I’ve already ranted on about R & S Records’ utterly derped idea of replacing classic covers with their logo when they did the deed on Model 500’s Deep Space. At least in the case of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 85-92, it wasn’t that much of a difference. The stark white background is retained, and the cover logo remains black provided you keep the shiny portions tilted away from the light. Yeah, the R & S stallion isn’t as dope as the Aphex ‘A’ ( or ‘A+T’, or ‘λ’, or saw, or half-starfish, or rip-off of the Yellow Pages logo, or whatever crackpot theory that’s out this week), but at least the simplistic style remained. It’s not like the original’s packaging was much to get fussed over anyway.
That’s the only fresh take I can offer with this review. Everything else that can be said about SAW 85-92, has been said, including me saying what I just said. Of course, there’s also my personal thoughts about this album, so if you’re after any proper critical analysis of Aphex Twin’s debut LP, scurry on over to one of the zillion other reviews online. Heck, even the new liner notes from Will Troup in this re-issue might suffice, even though they’re unashamedly fanboyish.
What I find so remarkable about this classic album is how it’s not really an album at all. Yes, Mr. Richard D. James often toyed with the LP convention, but most of his subsequent full-lengths had some structure to them, encouraging you to play them front-to-back so each track was taken in with the context of its surrounding neighbors. SAW 85-92 doesn’t have that, tracks coming and going as they mean to go on. Nor should there be any rhyme or reason to their sequence since the whole release is literally nothing more than a collection of tapes he’d made over the years. After giving them to an eagerly curious Renaat Vandepapeliere, the R & S head set up a new sub-label (Apollo) to release some selections upon realizing how far ahead of the curve these tapes were. He couldn’t put it on his techno print, after all; they were just too ambient for that. Yet, they weren’t proper ambient either, were they? So many weird, rough rhythms, taking well-worn drum machines and feeding them through filters and distorters and reverbers. Ah well, those lovely melodies and alien synths were close enough to ambient to make it count for the time being. Folks would shortly come up with a proper new genre tag anyway.
Of all Ricardo de Santiago’s output from the ‘90s, it took me the longest to hear this one in full. For sure I’d heard a few tracks here and there (Xtal, Schottkey 7th Path, Pulsewidth), but as SAW Early-Years came out on Apollo, it always sat stupid expensive on Canadian shelves. I knew the legend of this album, but no way was it worth thirty-plus bones for old ambient techno.
Nah, guy, even then it totally was.
ACE TRACKS:
All the tracks between ’86 and ’92.
(I suspect the ambient doodle i is the lone ’85 cut)
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