Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works poll

never could get into saw 85-92, but i did try. i love sawII, but rarely listen to it now because a lot of it creeps me out.

85-92

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/94948_45c4f8f80b.jpg

2

85–92.

Volume II was too icey for me.

SAW2 is a classic piece of canonical garbage. everybody owns a copy but nobody listens to it.

1

everybody owns a copy but nobody listens to it.

I do. Granted, only when I'm up at 4 a.m. and strung out and on the knife edge of functionality, but still.

Totally different moods, but 85-92 wins. It's still better.

SAW2 is a classic piece of canonical garbage. everybody owns a copy but nobody listens to it.

― TOMBOT,

Nicely put. I did have a few months of intense listening and it was very special, but 85-92 was a little more outgoing, and somehow connected meaningfully with the rave experience, if I may be so silly as to say it.

85-92 will still shake the pictures off your walls. SAW2, not so much.

Why was the first collection even branded as 'ambient'? That title put me off buying it for far too long.

ARRGH. What an unfair poll! Apples and oranges, yo.

SAWII

Why was the first collection even branded as 'ambient'?

This is a fine question, as I have never thought to ask it. There are only two tracks that could be called ambient by any stretch: "Tha" (my favorite track, but not especially because it's ambient), and "I" (which hardly counts because it's a minute long). And even those are hardly music for airports, or even Harold Budd. So this is ambient compared to... what? C+C Music Factory?

And that's also why it's an unfair poll, because one is ambient music and one is not.

oh good thinking.

reductive, I know, but... amirite?

No

I'm going to listen to SAW2 again.

No nevermind, that will just make me feel sleepy and also insane. Can't take it right now.

SAWII is the best album of the nineties

No

But wow... disc 1, track 3.

yeah pulsewidth is pretty good

No, I really mean SAWII is the best album of the nineties

you must have had a shitty ass nineties

yeah pulsewidth is pretty good

no disc 1 track 3 of saw 2. 85-92 doesn't have two discs, and also the tracks have names. Apart from that, agreed.

85-92 was ambient, as the term was understood by raver kids back then (as opposed to say Eno fans). Ambient techno was music which slotted in nicely with the post rave comedown... music like The Orb, Woob, Pete Namlook, etc etc. It was still ravey riffed, but relaxed, with plenty of reverb. Sounds crass now, I know.

are you sitting comfortably?

http://cedarlounge.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/artificial.jpg

Is it just me or can anybody else hear an Only Fools And Horses sample in Tha?

Might be, but totally unplanned, just whatever was on the television in the room when he turned on some tape recorder somewhere. Could be anything. Give me a joint all to myself, and I'll hear all kinds of shit in that track.

moley otm...back then Ambient Techno meand anything that was even vaguely pretty! 808 State's Pacific was "Ambient". Ultramarine was "Ambient". Excusions in "Ambience" compilations featuring songs like Papa New Guinea were "Ambient". Tranquility Bass was "Ambient".

SAW2

1.

85-92

very tough, but i love how scratchy, old and weird 85-92 sounds

Selected Ambient Works Volume II

85-92. Only a few tracks on II that I feel the need to ever hear again.

I knew this would be polarizing! I'm glad I'm not alone.

I was reading the XTAL thread on noise bored and was thinking to myself "I can't be the only one who thinks 1 is just OK compared to 2"

Maybe it comes down to what type of drugs you did/didn't do when you were in college.

i love one, but two is fucking brilliant

tom, i listen to 2 every night. so, yeah.

but i also listen to 95-92 every night. my sleep playlist is massive.

SAWII. Went to college 1999-2003 and did not take e, if you're looking for that second variable, Whiney.

SAWII is still one of my go-to albums when I am doing astronomy at 3am.

SAW2 is a classic piece of canonical garbage. everybody owns a copy but nobody listens to it.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, October 29, 2008 4:51 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude..no

Never understood all the enthusiasm for II, like it (it took awhile to, at that), but 85-92 always blows me away.

