The Saturday Sound — Week 12
Aphex Twin — Selected Ambient Works 85–92
By Gavin Dransfield
Anyone who knows me really well knows that I love electronic music. A lot. Like, a whole lot. And I’m not talking about your typical mass-produced EDM that you hear at raves and in gaming videos on YouTube; I’m talking about real electronic music.
And I do sincerely mean “mass-produced” when it comes to EDM genres such as trap and dubstep. These are today’s pop songs of electronic; they’re clean and crisp and shiny, they typically feature a female guest singer whose voice is warm and pitch-perfect, and they have an exhilarating energy that gradually rises and peaks with the infamous “bass drop.” They’re formulaic and easy to swallow (easy to “vibe to” some will say), and like all pop songs, that’s exactly why people love them.
This isn’t to say that electronic music you can dance to is inherently bad; unforgettable artists such as Daft Punk and Disclosure have offered unique and intelligently crafted club-suited songs their whole careers. The Chemical Brothers and Caravan Palace are in leagues almost entirely their own with dance music unlike any other. However, there’s a certain breed of electronic music that, in today’s age, has been swept under the rug to make way for those more popular sounds. It has become all too difficult to find amid the dance-floor orientation that reigns supreme over the majority of the electronic audience, and that’s why so few people recognize the name Aphex Twin. Which is a crying shame.
I’ll get straight to the point; Aphex Twin is the Beatles of electronic music. He’s one of the original pioneers of the genre, and was practically born with the genre. A vast portion of the lineage of electronic music stems from him and his influence, and without him, the genre wouldn’t be what it is today.
Unlike the Beatles, however, Aphex Twin’s legend is a relatively quiet one. Though his influence can be seen in a multitude of places, his actual works are widely unknown or, if they are known, neglected. As I’ve pointed out, it’s a flavor of music that people just aren’t used to. But Aphex Twin’s crowning achievement, his Selected Ambient Works 85–92, is the perfect introduction to that flavor. It’s a starting point into the most real, raw form of electronic we have.
The album opens meekly and gently with “Xtal,” which brings to the table a steady, easygoing, reverberating groove with soothing synth rhythms and vocal samples. Crisp hi-hats chirp along on top of deep, booming bass hits and warm snare drums. A little under 2 minutes into the song, a tranquil melody played by synthesized horns begins to hum. For a tune so unique and atmospheric, it’s really quite pretty.
Next up is “Tha,” a 9-minute odyssey of ambient sounds. A pulsating drum pattern is the only element that stays constant, while airy synthesizers, a rich bassline, and a variety of echoing effects fade in and out at almost random intervals. This song is an absolute paragon of ambient music, with its minimalistic structure and an overall sound which treads the line between music and just noise. Played in any setting, it could bleed into the background and meld completely with the present atmosphere, until its listeners become unsure why they’re still nodding their heads in rhythm. That’s where its beauty lies.
The next couple tracks, “Pulsewidth” and “Ageispolis,” are more attention-grabbing. The former features an immediately mesmerizing chord progression that flourishes atop a classic and quickly moving kick/snare/hi-hat dance beat. The latter opens with a chirpy melody which briefly flies solo until an addicting beat fades in along with waves of modulated synth chords and a playful bassline. The resulting song is spacey and hypnotic, perfect for a drive on a rainy evening.
Other notable tracks include “Green Calx,” which sounds like it could’ve been ripped straight from the soundtrack to an old Sonic The Hedgehog game; “Heliosphan,” a speedy and frantic groove with yet soothing chords and melodies, and “We Are the Music Makers,” which, amid a very playful rhythm, features a recurring audio sample of Gene Wilder from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:
“We are the music makers / And we are the dreamers of dreams.”
Appropriately, the track is very dreamlike, as well as fun and eclectic.
This album in its entirety is unlike any other. With a never-ending series of trippy, ambient, and enthralling sounds, and nostalgic atmospheres that ring true with the humble beginnings of electronic composing, Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is an unforgettable exemplar of the intelligence and the craftwork which go into a genre that, while largely underrated and misunderstood, remains beautiful and fascinating against the tests of time and change.
Stream the album:
