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Features Disc of the day

Aphex Twin
Selected Ambient Works Volume II



150 minutes of quality brain de-focusing from Cornish techno frightener.

Aphex Twin

On hearing some of the first of this two-disc set, writer’s six-year old son says, “This is TARDIS music.” And it does sound like something that might play in Doctor Who’s multi-dimensional, possibly sentient time machine, if such a thing was real. Suitably for pieces of music that don’t have titles (they’re identified by images of everyday objects like wires, the back of a radiator and bark, all made to look slightly disturbing by being photographed in extreme close-up), the whole thing is an exercise in opaqueness, with often pretty electronic tones and textures ebbing and departing like blobs of watercolour dissipating in a jamjar of water. Occasionally there are rhythms, but they’re more like synaesthesic impressions of germs multiplying in a Petri dish than a party soundtrack, which is possibly why some of the tracks later appeared on Chris Morris’ ghoulish TV comedy Jam. For his next album, the ever-perverse Aphex moved onto making brain-shredding drum and bass, but partially returned to Satie-esque minimalism for 2001’s drukqs.

Ian Harrison

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 20/03/2008

Further Listening

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (R&S, 1992)

Brian EnoMusic For Airports: Ambient 1 (EG, 1978)

Anal Zero Beats Per Minute (KAK, 1995)


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