I'm always puzzled by the prevalence of the idea that "no one REALLY listens to _____, they just pretend to" or some BS. It's so childish. You find it that impossible that someone can enjoy something you don't?

2, but its a pretty close call and "tha" is probably my favorite track on either

He didn't say anything about pretending to listen to it. I read it as lots of people bought it back then due to its reputation, but not all that many of those buyers enjoy it enough to want to listen to it nowadays.

well the implication is that nobody genuinely listens to and enjoys SAW II, which is patent nonsense

I still listen to it regularly, I didn't even realize it was a megahyped album?

http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~huph/myopia.jpg

(directed @ tombot, not curtis)

Maybe it comes down to what type of drugs you did/didn't do when you were in college.

I came really close to making an argument like this in the form of a *makes doobie-passing motion with hand* after curtis pronounced 2 the best album of its decade but decided I was already deep enough in character

and latebloomer I was in fact thinking "I know for a FACT in my INTUITION MIND that NOBODY ELSE ON EARTH truly believes that this is anything but rich taking the piss" when I wrote that

check it out mum I got these two loops to play on top of each other, one gooes OOOOOOO and the other goes SCRK SCRK OOOOOO

u so crazy

i pity that reactionary fule

"mum"

I'm always trying to explain why my take on records like this isn't reductive but maybe it really is. I can listen to a track that has a good beat and a minimalist structure but is put together well and enjoy it for what it is, but some beatless/rubato thing with a minimalist structure 1. bores the shit out of me after a few seconds 2. it's seriously kind of unfathomable to me why it wouldn't do the same to most people. Hey look Philip Glass bought a Korg and a fuzz box everyone, let's listen to two hours of noodles.

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/1101940718_400.jpg

I did not smoke in 10th grade when I listened to SAW2 every single night

every night? OK that's weird

this was for like 1-2 months

to be fair i've never done that with any album

http://www.felio.org/images/mugatu.jpg

relax

Hey look Philip Glass bought a Korg and a fuzz box everyone, let's listen to two hours of noodles.

^^^ I'd love to listen to anything like this btw

there's a lot of emotion in SAWII, it creates a world of its own. the tracks vary a lot, each has its own mood and flavor. i can't think of anything else i've listened to that comes close to the feelings i get from it.

i would also be interested in hearing philip glass with a korg and a fuzzbox

TOMBOT also hates Gas/Wolfgang Voigt so he's basically 'Alex In NYC reviews techno'. not sure what his Killing Joke is.

o i see

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre500/e564/e56464c97ht.jpg

ysi?

love the basic reshape 12"

my attention spans just gets shorter and shorter as time goes by, but i'm listening to sawii again and it still sounds great.

def less creepy than i remembered

SAWII is the only Aphex Twin I can listen to anymore!

2 is what i listen to when i either don't know what else to listen to or if i'm sick of everything else

default music

1 is the go-to.

2 bores me (and I've lost count of the number of times I've listened to And Their Refinement of the Decline in full).

go poll go!

SAW II is good sleep/meditation music. 85-92 is a better record, though.

</geir>

yeah where's geir

SAW II is good sleep/meditation music. 85-92 is a better record, though
Davina McCall's knickers (Autumn Almanac)

Yeah except for that horrible electrical track that sounds like an epileptic fit on valium - it's like having a Bridget Riley painting in your aural cortex.

SAW II is great, don't get me wrong. It has some wunnerful trax, which I can't name. I like the one that has a female voice going 'buh-buh-buh' at the start of one of the sides. Also, the one at the end of one of the sides with a windchime in it has a dazed kind of magic. It's shamanic, is what it is, son. But it's also WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to stoned and there's no going back. You know the difference in appearance that Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre goes through on the documentary Dig? Well, SAW I is young Anton with sharp haircut and fanatical enthusiasm, while SAW II is old Anton with beard and red eyes.

