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

Weirdly, listening to Loveless makes me think of Super Metroid. SAWII is synonymous with Five Letters From An Eastern Empire in my mind

wll u know yr the same old hangman who ratnalises hope

Sorry, did I say 'ten'? I meant 'twenty.'

it's about time he put a new record out!

Ned, you bastard. I've been patiently waiting for years to make a parody thread about how it's 10 years since the '10 years since SAW II' thread started.

Zing.

Just wait for the thirty year event.

Well, I'll have to now

Still one of my ten favourite albums.

I love this album (duh), and it's one of the few that I prefer to listen to digitally. My freshmen year in undergrad I had a weird moment with the second disc, late at night. I was kind of bumping my head against my computer monitor repeatedly with my eyes closed when my roommate walked in. If he didn't already, he identified me as a total weirdo from there on out.

lol, my dog is losing his shit at "Radiator"

Looking forward to reading the 33 1/3 that is about to be released (or is now available?).

Amazon delivered my preorder a couple weeks ago. It's good. I'm glad he doesn't go track-by-track.

I recently burned a 3CD version of this with the non-cd tracks inserted.. each CD corresponds to each vinyl disc. fun permutations, recontexified

which are the other nine, marcello?

Anyway in celebration -- um, me:

http://thequietus.com/articles/14552-aphex-twin-selected-ambient-works-volume-ii-review

Brilliant album. I wish I had more things like this in my collection, and that more things were out there that conjure this atmosphere.

Bought this on vinyl when it came out, brown vinyl which became unlistenable after a few plays. Listened to this again a few weeks back and couldn't get into it

The legendary unplayable vinyl. I mention in the article how I heard people complaining about that from the get-go online.

I have the brown vinyl too and it's a mess of crackle and surface noise.

Ned - is that Marc Weidenbaum book worth buying?

I've not read the whole thing but what I've seen is good stuff. As a friend noted, the fact that he's not doing it track by track is a plus. Marc also mentioned this tidbit over on FB in response to my article:

"Rhubarb" is a favorite, up there with "White Blur I." I have a small chunk of text in the book specifically about "Rhubarb," about my sense of how in essence the main thing that "happens" in the track is that what begins as a five-note phrase becomes a six-note phrase. As melodic development goes, that is way minimal, to say the least. In the course of my research I interviewed two musicians (one in San Francisco, another in Portland) who had independent of each other transcribed "Rhubarb" for solo acoustic guitar, but in the end I had no room in the book (35,000 words total) to fit their comments in appropriately.

Give it another spin thanks to this thread. I think I'm coming around to it now.

i never got into this, not 20 years ago, not ten years ago and not now. the cd in six words: too much repetition, too few ideas.

I still have the double cassette that I bought from King’s Road Our Price at the time and it still plays perfectly. Soundtracked innumerable Oxford Tube coach journeys and psychogeographic wanderings around London. An awesomely emotional album, I feel.

Like many ITT I dug this out again for the first time in years. So much I'd forgotten about it. Obviously Rhubarb is the stately easy-listening highlight, but this is a really diverse album. I fell asleep after about three songs, woke up at 4:30am with all the lights on. Woops.

I still prefer SAW85-92 but every time I listen to this album (yup, me too last night) I start out going "why do I even like this, it's so flimsy, so nothingy" and by the end I'm like "THAT WAS AMAZING HOW DID HE DO THAT."

I am all about Shiny Metal Rods. Always.

(It is funny how we all just know and use the "fan fiction" names.)

To be honest I don't really know it by the FF names, I'm more likely to know songs by track number.

this is still one of the best suites of music ever recorded and, y'know, the album is not on trial here etc

Who said it was?

people who comment to bury the album rather than praise it

People having different opinions about a record! Who'd've thunk it?

Added this on my tumblr after reading numerous comments yesterday -- some of the ones just now could have fit in. (Plus the Macross still, but it's not just about that.)

http://nedraggett.tumblr.com/post/77298022831/well-having-teased-the-mention-of-this-macross

xp

i think it's one of those records that, more than most, reflects back on the listener. but of course you're very right, it's important to respect other people's opinions

No it's not, this album's brilliant.

NV OTM, this is like the ultimate Juddian shiny metal box album. Which is one of its strengths, IMO. Everyone who looks into it sees something different.

(Sensitive to faith, not denial, but hey who's on trial?)

I wanted to start a thread asking who is today's equivalent of RDJ. It feels like for all electronic music's range, there's no one working today who matches him in terms of innovation, breadth of scope and also humour. Is it worth starting a thread?

I want to start a thread completely DECONSTRUCTING the idea that "today" has or even needs to have the "equivalent" of previous era's artists. I'm so sick of this meme!

Agreed. It's not like "Didgeridoo" or "Come To Daddy" get played regularly/at all on the Ken Bruce Show! Also it puts an unfair and unwarranted burden on people who ARE trying to do something new and different now. Hacker Farm and Stella OM Source are brilliant but they are not remotely Today's RDJ, nor should they be expected or set up to be.

Quite right. Please, this isn't a 'meme' though, or at least it's not meant to be one.

I'm not saying there ought to be an equivalent, but RDJ and his work and his attitude really does feel like a one-off and I can't think of any other electronic artist who comes close, which is kind of amazing considering how early his involvement was in techno/ambient/IDM and just how many boundaries he pushed back then.

Talking about this here now:

What Is The "What Is The X Of Today" Of Today? Why is this meme so bad and hated?

okay, well i didn't mean it as part of any meme, i was genuinely interested to see if anyone could think of anyone who came close. I mean, I was thinking maybe Oneohtrix (who I don't like much) could count in some way; maybe even Actress, but again much as those are respected and thoughtful artists, I don't think their scopes are anywhere near as broad.

mu-Ziq IMO, a much under-rated producer. And yes all comparisons are invidious etc. etc.

who is the Nicolas Jaar of the early nineties?

Ken Downie (jks)

went to Marc Weidenbaum's SF reading for his 33 1/3 book. read from it, had a couple musicians do cool live stuff, answered some questions. asked him if he had thoughts about why Aphex never returned to this style. he kinda contradicted himself, first admitting this album really stands alone, then saying that actually, it was a rhythmic / melodic work like the rest, and that far from abandoning the style, after SAW II Aphex built on what he accomplished there.

not sure if i agree, but interesting to think about.

i guess this is old news to SAW II fans, but i realized today that "Parallel Stripes" is basically just a binaural beat. it's not hard to tell that it's two very similar sine waves phasing in and out against each other, but i imagine that RJD had binaural beats' alleged effects on brain functions in mind when he made it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats)

http://www.kallbinauralaudio.com/crosstalk-cancellation-or-why-dr-edgar-choueiri-is-my-hero-part-2/

coming soon: loudspeakers capable of playing back binaural audio