Written when Aphex Twin (Richard D. James) was in his early 20s, 'Selected Ambient Works Volume II' gained critical acclaim both upon release and retrospectively (10/10 Pitchfork review, #2 Best Ambient Album of All Time, 4 star Rolling Stone review +more). Aphex Twin and SAW II’s influence continues to grow and take new meaning across generations. Now celebrating it's 30th anniversary, this expanded edition is the definitive version of this seminal record.

TRACK LISTING

1. #1
2. #2
3. #3
4. #4
5. #5
6. #6
7. #7
8. #8
9. #9
10. #10
11. #11
12. #12
13. Blue Calx
14. #14
15. #15
16. #16
17. #17
18. #18
19. #19
20. #20
21. #21
22. #22
23. #23
24. #24
25. #25
26. Th1 [evnslower]
27. Rhubarb Orc. 19.53 Rev

“It’s just too easy to make a standard dance track,” Aphex Twin said of his mindset back in 1992. “You’ve got to put a bit of thought into it to get something a bit different.”

‘Digeridoo’ was released on the Belgian R&S Records label in 1992, and originally peaked at #55 in the UK singles chart in May of that year. Over the last 32 years the track has become one of the essential Aphex Twin tracks in a gargantuan catalogue that continues to amaze and inspire.

“I wanted to have some tracks to play to finish the raves I used to play in Cornwall, to really kill everybody off so they couldn’t dance,” Richard D James, AKA Aphex, told Select magazine back in the 90s. “Digeridoo came out of that.”

Released as a 4 track EP that also included early Aphex productions (now classics) including the industrial, acidic clang of ‘Flap Head’ and hyperbolic futurism of ‘Isopropanol’, the release cemented a relationship with the R&S label that went on to release the ‘Xylem Tube’ EP and the pivotal album ‘Selected Ambient Works 85-92’ in the same year. The label’s owner & A&R Renaat Vandepapeliere reflected “When I first heard Aphex Twin’s music I said, ‘This is it!’, and everybody else said, ‘You’re crazy!’ …a lot of the hardcore R&S fans dropped us. To them it wasn’t music.”

‘Digeridoo’ (Expanded Edition) is the first time the EP has been re-issued with extra material. Whilst digging in his DAT archive (allegedly stored in an airtight military ammo box), Richard James revisited the recordings, encoding them through a Nakamichi CR7e cassette deck, using the customised deck with vari-speed to encode at speeds “felt right at the time”. Alongside these CR7e versions, the original mixes have been remastered by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering, offering a dilated insight into one of electronic music’s most endearing releases.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Causing a whole stampede with electronica fans born in the early to mid 80s. One of the most pioneering and inventive releases from the psyche of a young Richard D James who would go onto to become a kind of UK demigod of underground electronica. Expanded with TASTY new bits ("Digeridoo" live in Cornwall!!) - this is a rightly treasured high watermark of what can be achieved when machines and genius combine.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Digeridoo
A2. Flap Head
B1. Phloam
B2. Isoprophlex
C1. Digeridoo (Cr7e Version)
C2. Digeridoo (Live In Cornwall) (Cr7e Version)
D1. Isoprophlex (Slow) (Cr7e Version)
D2. Phloam (Cr7e Version)

Extravagantly opaque, willfully vaporous — Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II, released by the estimable British label Warp Records in 1994, rejuvenated ambient music for the Internet Age that was just dawning. In the United States, it was Richard D. James's first full length on Sire Records (home to Madonna and Depeche Mode) under the moniker Aphex Twin; Sire helped usher him in as a major force in music, electronic or otherwise.

Faithful to Brian Eno’s definition of ambient music, Selected Ambient Works Volume II was intentionally functional: it furnished chill out rooms, the sanctuaries amid intense raves. Choreographers and film directors began to employ it to their own ends, and in the intervening decades this background music came to the fore, adapted by classical composers who reverse-engineered its fragile textures for performance on acoustic instruments. Simultaneously, “ambient” has moved from esoteric sound art to central tenet of online culture.

