- A surprise vinyl release you'll want to play again and again.
- Several colleagues consider Aphex Twin their favourite artist, but we only discovered "Soundlab20" yesterday. Given its maker is publicity shy and has around 20 known aliases, it's not surprising the track passed us by—Aphex's discography is a bottomless pit. Released last month on the B-side of a vinyl record sold at a recent London concert (a seperate release was also sold at a Manchester gig the following week), "Soundlab20" appears to be the only previously unreleased tune included across the two EPs (other tracks have been available digitally).
An upbeat electro jam with a boogie-style bassline and classic Aphex bleeps and blops, "Soundlab20" rolls for a smooth seven minutes, sunny, smiling and content. As usual, it's anyone's guess when it was made, though I'd say this one is fairly recent—there's plenty in common with the similarly upbeat post-Syro sound of 2016's "CIRKLON3 [Колхозная mix]." It even has what might be Aphex's first use of a bird call, sampling the iconic E-mu Emulator II sound made famous by 808 State's "Pacific State." The London 14.09.2019 EP has already sold for €182, which means most of us will have to settle for the YouTube version, replaying it again and again.