artist: Aphex Twin country of origin: UK style(s): Ambient techno essential releases: Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1993, R&S/Warp) Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994, Sire/Warp)

The mischievous, enigmatic Englishman Richard James is the sole author of these two strange, compelling excursions in 90's ambient techno.

While his roots lie at the hardcore and industrial end of the dance spectrum - a style to which he soon returned after these albums - his popularity among dance and techno fans was enough to send Selected Ambient Works Volume II into the UK Top Twenty albums charts on its release in 1994. On that album particularly, the minimalist ethic of composers like Eno is clearly at work with James cunningly developing his pieces so that subtle changes become like major events.

The second album is far more minimal and is the more purely "ambient" release. Mind you, a few dance critics misunderstood it's understatement as some kind of sick joke. The first album Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is certainly the more lively of the two and its sound is strikingly original, most likely because many of its sounds come from analogue synths, boxes and gadgets that James built himself at home.

At his most accessible Aphex Twin shows an engaging sense of harmony with billowing, delicate wafts of synthesisers, light percussion patterns and fragile melodies. At his most challenging, he wraps atonal techno bleeps and burps around muted percussion with such insistent repetition that you'll find yourself either hypnotised or running screaming from the room. But hey, who says ambient has to be relaxing? Either way, it's compelling stuff and quite far removed from the lush sound that typified a lot of ambient techno in the early to mid-90's.

HOME