Aphex Twin's _Selected Ambient Works Volume II_ is ten years old

I think as long as you don't see something that's a joke and something that has artistic merit as being two mutually exclusive things then there's less of a problem.

how are the pictures-to-songs a wind-up anyway? The whole thing makes sense if you look at it. Wasn't it Designers Republic who made the inlay anyway?

this album

They're not mututally exclusive at all. And with Mr D.James I think the line is often very close - in fact, he's expressed being mystified at how people take things that he intends entirely as a joke, completely seriously. (Come To Daddy being the prime example.)

It's more that kind of kneejerk anti-abstraction, anti-intellectual (you see the same thing with abstract or conceptual art "what, 1 million quid for a pile of bricks?" type thinking) that if something is not immediately apparent, it must be a wind-up (and, to me, that concept of wind-up has a slightly malicious overtone) that he's always somehow fucking with his fanbase rather than just doing something he thinks is cool or interesting or just needs to be done.

Don't see this attitude so much on ILX but on tWATMM it's completely rampant. Every time RDJ or Rephlex or whoever do something a bit sideways, they howl "he's taking the piss, they're winding us up!" rather than realising they're doing something amusing for their own benefit.

But I guess if I judged artists by their fanbases I'd never listen to Aphex Twin. :-/

DL - the photographs are his, he's actually done quite a lot of his own photography for his albums.

I had no idea they were his photographs :-)

i haven't actually sat down and listened to anything aphex-related in a very long time...i do like a lot of his stuff, but it's so tied to a particular time and place in my life, for me.

i was at a party in new york a few months ago and the DJ put on the afx remix of 808 state's 'flow coma', and i kept wishing that they'd play the original 808 state version instead. the original bangs so much harder than his distorted-to-hell remix

Twin mixes tend to be a bit hit and miss. Can't say I ever really got into his 23 Mixes For Cash album, but by that point my obsession was admittedly starting to wane a little.

I do like this though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J55uy2b_x_Q

KDT if you think my response was anti-abstraction or anti-intellectual you obv don't know much about me (why would you? etc) it's just that in this case i think he probably was on one, nothing wrong with that, he's a wind up merchant a lot of the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SP_OE3qrbk

rah

He's not a wind-up merchant. Sometimes he jokes, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he does both at the same time. But that doesn't mean that every single thing he does is somehow a wind-up.

I dunno. Older Aphex (everything pre-Drukqs, which was where I originally got off the bus, but particularly the SAWs) is also so much a time and place for me, but it was a time and place where I was particularly happy so I get the pleasant twinge of being reminded of happier times as well as the enjoyment of listening to the music.

I love that Flow Coma remix. I use it a lot when I'm DJing between bands. It has an immediately energising effect on people when it's on a good system. It's usually either that or Logan Rock Witch when I'm playing records.

Or that hardcore track off Smojphace...

But that doesn't mean that every single thing he does is somehow a wind-up.

I don't think so either. The photos thing may not be a wind up but the tracks are (on the whole) good or very good and the photos are rubbish. it looks like he spent about 20 minutes on the whole thing.

the pictures also remind me of those Ask the Family "familiar object from an unfamiliar angle" questions where the camera wd slowly pan back until the identity of the object was blindingly obvious

the sound of SAWII is often like lying on the ground in a quiet spot staring at something mundane until you don't recognise it any more

I don't get it, Jed. It's like... Mr D.James makes set of ambient tracks which are fuzzy, indistinct, distorted, blurred and that makes him a genius expressing a deliberate aesthetic. Mr D.James makes set of photographs which are fuzzy, indistinct, distorted and blurred with which to express the ambience of said tracks without the use of words - and that makes them rubbish he spent maybe 20 minutes on?

I've taken some great pics that took me all of 20 mins to take, total!

He may well have spent 20 minutes on them TBF, doesn't make them a wind-up. And yes, some of the things RDJ has got up to could well be considered a wind-up (thinking things like the Jesus Jones remix etc). But it's his prankster reputation that lends him a lot of ears. No one's saying he's not a great musician without a considerable amount of ideas, but he is also a jester who will wilfully take the piss to a degree. The difference is, he's one of the few artists I can think of for whom it never feels like the listener is being duped necessarily. Like, he could if he wanted to, release a single consisting of three particularly fruity fart noises and know that it would sell. But he's never done that. Even at his most irreverant, RDJ's music manages to be worthy in some fashion.

'worthy' is an awful word, but yeah.

SAW Vol. 2 is actually the only Aphex record I actively love, and I'd always wished he'd done more like it. The Biosphere recommendation above is a great call... I also forgot to mention Roedelius as a precursor to this stuff, but the more lo-fi records like Selbstportraits I and II.

