Selected Ambient Works Volume II

33⅓ Main Series #90

by Marc Weidenbaum

Extravagantly opaque, willfully vaporous — Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II, released by the estimable British label Warp Records in 1994, rejuvenated ambient music for the Internet Age that was just dawning. In the United States, it was his first full length on Sire Records (home to Madonna and Depeche Mode), which helped usher in Richard D. James, for whom Aphex Twin is but one of numerous monikers, as a major force in music, electronic or otherwise.

Faithful to Brian Eno’s definition of ambient music, Selected Ambient Works Volume II was intentionally functional: it furnished chill rooms, the sanctuaries amid intense raves. Choreographers and film directors began to employ it to their own ends, and in the intervening decades this background music came to the fore, adapted by classical composers who reverse-engineer its fragile textures for performance on acoustic instruments. Simultaneously, “ambient” has moved from esoteric sound art to central tenet of online culture. This book contends that despite a reputation for being beat-less, the album exudes percussive curiosity, providing a sonic metaphor for our technologically mediated era of countless synchronized nanosecond metronomes.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Collections, Art, Criticism

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 13, 2014

About the author

Marc Weidenbaum founded the website Disquiet.com in 1996. It focuses on the intersection of sound, art, and technology. He's currently writing a book for the 33 1/3 series about Aphex Twin's 1994 album, Selected Ambient Works Vol II. He has written for Nature, the website of The Atlantic, Boing Boing, Down Beat, and numerous other publications. He has commissioned and curated sound/music projects that have featured original works by Kate Carr, Marcus Fischer, Marielle Jakobsons, John Kannenberg, Tom Moody, Steve Roden, Scanner, Roddy Shrock, Robert Thomas, Pedro Tudela, and Stephen Vitiello, among many others. He moderates the Disquiet Junto group at Soundcloud.com; there dozens of musicians respond to weekly Oulipo-style restrictive compositional projects. He’s a founding partner at i/olian, which develops software projects that explore opportunities to play with sound. Books containing comics he's edited include Justin Green’s Musical Legends, Adrian Tomine’s Scrapbook, Jessica Abel’s Soundtrack, and Carol Swain's Crossing the Empty Quarter and Other Stories. He lives in San Francisco in a neighborhood whose soundmarks include Tuesday noon civic alarms as well as persistent seasonal fog horns from the nearby bay.

Reviews

[Matthew Snope · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like this album, and I was concerned the author would either analyze it to death, or have some really unique insight or background. The book is composed of more of the former than the latter. It is also full of unnecessary tangents and filler, making me wonder if this book had an editor. On the positive side, Weidenbaum's argument that the album is not "beatless", as many have dismissed it as, is a good and interesting one. Likewise, the exploration of the album's lack of traditional song titles is interesting, but the book loses steam after exploring the concept of beatlessness. I was hoping for more insight from Aphex Twin himself, who Weidenbaum spoke with, but apparently not for very long or to much depth. It seemed like Weidenbaum ran out of things to say after saying it's a unique and wonderful album, and so preceded to just enjoy hear himself talk/write as he delved into minor points and loose associations with the album or artist. (The tangent about Aphex Twin's music in a documentary about Amish people is interesting.) I had heard that this album was recorded when AT was living on a commune -- if true, that would have been interesting to explore, as well as what equipment and recording techniques were used. While I did enjoy this book overall, especially the first part of it, I came away with some disappointment and the feeling that Weidenbaum just rambled on tangentially to fill up space. (The acknowledgements page reads like he's accepting a Best Director award or something. Weidenbaum: no one cares about your late grand-mother. Readers want info about Aphex Twin, not you.)

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weidenbaum has taken on a fundamentally impossible project: how the hell do you write a book about an album full of 'songs' that seem more like ambient sound collages, and which often seem to lack any rhythmic motion or idea of structure?

