was doing it all wrong and had to start again". Describing the overall process as "brutal", James referred to the in-studio technical issues as the catalyst for writing new music that would be featured on Syro. James used various audio setups when composing Syros material. Rearranging equipment allowed him to explore more writing possibilities; he said "that will achieve some sort of purpose, so the way I've wired it together becomes the track in itself." James also explained that when composing the "logical thing to do is not change anything and just do another one using the same set of sounds", but during Syros recording sessions he would often "get bored and swap things out". All 12 tracks were written by James in-studio. According to James, the tracks were written over an extended period; Syro features both archived and more recent compositions, with the album's oldest track around "six or seven years old". A total of 138 pieces of equipment were used on Syro, including synthesisers, samplers, sequencers, processing units, MIDI interfaces, drum machines, vocoders, graphic equalisers and mixing desks. Among the brands James used were Yamaha, SSL, Sennheiser, Boss, Roland, Korg and AKG. Several pieces of equipment were further modified by James himself. In addition to instrumentation, Syro features several vocal tracks. Among them are edited "unintelligible" tracks of James, his wife Anastasia Rybina and his two sons, as well as both his mother and father, who appear on "XMAS_EVET10 [120]". He recorded several additional "poppy" vocals of his parents—none of which were used on Syro—and stored "entire sample packs of their voices" during the process. Style Syro incorporates elements of electronic styles including breakbeat, drum and bass, techno, and disco. NME called it a "clutch of hyper-intricate electro-funk jams so crammed with melody it feels like they might at any minute pop and coat you in goo." The Guardian described it as "rooted in an athletic 80s electro-funk", while Vice described it as "time-travel through a meteor shower of eighties synth-funk", with elements of "rave, jungle, breakbeat, ambience, and fond, self-referential glances at the career of Aphex Twin". Vice summarised the sound as "unlike anything else this year - but quite a lot like everything from the past thirty years". The Financial Times said the album ranged from "the chunky ambient techno of the opening track to the prettily pastoral piano melody that ends the album" with "chopped-up