Month: February 2015

The musician alternately known as Aphex Twin and user48736353001 and Richard D. James has begun collating his own voluminous SoundCloud uploads. He’s doing it by era. The first of these is labeled “saw1 era,” relating to the period represented by his Selected Ambient Works 85-92 album. There’s no overlap between the “saw1 era” set and the one I’ve compiled of music reminiscent of Selected Ambient Works Volume II, a set I’ve described as Selected Ambient Works Volume III (beta). The main marker is how much the beat was subdued — subsumed — in the transition between 85-92 and Volume II. Of course, the beat later returned with a vengeance, first with a harsh screech on the “Ventolin” single, and then with the rubbery, ecstatic rhythms that marked much of Aphex Twin’s later, mid/late-1990s music.

Because these tracks are likely to disappear at some point, here is the setlist for posterity’s sake:

“Sams Car”
“Afx origTheme”
“Original Chaos Riff”
“Suzanne”
“Nova Robotiks”
“21 Forgotten T”

Set originally posted at soundcloud.com/user48736353001. Thanks to Bruce Levenstein, aka Compact Robot, for pointing out the playlist to me.

Update: Later the same day, the set has expanded to about twice its original length, and has been renamed. It’s now “saw 1.5” — that is, Selected Ambient Works Volume 1.5, a midpoint between 85-92 and Volume II — and the track list is now:

“Sams Car”
“Afx origTheme”
“Red Alert”
“Suzanne”
“Dance and Play”
“Nova Robotiks”
“21 Forgotten T”
“Lannerlog”
“Bimbongo”
“Symbonsad”
“Original Chaos Riff”

Mike Paradinas’ presence on the comments of the rouge Aphex Twin uploads to SoundCloud was one of the key early confirmation points. Also known as µ-ZIQ, the name under which he among other things occasionally collaborated with Aphex Twin, Paradinas has begun filling up his SoundCloud account with a retro-archive of his often game-like tracks, such as the blippy joy that is “TFM,” a workout for the Technoid DR-550 drum machine. He joins Aphex Twin in uploading his musical memories to SoundCloud, a kind of recording-industry Singularity moment.

If we could vote for what early-1990s birth-of-IDM British-label stalwart would next fill up SoundCloud, I’d vote for Amon Tobin, Funki Porcini, Wagon Christ, Photek, or DJ Krush.

Track originally posted at soundcloud.com.