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Track List
01) Xtal
02) Tha
03) Pulsewidth
04) Ageispolis
05) i
06) Green Calx
07) Heliosphan
08) We Are the Music Makers
09) Schottkey 7th Path
10) Ptolemy
11) Hedphelym
12) Delphium
13) Actium
01) Xtal
02) Tha
03) Pulsewidth
04) Ageispolis
05) i
06) Green Calx
07) Heliosphan
08) We Are the Music Makers
09) Schottkey 7th Path
10) Ptolemy
11) Hedphelym
12) Delphium
13) Actium
4:54
9:07
3:48
5:23
1:17
6:05
4:54
7:44
5:09
7:14
6:04
5:29
7:36
Data Complete
80%
Total Rating
80%Total Rating
(1 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
1992
Electronic
Hypnotic
Electronic
---
Medium
Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Selected Ambient Works 85–92 (solitamente abbreviato SAW85–92 o SAW 1) è un album ambient techno scritto e prodotto da Richard D. James sotto il suo pseudonimo di Aphex Twin. È il suo terzo lavoro sotto questo pseudonimo. È stato registrato nel 1992 per l'etichetta belga techno R&S Records, e rimasterizzato digitalmente nel 2008. Dopo aver fatto esperienza come DJ nel mondo dei club e, successivamente, nella scena underground dei primi anni novanta, James pubblicò SAW 85-92, contenente principalmente brani strumentali con occasionali canzoni orecchiabili. Le canzoni sono più veloci e molto più orientate su suoni di percussioni rispetto ai primi e precedenti lavori ambient di musicisti come Brian Eno. A questi modelli è più simile l'album seguente di James, Selected Ambient Works Volume II, che è a sua volta il proseguimento di questo disco. SAW 85-92 è una raccolta di tutte le sue sperimentazioni ambient, per la maggior parte composte da James dopo le sue esperienze come DJ, ma in alcuni casi, come recita il titolo, a partire dal 1985, all'età di 15 anni. Nel 2006 è stata pubblicata una versione in vinile 12", mentre nel 2008 è uscita, sempre per la R&S, una versione rimasterizzata del CD. Nonostante l'album sia principalmente composto da brani strumentali, in alcune tracce sono presenti campionamenti vocali. Xtal è composta da una voce sintetica femminile alternata ad una composizione strumentale, che si ripetono a loro volta alternatamente nella canzone. Tha contiene alcuni spezzoni di voci confuse di più persone, una delle quali è probabilmente James stesso, mentre in Actium sono campionati alcuni suoni come il cigolio delle scarpe su un pavimento liscio. We Are the Music Makers contiene il campionamento di un dialogo del film Willy Wonka e la fabbrica di cioccolato. Questo campionamento venne usato in precedenza nel brano Nephatiti degli 808 State. Il gruppo influenzò James, tanto che un loro brano, Flow Coma, venne da lui remixato ed incluso nella sua compilation 26 Mixes for Cash. Green Calx contiene dei campionamenti sonori da alcune scene del film RoboCop: quella in cui il robot ED-209 tenta di scendere le scale senza successo e quella in cui RoboCop consulta l'archivio della polizia. Il brano inoltre contiene un vago campionamento della canzone Fodderstompf dei Public Image Ltd., che fa anche da sfondo per i titoli d'apertura del film di John Carpenter, La Cosa. We Are the Music Makers è stato anche remixato da James con il suo pseudonimo Caustic Window, utilizzato nelle sue produzioni con l'etichetta Rephlex. La versione remixata, dal titolo We Are the Music Makers (Hardcore Mix) è più veloce dell'originale e contiene sonorità completamente rinnovate (gli unici punti in comune fra le due versioni sono la strumentazione con cui vengono eseguiti e il campionamento dal film Willy Wonka e la fabbrica di cioccolato). Si trova nel raro EP Joyrex J9ii e nella raccolta Compilation. Il sito Allmusic.com scrisse sull'album che «la qualità dei suoni era relativamente bassa», ma comunque quest'album è «una svolta per la musica ambient», e David M. Pecoraro, della Pitchfork Media, disse che si trattava «della musica più interessante che era possibile creare con una tastiera e un computer». Rolling Stone definì l'album «maestoso».