First sentence in my post refers to SAW II, not SAW I.

Love both, but "Stone in Focus" and "Rhubarb" win it for II.

2 bores me (and I've lost count of the number of times I've listened to And Their Refinement of the Decline in full).

waht

Just sayin I dig "boring" droney ambient and yet I find SAW II uninteresting.

this is to imply that SAW II is QUITE uninteresting

85-92 by such a long way

you guys are gonna make me go back and listen to aphex twin again cio

what's next, "best track on wormhole" poll?

SAW II is one of the greatest albums ever made. SAW 85-92 is good in a more casual way for me. "Tha" is gorgeous though.

Well, I have great respect for SAWII, but the last time I tried to play it (oh I dunno..could be ten years ago) I felt I had worn it out and a lot of the mystique had been lost through repeated plays. Not sure what I'd think of it now, though. I'm tempted to pull it out when I get home. SAWI is not something I ever pull out and play either, but I know for a fact that if I did that now, I would still enjoy it a lot.

I was in my teens when I got SAWII and I'd never heard a record like it before. my first aphex, even. it didn't take at first but I distinctly remember fighting a bout of insomnia one night and throwing it on around 4am or something and just listening closely for the first time. and then getting really FREAKED OUT.

I like 85-92 too but II has had a bigger impact on me. I've listened to it way more too.

Yeah, I remember that, too, being really FREAKED OUT by it at times. I'd kinda forgot that side of it.

I distinctly remember fighting a bout of insomnia one night and throwing it on around 4am or something and just listening closely for the first time. and then getting really FREAKED OUT.

Dear God, the cliche! ;-)

hahaha.

Oh god, this has to be 85-92. Its a fucking magnificent album. I got it 7 yrs ago when i was 14, and it stills gives me toasty chills. Just so many amazing sounds all over it. I especially when that bass emerges in Tha, and you start to get those hissy glitches and the people talking. Every melody is killer, and they're treated in such a great tape-esqe kind of glow.
I initially wanted to find all that crazy breaks electronic music as young 'un, but discovering stuff like 85-92 and Artificial Intelligence had so much more of an affect on me.
I guess it figures that i dig stuff like Mordant Music so much now.

uh, make that 'effect'. retard.

I don't think I made this poll end in 2009 on purpose. But I might have.

I don't own 85-92, only listened to it a couple times. But I love 2 and I don't think there's any risk of me ever changing my preference. Like Hoos, I love Stars of the Lid, but I think SAW 2 is doing something totally different -- just listen to "The Evil That Never Arrived" side-by-side with "Rhubarb". The former, despite working within a droney minimalist framework, seems much more conventional in structure, picking up momentum and moving forward in the same way that a pop song does. But the stuff on SAW 2 sounds very... architectural, I guess, is the best way I can put it. Just a bunch of sonic spaces for you to wander around inside of, looking at the same elements from different perspectives. I guess I can understand why people hear that as static or boring, but I've always found it extremely compelling.

nb I smoke a lot of weed

<3

85-92 for me, for nostalgic reasons, as well as it being an overall mood I like. SAWII is great too, but there's bits of it I find unsettling and creepy.

Volume One!!!!

Those voices in "Tha" that remind me of high school basketball courts, indoor & deserted. Wow.

Sorry Crutis. I promise to give SAW II a proper and full re-listen very soon. Sorry. It's been too long.

Only 8 months to think it over, better get cracking.

i must have voted in this poll two or three times...

haha. i thought i recognised this poll. SAW I for me.

gotta go with SAWII

85–92 because it has Tha on it and II doesn't.

SAWII wins because it's so dreamy. Aphex Twin himself said that the songs were meant to reproduce the sounds in the dreams he was having. Probably bullshit, but goddamn that is EXACTLY what they sound like.

Tried to get into 8592. Liked it, didn't love it.

