Selected Ambient Works
Aiko Bartels
Richard D. James began experimenting with musical instruments, such as his family's piano, at an early age.[1] He subsequently created music using a ZX Spectrum and a sampler,[2] and also began reassembling and modifying his own synthesisers.[1] James said he composed ambient music the following year. In an interview with Q magazine in 2014 James stated that the ambient track "i" emerged from those early recordings. As a teenager James gained a cult following as a DJ at the Shire Horse Inn in St Ives, with Tom Middleton at the Bowgie Inn in Crantock and on the beaches around Cornwall.[3] He studied at Cornwall College from 1988 to 1990 for a National Diploma in engineering. About his studies, he said that "music and electronics went hand in hand".[3]
James's first release, under the alias Aphex Twin, was the 1991 12-inch EP Analogue Bubblebath on Mighty Force Records. That same year he and Grant Wilson-Claridge founded Rephlex Records.[4] James wrote "Digeridoo" to clear up his audience after a rave.[3] Although he moved to London to take an electronics course at Kingston Polytechnic, he admitted to David Toop that his electronics studies were being abandoned as he pursued a career in the techno genre.[2][5] In 1992 James released another EP, Xylem Tube EP, under the Aphex Twin name, as well as several singles and EPs under the name Caustic Window.[6]
According to James, Selected Ambient Works was recorded between 1985 and 1992 (beginning when James was fourteen)[7] using homemade equipment constructed from standard synthesisers,[8] as well as drum machines.[9] The website AllMusic has described the recording's sound quality as poor due to it being recorded onto a cassette damaged by a cat.[10] The album is very different from the beatless ambient music produced by figures such as Brian Eno.[11] The Independent newspaper suggested it pays homage to the "refracted minimalism" of the composers Philip Glass and Karlheinz Stockhausen.[12] James has said that the songs on the record "were just tracks that my mates selected; ones that they like to chill out to."[13]
David M. Pecoraro of Pitchfork stated that "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.'"[9] In The Guardian, Geeta Dayal wrote that "Ageispolis" progresses in a "grand, cinematic sweep".[20] Simon Reynolds described its melody as "Satie-esque", upon an "incongruously strident, unrelenting beat".[21] "Tha" features a "murk[y]" beat and "underwater" sound according to Dayal.[20] Writing for Slant Magazine, Sal Cinquemani noted the use of "diffusive synth chords" throughout the album and called attention to James's "pop sensibility" on tracks such as "Pulsewidth" and "Ptolemy".[14]
Some tracks use samples: "Green Calx" uses a sample from the 1987 film RoboCop, "Xtal" samples "Evil At Play" by Steve Jeffries, Mary Carewe and Donald Greig, and "We Are the Music Makers" samples dialogue from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. These were probably sampled using James's Casio FZ-10M, which allows the user to record and load sounds via floppy disk.[22]
The album's sleeve prominently displays the Aphex Twin symbol, designed by Paul Nicholson who was also a stage dancer at several of James's live gigs around this period. Nicholson stated that the duo's intention for the logo was to be an "amorphic and soft" form with "no sharp lines".[23]
According to James, it was a collaborative effort: "He designed it all but I was guiding, like "nah more like this, yeah more like that" etc. [It was] my idea to put the circle around it. There were quite a few iterations before I was happy. I was also astute enough to buy the rights off him, with my last pounds, I was still a student, as I knew it would be very important to me and I also didn't want any arguments down the road."[24]
Tonight we listen deep to the best ambient compositions by Aphex Twin. His early ambient works helped to solidify "ambient" as a genre and remain relevant after 30 years. Aphex Twin, aka Richard D. James, has claimed that his ambient work was inspired by lucid dreaming and likened the music to "standing in a power station on acid."
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