Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works '85-92 CD - Import

Originally released in 1992 and now digitally remastered and available once again for the first time in 10 years is APHEX TWIN's seminal 'Selected Ambient Works 85-92'. Exploring the experimental possibilities inherent in acid and ambience, the two major influences on home-listening techno during the late '80s and early 90's, Richard D. James' recordings as Aphex Twin brought him more critical praise than any other electronic artist during the 1990s. Since making these early recordings originally released by R&S Records in 1993 (some allegedly and mind blowingly at the age of 14!), Richard James AKA Aphex Twin, has become synonymous with the finest in modern electronic music. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 reveals no influences and sounds unlike anything that preceded it, due in large part to the effects James managed to wrangle from his supply of home-manufactured contraptions.

Aphex Twin: Richard D. James.
Budget-priced special-edition Belgian reissue.
Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is a desperately sparse album: thin percussion and several haunted-synth lines are the only components on most songs, and Richard D. James added only one vocal sample on the entire album ("We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"). Also, the sound quality is relatively poor; it was recorded direct to cassette tape and reportedly suffered a mangling job by a cat. All this belies the status of Selected Ambient Works 85-92 as a watershed of ambient music. It reveals no influences and sounds unlike anything that preceded it, due in large part to the effects James managed to wrangle from his supply of home-manufactured contraptions. ~ John Bush
One of the indisputable classics of electronica, and a defining document for ambient music in particular, SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS 85-92 is one of Aphex Twin's (AKA Richard D. James) earliest and most fully realized achievements. Reputedly created on homemade equipment deconstructed from standard synthesizers, the music within takes its cue from club beats and the techno rhythms of rave and acid-house culture. Upon these foundations, however, Aphex Twin weaves melodic tapestries of great subtlety, beauty, and atmospheric texture.
"Tha," for example, contains a muted bass-drum pulse that becomes the center for evolving patterns of sound--a kind of aural mandala. The more driving rhythm of "Heliosphan" also gives rise to the ethereal play of melody. Several tracks, such as "Schottkey 7th Path" and "Hedphelym," have a tense, telescoping ambience that evokes paranoia and a sense of gravity-free floating at once. Other selections show Aphex Twin working more firmly in the techno-dance idiom, but even these display a complexity, elegance, and delicacy rarely heard in the genre. This landmark recording is one of the essential building blocks of any electronica collection.

Rolling Stone (12/12/02, p.100) - "...Fusing lush soundscapes with oceanic beats and bass lines....SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS 85-92 isn't just mind-altering--it's majestic."
Alternative Press (4/02, p.88) - "...[The album] abounds with beautifully naive melodies and otherworldly atmospheres rarely matched..."
Q (Magazine) (p.156) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[The] instrumentals were infused with both the stroppy rush of hardcore and the whimsical softness of psychedelia. Some even mimicked the grace of modern classical sounds."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.121) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he sparkling, startling SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS 85-92 remains as psychedelically potent as it was then."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.82) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he album often credited with taking electronic music away from the dancefloor and into the home....Like the greatest electronic dance music, it hasn't dated at all."