Wiki
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Release Date
9 February 1992
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Length
13 tracks
Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is the debut studio album by Aphex Twin, the pseudonym of British electronic musician Richard D. James. It was released on November 9, 1992 through Apollo Records, a subsidiary of Belgian label R&S Records. The album consists of beat-orientated ambient tracks recorded onto cassette reputedly dating as far back as 1985, when James was thirteen to fourteen years old. An analogue remaster of the album was released in 2006, followed by a digital remaster in 2008.
Upon its release, Selected Ambient Works 85-92 received widespread acclaim, and has been considered a landmark in the fields of electronica, ambient techno, and intelligent dance music. James followed up the album in 1994 with the more traditionally ambient Selected Ambient Works Volume II. In 2012, it was named the greatest album of the 1990s by Fact. It entered the UK Dance Albums Chart at number 30 after the release of Aphex Twin's 2014 album Syro.
Simon Reynolds, writing in the 1994 Spin Alternative Record Guide, gave the album a 9 rating. In 2012, Reynolds wrote that the album "infuses everyday life with a perpetual first flush of spring." John Bush of AllMusic described the album as "one of the indisputable classics of electronica, and a defining document for ambient music in particular." Reviewing the album after it was reissued by PIAS America in 2002, Rolling Stone's Pat Blashill called it a "gorgeous, ethereal album" in which James "proved that techno could be more than druggy dance music." David M. Pecoraro of Pitchfork noted "the creeping basslines, the constantly mutating drum patterns, the synth tones which moved with all the grace and fluidity of a professional dancer," describing the album as "among the most interesting music ever created with a keyboard and a computer" despite its "primitive origins". Widely regarded by critics as one of the pioneering works in early IDM and modern electronic music, retrospective reviews mention its influence on electronic artists. In 2003, the album was placed number 92 in NME's 100 Best Albums poll. The album was also featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. AllMusic called it "a masterpiece of ambient techno, the genre's second work of brilliance after the Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld". In 2017, Pitchfork named it the best IDM album of All-Time.
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