TS: Aphex Twin: Selected ambient works 85-92 VS SAW Volume 2

SAW II destroys 85-92 in my book, always has - most of those early loop tracks run on far too long. Though it's much better than Classics and "i" is beautiful as anything on SAW II, that set's still got the best ambient pieces Eno left off Apollo.

I cannot say what was ripped off from what off the top of my head, but I have had SAWII for years and have only recently been getting a lot of Eno's ambient material. There have been more than a couple times where I will listen to Eno and recognize something from SAWII.

SAWII and SAWI are vastly different records and I do not think it is fair to judge them against each other. I quite like them both, but for very different reasons. I do find that it is very difficult to play SAWII at a party, but SAWI goes over quite well. Then again, most of my friends hate drifty ambient music with a passion. ;)

If I hate to take sides, I would go with SAWII. If only for Blue Calx and Disc 1 track 3.

When will someone point out that mt is late to the party?

1. I Care Because You Do
2. Come to Daddy
3. Surfing on Sine Waves
4. SAW2
5. SAW1
6. Caustic Window Comp
7. Windowlicker

Richard D. James album/Drukqs - consigned to crap bin. The 'V/VM Help Aphex Twin' pair of mini-CDs are better than either by a long shot.

No Classics?

1. I Care Because You Do
2. Come to Daddy
3. Surfing on Sine Waves
4. SAW2
5. SAW1
6. Caustic Window Comp
7. Classics
8. Windowlicker

Eh. 'Classics' no great shakes for me, probably why I forgot it.

Seconded re: Expert Knob Twiddlers as well, esp for the fab Francois Hardy sample.

I've tried it before but the results are debatable. It appears to sync up for the first 10 mins and then not really. Worth a try though if you're bored.

i remember doing this a while ago,it was a bit of a laugh but i can't remember whether it was actually better or just a novelty
the reason i did it was because i read that it was designed to work well like that
haha crosspost

Such controversy as there was revolved around the lack of titles and the symbols/images he used to identify each track instead.

My basic theory with Aphex Twin is that everything without beats rules, and everything with beats sucks.

I don't think everything that has beats sucks at all but he has never managed to make an out and out grebt record by using beats.

SAWII is the best thing i've heard from him.

While I think this is balderdash, I do hold the "piano" pieces on Druqks in very high regard, despite the general spottiness of that album. If I had a CD burner, I'd make myself a special EP of just those tracks. The very last track, in particular, is so beautiful it hurts.

The first track he was known for was Didgeridoo, which was pretty pounding. But the next was Analogue Bubblebath, which was classically fluffy.

His beats are crap! They really are.

''No dude, SAW I was his first big release on Warp! I comes before II, you see...''

ok thought it was on that label from belgium, my memory fails me again at this late hour.

Possibly because the track is called the "Original Mix"?

SAW 85-92 and SAWII are both gorgeous and brilliant. I couldn't possibly choose.

Oh, okay, whoops.

It would be quite something if all the tracks on that album really had started out like that, and then had the beats removed on a whim.

Just read this and I agree with everything Clarke B said. I like the long silences in the middle - they get very interesting in the wee hours, especially if you're half awake because it's the silences that make you wake up!

Um, Ben Williams is very VERY wrong btw. SAW1 was on R&S, not Warp. Polygon Window was RDJ's first album on Warp. And the Twin's beats rule. Obviously people are forgetting "I Care Because You Do", probably the most consistent (and best) beat-driven Aphex album. The RDJ Album and Come To Daddy are great as well.

...and Green Calx is better than all three of them.

I don't have SAWII, so I'm going to hold off on rating it until I get a copy.

don't you just hate posting something you already said months ago on the same thread?

Me too Gaz. What a disappointment.

er, piano is a percussion instrument?

Okay, does anyone here actually find nothing at all remotely disturbing about these tracks? Yes the record is in some sense quite beautiful, but god how some of those sound worlds get under my skin! Maybe it's good I've never done acid...

