Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 by Aphex Twin

Pros: Every color of the spectrum existing in harmony.
Cons: If you listen closely enough, you can hear Mr. James laughing at you.

“I’ve got a basic good and evil sensibility born. Good neighbor know a halo wouldn’t fit over the horns.” - Aesop Rock Life is a strange mistress, a dichotomy of pain and love. One minute you’re sitting in a comfy chair ...

Pros: Different and soothing. Unlike anything else I've ever listened to.
Cons: The same beats for 7 minutes straight. Repetitious.

Techno is a whole mess of things. It can be breakbeats, experimental or just plain weird. However, once in a blue moon, an album comes along that changes all that, that redefines a genre and overall gives it a new opinion on itself.

Selected...

Pros: magical magnificent melodies
Cons: none at all

there is nothing else quite like the aphex twin. this is a marvelous album, and unlike alot of other ambient music, you can listen to this whole record straight through. i first fell in love with it when i decided to use it to fall asleep to, and it's...

Pros: good chill out muzak
Cons: cant dance to it

For fans of 'Selected Ambient Works 85-92', 'Selected Ambient Works II' came as a huge surprise.

Volume II is strictly ambient and has a much darker, eerier feel to it than any part of Volume I. Whereas Volume I was a tudy in dreamy...

Pros: Top notch ambient, and a legendary album.
Cons: A few highly repetitious filler tracks.

This was the first electronic music album I ever heard and liked, and quite honestly is singularly responsible for me being the tech-head that I am today.
Almost wholly unlike any other RDJ release, this album is multiple platters of unnamed drones,...

Pros: Beautiful, atmospheric, and hypnotic
Cons: It's much like a musical standstill, and therefore a rough listen

SAW II is a complete anomaly in the Aphex Twin/Richard D. James canon, so anyone who was open-minded enough to explore his other works will have to be open-minded all over again to tackle this one. It will be very rewarding, however, in the most...

Pros: No other album captures the strange world after 4 AM but before sunrise
Cons: the beginning tracks are either too sparse (tracks 1 and 2) or two simplistic (3). also, this is not music for every occasion, where each song should stand on its own.

It's 4 AM 5 AM. Still dark. You've been dancing to trance or hard house, perhaps in a club. Physically drained, you drink water and slowly come down from trance world to the strange reality which confronts you at this strange hour.

...

Pros: helps relieve stress and insomnia
Cons: don't listen while operating heavy machinery

While I am not much of a fan of Richard D. James' other works, "Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II" is the perfect album to listen to on those nights where you have tried a warm bath, warm milk, counting sheep, progressive relaxation, and you...

Pros: Beautiful soundscapes
Cons: Might be "boring"

Aphex Twin, aka Richard D. James, is one of the most prolific artists in our time. "Selected Ambient Works Volume II" is by far his most sedate, intelligent and definitely lengthy works; on two CD's or three LP's, it's a 2+ hour journey into...

Pros: Heliosphan's epic brilliance
Cons: Hard to find

Although Richard James may well object to his music being labelled electronica, it seems in the US today this has become the blanket label for all computer generated music. That being said I'm not sure Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is strictly...

Pros: Contains James' best track ever!!!
Cons: Sometimes a bit too darkish, but OK.

This is not as good as the first SAW, but it's still a very good album with some outstanding tracks on it. The best track that Richard ever recorded is on the second disc, number 8. Better known as 'Lichen'. If you can compose a track like that.... you're from another planet. It's so pure, so simple, so beautiful... timeless.

The Musicguru