Aphex Twin ‎– Selected Ambient Works Volume II

Do you know that state of being half-awake/half-asleep? Like if you had been working for the whole 24 hours of a day, and finally lay down on the bed, but just after an hour you are suddenly forced to wake up? Listening to this record puts you in a mood that is very similar to that sensation, only much more relaxed and light. In fact, a better definition of it is that it is the most impressionist record i have ever heard in my life. Every sound is smudged and blurred, reduced to texture, which creates very minimal-like atmospheres. And i am not referring to minimalism in the sense of cold and clean. They are the musical equivalent of a Monet, Pissarro or Renoir painting. Warm, cozy, quick sketches of light and shadow, fire, water, air and earth, metal and wood, etc. etc., that sound infinite as their unusual lenght (still fair for ambient standards) drag you into what it seems to be never ending listening time.
Besides the aesthetic uniqueness to it, the range of moods is striking as well.
You will find melodies for an afternoon lying in the reeds, a walking by the seashore, a moment of contemplation while stuck at home during a rainy night, an attempt to find the way out of a cave you got stuck in, a trip to an abandoned house, a walk through an unhinabited, but still operational factory, a tribal ritual being recreated around a campfire at night, looking at the clouds out the window of your usual airplane. There is a track for every possible mood, story and situation.
Lately i have been playing this in my car, in the morning, while trying to get to my workplace, between all the chaotic traffic, and it works so well in contrast, even though i can't understand why.
I guess there is a bit of mystery to this record as well, and for me that is an unquestionable and necessary part of the whole magic.

Great record, one of my favorites! I having been watching a few of the x3 brown vinyl of Ebay I need to tell sellers here people aren't paying over £50 for this record. The asking prices in the hundreds are plan unrealistic. If you want this on wax, head to Ebay. Where records go for what they're worth and not for what people wish they're were worth.

I love this album, and I think Rhubarb is the most beautiful and soothing song I've ever heard!

Nothing much i can add except to comment the cover picture that shows the long ago lost logo found on the wall and it says something like:
>Once Upon a Time There Was a Man called Aphex Twin<

Enough said!

utterly seminal album combining tracks of true beauty with those with a decidedly undefinable edge. several of the tracks drop you into the kind of soundscape suited to moments of revelation while standing staring out panoramic vistas, but the flipside is the kind of music aphex himself would probably use to scare kids off from buying lollies from his ice cream van.

uneasy listening, but essential.

Out of all the ambient albums I have heard, this one remains the most emotionally wrenching and consistently interesting. This is an incredible advancement over its predecessor and even after all of these years does not sound dated in the slightest. The commenter's below are all right. Rhubarb is one of the most pleasure-full ambient tracks I have heard; and it's not just because it was played in everyone's favorite internet cartoon Salad Fingers.

Highly, Highly recommended

I remember buying this on my 17th birthday in 2007 and since then must have listened to the songs Blue Calx, Parallel Stripes, and Rhubarb at least once everyday since then...
Its these three (but especially Rhubarb) that to me have become the soundtrack to just about every emotion harvested within me since that time. Some of the most pure and sincere music you will ever hear. Not to say the rest of the album isn't as good, but its worth getting if not just for these three songs alone...
Incredible stuff :)

To date, I have yet to hear an ambient track that can surpass the haunting beauty that is track 3 from disc 1 (otherwise known as "rhubarb"). "Isolation Part 1" by Pulusha came close, but the understated pads and delicate chords are about as close as one could come to complete ambient bliss. It is sad, it is melancholic, and it is just brilliant. Also look out for track 8 from disc 2 ("Lichen") which is similarly essential.

Really nice and "freakish" soundscapes. Most of the time without a slice of beats. When those are present, they are subtle and do not distract from the drones, piano or melodies. When the record end the perfect record companion to play next is Leo Anibaldi - Void (CAT 031 CD). It spices things up because of the industrial beats on some of the tracks but this is a sort of continuation, a darker one. Like an industrial version of SAW II.

Easily my favorite Aphex Twin album, and the release that got me into ambient music. IMO most of RDJ's stuff is technically impressive, but the shock of innovation wears off with repeated listening. This album is the exact opposite - the focus on woozy, minimal production and repetitive melodic snippets gives the album a lot of staying power, and it doesn't sound dated at all. Lots of variety, too: the mood ranges from blissed-out washes of synth to dark, brooding soundscapes that wouldn't sound out of place in a horror movie soundtrack. Some tracks have beats, but most don't. You have to be really patient to get into it, but that should be a given. "Cliffs" (Track 1) is probably one of my favorite songs ever. A nearly flawless album. If Monet made ambient music it would sound a lot like this.