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Saturday 13 March 2021

Ageispolis

That wasn't the best week at work I've ever had. The weekend never really feels long enough to recharge- it's Saturday morning and then before you know it Sunday night has arrived and with it the Monday morning dread kicks in. But still, here it is, the weekend, in all it's lockdown glory. 

This weekend last year was the last time I went into a record shop or art gallery. Photographing pylons from beneath is the most excitement weekends offer now. 

Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85- 92 contains some of the most original, most startling music of the early 90s. SAW is a compilation of various tracks recorded by Richard D. James in the years in its title, homemade synths and drum machines, a keyboard and computer and recorded onto cassette. The music is ambient techno with beats to reduce it to basics but it is so much more than that- weird, lush melodies, oceanic waves of synth, echo- laden drums, basslines that arrive from somewhere else entirely, bubbles and bleeps and the occasional sampled voice, atmospheres and textures that the young RDJ summoned up in his Cornwall teens and committed to plastic. This one sticks in my mind at the moment but I could choose any of the thirteen tracks that make up Selected Ambient Works 85- 92. 

Ageispolis

2 comments:

Rol said...

That first paragraph hit a nerve. Although for me, the Monday morning dread kicks in about Saturday lunchtime. Just keep passing the open windows...

Michael Doherty said...

Masterpiece!