Selected Ambient Kremlinology

Now at 190 total, the feed of tracks being uploaded by Aphex Twin (aka user48736353001) from his personal archive has expanded in recent days, after a two-month break, to include a wide range of sounds, among them industrial grinding and freeform experimentation. This piece, “6 Gear Smudge,” is the first in awhile to come close to the level of ambient simplicity that is represented by the (currently) 10-track Selected Ambient Works Volume 3 playlist I made from the uploads on the user48736353001 account. With its prominent synth melody, it’s arguably too poppy to make that cut, but it’s still a great nugget.

My favorite in this recent batch, by far, is “3 Slothscrape,” which one commenter (user1789670, the account of which has no tracks associated with it) perceptively likens to the work of Pierre Bastien. It indeed has the warped, melting pacing that Bastien shares with Kid Koala and Gavin Bryars. The “6 Gear Smudge” track is dated as “94 ish” but there is no date associated with “”3 Slothscrape.”

Aphex Twin, aka Richard D. James, isn’t just posting tracks from his relative seclusion. He’s also joining in the comments section. He explains to one commenter in the “6 Gear Smudge” thread that he created the hip-hop (“btw its all me inc. the scratchin”) heard in the introduction to the Chris Cunningham”“directed “Windowlicker” video, and expresses disappointment about a longstanding beef with a fellow musician. At one point his generic account name appears not as “user 48736353001” but as the French “utilisateur 48736353001,” which suggests he was logged in from a different computer or location.

Tracks originally posted at soundcloud.com/user48736353001.