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'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))