User Album Review
Stop me if this gets sappy. And it might. Because Selected Ambient Works 85-92—recently reissued by PIAS America—was the very first electronic music I ever bought, and certainly the first I ever heard over and over again. Long ago, before I was old enough to drive, I would sit in a small, cluttered bedroom in my parents’ suburban ranch house, absorbed for hours by the sounds contained on this disc. The creeping basslines, the constantly mutating drum patterns, the synth tones which moved with all the grace and fluidity of a professional dancer, the strange noises that I’d be unable to identify even if I tried. Back then, Aphex Twin was making music like nothing I’d ever heard before.
What’s become apparent since is that I probably wasn’t the only one affected. After last year's disappointing Drukqs, it’s easy to forget that, back in the Warp Records heyday, Richard D. James was to this new breed of ambient and electronic music what Babe Ruth was to baseball. Sure, there were upstarts; µ-Ziq, Squarepusher, and Autechre were all on the scene by the time this collection hit shelves. But James was still the poster boy, the presumed ringmaster, single-handedly defining a style of music in the minds of many. Now, as a new wave of mostly twentysomethings step to the forefront of IDM, redefining electronic music for the third time in a decade, it becomes more and more obvious just how far reaching James’ influence was.
There’s nothing new about this re-release, aside from improved availability and decreased cost. But then, improving on this package would be near impossible. Sure, the music on Selected Ambient Works 85-92 may sound a bit dated (as does, to be fair, most electronic music more than a few years old), but there’s no denying it was the defining statement of Warp’s early years, and the foundation for the careers of bands like Boards of Canada and Plaid.
The songs here are not ambient in the same way as those on this disc’s sequel. Technically, most fall into Brian Eno’s broad definition of the style—it can be appreciated in small segments just as much as in its entirety. The music develops slowly, unafraid to linger on a particularly effective sound for as long as necessary—the creeping keyboard loop of “Schottkey 7th Path,” for example, is continually modified throughout the course of the song, but never once eliminated from the mix—but James would never be content as a mere follower in anyone’s footsteps. His work here serves a model for what would come to be known as traditional IDM. A simpler version of the style we’ve grown accustomed to, certainly, but IDM nonetheless.
James’ early work is heavily indebted to early dance music, filled with beats so eminently danceable as to confuse those who only know him from the spastic drum patterns that came later. There’s little of that here, though. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is, rather, an album stretching back to the days before software allowed for heavy sampling or glitch technology. Drum machines serve as its backbone and synthesized bass and keyboard sounds provide the meat. Most of the songs follow a relatively basic formula as well. One element—say, a synth melody—is introduced and repeated, and as new elements are added with each go round, the song gradually builds to a dense, multi-layered swirl. This Ravel-esque approach flavors much of James’ older material, and yet, despite the simplicity of his equipment and approach, the songs here are both interesting and varied, ranging from the dancefloor-friendly beats of “Pulsewidth” to the industrial clanks and whirs of “Green Calx.”
Indeed, these early works do a fine job of showcasing James’ ability to transform even the most seemingly mundane patterns into something unique and interesting. “Hedphelym,” for instance, is built around a relentless headache-throb cliché of a house beat. But James surrounds the pulsation with an ethereal feedback that bleeds all over the track, leaving the percussion awash in a murky solution of synth tones, pairing dance music with ambience in ways the Orb never dreamed possible.
Slightly more structured (and equally enjoyable) is “We are the Music Makers,” a track which follows a drumbeat and a bassline past a pair of intertwined synth loops and a repeated Willy Wonka vocal sample as simple keyboard melodies pour down from overhead. But the aforementioned “Green Calx” is the closest Selected Ambient Works 85-92 comes to the spastic trickery of which James would become such a pioneer. It matches pitchshifted tones and drum machines with a burbling bassline, assorted machine-gun synth interjections, the slightly effected tones of various pistons, motors, and machines, and even the occasional cartoon spring noise. Moments like these serve to foreshadow both James’ later work, as well as the infinitely more complex twists and turns that IDM would make in the years that would follow.