Yes. I listened to SAWII while shrooming one time. Everyone went to some godawful bar to celebrate someone's birthday so I was all alone. I eventually had to turn it off because it was 'giving me bad vibes, maaan.'
I do wish there were more hauntingly beautiful tracks on there, such as the one Clarke just mentioned (Disc 1, Track 3--which to me isn't lonesome, but instead evokes the feeling of lying in bed in the arms of a lover)(but it does have that 'all is right w/the world, too bad I'll eventually die' mood too)

Clarke B's story about his dad and Disc 1, Track 3, aka One Of the Most Beautiful Songs Ever = genius.

"Selected Ambient Works 85-92, 2x12" (R&S)
Selected Ambient Works 85-92, CD (Distance)
Selected Ambient Works 85-92, CD (Apollo)
Selected Ambient Works 85-92, CD (Apollo)"

i dont remember it ever being on warp either.
the warp site shows the 'on' ep to be the first aphex record out on warp, 15.11.93

Call me old-fashioned, but I like my beats to have at least a minimal sense of rhythm.

SAW1 makes me immensely happy and brings make too many good memories of being in London and my conversion from serious student to clubber; SAW2 is rewarding, but not immediate in the same way as SAW1.

I listened to both this week, and SAW1 wins.

Strangely that sentiment also neatly describes how I feel about Nirvana's Nevermind and In Utero.

I never found out when the songs were recorded but Xtal gives the impression of being quite old, doesn't it?

I'm going to play this now.

I know, I know ILM. Hold your breath.

Tha always makes me feel like I'm in my high school gym. Not cause I played it in there either...

Anyways, Killian Murphy was OTM in his initial remark that the first two tracks were the best thing on the album.

Finally got 'Ambient Works 85-92'. Absolutely loving it. Need Volume II as soon as possible.

SAW2 is soul-ambient

― pipecock (pipecock), Wednesday, November 8, 2006 9:41 PM

*cringe*

haha

soulbient

http://www.lastfm.es/music/100dBs/_/Poppa+Large+In+The+US

Loving this mashup of IZ-US against the Ultramagnetic's Poppa Large.

Selected Ambient Works II > Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Even though Selected Ambient Works II is twice as long, I find it a far more engaging listen than Selected Ambient Works 85-92. I particularly like the track that sounds like snake charmer music, which sounds to me like a track Robert Smith could have come up with in 1984 or something if he had to come up with an ambient B-side for a Cure single.

Richard D. James Album > Selected Ambient Works II > Selected Ambient Works 85-92

probably about equal

Drukqs > Selected Ambient Works II > Richard D. James Album > Selected Ambient Works 85-92 > Syro > ...I Care Because You Do.

I have a hard time rating SAW II. It's a tough album to compare to anything, really. Either you want to hear 2.5 hours of dreamy surreal synth stuff or you don't.

funny, nobody rated Drukqs back then.. do people still think it's a bad album?

I particularly like the track that sounds like snake charmer music,

This one gave me a serious full-on audio-sensory nightmare once upon a time.

xp Druqks is a bad album with some outstanding tracks. It's basically four different mini-albums on shuffle, innit? But yeah, I have trouble with it and always have.

I remember when Drukqs came out it wasn't well received by some, but I reckon that was mostly down to people thinking it was just thrown together or something, which of course it wasn't. For me, it's about the sprawl and the experience and the way the acoustic piano tracks rub up against the more frantic beat-driven stuff. His best album, IMO.

no

yes

ok

Drukqs is great! Better than I Care Because You Do, which is spotty for me. Probably like it better than Syro as well.

Cheetah EP is fantastic, too. "CIRKLON3" is a top 5 Aphex Twin track for me.

druqks, man, I don't get it. It's a mostly unpleasant listening experience for me. I even tried slowing down the drill and bass tracks but they didn't become any more palatable to me.

