Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Years ago, back in 1989 in fact, a guy started work in the company I worked for in north london. I can't remember his name it being so long ago but I remember he came from Hinckley in Leicester. I remember he used to talk highly of Aphex twin, This Mortal Coil and 4AD records who I had never heard of before. he had a friend who had a sound system of very high quality back then and they used to listen to Aphex twin etc whilst getting stoned. I was more into Hip hop at the time and wasn't that clued up about ambient, that came a year or two later. I introduced him to NWA and he loved that, anyway I digress, He became a good friend over that summer and we partied at the town & country club in Kentish Town (Wendy May's locomotion) but i never listened to any of the music he spoke so highly of. Fast forward 26 years and I'm listening to this and it's blown me away. Wow i wish i got into Aphex Twin back in the late 80's/early 90's when he first spoke about them. Time flies fast and the years roll by so very quickly. I turned 50 two months ago. I have a happy marriage, I have a good career. What have i learnt over the years? It's important to unplug via what ever method is your choice/poison. Don't ever listen to negativity, keep pushing forward. Love your family and your friends, no one else is that important. I wish I could meet my old friend from hinckley back in 89.

this music is great for eating bamboo 

The guy was 13 when he started producing the music for this album. Imagine that: a middle-schooler likely invented IDM.

Now I know where DIE ANTWOORD​ got their riff for the 'Ugly Boy'. 18:10

I'd be interested to know which of these tracks was actually from 1985

The first time I listened to Xtal was yesterday and I liked it but I didn't know why everyone thought it was so good. Today I told my history teacher that my classmate was being bullied, I asked him to speak in private at break and we went into to another room and I told him what was going on and I broke down because I was bullied for a long time time before and it really resonated with me because I thought in my head that I was being the hero that I wished was there for me. I hope you never feel the helplessness of crying in front of your history teacher, but my tears then could have prevented thousands more tears for my classmate. It was only then as i was writing in my diary 5 minutes ago about this, (I want to record all my experiences for when I'm older, I'm 15) when I noticed myself humming Xtal in my head. Now I cherish this song <3 For me this song's message is that everything is going to be ok in the end, and we have to love each other no matter your race, gender, sexual preferences, religion, ideologies, height, weight, intelligence, disability, popularity, or where you come from because we are all human and we all need to raise up and realise that you can change someone's life by showing some love and humanity to someone who could have the whole world against them, with no one showing them love. Now I'm crying because I have an overwhelming sense of humanity and pure love as I type this. And for people who think it isn't 'manly' to let out emotions rather than keep them bottled up, today I did the manliest thing I've ever done which is stand up for someone else, in fact I think today I turned from a boy into a man. Thanks for reading <3

Xtal is the sound the Sun makes when it rises above the Horizon..

The fact that these tunes were produced while Thatcher was still prime minister blows my fucking mind.

perfect for a hungover rainy sunday

Xtal might be the most perfect piece of electronic music ever produced.

Selected Ambient Works 2085-2092

3 Million views. He's officially completely mainstream.

time is an illusion.

I first came across Selected Ambient Works when rooting through a box of random tapes I found under the bed in my first student houseshare. It was a grim October and I was living in a house on the cliffs of Rottingdean near Brighton, miles from campus and my friends, and I was feeling rather lonely. When I played this album, it was like my mind was being hugged and bought a pint. From the opening synths and gentle boom of Xtal, Ambient Works is a cosy duvet on a bleak February morning, a Mars Bar after swimming, a snow-covered hill on a sunny day - full of soothing melodies and quiet spaces. Now, 13 years later, I still put it on when I can't sleep, or when I feel cold or sad, and it greets me like an old friend. I played the tape til it broke and had to buy the CD. I was very much a rock fan when I came across this album, but it introduced me to a side of electronica I hadn't previously been aware of - the after-party, the come down, the morning after, the walk in the park with your headphones on. Apparently it was massively influential and I suppose that is one reason for picking up this piece of history. But a far greater reason is the timeless beauty of the music. Buy it, love it forever.

Sounds like Brian Eno broke into Krafwerk's laboratory, stole some old rusty tubes and circuits, flew behind the moon for 3 months, compressed the years of 1978-1989 into fuzzy purple and silver acid & DMT capsules, fused it with his own DNA and came back to earth with a half-frozen 2" tape reel. cool stuff man

You know an album is good when you're listening to it and you forget that you're sober.

Hi Ben! I'm Beatrice. Nice to meet you.

Oh my god the tune of Xtal had been the aural screensaver in my brain for about 6 months and I just couldn't remember which artist, which album, which tune. I put a BoC playlist on as I was working and it must've run out and just continued to this. The joy and relief I'm experiencing right now is immense.

I read somewhere that the fourth track was actually co-composed with Bach when they studied supermassive cluster formations together with Jimi Hendrix in the Brookins Institute in the early '50s for CIA.

Xtal is still one of my favourite tracks - a masterpiece of beauty, an amazing melody mixed with bliss sonorities, god