See, this is one reason I like not knowing everything about music: There are still worlds undiscovered that I can explore when I get ennui about the stuff I own.

Thing is, I've just bought 'myself' (with some birthday funds from both sets of parents, mine and my wife's), a Technics 1220Mk2 turntable, and have since discovered that those records I thought I'd worn out bass frequencies on, tuen out to be 'not the case', maybe this different stylus is touching new parts of the groove.

So, am rediscovering all sorts of vinyl from within!

Although, our alice asks "can you play some Beatles?" at which pont I went, oh OK.. and stuck on Revolver as I nipped around the shops.

Anyhow, she wants to take the "School's Out" album to school to show her teacher, and the 'cool' way it folds out into a desk...

Anyway, back to the ambient masterwork...

I don't get it, Jed. It's like... Mr D.James makes set of ambient tracks which are fuzzy, indistinct, distorted, blurred and that makes him a genius expressing a deliberate aesthetic. Mr D.James makes set of photographs which are fuzzy, indistinct, distorted and blurred with which to express the ambience of said tracks without the use of words - and that makes them rubbish he spent maybe 20 minutes on?

― Karen D. Tregaskin, Monday, 13 June 2011 14:17 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

eh this isn't what i'm saying. this is what you think i'm saying.

there's clearly a qualitative difference between these photos and these tracks. i don't think they express the tracks well. i like the concept i just think the execution is poor. you're perfectly entitled to think they're great.

i agree that they're not exactly amazing photographs, especially not compare dto the music, no. Certainly not what I think of when I hear these songs. But the concept is good - I like the way each picture is a different size according to length of track.

match sticks

Tredanva-wyns.

wind farm? I could see that — one 500 years from now in a posthuman world

Tredanvayow-wyns a wra gul tros hevelep ilow dhe Afeks Twyn. Pur deg yw!

(I have no idea what "ambient" is yn Kernewek, will have to ask my teacher. I'm guessing "ambyennek" or something like that?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goDd02TTxBA

OMG why am i just finding out now that there is finally a 3LP repress out?!??

"stone in focus" not included though -.-

http://www.discogs.com/Aphex-Twin-Selected-Ambient-Works-Volume-II/release/3577040

shit pressing unfortunately ):

... both of which i found out to my cost this week. smh :(

What exactly constitutes a shit pressing of a record full of ambient noises and drones?

loud scratches and distortion

the original pressing was shit as well.

Why would anyone even want a vinyl version of an ambient album?

i read this thread & full of nostalgia popped this out of filing for a listen & i found it hugely insubstantial. like a bad roedelius album. thomas köner's first few were contemporaneous w/ this & infinitely preferable to my ears. don't get me wrong, I love SAW1, & that fusiony new tuss stuff - i think he's a good but imperfect composer. lionising this heap of shit (SAW2)is simple hero-worship, wish fulfilment, & nostalgic longing, IMO

lionising this heap of shit (SAW2)is simple hero-worship, wish fulfilment, & nostalgic longing, IMO

― iglu ferrignu, Tuesday, June 5, 2012 1:52 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ouch! What about those of us who don't love that much of Aphex's stuff outside of this particular record? Early Koner is on a very different wavelength too, I think.

lionising this heap of shit (SAW2)is simple hero-worship, wish fulfilment, & nostalgic longing, IMO

fuck you.

1) I heard to SAWII for the first time in like 2003; it's not "nostalgic longing"
2) I don't give a shit about the rest of RDJ's career; it's not "hero-worship"
3) SAW2 is one of the most intricate, moving albums of all time; it's not a "heap of shit"
4) fuck you

anyone with a dissenting opinion on Aphex Twin get the FUCK off ILM

it's not that; it's just that I'm going to give anyone who shits on my favorite album & its fans a hearty "fuck off."

crüt otm

haha. you fanboys !

Also, FUCK YOU.

And it's "phangirl" thank you very much.

I mean I wouldn't call it a "heap of shit" but I can't help but wonder what kind of person is listening to this all at once

lionising this heap of shit (SAW2)is simple hero-worship, wish fulfilment, & nostalgic longing, IMO

Heh. I feel that way about a lot of shit ILM talks about, but this is the only Aphex Twin album I like, so it's not hero worship at all for me.

well, OK, so I might have conflated the nigh-on rabid fanaticism that aphex seems to inspire in some (BUT NOT ALL) of his audience (both male and female) with my disappointment at how this album no longer holds my interest, so i'm projecting that arbitrarily onto an external strawman, and making crass generalisations, to boot.
my mistake.
'pologies there.
but my, aren't you all so fucking touchy !