They say next to no one heard the Velvet Underground’s first album when it was released, but everyone who did went on to start a band. Listening to Selected Ambient Works 85-92, one can’t help but imagine the seeds being planted in the imaginations of the lucky few who were there when it all began. Nestled in these simple, undeniably danceable tracks are the roots of contemporary IDM. And despite its somewhat primitive origins, the final product remains among the most interesting ever created with a keyboard and a computer.
SOURCE: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/223-selected-ambient-works-85-92/
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User Comments
Available in:
Selected Ambient Works 85–92 (solitamente abbreviato SAW85–92 o SAW 1) è un album ambient techno scritto e prodotto da Richard D. James sotto il suo pseudonimo di Aphex Twin. È il suo terzo lavoro sotto questo pseudonimo. È stato registrato nel 1992 per l'etichetta belga techno R&S Records, e rimasterizzato digitalmente nel 2008. Dopo aver fatto esperienza come DJ nel mondo dei club e, successivamente, nella scena underground dei primi anni novanta, James pubblicò SAW 85-92, contenente principalmente brani strumentali con occasionali canzoni orecchiabili. Le canzoni sono più veloci e molto più orientate su suoni di percussioni rispetto ai primi e precedenti lavori ambient di musicisti come Brian Eno. A questi modelli è più simile l'album seguente di James, Selected Ambient Works Volume II, che è a sua volta il proseguimento di questo disco. SAW 85-92 è una raccolta di tutte le sue sperimentazioni ambient, per la maggior parte composte da James dopo le sue esperienze come DJ, ma in alcuni casi, come recita il titolo, a partire dal 1985, all'età di 15 anni. Nel 2006 è stata pubblicata una versione in vinile 12", mentre nel 2008 è uscita, sempre per la R&S, una versione rimasterizzata del CD. Nonostante l'album sia principalmente composto da brani strumentali, in alcune tracce sono presenti campionamenti vocali. Xtal è composta da una voce sintetica femminile alternata ad una composizione strumentale, che si ripetono a loro volta alternatamente nella canzone. Tha contiene alcuni spezzoni di voci confuse di più persone, una delle quali è probabilmente James stesso, mentre in Actium sono campionati alcuni suoni come il cigolio delle scarpe su un pavimento liscio. We Are the Music Makers contiene il campionamento di un dialogo del film Willy Wonka e la fabbrica di cioccolato. Questo campionamento venne usato in precedenza nel brano Nephatiti degli 808 State. Il gruppo influenzò James, tanto che un loro brano, Flow Coma, venne da lui remixato ed incluso nella sua compilation 26 Mixes for Cash. Green Calx contiene dei campionamenti sonori da alcune scene del film RoboCop: quella in cui il robot ED-209 tenta di scendere le scale senza successo e quella in cui RoboCop consulta l'archivio della polizia. Il brano inoltre contiene un vago campionamento della canzone Fodderstompf dei Public Image Ltd., che fa anche da sfondo per i titoli d'apertura del film di John Carpenter, La Cosa. We Are the Music Makers è stato anche remixato da James con il suo pseudonimo Caustic Window, utilizzato nelle sue produzioni con l'etichetta Rephlex. La versione remixata, dal titolo We Are the Music Makers (Hardcore Mix) è più veloce dell'originale e contiene sonorità completamente rinnovate (gli unici punti in comune fra le due versioni sono la strumentazione con cui vengono eseguiti e il campionamento dal film Willy Wonka e la fabbrica di cioccolato). Si trova nel raro EP Joyrex J9ii e nella raccolta Compilation. Il sito Allmusic.com scrisse sull'album che «la qualità dei suoni era relativamente bassa», ma comunque quest'album è «una svolta per la musica ambient», e David M. Pecoraro, della Pitchfork Media, disse che si trattava «della musica più interessante che era possibile creare con una tastiera e un computer». Rolling Stone definì l'album «maestoso».
User Album Review
Stop me if this gets sappy. And it might. Because Selected Ambient Works 85-92—recently reissued by PIAS America—was the very first electronic music I ever bought, and certainly the first I ever heard over and over again. Long ago, before I was old enough to drive, I would sit in a small, cluttered bedroom in my parents’ suburban ranch house, absorbed for hours by the sounds contained on this disc. The creeping basslines, the constantly mutating drum patterns, the synth tones which moved with all the grace and fluidity of a professional dancer, the strange noises that I’d be unable to identify even if I tried. Back then, Aphex Twin was making music like nothing I’d ever heard before.