Every track on ICBYD is grand

ICBYD is the shit. No way is it the bottom of the heap (with).

I reckon that was mostly down to people thinking it was just thrown together or something

lol no, i just don't enjoy listening to it very much

nearly every lukewarm or negative review made mention of the fact that it was unfinished or wasn't intended to come out. I think that definitely colored the way a lot of people heard it at first.

Absolutely! I still reckon that whole thing was a rumour put about by RDJ himself.

ICBYD is my introduction to Twin as a full length. So classic!

SAW II is probably my favourite Aphex ambient release due to Lichen, Rhubarb and Blue Calx - all utter classics

"bbydhyonchord" is one i really like from druqks. great melody/counterpoint, funky groove with odd/fun hand drum sounds

ICBYD is classic

I agree, ICBYD is the ne ultra plus Aphex album. Somehow the eclecticism on that one really works in its favour whereas with Druqks it kind of ruins it.
I don't think Druqks sounds unfinished. It suffered at the time from high expectations, coming a couple of years after Windowlicker and Come To Daddy, but not really doing anything much more in terms of creativity than those EPs, which in my opinion are his pinnacle. It's a very stilted album with little quality control, and does this cyclical mid-tempo / banger / avant-garde / mid-tempo / banger / avant-garde thing all the way through. It could easily have been a series of EPs rather than this Russian roulette double LP. Nevertheless, it's got at least one or two tracks that are breathtaking.

It's my problem with almost everything else he's released since. On CTD and Windowlicker, Aphex had transcended into high-concept avant-pop music, but Druqks felt like he was repeating himself. Then the Analord series seemed more about looking back to the past and the sheer glut of releases became hard to keep up with. Syro too, just doesn't sound creatively interesting to me. Music tech fans have told me how much they love the Cheetah EP because he's coaxing impossible sounds out of old, difficult-to-use technology, but that's just not something that interests me. For me, the execution of the music is of less interest than the final result, and the final result just doesn't cut it in the same way as the ICBYD/CTD/RDJ/WL stretch, which seemed well-cultivated and hooky.

I particularly like the track that sounds like snake charmer music,
This one gave me a serious full-on audio-sensory nightmare once upon a time.

― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Thursday, March 30, 2017 3:00 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Snake charmer music? Which song is this?

Cheetah is brilliant because it's funky as, all other considerations secondary at best. ditto Analord.

Haven't really dug anything Aphex has done since drukqs tbh. I also remember there was another rumor that he made it a double album so that he could get out of his contract with Warp. Don't know if that's true or not. But goddamn does it have some amazing songs on it. How can anyone hate "Avril 14th"?

I would like to second all of mr dog latins points

Drukqs is one of my favourite electronic albums largely because of how all over the place it is (though I can definitely hear where the criticisms come from), but I'm a terrible dilettante when it comes to this sort of thing so that doesn't count for much. His last couple of releases have just refused to grow on me I'm afraid

comparing his other stuff to Come to Daddy and Windowlicker seems like setting yourself up for disappointment, both those tunes are parodies that would've really have made sense in another era

would've -> wouldn't've

Snake charmer music? Which song is this?

― Mr. Snrub, Friday, March 31, 2017 12:15 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

CD2 Track 6 on the UK version (Windowsill) I think.

xpost:

They're also two of his most overrated tracks... being, yes, both parodies that relied a lot on RDJ's short lived "Aphex Twin as personality" schtick.

. It's a very stilted album with little quality control, and does this cyclical mid-tempo / banger / avant-garde / mid-tempo / banger / avant-garde thing all the way through.