This is a 33 1/3 book which is more about the ideas around the music and its reception than about the music itself, and while he does an impressive job offering a variety of perspectives, I think this entry in the series is a bit too dependent on discussing the critical response to the album and the ways its been covered and used by classical arrangers and dance troupes. I wanted to know more about this deeply weird music itself, in so far as you can 'know' anything about music this oblique.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came late to Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II. In fact, I bought the album a day after Marc Weidenbaum told me he was going to write a book about it. In a way, Marc and I were traveling down the same path. While he was writing about Aphex Twin's classic album, I was listening to it. Together, we represent the music's ongoing appeal.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly over analyzing descriptions of tracks and the confusion of the titles. There were a couple interesting anecdotes and bits of trivia, but there was a lot of fluff here. In fact, the most interesting part for me (a bit about James’s writing methods involving lucid dreaming) was excerpted from Ocean of Sound by David Toop. Too bad.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dunno why I keep falling for these 33⅓ books, they’re always rubbish. This one at least seems to have its heart in the right place, but is still mostly inane and full of some truly awful grammar. There is a chapter where the author talks to a few people who worked with RDJ in the 90s and this was ok, but that’s about it. There’s far too much time spent on the dreadful classical reworkings of Aphex stuff (i.e. more than one sentence warning you away), and the kind of core idea that SAWII is wrongly called ‘beatless’ is so boring. Dude lists literally everyone and anyone who has ever said this and refutes it in detail, when I think the truth is just that a lot of people didn’t ever listen past the first few tracks, skimmed around and decided there was no ‘on’ or ‘heliosphan’ and wrote a few hundred words of shite for a review.

Also when he gets on to aphex in film there’s this whole tangent about Amish people which made me ??? and lots of other film stuff that really has nothing much to do with the book’s subject.

(All these random grasps at padding this shit out to book length are at least preferable to an author moaning on about how he first heard whatever album in his dorm room after his girlfriend left him for the guitarist in a jam band, which is how these books often can go, so I am grateful for that.)

Anyway, I already knew SAWII is a masterpiece - more fool me for bothering with this as I have belatedly realised I don’t actually need to know anything more about the album than that.

ps I am high on codeine right now which might explain why I can’t stop writing this review, but also turns out to be a pretty great way to listen to this record, so that’s good.

[Jay Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's be clear, these 33 1/3 books are written SPECIFICALLY for music dorks. That is why I ate it up like Skittles. Aphex Twin is one of my favorite artists....certainly in the electronic genre, while landing somewhere in the top-5 of the Ambient sub-genre. Many of the pioneers are referenced along the way, from Brian Eno all the way back to French composer Erik Satie's Gymnopédies, which was written in the late 1800s.

The author touches on the role that structure and titles/names play in any work of art. This is relevant as 'Select Ambient Works Vol. 2' has been described by some as an album with no songs, no beats, no melodies and no titles.

The author also talks about the role that the pre-web internet played in the release and reception of this album in 1994. So that aspect of the book served as a sentimental stroll down memory lane to the magical 3-way intersection where I found myself in as a 23 year old (1) a fascination with transformative music (2) access to cutting edge technology (3) vast amounts of free time to pore over postings in usenet groups dedicated to discussions about the Grateful Dead, Phish and yes, the Aphex Twin.

The book also takes a detour into the topic of lucid dreaming, a subject that has long fascinated me. Aphex Twin claims to have written most of these tracks in such a state - the result of self-imposed sleep deprivation coupled with keeping his studio in his bedroom, or vice versa I suppose. This then leads into even more philosophical musings about awareness, mindfulness and consciousness in general.

If this album has been woven into the fabric of your life over the last 20+ years, snatch this book up and read it in one sitting. You'll find it insightful, especially listening to the individual tracks as you read about them.
If THAT doesn't describe you, MOVE ALONG, or maybe grab another title in the collection - Pet Sounds, Murmur, Electric Ladyland, Daydream Nation, Loveless, etc.

But by all means check out the record, Aphex Twin - Select Ambient Works Vol. II. Play it loudly, play it quietly, listen actively with headphones, listen passively as background noise. Revisit often as the well is deep.

[rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent look into one of the most legendary albums in recording history. Weidenbaum discusses many things w/r/t this album including: preceding ties and the release of "On"; the definition of what people mean when they say "beatless" (he nails it); the album framed within Brian Eno's description of ambient; acoustic interpretations of the songs and how they do or do not match the original, et cetera. Of particular interest to me (and I was worried he'd mention it only briefly) was the chapter dedicated to the song's "titles" themselves and how they came to be, even interviewing the guy who dubbed each track by its picture. He gives the final few pages over to listing the music RDJ has released since SAWII and comparing it against; a small, but myopic misstep among a swath of great writing (considering what music he is actually writing about) in this book. It remains a watershed in electronic music but to compare it against RDJs other work seems to miss the point. Kinda wish he had used the chapter called "Selected Ambient Works Volume III" to actually muse over what it could sound like. A small quibble. This is the first 33 1/3 book I've read; now on to the Throbbing Gristle one, I think.

[Francis Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this love letter to Aphex Twin's minimalist masterpiece is fantastic - a very close description and analysis of music that's often described in terms of what it lacks rather than what it is, along with carefully placing it in its musical and historical context. The second half of the book is more elliptical, describing different adaptations or uses of the album in other contexts (as well as a long diversion to discuss the vexed question of song titles), which was interesting but less successful than the first section of the book. But overall this is a great tribute to an album that has lodged itself in my head for years, full of thoughts and details that had never occurred to me about it.

[Gianna Pineno · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Matt Musselman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was kind of disappointing.

It's always going to be interesting and fun to read a book about one of your favourite musicians, especially a relatively non-mainstream one (where the mere existence of the book seems a little like a miracle), and that's what kept me going. But....

125 pages of text dedicated to a single album by a single artist, but I think the author failed to ever mention at least half the songs on the album. He also apparently interviewed Richard D. James, but includes only three or four quotes from him in the whole book and shockingly little biographical information (compared to several pages of bio on Brian Eno in the middle of the book, ironically).

I certainly learned some things I wouldn't have known otherwise, but most of what I hoped the book would offer me — more insight into the artist, background of this album's inspiration and creation, an analysis of the music itself — is really sparse and almost entirely speculation on the author's part. Meanwhile, the author gleefully spends 60-70 pages exploring utterly tangential material: uses of the album in TV and film, reinterpretations of it, discussions of other ambient artists, a long passage about the Amish in America. It's as if he started with the intro and a copious set of "interesting info" footnotes, and ran out of space before getting to the core of the book, about the album itself.

It's too bad. I assume other 33 1/3 series books are better.

If you're an Aphex Twin fan and want to learn more about him and this album, you're literally better served by Wikipedia.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marc Weidenbaum had an uphill battle with writing about an almost entirely instrumental record, where only 1 track had an official title, and the artist has been notoriously reticent to interviews recently. Weidenbaum tackles the record from every conceivable direction, finding fertile ground in the "beatless" tag applied to the record early on, its influence on (and how it was influenced by) ambient music, the myriad ways the record has been dissected, adapted, and performed, and the very concept of untitled music has on both how it's perceived and how modern technology handles the nomenclature of metadata.
To his credit, the author bases very little of the book on a phone interview he conducted with Aphex Twin the late '90s. A lazier writer would base the entire book on that conversation, but Weidenbaum is smart enough to know that it's the listener's interpretation of the record, divorced from the aritst's intent, is much more interesting to delve into. SAW2 is therefore treated like the text that ideas spring from, not a concrete piece with a singular interpretation.
Readers should be aware that Richard D. James figures very little in this book; unlike many 33 1/3 books, SAW2 is not a mini biography. Perhaps that's the way the artist, who's alternately obscured and disseminated his identity and working methods, would like it.

[Esteban Galarza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amo este tipo de libros cuando están bien escritos y no se enquistan en describir un disco, sino que se expanden en hablar de una época, un movimiento musical y sus expansiones. El libro es muy ameno de leer tiene ricas fuentes. Particularmente no soy partidario del uso de primera persona porque da cuenta de los hilos de investigación en el recabado de información para la composición del texto, pero como todo lo que escribe es agradable lo pasé por alto esta vez.
Selected Ambient Works Volumen II está enraizado en la cultura rave pero con una pata en las experimentaciones de Brian Eno y al mismo tiempo su influencia llega a la música de cámara (algo tal vez impensado que se pueda hacer con alguien como Richard D. James).
En fin, celebro este pequeño libro y gustaré seguir comprando y leyendo la colección 33 1/3 que comenzó auspiciosamente.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was loving this at first. the author set a great stage for understanding the album and it's place in electronic music. but the approach fades out as we spend long stretches discussing the ways it's been appropriated in culture. just didn't seem like enough interest for a whole book I guess.