I was one of those kids who listened to SAW2 while I slept every night for a year

how about every night for 10+ years

85-92 though just barely really

I've listened to SAW2 so many times over the last 12 years while falling asleep that it's insane. I have bought it at least 3 separate times. I've played it while driving in the snow, my wife loves it (it was the dinner music at my wedding!), in my opinion it's one of the greatest albums ever made. There's really no compeition, I haven't listened to the first one in years.

i bought myself SAWII after bush won re-election to cheer myself up. don't think it worked, really. (which isn't to say i disliked it but it's not something i'd put on as feelgood music). i could make a case for either - i'm with the disc 1 track 3 prettiest thing ever heads all the way - but lately i've been feeling 85-92 more. i like bimble's thing upthread about the empty gymnasium ambiance of "tha" and "ptolemy" really is kind of a jam

Oh my Lord why does this poll not close until November 2009?

the original brown vinyl pressing of SAWII was so terrible, it made the album barely listenable. I ended up getting it on CD second hand.

85-92 is my fave

I finally decided. SAW 2 it is.

What are some other albums that sound like SAW 2? Ambient dream stuff with catchy tunes. Like "Becalmed" by Brian Eno. I tried 76:54 or whatever it's called by Global Communications and it bored the living piss out of me.

When I think of music like this, I think of Stars Of The Lid. Also, the second disc of David Sylvian's "Gone To Earth" which is just instrumentals.

i'll probably vote for 85-92 even though i probably listened to SAWII more times (used to be a go-to getting-high album for my and a few friends).

never could get into saw 85-92, but i did try. i love sawII, but rarely listen to it now because a lot of it creeps me out.

― Lingbert

^also this

Was gonna go 8592 but I've got w___ and no job and shit to do, so I guess we'll do some field testing

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

II

What an unfair poll! Apples and oranges, yo.

― The Ungrateful Dead (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You)

^^^^^

voted II, just cause i listen to it more often. i have great memories attached to both; 85-92 is more of a nighttime/hanging out album, II is a daytime/alone album.

wow i can't believe ive been lurking for over a year

II is not a daytime album

I'm more interested to see how many votes this poll gets for a full year span than in the actual results.

xpost it most definitely is for me. most ambient music is daytime music for me.

85-92

As above I voted 85-92 as its what I heard and loved first of afx, plus XTAL is <3

I like doing tarot cards while I listen to it. Meditative, for me.

But SAWII is also good.

argh, i mistakenly voted for saw II

Voted 85-92. Both great, but right now the more innocent charm of the earlier disc is more appealing.

SAW 85-92:SAW 2 :: Blueprint:Blueprint 2

The rong album is gonna win this.

Am I the only one here who sees "SAW" and still thinks of Stock Aitken and Waterman?

http://www.adrants.com/images/sawII.jpg

Which one's Kylie?

SAW2 is a classic piece of canonical garbage. everybody owns a copy but nobody listens to it.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, October 29, 2008 12:51 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I miss this guy.

^^^^

85-92 by a country fucking mile

i still haven't given II a fair chance at winning me over. i need to correct that because 85-92 is one of a few records that makes me glad that i was alive on this earth to witness it.

II is not a daytime album

Quite right.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Should have given this another year to marinate imo

wow

omgawd

most divisive poll on ILX yet?

i'm amazed.

& pleased

w00t

It let me vote twice. I wonder if anyone else got the same and just voted both ways? ;P

what was the other poll with the huge turnout that was this close? i think it was on ile?

I listen to both of these albums on the regular

I voted twice. Anyway, great turnout / great result.

I do too, C.

what was the other poll with the huge turnout that was this close? i think it was on ile?

― caek

Food Wars: Mexican Food v. Italian Food ?

now i know what it was like when the Christian church broke up.

hier stehe ich

II

85-92 just sounded great while i was doing late night, drunken washing up.

i still can't believe how good "ptolemy" is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uho04jJzxjs

nice!

(^ Aphex Twin: Rhubarb (8-String Guitar))