Selected Ambient Works 85-92 - Definition and Overview

SAW 85-92 front cover

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is an ambient techno album by Richard D. James, better known by his pseudonym of Aphex Twin. It is his third release under this alias. It is often abbreviated to SAW85-92. It was released in 1992 by Apollo Records, an ambient subdivision of R&S Records.

Having been a club DJ in the early 1990's in his home of Cornwall, UK, Richard was able to learn about new music techniques and rhythm patterns. Always an innovator, Richard created new songs, many designed to confuse ravers with impossibly fast beats (his first single as Aphex Twin, Didgeridoo, had a rumoured BPM of 220)

With the club scene under his belt, and with a small underground following, Richard went on to make SAW85-92, which consisted of instrumental, radio-friendly songs that were mostly beat-oriented. Although compared to many of the earlier ambient creations of other musicians (especially Brian Eno and John Cage), and even himself (his follow-up album, Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2), the songs are faster and more upbeat. Not all the songs were created during and after his work as a DJ; If the title of the album is to be believed, Richard would have been making songs as early as 1985 (Being born in 1971, he would've been 14 years old when he made some of these songs.)

Warp Records has billed this as as "Both the birthplace and the benchmark of modern electronic music", and that "Every home should have a copy".

Track listing

1. "Xtal" (4:54)
2. "Tha" (9:06)
3. "Pulsewidth" (3:46)
4. "Ageispolis" (5:23)
5. "i" (1:17)
6. "Green Calx" (6:05)
7. "Heliosphan" (4:51)
8. "We are the music makers" (7:43)
9. "Schottkey 7th Path" (5:08)
10. "Ptolemy" (7:10)
11. "Hedphelym" (6:00)
12. "Delphium" (5:26)
13. "Actium" (7:32)

Many of the songs feature unusual samples. "Tha", for example, has clips of two people (one possibly being Richard himself) talking, while "Actium" has samples of what sound like shoes being squeaked in a hallway. "We are the music makers" features a sampled line from the movie Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, the only lyrics in the entire album.

"We Are The Music Makers" was also remixed (or a new version created) by Richard's Rephlex pseudonym Caustic Window. The song, entitled "We Are The Music Makers (Hardcore Mix)" is much faster than the original, and features completely new beats (the only thing keeping the two songs related are the equipment the songs were recorded on, and the movie sample). It is available on the rare Joyrex J9 EP or picture disc, and on the Caustic Window Compilation