[Lyric Deagle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Godawful writing style. I'd rather sift through the primary sources myself then have this insufferable pseud interpret it for me. He did his homework but that's about all that went right with this one.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tidy and scholarly. Lots of meat, well reported.

[Thomas Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone even remotely fascinated with this legendary album.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Devoid of insights. One of the lesser entries in the great 33 1/3 series. Go listen to the album instead.

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gotta stop reading these things.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's about time someone wrote about this album - excellent too!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great syn-aesthetic descriptions of the tracks. Very well researched.

[Łukasz Langa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book about a mind-bending music album by Aphex Twin that I loved from my first listen. Later I call the album simply SAW2 for convenience.

The book is very thorough, in-depth, and thoughtfully narrated. That doesn’t mean it dissects the album track by track. No, it’s split into seven parts that dive into various aspects of SAW2 and its wider cultural context. There's information on everything: how the record isn't actually *beatless*, how the untitled tracks got their apocryphal names (some became official later!), how the record was reviewed at the time of its release, what Richard D. James' recording process looked like, how the rave culture influenced Richard and how his work influenced the rave culture, how fans organized before WWW, how the record penetrated unexpected territory (movie soundtrack, dance choreography background, classical reworks). It's a golden mine of information on the record, written in a very pleasant style.

The book’s final chapter discusses where Aphex Twin went after SAW2. Fascinatingly, Marc the book’s concluding passage reads “Perhaps, for all we know, [Richard D. James] is releasing music under as-yet undisclosed pseudonyms. Perhaps there is already new music out there, in the ether.” What Marc couldn’t have known at the time of this book’s writing is that a mere year after its release, RDJ would start publishing work anonymously on SoundCloud under a generic name user487363530. Over 100 tracks got published that way, out of which some fans chose 15 and built an unofficial Selected Ambient Works Vol. 3 (which you can find on YouTube). While no official record is bearing that name though (and likely never will), the ambience continues.

Highly recommended.

[Rjyan · Rating 1 out of 5]

It feels like the main third of this book has been avoided. There's a fine first third about the rave scene and Mr. James getting signed, there's a whatever last third about Amish people documentaries and Zooey Deschanel movies and Greenwich Village performance art projects that have used SAW2 tracks. I feel quite strongly that there should be a middle part about the actual music on the album that this is a book about. As some other reviews on here have noted, maybe 5-6 of the total two dozen songs are singled out in any way. About where a middle part should probably start, there's a confusing insistence on discussing whether or not the album is "beatless", which feels akin to pondering whether or not 2001 A Space Odyssey has an all-ape cast. Man manages to talk about the pictures that are the titles of these songs for quite a while without ever seeming to wonder, "When were these pictures taken? Was the intention in taking them specifically related to this album and/or these tracks? Were the pictures assigned to music after it was already made, or was any of the music's creation influenced by its picture? Where and how was the image on the album's cover created? Are the credits really etched into the bottom of a synthesizer? Was that a spontaneous decision? And speaking of synthesizers, What fn instruments made these sounds? How much of what we're hearing was sequenced vs played live? Were any of these tracks slowed down in post or are we hearing the tempos as originally recorded? Whose voices are those in the couple tracks where we can hear slivers of human voice? This is all hardware, no computer right? Over how long a span of time were these tracks written?" or any of the other things you & I would obviously be wondering.

[Raúl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A full-book-review of one of my favourite music albums of all time? Looks like a fantastic prospect, so I jumped into reading this account of Aphex Twin's absolute weird 1994 masterpiece 'Selected Ambient Works Volume II'.

The book is an examination of all things related to the album, from its very sound to its musical and social context and its closest relatives in ambient music. It's a pretty short read, but still packs a lot of information that you wouldn't know even as a hardcore fan of it. The author was lucky enough to interview Aphex Twin himself -- or maybe not so lucky... the man seems like a pretty difficult person to understand. But he put together an impresive essay about a mesmerizing yet seemingly impenetrable piece of music writing.

