Description
2024 reissue, 4×12″ LP, Warp Records.
It’s the album that redefined ambient music, not least for a generation of parasympathetic ravers. Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II marked a stylistic shift away from the first edition in the infamous ambient LP ‘series’, Selected Ambient Works 85-92. Volume II differed substantially; this time, there would be no ‘techno’ addendum to ‘ambient’, and all tracks thereupon would lack the usual indulgence of beats, however easy-on-the-ears these had been beforehand. Known for its many numbered tracks – which on the original edition, rather than track names, denoted references to images of natural forms, textures and geologic readymades, all bathed in orange, and from which fans had to infer the written names – this expanded edition stays faithful to this origin. Even so, it adds two unreleased D. Jamesian treats – ‘th1 [evnslower]’ and a reversed version of ‘Rhubarb’ – as well as a the previously vinyl only ‘#19’.
