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

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.

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.