Personally I found this impressive if a bit too cold -- this is one of my favourite albums so I wouldn't have been able to avoid trying to put into words my own impressions about it, rather than maybe so much data. I guess this is what comes when you're a fan rather than an investigator and writer! But nevertheless, if you like this album, and music writing in general, this is a great choice for sure.

[D A Calf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hampered by too many spurious connections and circuitous arguments. Some of Weidenbaum's segues are so amazingly long-bowed that they should be accompanied by slide whistle.

While there is some great information in here (and I'm certainly not taking issue with it from a nerd-expert nitpicking position), the piece as a whole lacks proper flow. Weidenbaum seems to battle for an angle and thus gets bogged down in taking issue with the labeling of SAWII as 'beatless'. From there it jumps through a series of disparate contexts populated by a cast of folk who once had something to do with Richard D. James.

It's often mentioned that this series is for the nerds but I believe a well written installment should be able to impress someone who's never even encountered the titular album. I've certainly had that experience with other installments. I'm not sure this one would have that effect.

[Patrick McFarland · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love this album and it has helped me deal with a lot of election stress this year, so I was hoping to immerse myself in it further with this book, but this was insufferable. This guy is not a good storyteller and has no sense of pacing. Any description of the music is overwritten and overwrought. Most of the history is dedicated to lengthy, boring diatribes about label politics, critic reviews, and forum discussions. A lot of the ideas at the center of these diatribes are interesting - early internet fan communities, “beatless” as an ineffective label, the lack of song titles - but they’re burdened with excessive examples and overanalysis. This is a tiny book, only about 130 pages, but I feel like a 5-page abstract would communicate most of its ideas way more effectively.

Also the White Album came out in 1968, not 1969

[Caleb Sommerville · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Weidenbaum teeters on the edge of pretentiousness, he never quite tips over. And, blessedly in the opinion-rife 33 1/3 series, he's able to supplement his largely good subjective takes with ACTUAL FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS AND SOURCES (a breath of fresh air, let me tell you), which elevates the whole book yet again.
Oddly enough, it's the entirely expected almost-absence of James himself (I do appreciate that Weidenbaum insists on calling him Aphex Twin throughout the book) that frustrates me the most. Surely the reclusive genius himself would want to weigh in on his most mysterious record? Well...it kinda fits that there's so little from him in here.
I was very much pleasantly surprised by the small William Gibson "cameo" in here as well. Who knew that one of my favorite authors would be relevant to my 24th favorite musician (thank you last.fm)?

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can see why people would be disappointed by this installment of the 33 1/3 series if they were expecting a track-by-track breakdown of the album or more artist insights, but I think the way Marc approaches this is unique record is fabulous. I think of it less in terms of expectations and more in terms of how the book expanded my understanding of the album. I don't think I would have gotten much out of someone deconstructing every track and the sounds, rhythms, and chords being used--I can do that myself. But Marc provides a lot of history and context here that I wouldn't have had easy access to, and they're insights that will actually make me listen to this album differently, which I find to be much more valuable.

[Isaiah Espinoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed reading this series and have found it leads to giving some albums a reevaluation or make me appropriate them more. I thought this one would be a little different. After all there are no songs and even for it being instrumental it doesn’t groove. As the author mentions multiple people have described it as beatless. Omitted is the usual chapter breaking down the track list. Here the author focuses on how it became more popular as it went in being used as inspiration for films and for dance pieces.

[Stefan · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. There is some good information in here (for example the story behind the word-titles of the songs) and some very interesting passages. However, for me, Weidenbaum looses focus very quickly and the majority of the book is about topics (people, other albums, adaptations, movies, etc.) related to the brilliant album by Aphex Twin. There are so many songs on this record but he only discusses a few of them.
I understand that context is important but — at least for me — a book like this should focus on the album that makes up its title.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writer doesn’t try to hide that a lot of this book is only tangentially about the album. It’s theoretically interesting and i admire the roundabout path he took to writing about a musician who is as interview shy as Aphex Twin, but the more the material veered into the politics of music labels and the like, the more it lost me. That said, he makes an incredible argument against the “beatlessness” of the album that he hammers in pretty hard near the end, and for that alone it’s worth a read!