Title: Selected Ambient Works 85 -92
Artiste: Aphex Twin
Genre: Electronic/Ambient
Familiarity: Zero, though I've heard you guys talking about him
Recommended by: TechnicLePanther
Expectations: Completely blank slate here. The word “ambient” in the title gives me hope I may enjoy it, but that may turn out to be very far from the case.
1. Xthal: I'm not sure; is this what they call chillwave or chilltempo or something? Quite relaxing in a sort of slow clubby way, female vocals which I can't make out the actual words on, heavy drums and swirling keys. Quite nice I must say.
2. Tha: Slightly more uptempo, more heavily centred on the percussion, though it's a long track and could change, probably will, over its run. Yeah some synth and bass coming in now.
3. Pulsewidth: Kind of a bouncy rhythm to this; reminds me of 80s pop I think. Trumpeting synth is nice.
4. Ageispolis: Slower, more ambient with a kind of popcorn (?) keyboard
5. i: This is very abstract, very laidback. And very short.
6. Green calx: Much more in your face with buzzing squelching synths and thumping drums. Kind of annoying if I'm honest
7. Heliosphan: Something of a relief after the relentless pounding of the last track (and it was a long one, too!). Ticking percussion with warbling synth, slower, darker, picking up the tempo now but still relatively mid-paced.
8. We are the music makers: Nice bassline in this. Like the sprightly piano too. Not really too much in it overall though, given the length.
9. Schottkey 7th path: Very spacey, kind of suspense/horror vibe to this. Slower than previous tracks. Bit weird the way the synth keeps rising and fading near the end.
10. Ptolemy: Hammering, kind of jungle beat with a busy bassline and sampled keyboards. Again, it's a little repetitive.
11. Hedphelym: Spacey kind of feel to this, slower with maybe a suggestion of simulated whalesong?
12. Delphium: Yeah it's okay but you know, hard to write about.
13. Actium: Instrumental albums again: my bugbear in terms of reviews. A nice beat but again kind of what do I say?
End result: It's the old problem with instrumental albums. I may like them, even love them, but it's hard to write about them. For what he does, Aphex Twin does really well, but it's again kind of background music to me that I find hard to devote any real attention to.
So, Love or Hate? Still give it a
Love.