I've been on another big Aphex Twin binge. Maybe it's the nostalgia that's stirred by a birthday.
But rather than picking an album I've been going threw the fan-made mixes on YouTube of the SoundCloud dump. I've written previously on how I felt the 20+ hours of music that Richard D. James posted anonymously in 2015 was a bit daunting. Yet sonic explorers braver than I continue to sort and stitch together albums and mixes from this trove.
Before I come on to this week's listening though and my particular highlight, I'd like give thanks to Naked Flames for their Aphex Twin - Sleep Mix. Mainly made up of Selected Ambient Works Volume II, this exquisite music helped immensely during the long nights in the hospital around Frank's birth. I continue to return to it when I need to create some headspace.
While this Sleep Mix has been blocked on YouTube others featuring Autechre, Boards of Canada, and Oneohtrix Point Never are still available on Naked Flames' channel. Plus there's been a reupload of the Aphex Twin version to SoundCloud.
OK back to this week, so I've been headphones on and enjoying:
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 3 (2015) - user48736353001 compilation
Aphex Twin - Selected 2017 Works
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 4 (2015) - user48736353001 compilation pt2
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 1.5
And as these mixes (with the exception of Selected 2017 Works) are made up of the user48736353001 and user18081971 SoundCloud dumps, they're very unlikely to be pulled for copyright infringement any time soon.
Rhubarb orc. 19.53 rev [unrev mono edit]
Finally, it's within that last mix that I found my particular highlight of the week. Well kinda. It's "Rhubarb Orchestral". Yet as Dommoson states on the accompanying Reddit thread the hard panning of the bass takes you away from the beauty of this orchestral version of Untitled 3 (Rhubarb) from SAWII.But yet again those more dedicated than me have come up with the goods. Here's Aphex Twin - rhubarb orc. 19.53 rev [unrev mono edit] which sorts out the panning issue...
And lastly, I promise, here's a fun photo from Falmouth that was posted recently on Reddit...
Image credit: bungle-cream via Reddit
Top image: Screenshot from Macross Plus (1995!)
Related post: Selected Soundcloud Works