This book contends that despite a reputation for being beatless, the album exudes percussive curiosity, providing a sonic metaphor for our technologically mediated era of countless synchronized nanosecond metronomes.

What's left to be said about Richard James? One of the most spectacular and critically lauded producers in the world, a divisive musician and Delphic artist, nearing his thirtieth year in 'the biz' and his sound continues to innovate, experiment and enthrall. The David Bowie of electronic music - for some there is simply no parallel and every last artifact is to be feverishly collected and treasured.

A new EP that somehow extended and builds on his idiosyncratic and highly flamboyant style, the first duo of tracks, "T69 Collapse" and "1st 44" are at once playful and majestic. The first exploring the typically smiley-Cornish-acid-tekno genre with aplomb while the second implores deep subs and his galloping drum sequences to create a wobbly and cerebral track that plunges effortlessly into modern 'half-time' business, merging the best bits of techno, glitch, footwork and IDM in a truly Aphex flavoured broth.

Flip the disc and "MT1 T29r2" explores the darker and deranged sides of his persona - utilizing the Kork's MS-20 filter to maximum devastation while more peppery, skitting drum flurries explode out of the recesses of the mix. Finally, "Abundance10edit[2 R8's, FZ20m & A 909]" (phew!) sees James showing off with his world beating drum programming. Can anyone sequence beats better than AFX? No way hosay - as this final tracks sends us tumbling, flailing and spiraling into the speaker stacks like no-one else can. Still the king of electronic music? Youbetcha! Another essential addition from this acid overlord. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Every time there's a new Aphex release I'm convinced I've grown out of him and won't like it. Time and time again I've proved wrong as this producer par excellence continues to be ten steps ahead of the pack.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklist:
A1. T69 Collapse
A2. 1st 44
B1. MT1 T29r2
B2. Abundance10edit[2 R8's, FZ20m & A 909]

CD Tracklist:
01. T69 Collapse
02. 1st 44
03. MT1 T29r2
04. Abundance10edit[2 R8's, FZ20m & A 909]
05. Pthex

Originally released in 1992 on R&S Records offshoot Apollo, "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" marks the first full length studio album by Richard D. James under his Aphex Twin name. Considered a landmark release in ambient techno, it's easy to see why it has endured. Feathery keys, dreamy production and trickling rhythms are drenched over distant samples from sources as diverse as Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory ("We Are The Music Makers"), Robocop ("Green Calx") and ethereal female vocals on opener "Xtal". Arguably some the most beautifully realised and majestic sounds of the revered musician's career.  The album provided the blueprint for every electronica, downbeat and chill-out record for years after. This is just one of those classic electronica releases that every home should have; melodic, semi-ambient and musical, this is AFX at his most accessible. Essential.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Xtal
A2. Tha
A3. Pulsewidth
B1. Ageispolis
B2. I
B3. Green Calx
B4. Heliosphan
C1. We Are The Music Makers
C2. Schottkey 7th Path
C3. Ptolemy
D1. Hedphelym
D2. Delphium
D3. Actium

The Aphex Twin 'Cheetah EP' uses digital sound generation techniques combined with wave sequencing technology to bring you sounds with movement and depth rarely found on records today.

To assure you that your 'Cheetah EP' will give you many years of enjoyment, please be sure to read the owners manual carefully before attempting to operate the 'Cheetah EP'.

If you wish to experiment and create some sounds of your own, first try editing some sounds we’ve already made for you, before attempting to create a patch from scratch.

We sincerely hope that having battled through the programming of the 'Cheetah EP', you have not become familiar with the exceptional potential of this record.

Have fun programming, and if you create any superb patches and tones which you feel deserve to be appreciated by other 'Cheetah EP' buyers, send a MIDI System Exclusive Dump of them, on a disc to us at Warp and if we also think they are superb, you could be rewarded for your efforts. Try us!