What’s become apparent since is that I probably wasn’t the only one affected. After last year's disappointing Drukqs, it’s easy to forget that, back in the Warp Records heyday, Richard D. James was to this new breed of ambient and electronic music what Babe Ruth was to baseball. Sure, there were upstarts; µ-Ziq, Squarepusher, and Autechre were all on the scene by the time this collection hit shelves. But James was still the poster boy, the presumed ringmaster, single-handedly defining a style of music in the minds of many. Now, as a new wave of mostly twentysomethings step to the forefront of IDM, redefining electronic music for the third time in a decade, it becomes more and more obvious just how far reaching James’ influence was.
There’s nothing new about this re-release, aside from improved availability and decreased cost. But then, improving on this package would be near impossible. Sure, the music on Selected Ambient Works 85-92 may sound a bit dated (as does, to be fair, most electronic music more than a few years old), but there’s no denying it was the defining statement of Warp’s early years, and the foundation for the careers of bands like Boards of Canada and Plaid.
The songs here are not ambient in the same way as those on this disc’s sequel. Technically, most fall into Brian Eno’s broad definition of the style—it can be appreciated in small segments just as much as in its entirety. The music develops slowly, unafraid to linger on a particularly effective sound for as long as necessary—the creeping keyboard loop of “Schottkey 7th Path,” for example, is continually modified throughout the course of the song, but never once eliminated from the mix—but James would never be content as a mere follower in anyone’s footsteps. His work here serves a model for what would come to be known as traditional IDM. A simpler version of the style we’ve grown accustomed to, certainly, but IDM nonetheless.
James’ early work is heavily indebted to early dance music, filled with beats so eminently danceable as to confuse those who only know him from the spastic drum patterns that came later. There’s little of that here, though. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is, rather, an album stretching back to the days before software allowed for heavy sampling or glitch technology. Drum machines serve as its backbone and synthesized bass and keyboard sounds provide the meat. Most of the songs follow a relatively basic formula as well. One element—say, a synth melody—is introduced and repeated, and as new elements are added with each go round, the song gradually builds to a dense, multi-layered swirl. This Ravel-esque approach flavors much of James’ older material, and yet, despite the simplicity of his equipment and approach, the songs here are both interesting and varied, ranging from the dancefloor-friendly beats of “Pulsewidth” to the industrial clanks and whirs of “Green Calx.”
Indeed, these early works do a fine job of showcasing James’ ability to transform even the most seemingly mundane patterns into something unique and interesting. “Hedphelym,” for instance, is built around a relentless headache-throb cliché of a house beat. But James surrounds the pulsation with an ethereal feedback that bleeds all over the track, leaving the percussion awash in a murky solution of synth tones, pairing dance music with ambience in ways the Orb never dreamed possible.
Slightly more structured (and equally enjoyable) is “We are the Music Makers,” a track which follows a drumbeat and a bassline past a pair of intertwined synth loops and a repeated Willy Wonka vocal sample as simple keyboard melodies pour down from overhead. But the aforementioned “Green Calx” is the closest Selected Ambient Works 85-92 comes to the spastic trickery of which James would become such a pioneer. It matches pitchshifted tones and drum machines with a burbling bassline, assorted machine-gun synth interjections, the slightly effected tones of various pistons, motors, and machines, and even the occasional cartoon spring noise. Moments like these serve to foreshadow both James’ later work, as well as the infinitely more complex twists and turns that IDM would make in the years that would follow.
They say next to no one heard the Velvet Underground’s first album when it was released, but everyone who did went on to start a band. Listening to Selected Ambient Works 85-92, one can’t help but imagine the seeds being planted in the imaginations of the lucky few who were there when it all began. Nestled in these simple, undeniably danceable tracks are the roots of contemporary IDM. And despite its somewhat primitive origins, the final product remains among the most interesting ever created with a keyboard and a computer.
SOURCE: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/223-selected-ambient-works-85-92/
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