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COVER STORY

'Selected Ambient Works Volume II' - an in-depth analysis of the Aphex Twin album & its mystique
Music editor, teacher and author Marc Weidenbaum has recently published a book, 'Selected Ambient Works Volume II': an in-depth analysis of the album of the same name from Aphex Twin (an album released by Richard David James in 1994). The album, with its sparse ambient and hypnotic sonic textures, was an avant-garde entry into the electronic music scene, and created an early following of highly-intrigued devotees.

This was music that resisted interpretation, an auditory puzzle. There were no track titles; individual cuts were identified by thumbnail images instead of words. The quality of the sound seemed to hover in in-between spaces, without fixed genre or emotional hue.
- Pitchfork Review

Image source: BBC

Surrounding Aphex Twin and his music has been a bit of a cultish mystique, yet also extremely popular fandom..... A recent campaign on the creative crowdfunding website Kickstarter has raised over $60,000 US (£35,000), with the proceeds being used to purchase the official distribution rights to music from a rare, previously unreleased test-press only vinyl album of Aphex Twin music (made under the moniker of 'Caustic Window'). Funds raised will be split three ways between Aphex Twin & his label, contributors (who will receive exclusive, one-time rights to own a digital copy of tracks from the album), and a charity.


Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II

Buy tracks from the album


Interview with the author, Marc discussing a range of topics, including "chill rooms," the term "IDM" ("intelligent dance music," a term that the artist himself dismisses as being used "only for rubbish... Quite funny I reckon."), the coinciding of the release of 'Ambient Works Vol. II' with the birth of the Internet & social media, and the concept of 'functional music.'

- additional reading


Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II (33 1/3)
Buy the book here on Amazon


About the author

Marc Weidenbaum:
- is a former music editor for the Tower Records magazine 'Pulse!'

- teaches a course, "the role of sound in the media landscape" at the Academy of Art in San Francisco

- formed a SoundCloud group called Disquiet Junto, a "collaborative music-making group in which restraints are used as a springboard for creativity. It is produced in association with Disquiet.com. Each week a new compositional challenge is set before the group's members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment."




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Tue Apr 29, 2014

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