- published: 09 Jun 2014
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Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is an ambient techno album by Richard D. James under the pseudonym of Aphex Twin. This is his third release and debut studio album under this alias. It was released in 1992 on the Belgian techno label Apollo. An analogue remaster was released in 2006, and a digital remaster was released in 2008. Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is considered by many to be the threshold album in modern ambient music as well as one of the pioneering works in intelligent dance music and electronic dance music.
Having been a club DJ in the late 1980s and early 1990s in his home of Cornwall, James had learned about new music techniques and rhythm patterns. With the club scene under his belt, and with a small underground following, James went on to release SAW 85-92, which was mostly recorded before he started DJing and consisted of instrumental songs that were mostly beat-oriented.
A remastered SAW 85–92 Compact Disc was released by Apollo/R&S Records on 8 April 2008. The remastered 12" vinyl record was released in 2006.
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is a British electronic musician and composer. He founded the record label Rephlex Records in 1991 with Grant Wilson-Claridge. He was described by The Guardian as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music."
Aphex Twin has also recorded music under the aliases AFX, Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, Caustic Window, DJ Smojphace, GAK, Martin Tressider, Polygon Window, Power-Pill, Prichard D. Jams, Q-Chastic, Tahnaiya Russell, The Dice Man, Soit-P.P., and speculatively The Tuss.
Aphex Twin has released recordings on Rephlex, Warp, R&S, Sire, Mighty Force, Rabbit City, and Men Records.
Richard David James was born to Welsh parents Lorna and Derek James in St. Munchin's Limerick Regional Maternity Hospital, Ireland. He grew up in Lanner, Cornwall, enjoying, along with two older sisters, a "very happy" childhood during which they, according to James, "were pretty much left to do what [they] wanted." He "liked growing up there, being cut off from the city and the rest of the world". James attended Redruth School, located in Redruth, Cornwall.