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

And people who say that SAWII is "beatless" are clearly mentally unstable and should be lock'd up forthwith.

: (

Anyway, ten years on I think this is absolutely brilliant and have spent all of the last two weeks listening to it.

Nice one!

I listened to disc 1 of SAW II [Sire] this morning, after about a year's gap. Love it to bits. It hasn't dated at all.

The quality gap between this and the horrible Drukqs is enormous*, although Drukqs does have the odd passable track.

Analogue Bubblebath? I've got 3 and 4. They both ooze creativity, but are a bit difficult to listen to from start to finish.

* matron

Let me see what kind of analogue bubblebath CD's I have...(pulls out very dusty plastic cases...) Yes I have the third one with no sleeve as previously described, and a 4 song E.P. on U.S. label TVT Records just called "AFX: Analogue Bubblebath". It's possible I had more on vinyl, but my Aphex vinyl is still sitting in my parents' house many miles away, and I can't remember exactly what I had of him, now.
I do remember these two 12" EP records entitled "Hangable Auto Bulb" -
anyone else remember these? They were pretty limited as I recall but I thought they were really spectacular at the time. It was the first time he'd started that really quirky kind of fast drumming stuff he tried to develop further on the RDJ album and in my opinion, failed.

Fortunately, I realized that I had forgotten about the shoebox and my copy was safely tucked away in my girlfriends apartment. You have to give the man respect; there are very few records in my collection that I would get upset about not having. SAWII is one of them.

I also figured out last night that Shutov Assembly by Eno is a vastly under-rated ambient album. Ambient music rules and I hope it comes back with a vengance.

Hmm, I ought to really, oughtn't I?

The trouble is it reminds me of the decade-long passage of time in a less positive way - i.e. in 1994 Laura was here and it seemed as if we had 50 or 60 more years ahead of us as a couple. So, like a lot of music I love but don't write about on my blog, SAWII came under the category of "our music," that is music which belonged to Laura and me, not just to me.

And there are so many memories, sights, sounds and feelings which the record conjures up for me - it got played all the time, everywhere, in God knows how many different locations and situations - so I'm not averse to writing something about it on my blog, it's just that I have to get it right. There will be a lot of arcane references which no one could possibly get apart from Laura and myself (yes, I know, cue Maja readers' cry of "no change there then") but it's the only way that I can write about it and feel fulfilled.

It might be the most personal thing I've ever written, and probably will turn out to be the longest and most abstruse thing I've ever written (yes OK there's plenty of competition) - but yes it is ten years and I must think about it. And also SAWII remains one of my big ten in terms of records I would wish to be buried with.

He should stick to what he does best. And spend time on doing that.

To play favourites, I absolutely adore 'Stone In Focus' and 'Blue Calx'. The latter makes me think of water, godly celestial beings of scifi, slow peaceful death (relief) through suffocation, drowning, peacefulness. 'Curtains' will always bring me back to the halcyon days of my school years, where friends and I would go to the nearby botanical gardens and smoke dope and tell each other what the music made us think about - one of the happiest times of my life thus far.

There have been very few other artists who've been able to even approach James' attention to texture as exhibited on this release. The subtle distortions and (aforementioned) microtonal deviations are what makes this album so effective. In the three weeks before my end-of-highschool exams I listened to this whole album every morning before getting out of bed. I maintain that it was more than somewhat responsible for my excellent marks.

if the Richard D. James Album isn't beautiful, I'll eat my Windowlicker CDs.

Agreed. Anybody who can listen to 'fingerbib' or 'Yellow Calx' and not feel moved is an emotional simpleton. I also adore much of Drukqs - most notably Meltphace 6 (which I believe to be James' best work ever) which brought me to tears both times I saw him play live.

Okay, okay. I love RDJ.

Of course, this shouldn't put me off RDJ but coming back to him I realise that he isn't "all that". Druqks played a big part in this I think. Sure it had some "decent bits" here and there, but nothing that merited six years of waiting around for a musical genius to release his tour-de-force.

Tracks that once sounded all at once beautiful, alien and unique such as "Alberto Balsam" now don't do it for me and I can't even see what the appeal was originally. Nowadays I feel Autechre are more interesting, BoC more ambient and moody, Plaid more beautiful and all are better produced and better accomplished musically. By comparison Aphex tracks sound like rough sketches, simple repetitive beats (even the drill stuff sounds a little flat these days).

Of course I don't hate RDJ, in fact I still regard him very very highly and the acts I compare him to released their best works well after Aphex's peak so I supppose the comparison is a touch unfair. Also the initial "wow" factor is going to have disappeared five or six years after hearing Bouncing Bucephalus Ball for instance.

Anyway, I'm not going to be an apologist for other peoples tastes. I've always felt that RDJ's real talent lies in his melodies/harmonies. While I really adore much of his drill'n'bass work, it's the underlying melodies of those tunes that really pushes me along. (in 'Meltphace 6', for one) When it comes to insane production skills and amazing break cutups I turn to Squarepusher who is purely virtuosic in his talents.

Err, why? I heard he did it to get out of contractual obligations.

That's the kind of pressure I meant. Sorry if I was unclear.

Still in debt to this thread for finally getting into this record; it's a belter.

SAW II is the only album that i have perfectly heard while sleeping, which is scary. I think is one of the greatest recording of the (past) century. Volume 1 come very close.

OTM, I still feel that the best way to listen to SAW II is while lying down in the dark at night.