Track Listing

1. Xtal
2. Tha
3. Pulsewidth
4. Ageispolis
5. I
6. Green Calx
7. Heliosphan
8. We Are the Music Makers
9. Schottkey 7th Path
10. Ptolemy
11. Hedphelym
12. Delphium
13. Actium

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116056 in Music
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Personal favorite
I bought this record at least a year after Selected Ambient works II, in that mood of methodically harvesting every CD an artist has released, and I think I this record is the best of them. It’s easier on the ears than Richard D James, shorter that SAW II, mellower and warmer, and containing sounds which vary from the timeless to the pleasantly retro - a list of cozy, crackly places interspersed with desolate, rainy ones, like stepping out of a warm house into a darkened carpark...
You get the pleasant feeling of having discovered something a bit special which you wern’t perhaps meant to find, as though the tapes had lain collecting dust in a box in the guy's attic - it's quite “bedroom,” but interestingly so - trippy and crackly as though taken from vinyl and recorded using analogue kit... Buy without hesitation.

Genreless & timeless
I feel like I have an affinity with this album. I remember back in younger days sitting in my bedroom, twisting up samples, crafting my own little electronic ditties on my wee little A500. I stuck some of them down to tape, entered some furious breakbeats as my GCSE Music compositions and was quite chufty at getting my pass mark. When I stick this on, it makes me think of those days. Selected Ambient Works is a collection of Aphex's original electronic tweakings from 85-92, composed on bits of electronics he had wired together himself and generally had fun with! Add to this the fact that the entire CD has been mastered from tape in the first place and you've got a collection of works that sounds really special to listen to, almost as if you've stumbled across some rarities in a dusty attic somewhere!

I've read that the original tape suffered a bit of a mangling job at the paws of a cat, and you can tell from the slightly wavering treble of Schottkey 7th Path and the ever present hiss that this is far from the height of ultra slick digital mastering. All of this adds to the charm of this collection, the almost otherworldly simple crystalline melodies and simple electronic beats and breaks. The music doesn't fit to any real existing musical template or structure aside from being music that is electronic. Little house beats here, breakbeats there but nothing else sounds like it. The pieces are oh so simple but oh so effective, instantly accessible and instantly gratifying. I love sticking Xtal and Pulsewidth on to give me a bit of bounce in the day, and the aforementioned Schottkey 7th Path has gorgeous orchestral and almost churchlike synths partnered with pitterpattering breaks.

This is about as individual a CD as you can get nowadays, people will look back at this as a classic in the creation of the electronic music movement. I've seen if find fans with many people, even a hardcore ABBA fan I know loves this CD! Its not got the sophisticated digital wizardry of Aphex's later works or indeed of the artists that the Warp label spawns nowadays, but for that reason it is a special collection of works. Nothing will ever sound as innovative as this did and nothing will ever match the simplicity of this collections genius.

If you're new to Aphex and are searching out his other works, grab this ... its special.

my first and best
This was the first dance CD i ever listened to and it still sounds as fresh as today. This is before afx went all 'f***ing scary' as one of my friends said to me when lsitening to drukqs. The tunes on here are perfect for a chill out after a rave or just to read to, not dance music, but if you've got some good bass equipment this would sound amazng and would make it dancable. The more you listen the more the depth of each track reveals itself. true master craftsmanship!