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| Artist | Aphex Twin |
| Title | Selected Ambient Works Volume II |
| Type | Album |
| Released | 07.03.1994 |
| Genre | Ambient, Drone, Hauntology, Electronic |
| Style | Dark Ambient, IDM |
| My rating | (9/10) |
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were untitled/titled using pictures on the physcial release's sleeve notes. However, there exist fan titles of these songs that are based on said pictures. For the convenience reasons, the following tracklist uses the fan titles.
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Credits:
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In my opinion, this album is one of the greatest achievements of music and art overall. Even though it is an ambient record and quite literally nothing happens throughout it's duration of 2,5 hours (!!!), it's simply fascinating and does not fail to impress me every time I listen to it...
The tracks here fall into one of 3 cathegories: beautiful relaxational ambient music, creepy hissy drones and weird noises that sound like alien music. My favourites from this record tend to belong to the first cathegory, but that's only because they have the most replay value out of all "songs" here. They are part of a lot of my playlists and I often use them as music thats helps me to fall asleep. And to be honest, I think this is the best way to enjoy this bloated behemoth of an album. I don't think I've ever listened through the whole thing in one sitting... It's very hard for me. My attention span is not the problem here. I've literally been on a Swans concert, GYBE concert and listened through a lot of GYBE bootlegs that are often simmilar length to this album... The main problem here is the sheer monotony and weirdness/creepyness of the entirety, never mind that over half of these track are literally madness-inducing! Desolate soundspaces of eg. "Radiator" or "Mould" sound so dissonant and extraterrestrial... In my opinion it's simply better to listem to take this album slow and focus on the songs more than on the wholeness. It's compilation of selected track after all!
The album opens with very welcoming and warm sounds of "Cliffs". For me this song has a special feel to it, that I can only describe as "modern"(?). For some reason it sounds very optimistically futuristic, almost bringing the vibe of Frutiger Aero (like Aphex often does in other songs, like "Flim" for example).
The next couple of tracks I've always hear in the background of some commentary YouTube videos. The lost-media youtubers seem to love songs like "Hankie", "Radiator", etc. Their unsettling atmosphere seems to fit this genre of videos, so they often put it as the "soundtrack"... I've even heard "Curtains" used once in some cursed shitpost!
Anyway, the song "Radiator" contrasts with it's neighbours pretty clearly, with it's dissonant synth pattern that tears through the silence in a rhytmic, mechanical way. It's pretty interesting that the song that follows is the mighty "Rhubarb", which honestly might be my favourite song ever, period. The one thing that I adore about it, it's that it fits almost every emotion you can imagine. I've listened to this song while depressed, while content, etc. Somehow it feels right to associate this very simple (almost primitively so) ambient piece with anything you feel, and it always will work, at least in my case. It's a blueprint for emotions. The 5-chord pattern in 5/4 just loops indefinitely, then some harmonies are added for some time and then the piece ends - that's all. And somehow I'm always moved by this...
The next song, "Hankie" goes back to the alien music stuff. This is a very unpleasant chord progression... "Grass" is very simmilar, but the droning chords are buried beneath a layer of white noise and are more normal-sounding. Richard then doubles down on uncannyness on the track called "Mould", which features this certain repeating sound that disturbingly resembles someone whispering/saying unintelligible word over and over and over until the song just stops... I've read that some of the songs stem from the ideas that came to Richard in a dream, and hearing track like this makes me believe that it was true. This is really scary stuff.
"Curtains" has this very compeling loop of synth that kinda sounds like a xylophone/glockenspiel(?). I like it a lot! Very compelling and interesting track that explores more mysterious and less ominous ambience. And it all continues on more IDM-ish although still minimallistic "Blur", that sounds takes away the bell-like hits and replaces it with sways of mysterious piano chords. "Weathered Stone" and "Domino" too are thematically simmilar, but they sound less like a human-made soundtrack songs, and more like a space boogy bop rave bangers. "Tree" on the other hand, is a comeback to the drone sound that was previously explored in "Grass".
...And I could talk like this about literally every track here! It's ironic because the album is often disregarded as it's allegedly boring and exhausting listen. Let's just talk about some other tracks and I'll wrap it up. First of all, "Shiny Metal Rods" really sounds like it's titled like that - it's a piece composed of shimmering, cold and metallic sounds. "Z Twig" is an interesting curiosity! It's a cute little treat for the brave listener that survived up into the 17th track. It's one of my favourites here. And so is "Blue Calx" - another part of the "Calx" series of songs, that spans across this part of RDJ's discography. It's another pleasantly ambient track that one can chill out too.
Songs 19-21 are one of the best track runs that I know about! "Hexagon" goes so hard... It has the most IDM influenced sound out of all the songs from this album. It almost sounds like it should've been of SAW1. Also, interestingly enough both the fan title and the sound of "Hexagon" bear strong resemblance to Boards of Canada, which I adore. "Lichen" is like a sequel to "Rhubarb" - very pastoral, caliming composition that is extremely simple in nature - consisting only of a ethereal chord loop. This song sounds like sunbeams peeking from behind the clouds on a summer day... Lovely track. But oh my god there's also the ever elusive "Stone in Focus" - a fan favourite warm drone track, that cannot be described really. This too is a comically simple neandertalic chord loop that drags indefinitely, but it works!!! It's an instant classic, one of the best ambient/drone tracks that you'll ever get to hear.
There are a lot of track here... I don't want to talk about every single one because I'm not that crazy yet, so I'm gonna finish here. Please for the love of God, listen to this record! It is jarring. boring and excessive, but please take your time! It's worth it. There's a certain mystic vibe to the entirety of it. The way every track is titled with a picture (it really is! At least in the liner notes of physical release.) adds to the overall synesthetic atmosphere that fills this album. Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree once said that this music sounds kinda like it was made 5 million years ago and I couldn't agree more! If you like sonic experiments, scary soundscapes or ambient music for sleep, I couldn't recommend this stuff for you more!