TRACK LISTING

1. CHEETAHT2 [Ld Spectrum]
2. CHEETAHT7b
3. CHEETA1b Ms800
4. CHEETA2 Ms800
5. CIRKLON3 [ Колхозная Mix ]
6. CIRKLON 1

CD / Cassette Bonus Track:
7. 2X202-ST5

After bursting back onto the scene last year with the suitably brilliant "Syro", Cornwall's favourite son is back with his second release in as many years, upping his release schedule by about 9000%. "Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt 2 EP" situates RDJ right at the centre of the mad scientist's lab, cooking up a baker's dozen of rhythmic breaks out of tuned percussion, detuned piano and unhinged doors. Situated somewhere between the faux hip hop of "I Care Because You Do", the disorienting moments of "Drukqs" and Pierre Schaeffer's "Musique concrète" this latest Aphex release matches the cryptic and accessible perfectly.

TRACK LISTING

1. Diskhat ALL Prepared1mixed 13
2. Snar2
3. Diskhat1
4. Piano Un1 Arpej
5. DISKPREPT4
6. Hat 2b 2012b
7. Disk Aud1_12
8. 0035 1-Audio
9. Disk Prep Calrec2 Barn Dance [slo]
10. DISKPREPT1
11. Diskhat2
12. Piano Un10 It Happened
13. Hat5c 0001 Rec-4

As ever Aphex's music is pulling in different directions on this 1996 CD, with tracks underpinned with glitchy chopped up beats and overlaid with lush, emotional synth work. Includes the single "Girl / Boy Song".

With recordings made between 1990 and 1995, "I Care Because You Do" brings together another fine collection of Cornish electronic experiments, including the single "Ventolin", and features a scary Richard D James distorted 'devil face' sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

Acrid Avid Jam Shred
The Waxen Pith
Wax The Nip
Icct Hedral (Edit)
Ventolin (Video Version)
Come On You Slags!
Start As You Mean To Go On
Wet Tip Hen Ax
Mookid
Alberto Balsalm
Cow Cud Is A Twin
Next Heap With

Originally out in 1997, these tracks showcase Richard D James at his scariest, most inventive and mellowest, delivering the possessed title track (which came accompanied by one of Chris Cunningham's more nightmarish videos), melodic "Flim", breaktronic "Come To Daddy" remix and jazz-breaks meets nursery rhymes "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball".

TRACK LISTING

12" Tracklisting:
1 Come To Daddy (Pappy Mix) 4:21
2 Flim 2:57
3 Come To Daddy (Little Lord Faulteroy Mix) 3:50
4 Bucephalus Bouncing Ball 5:43

CD Tracklisting:
1 Come To Daddy, Pappy Mix 4:22
2 Flim 2:57
3 Come To Daddy, Little Lord Faulteroy Mix 3:50
4 Bucephalus Bouncing Ball 5:44
5 To Cure A Weakling Child, Contour Regard 5:10
6 Funny Little Man 3:58
7 Come To Daddy, Mummy Mix 4:24
8 IZ-US 2:57

Originally released in 1992 on R&S Records offshoot Apollo, 'Selected Ambient Works 85-92' marks the first full length studio album by Richard D. James under his Aphex Twin name. Considered a landmark release in ambient techno, it's easy to see why it has endured. Feathery keys, dreamy production and trickling rhythms are drenched over distant samples from sources as diverse as Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory ('We Are The Music Makers'), Robocop ('Green Calx') and ethereal female vocals on opener 'Xtal'. Arguably some the most beautifully realised and majestic sounds of the revered musician's career.  The album provided the blueprint for every electronica, downbeat and chill-out record for years after. This is just one of those classic electronica releases that every home should have; melodic, semi-ambient and musical, this is AFX at his most accessible. Essential.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Richard James was a pioneer, making human, wasted and warped electronica at a time it had not even occurred to anybody else. Of course it is very much of it's time, as any technology based entity will be, but it transcends such considerations by being unspeakably brilliant. 'Xtal', with it's rave inspired, dreamy female vocals drifting over it's soft staccato propulsion just might be one of the exquisite pieces of electronic music ever committed to anything. Every home should have one.

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