aphex twin selected ambient works 85 92 rarest

Comprising of 24 untitled tracks (now known by their corresponding images in the album’s beautiful artwork) alongside the excellent ‘Blue Calx’, the album provided an indication of James’ increasing unwillingness to follow the standard industry practices.

The second volume of Aphex Twin’s ambient excursions is my personal favourite amongst his long players and is a worthy successor to SAW, heading deeper into the horizontal for some serious chill. As well suited to the bedroom as the club, “Surfing On Sine Waves” became a classic in the emerging IDM movement. The ear catching melodies were still there, but this time round the soundscape pulsed with rhythmic sequences as James explored the outer dimensions of space age techno. The first work released under one of Aphex Twin’s many monikers to make an appearance on the list, Polygon Window’s “Surfing On Sine Waves” came out on Warp in 93 and showed a striking thematic progression from the previous year’s SAW. This undulating 303 facsimile of the aboriginal instrument was like nothing anyone had ever heard at the time and hasn’t lost any of its idiosyncratic brilliance in the interim.

While the two untitled acid techno monsters on the B-side could teach the hordes of contemporary tape techno producers a thing or two, this 12” is all about the intense brilliance of ‘Digeridoo’. This ferocious three tracker, the producer’s second release, came out on Rabbit City just before he changed the landscape of electronic music with SAW and sees the producer applying his unique talent to a different end of the musical spectrum. Slightly let down by poor audio quality (it was mastered from a tape damaged by James’ cat) it’s worth investing in one of the recent remastered editions. Coming off the back of a couple of brutal breakbeat techno 12s, this gorgeous collection of minimal compositions came out of nowhere to stand alongside the finest examples of ambient music. To start at the (almost) beginning, Aphex Twin’s debut long player for R&S was a groundbreaking moment in electronic music, as the producer effortlessly combined subtle melodies and soothing atmospheres with the skitterish beats left scattered over the countryside by the swelling tide of rave. To help you out we’ve pulled all ten into this playlist which you can listen to as you read. James’ output, from nigh-on household classics to the odd fringe release that might have escaped the causal observer. The ten records collected here span a large chuck of Richard D. While picking ten Aphex Twin tracks is about as divisive a thing you can do, every argument needs somewhere to start. 10 Aphex Twin records any respectable collector should have in their racks.

Aphex twin selected ambient works 85 92 rarest