1993

CAT 008 and 008 CD, CAT 00897, CAT 008 LP - AFX in his third Analogue Bubblebath

Amongst the people I talk to and from what I've read online, this is not one of Rich's most popular releases (couldn't have anything to do with the nightmare described above, noooo). Personally, its a favorite because I think this is where he started to really define the variety of styles he would be working under for the next seven or eight years. His stuff before this was much harder, more squelchy and acided out. He was more on the Braindance tip with these tracks. Of course, he supposedly releases stuff that's been done for three years on average, so I guess it's just that the batch of tracks he chose for this one (three times) work for me.

.0180871R (No, really. That's the title.)

.000890569 (Song starts after the motor winds down. And yes, that's the way it's tracked on the CD. )

.1993841 (A lot of people don't like this track, it's too repetitive for them. I can get lost in this track for far longer than would be considered healthy.)

1993

CAT 008 and 008 CD, CAT 00897, CAT 008 LP - AFX in his third Analogue Bubblebath

This track was released elsewhere, a different version of it of course, with the title of Analogue Bubblebath 3, so that's what I'm going to call it.

Analogue Bubblebath 3 (Some scary, dark ambient shit a couple years before Selected Ambient Works Vol 2)

.942937 (Stuff like this is why people followed Rich to the point of near worship back in the day. Nobody makes tracks like this. Not back then, and not now.)

AB3.1 SB T3, or, Smelly Cunts (Haha! Drugs are bad, mmmkay! This is the track from the AB3.1 vinyl release that I was hoping would be on YouTube. This track comes after a lock groove - so you actually have to pick the needle and move it if you want to hear it. Warning: A lot of nasty, dirty words are said.

Deviation...

Its my thread and I can do whatever I want!

Since we just covered AB3, there's really no better place or time than right here, right now, to do AB1 and AB2.

Originally released by The Aphex Twin (Rich's first release) in September, 1991 (and a re-release in 1993) on Mighty Force Records, it was then re-released on TVT Records sometime in 1994. The Mighty Force version is very hard to find as all of the pressings were fairly small. The TVT version is the cover most people know and it's very easy to find as they've pressed LARGE amounts of it on vinyl and CD over the years.

I'm probably beyond the ability to give an unbiased opinion on this music. To me, all four tracks on this release are absolute classics. Here are those four tracks in their original order. Keep in mind, this was released in 1991...

1991

The Aphex Twin/AFX - Analogue Bubblebath

Analogue Bubblebath

Isospropophlex

Entrance To Exit

AFX2

1991

December, to be exact. Tired of the tracks he was hearing at raves in England, Rich wrote this; Digeridoo. From what I've been told, it melted brains (I don't even remember hearing it at raves here, but I might have - I didn't know Rich's music until late 1993). The original hand stamped, white label pressing was called Analogue Bubblebath 2 and only 1000 of them exist (at most). There was two songs on b-side, but I personally think they're both crap. Two of the worst pieces of music he ever released. That's most likely why there was a Digeridoo EP released very quickly in 1992 with three new songs included. That EP and the compilation it eventually ended up on ('Classics') have sold untold numbers.

So, from Analogue Bubblebath 2 and the Digeridoo EP, here's the timeless acid classic...

Digeridoo

Bonus...

On Nov 14, 1993 I saw Young American Primitive, Vapour Space, Aphex Twin, Orbital and Moby with DJ Tim from the Utah Saints and DJ Jeno from the SF based Wicked collective live in San Francisco. At that point I was already going to raves several nights a week and I was already having a great time that night. I was with two people I was very close to (one who is still my best friend) and I was geeked out of my mind on multiple illicit substances. Then Aphex Twin played and my world was turned upside down, backwards and shaken vigorously all at the same time. Changed what I thought of electronic music forever in 45 minutes.

Seven years later, in the Summer of 2000, I found a crappy recording of the Aphex Twin set from that night on Audiogalaxy.

Eight years after that, on Nov 13, 2008, I ran those tracks through Audacity - did some editing and moved some parts around, boosted the volume and bass, did some equalization on everything else - created videos and posted them to YouTube.

Here's some crazy noise track and Digeridoo from that night, Nov 14, 1993, mashed together...

Both tracks in this video are one of a number of tracks he played live in 1993 that have never been released. Not that unusual, though - its actually something he's done on pretty much every live/DJ tour he's been a part of (another example below this one). The first track is a great, danceable braindance piece, the second one is a hardcore wrecker. Messed up my head something fierce that night.

Untitled/Untitled (Although somebody left a YouTube comment saying the first track is called Polycid. Not sure how anybody would know that unless it was Rich. Which is possible, because he messes with YouTube all the time.)

And here's a completely unrelated but lovely unreleased Aphex Twin track that he dropped during DJ sets in 2010. This one was May 15, 2010 in... I don't know... France or something. Really is a beautiful track, though. I hope it sees release someday, but I doubt it will.

Untitled

I'm annoyed that my space thread got moved to P&R. I might come back to this later. More likely I'll be back tomorrow.