Firstly, I disagree about the album having little quality control, and secondly you've just described one of the reasons the album is great.

comparing his other stuff to Come to Daddy and Windowlicker seems like setting yourself up for disappointment, both those tunes are parodies that would've really have made sense in another era

― frogbs, Friday, March 31, 2017 2:21 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

would've -> wouldn't've

― frogbs, Friday, March 31, 2017 2:22 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The lead tracks were parodies, but what about Flim, Nannou, Bouncing Bucephalus Ball, IZ-US, To Cure A Weakling Child, the Equation track? Feels like they each had their own identity and a 'pop' approach. After Windowlicker (well, after Druqks really), it seemed he got less interested in following that path and more interested in trying to revive acid techno on archaic machines.

Drukqs is one of my favourite electronic albums largely because of how all over the place it is (though I can definitely hear where the criticisms come from), but I'm a terrible dilettante when it comes to this sort of thing so that doesn't count for much. His last couple of releases have just refused to grow on me I'm afraid

― ultros ultros-ghali, Friday, March 31, 2017 12:31 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

While I don't rank it as high as Drukqs or Selected Ambient Works II, I still have a great deal of time for Syro... it's RDJ's "pop" record, but the compositions are still strange. A lot of the tracks sound as if they started out straight ahead, then RDJ did what he could to fuck 'em up and sound not-quite-right... and the sound design is wonderful, as ever.

Yeah I can't fault the sound design and compositional detail of Syro but I just don't get much out of it. There's a chance it'll click with me at some point though

Dog latin OTM upthread.

Like the XMAS track on Syro, but the album exhausts me and is a reminder of why that strain of ever evolving electronic music is really not my thing these days. Perhaps poorly articulated - "Cheetah" came as a relief because it was pared back.

85 > 2

Syro's first few tracks are fantastic, but then it all merges into an dull electro-funk soup for me. I like the Cheetah EP much better, but brevity may have something to do with it.

Personally think Flim towers over much of what he's done since. Glad he's still putting stuff out though ...

This particular strain of electronic music hit such a peak in the early '00s... Drukqs, Confield... superb.

I've also been disappointed by most stuff since the Flow Coma remix. I know there's gold in Analord but I always forget exactly which impenetrably named tracks to check.

Cheetah is the exception. Wasn't into it at first but came back one day and realized it's just seismic tunes. Maybe not formally ambitious but I defy anyone to find a superfluous note or an emotion that seems simulated rather than just contained. Most u+k since CTD.

hold on though are frogs and dogs up there really acting like Windowlicker isn't a banger on a big system

About half of Drukqs bangs on a big system, too. The other half soothes my speakers after it's knocked the fuck out of 'em.

Yeah I though dismissing Windowlicker as a mere 'parody' seemed a bit odd ...

It's still one of his most overrated tracks. 'Flim' is brilliant, though - Top 10 Aphex track for me.

I'm not dismissing it as parody, but that was the starting point, no? Don't get me wrong the track rules but its such a clear one-off.

but I do see what you're saying DL, there was definitely a sense of each track being its own thing back then. that whole stretch from ICBYD to Windowlicker rules because you don't know what you're going to hear, the way he mixes acoustic and real-world sounds with drill n' bass hell was always fascinating to me. it's hard to imagine him doing something like "Logon Rock Witch" or "4" anymore.

Film is overrated there I said it

yeah. I mean don't get me wrong I like Flim plenty but I don't get why it gets singled out so much.

windowlicker is great track

fu if disagree

I have literally never seen so many dog latin otms in the entire time dog latin has been on ilx.

Sure, if the O stands for "off", which he certainly is regarding Druqks.

COME ON YOU CUNTS, LET'S HAVE SOME APHEX ACID!

