killabyte11

Same here. I find the material he released on Soundcloud to be significantly different than most of his commercial output. It's like a sketchbook or sonic diary.

All I want is more material from the vaults. Been going deep into the Soundcloud tracks and there are many which are among my favorite things he's ever done.

Cool. Did you read that somewhere? I forgot to mention the Casio FZ-1/FZ-10M which he was known to use around that time. I have both an MS-20 and an FZ-10M. The Casio has quite a nice, unique sounding filter.

As a producer, I've always been super intrigued by the equipment that he might have used to make this album. Anyone who might have any info on that, feel free to chime in. I've read somewhere that one of the things he used was a Sequential Circuits Studio 440... which is a sampler/sequencer similar to the Akai MPC-60, but it's 12 bit so a little grittier sounding. It can be seen in the video below. I'm guessing the other gear seen there might have been used as well, Korg MS-20, Alesis Quadraverb....as well as stuff that was used on Selected Ambient Works II such as the Yamaha CS-5. A lot of the more organic sounds, strings etc.. were likely samples.

It's an amazing album opener. I remember I had probably been listening to the album a couple months when one night while tripping with a few friends I put it on a boombox as we were chilling around a fire pit and that track just sounded perfect at that moment. The high pitched frequency in the beginning just sort of focuses your mind in like a laser while in that state. The people I was with had never heard anything like it and were like "whoa"

Yeah for sure, I can't tell you how many times I've see or heard people say stuff like "not his best material". I've come to realize though that most of my favorite music or artists are quite polarizing....not the type of stuff that everyone universally likes. A lot of my favorite stuff, people tend to either love or hate it. It's probably a good thing though because if people are indifferent to something it might mean that it's more mediocre.

Nice to see some ICBYD appreciation! Here's a list of Releases or tracks that are in the same vein of that era/sound for me are.... - Selected Ambient Works Vol. II ....I've always thought of ICBYD as SAW II with beats. - On ep + remixes - Ventolin ep + remixes - AFX - .942937 - AFX - (CAT 00897-AA1) - AFX - Sloth - Meat Beat Manifesto - Mindstream (Aphex Twin Remix) - Curve - Falling Free (Aphex Twin Remix) - Saint Etienne - Your Head My Voice (Voix Revirement) - Saint Etienne - Who Do You Think You Are (Quex-rd mix) - Nine Inch Nails - At The Heart Of It All [Aphex Twin] - Nine Inch Nails - The Beauty Of Being Numb (Section B) (Created By Aphex Twin) - Nav Katze - Ziggy (Aphex Twin Mix) - The Beatniks - Une Femme N'Est Pas Un Homme (Aphex Twin Mix) - Nav Katze - Change (Aphex Twin Mix #2) - Buck Tick - In The Glitter, Pt. 2 (Aphex Twin Remix) - Kinesthesia - Triachus (Mix By Aphex Twin) - Aphex Twin - Pancake Lizard - Aphex Twin - Donkey Rhubarb - AFX - p-string - Soft Ballet - Sand Lowe (Polygon Window Remix)

Today is the 25th anniversary of this absolute masterpiece. The album caps off my favorite era of Aphex Twin...along with the On EP, Ventolin singles, S.A.W II and other select tracks and remixes from roughly 92 - 95 that have a very unique and distinct sound unlike anything that came before or after... which could sort of be identified with other artists or genres. In my opinion, a perfect mix of organic and synthetic, more straight forward style beats and experimentalism, lush, hypnotic, dreamlike atmospheres and hard edged noise beats. I was turned on to the album shortly after it's release in the spring/summer of 95' and it became a sort of defining album of that time period for me. My first impressions at the time was that a lot of it sounded very otherworldly and alien. Before that I had only heard a few Aphex Twin tracks but this was the album really grabbed my attention and started me down the path of wanting to collect more his music. By the end of 95, I had all the releases mentioned above along with Surfing On Sine waves and Analogue Bubblebath 3. 25 years later and I can honestly say that I've never gotten sick of any of that material. I might go years without putting one of those albums on... but eventually I go on an Aphex Twin kick and when I do these albums sound as fresh as ever to me. Maybe I'm a bit partial as well because they also spark my memories of the early to mid 90's and what a cool time it was. I figure since there isn't a dedicated ICBYD appreciation thread, perhaps this could be a place for that. I don't see this album getting nearly as much praise here as other albums, people on this message board seem much more into in the softer side of RDJ, or the more mental IDM/squarepusher-esque side. I've even seen people here talking smack on the album. So if that's you refrain from posting at all. This is strictly APPRECIATION only! Don't want to here "it's OK"..."not one of my favorites" and other nonsense.

True, some of their new stuff is just too random and structure-less for me. It just sounds like the audio equivalent of modern art (which I hate). a splotch of paint on a blue canvas etc.. I saw Autechre live in 99' and it was amazing. Saw them a couple years ago and it honestly just sounded like any random set you might here from a guy noodling with his modular set up....completely disjointed and unstructured bleeps and bloops. But I stand by my observation that younger people are really impressed by over the top complexity. I used to be a little like that myself at one point.

Please god to let him collab with crap like Flying Lotus.

I second that. This is arguably the best music they ever made IMO. I honestly don't like much that they did after the 90's and their earliest material is the best....first few releases. For me, over complexity has no place in music and only serves as a sort of novelty and takes away from/dilutes any real substance that might be present or potentially created. I find that younger more inexperienced listeners are highly impressed by said novelty as is the case with many of the members of this and the Aphex Twin message boards.

Interesting, didn't know that. It's a strangely haunting yet chunky sounding track. Curious as to what a higher quality version would sound like as it's too muffled to hear much detail.

Was hoping track 11 from the infamous Joyrex mixtape would have made into the Soundcloud Tsunami of tracks but it never did.

One doesn't need to like everything an artist/producer does. There's not a single one of my favorite artists that I like everything they've ever done. I consider Aphex one of my favs even though I'm not crazy about most of what he did after the 90's in varying degrees. Some of that material I don't like at all. Doesn't effect the stuff I do like one bit.

Tell them to reissue... Selected Ambient Works Vol. II on vinyl already and perhaps gain back a tad bit of credibility as a label after loads of terrible releases/artists in the last decade or so.