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

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.