‘Selected Ambient Works Volume II’: Aphex Twin’s journey into sleep paralysis
In the world of electronic music, Aphex Twin, real name Richard D James, comes out on top. The Cornish-born producer still sits at the helm to this day of pioneering a genre through his eclectic sound, having spearheaded the notion of ambient music from the mid-1980s and throughout the 1990s. There’s no denying that all his works are a stroke of genius, but one particular album saw him dive into a darker underworld than the industry had ever seen before.
That came in the form of Selected Ambient Works Volume II, his 1994 release following its predecessor two years prior. However, it’s a valid assertion to say that the word ‘ambient’ sometimes does a bit of heavy lifting in this context. The 24 tracks on the album – labelled by number, not names – fluctuate viciously between moods and states. You only have to reach number four to feel like you’re listening to something from a horror movie soundtrack, a cacophony of eerie strings and bells and horns. Maybe not your typical evening easy listening, but then again, is there any such thing as easy listening when you’re on LSD?
It was Aphex Twin himself who admitted in a 1994 NME interview that listening to his music was like “standing in a power station. On acid.” If you’ve ever done that, give the album a go, and you can tell us how accurate it is. However, even from an outsider’s perspective, you can understand how the music conjures these images, warping and lacing through every aspect of the album as you are almost carried on the journey of a trip.
Drugs have, for better or worse, shaped many aspects of various musical genres. In the case of LSD, it has played a role in everything from psychedelic rock – look at The Beatles – to house. In the mid-1980s, when James was coming of age and beginning to produce music, the drug had made a subcultural resurgence, slipping into the hands of the introverted or geographically isolated as opposed to those in the cities’ biggest clubs, for whom the effects of the substance combined with their environment would be far too overwhelming. Thus, it found its way to the teenager who would later become Aphex Twin at home in rural Cornwall.
The influences of LSD are everywhere on SAW2. Over the five minutes of number eight, there is a constant ticking sound overlaying, clashing major and minor tones beneath it, while on number 17, lasting only two minutes, there is a marimba-esque tonality akin to that of an old Nokia ringtone.
It’s a near-constant juxtaposition between calm and panic, short flashes of lucidity offset by deep unconsciousness. To many critics back when the album’s release, this was merely noise; they asked where the musicality and the beat were. But as the fullness of time has proven, the sheer genius of Aphex Twin on Selected Ambient Works Volume II unravels itself slowly and stealthily, revealing a journey of psychedelia, illusion, and warped reality in its wake.
It is an album which is equal parts hallucinogenic and paralysing, somehow exposing the era’s drug culture and the experiences associated with it in its truest musical form. Aphex Twin cemented his legendary status by creating an ode to his home, LSD, and life through an energy that seems fleeting yet everlasting and has inspired so many to follow in his footsteps.
