 2023 on Warp.[2] It was preceded by the release of the first track and single "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f" on 21 June 2023. The EP contains four tracks, including an alternate "Parallax mix" of "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f" as the final track.[3]
| Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP by | ||||
| Released | 28 July 2023 | |||
| Genre | Electronic[1] | |||
| Length | 14:30 | |||
| Label | Warp | |||
| Producer | Richard D. James | |||
| Aphex Twin chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760 | ||||
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Background edit
The EP was first teased during Aphex Twin's performance at Sonar 2023, as well as on posters with QR codes littered throughout Los Angeles on 20 June 2023, which when scanned brought fans to an app called YXBoZXh0d2lu, which played Aphex Twin's music over visuals.[4] The EP was announced alongside the release of the single "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f" on 21 June 2023.[5][6]
Critical reception edit
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 77/100[7] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [8] |
| The Arts Desk | [1] |
| Exclaim! | 8/10[9] |
| Pitchfork | 7.4/10[10] |
| Sputnikmusic | 3.7/5[11] |
Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760 received a score of 77 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on six reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception.[7] Guy Oddy of The Arts Desk wrote that the EP "stays within James' long marked-out territory of electronic uneasy listening but remains inventive and innovative", noting the "cinematic drone" of "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f", the "ambient breakbeat" of "Zin2 Test5", the "livelier and more beat-heavy" sound of "In a Room7 F760", and the Parallax mix of "Blackbox" for being "particularly claustrophobic with a grubby atmosphere".[1] Paul Simpson of AllMusic remarked that "while it felt like the veteran musician was pushing his sound forward on Collapse, here he's essentially in his comfort zone" and the EP "isn't a game changer, but it bears enough of Aphex Twin's unmistakable personality to be worthwhile".[8]
Pitchfork's Philip Sherburne stated that the EP "might seem relatively modest" but described its tracks as "big, bruising, and percussion-forward" and found that they share "a certain inscrutable mood".[10] Daryl Keating of Exclaim! called it "solid tungsten all the way through" and wrote that it "sounds simply fantastic". Keating characterised "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f" as "an absolute masterclass in percussion" and the other three tracks "pure oddball IDM".[9]
Todd Gilchrist of Variety called the EP "disappointingly slight [...] yet its arrival is a comfort, offering sounds that will ring familiar to longtime fans — and to everyone else serve as an atmospheric Rorschach test, alternately primitive and futuristic, beautiful and menacing, propulsive and ethereal".[12] John Doran of The Quietus found that "as well as a return of a certain kind of melodic sensibility to his music", that "three of the tracks feel like the living embodiment of a very large house with a huge variety of rooms" and "that there are several tracks' worth of musical ideas hidden in these [tracks'] abyssal depths".[13]
A staff reviewer from Sputnikmusic felt that the tracks "take an oddly bitesize approach to both pacing and structure that belies the wealth of atmospheric depth they have at their disposal" but it still "ends up a glorified, if very welcome, double-single as such: its satisfaction lies less in an end-to-end listen and much more in the binge mileage of its cornerstone tracks".[11]
Track listing edit
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f" | 4:26 |
| 2. | "Zin2 Test5" | 2:39 |
| 3. | "In a Room7 F760" | 3:53 |
| 4. | "Blackbox Life Recorder 22" (Parallax mix) | 3:32 |
| Total length: | 14:30 | |
On release day, four extra tracks were uploaded onto the Aphex Twin store with the note "BBLR [driven harder] Exact same 4 trax but processed/mastered differently by afx with specialist analogue h/w [sic]". On 3 August, another track "M12 6 omc zeq" was uploaded.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 5. | "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f 760 omc" | 4:31 |
| 6. | "Zin2 Test5 omc ma2" | 2:39 |
| 7. | "In a Room7 F760 omc s" | 3:50 |
| 8. | "Blackbox Life Recorder 22 Parallax mix 760 omc ma2" | 3:33 |
| 9. | "M12 6 omc zeq" | 5:59 |
| Total length: | 35:02 | |
Charts edit
| Chart (2023) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[14] | 38 |
| Japanese Digital Albums (Oricon)[15] | 31 |
| Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)[16] | 32 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[17] | 90 |
References edit
- ^ a b c Oddy, Guy (26 July 2023). "Album: Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ Geraghty, Hollie (21 June 2023). "Aphex Twin announces new EP, shares first track 'Blackbox Life Recorder 21f'". NME. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ Murray, Robin (21 June 2023). "Aphex Twin Returns With 'Blackbox Life Recorder 21f'". Clash. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ Pearis, Bill (21 June 2023). "Aphex Twin announces new EP – listen to "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f"". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ Kelly, Tyler Damara (21 June 2023). "Aphex Twin has shared the brand new single "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f"". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ Helfand, Raphael (21 June 2023). "Aphex Twin announces EP, shares first new song in five years". The Fader. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ a b "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760 EP by Aphex Twin Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
- ^ a b Simpson, Paul. "Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760 Album Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ^ a b Keating, Daryl (2 August 2023). "Aphex Twin's Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a Room7 F760 Is Solid Tungsten". Exclaim!. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
- ^ a b Sherburne, Philip (1 August 2023). "Aphex Twin: Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760 EP Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ a b JohnnyoftheWell (28 July 2023). "Review: Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ^ Gilchrist, Todd (28 July 2023). "Aphex Twin's Blackbox Life Recorder 21f Takes Dancefloors Back Into Dark Places: EP Review". Variety. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ^ Doran, John (27 July 2023). "EP of the Week: Aphex Twin's Blackbox Life Recorder 21f". The Quietus. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ^ "Oricon Top 50 Albums: 2023-08-07/p/4" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Oricon Top 50 Digital Albums: August 7, 2023" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Billboard Japan Hot Albums – Week of August 2, 2023". Billboard Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ "Swisscharts.com – Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In A Room7 F760". Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 August 2023.