^^^ for real. Drukqs was my proper intro to Aphex, i had heard only Stone in Focus (on Astralwerks comp.) and SAW vol. II in a car, previously. to this day, i've heard nothing that touches the depth and feel of tracks like 54 Cymru Beats, Vordhosbn, Meltphace 6, Ziggomatic 17, Omgyjya-Switch7, Cock/ver10, Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount, and Taking Control (all fucking epics)--in this vein of aggressive, super-detailed "drill + bass" music. Except for maybe Death Fuck Mental Beats, on Rushup Edge. my attitude/approach wasn't colored by anything - i had no expectations, nothing to gauge it by. i loved the piano tracks at first, and was nearly repelled by the aggro 'drill' tracks.. it took a couple years to grow on me. the miscellaneous ambient bits and piano tracks provide a welcome relief to the more intense tracks, as well as added atmosphere and a sense of a journey/exploration. the overall sequence is great, wouldn't have it any other way. one of my favorite albums

drukqs pwns

saw II sounds lush on my stereo setup, it's really enveloping.. like somebody stated upthread, it's as if it's emanating from something other than the stereo speakers. hard to compare it to 85-92, the music is markedly different - the terrain and spaced out qualities of it aren't really present on 85-92. Stone in Focus is timeless and beautiful. it does sort of evoke the feelings of late night/early morning acid comedown, like a warm cave/gentle brain balm. Love Tha, too

Syro is spotty, for sure. Papat4 (Pineal Mix) + S950tx16wasr10 (Earth Portal Mix) are both fantastic, along with the front end of the album (Minipops + XMASEVET10). 4 Bit 9d Api+e+6 is another banger, even my mom dug it. the Circlont tracks are chunky-sounding, they don't have that effortless feel/flow that characterizes some of the "drill" tracks on Drukqs.

Fredugolon 6 (on Rushup Edge) is another underrated track.

my mistake, Fredugolon 6 is on the Confederation Trough ep. The CD version has this little gem: https://youtu.be/_wTl-wYL0-k

^ This guy gets it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1YMO1DZJMc

There's nothing as refined or fleshed out as this, on the RDJ album. 54 Cymru Beats is a modest example, check out Taking Control or Ziggomatic 17.. these tracks set a high-water mark that hasn't been touched since.

designer of saw II artwork/logo:

https://www.facebook.com/residentadvisor/videos/10154686276379480/

that was nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDSFMxLQBsk

https://www.instagram.com/p/BR594wqhkiL/

having the logo mutate over time to unrecognizability would have been brilliant

hold on though are frogs and dogs up there really acting like Windowlicker isn't a banger on a big system

― 0 / 0 (lukas), Friday, March 31, 2017 5:23 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I really really like Windowlicker FWIW. It's clever in more ways than one.

but I do see what you're saying DL, there was definitely a sense of each track being its own thing back then. that whole stretch from ICBYD to Windowlicker rules because you don't know what you're going to hear, the way he mixes acoustic and real-world sounds with drill n' bass hell was always fascinating to me. it's hard to imagine him doing something like "Logon Rock Witch" or "4" anymore.

― frogbs, Friday, March 31, 2017 8:34 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And this is OTM

Yeah there was a Disco Nihilist post that I think about a lot, talking about how Aphex releases used to be like shocking brand-new worlds. Hard to imagine that happening again.

there have been many posts saying exactly that...

At this point I find the most exciting thing Aphex Twin does is occasionally bring out tracks that include his signifiers, like on "Cheetah" there's a couple synth pads that sound like his classic ambient work.

all his tracks have his signifiers though?

Yeah, I guess so..perhaps some just resonate with me more

he comes up with some gnarly bass lines, like those in 4 bit, papat4, and Xmas_Evet10 on Syro. hell, even the circlont14 (Shrymoming mix) 20-step bass breakdown is good for a calboti (an internal chuckle). the textures are surely popping, or maybe they're just remarkable. papat4 is elating, the bass is burgeoning.. but it's short-lived. oh, Aphex *sigh*

https://youtu.be/_1Pk2bKF3xs

this Aleksi Perälä character uses tonalities (Colundi Sequences?) that vaguely recall saw II.. giant catalog of his stuff on Bandcamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB_ClJ9nikY

Thanks for sharing that am0n. Getting serious tingles.