Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Welcome everyone to my music blog. Here, I shall be talking about different albums I have listened to.

This week's post is about Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin. Now, I had a vague idea of A.T.'s existence for about a year now, but the only songs I knew from him were Windowlicker, Come to Daddy and Alberto Balsalm. However, my interest in him grew once more when I was reading the 8th part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Jojolion, in which there is a pair of enemies called the A.Phex Brothers with their stands, Schottkey Nr.1 and Nr.2, respectively. So I looked up the song Schottkey Nr.1 and found the song, only without Nr.1, but instead with 7th Path, and so I gave it a listen. I really enjoyed and said to myself: "This song really fits the A.Phex Brothers." After that, I started to listen to more of Aphex Twin's music and decided to listen to the album Schottkey was part of, Selected Ambient Works 85-92.

When I first read the title, I said to myself: "Hmm, ambient you say? Why I don't I play some Minecraft while listening to this?" And so that's what I did. I created a brand new survival world, and gave it a go.

Right of the bat, Xtal, the first song of the album was very fitting for a new survival world. It spawned me in a forest and while the soft, mildly fuzzy tune played, I punched away at some trees.

Moving on to the next song, Tha, I already made myself some stone tools and was looking for some sheep, when in front of me, a deep cave appeared. While I was precariously digging my way along the stone walls, the songs eerie, yet upbeat melody played and added an intense atmosphere to my coal collecting.

Just as I emerged from the dark caverns of Minecraft with almost a stack of coal to my name, I saw in the distance, a shipwreck on the shore. This was my lucky day! As I opened the chest of the wreckage and picked up the map, I started waddling about trying to find the X on the map, and after almost 5 minutes of searching, I found the buried treasure, housing 3 diamonds, some gold and iron, a leather chestplate and some cooked fish.

After a few songs, there was a sudden change in tone from calm, ambiental music to upbeat alien-like music. Green Calx added some energy to my search for materials for my humble abode. I found a taiga biome and said that this will be my place to stay. I chopped down some spruce trees and got to building.

After a few minutes, I got in-game hungry and got to planting, just as Green Calx was ending and Heliosphan started. This time, there was a calmer beat and fitted well with my farming. I planted some wheat seeds and sugar cane I found along the way.

After I ran out of cobblestone for my roof, I went off to build a mine, and just like that Schottkey 7th Path started playing. This added a lot of atmosphere to my tunnel digging in the dark and I found it very fitting for the task I doing at the moment. Also, Schottkey is my favourite song in the album.

After I gathered enough cobblestone for my roof and Schottkey was coming to a close, Ptolemy accompanied me in my roof building session. Nothing else to say about the song, it was all just a good vibe.

After that, I needed some wool for my build and since I lived in a taiga, there weren't any sheep nearby, and as I got in my boat, Delphium started playing. I rowed my way to a nearby meadow where I sheared a few wild sheep so that I could finish my house. As I got home, and filled the empty spaces with wool I realized I needed only 2 more wool blocks. That meant I had to go all the way back to that meadow, get some more wool, and then come back to finish the build.

And I was coming home, the last song of the album started playing. Actium was a bit different in it's mood, as it didn't quite feel like an ending song, but more like the end of the first chapter of a story.

Overall, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, was an interesting album, to say the least, but was a fun experience in general. Aphex Twin did a great job on this album and I personally think he was quite ahead of his time. Some of these songs sound like they came from the late 2000s, but this album came out in 1992! Sheesh! Anyway, next week's post will be another album from him. That being "...I Care Because You Do", home to my favourite Aphex Twin song, "Alberto Balsalm".

See you then!

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92

My house lmao

Favourite tracks: Xtal, Tha, Pulsewidth, Ageispolis, I, Heliosphan, Schottkey 7th Path, Delphium, Actium;

Score: 8/10