Xtal
The opening track of Selected Ambient Works 85-92, built around a blurred female vocal sample.
Aphex Twin, from Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)
- Written by
- Richard D. James
- Released
- 1992
- Length
- 4:51
- Album
- Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Xtal opens Selected Ambient Works 85-92. DJ Mag's Ben Murphy likened its fuzzy melodies and blurred female vocal to the shoegaze of Seefeel and My Bloody Valentine. The voice is a sample of 'Evil At Play' by Steve Jeffries, Mary Carewe and Donald Greig. The producer Paul White said he found the source years later on a Chappell Music library record, and laughed because James had made it sound beautiful to him rather than haunting.
White first heard the album at about 16 or 17, at the BRIT School, and said he played Xtal and the second track, Tha, over and over, recording them repeatedly onto a side of a cassette. Pitchfork's Philip Sherburne, writing in 2019, named Xtal and Pulsewidth as examples of the pumping breakbeats and drum machines that set the album apart from the gentle ambient music Brian Eno had proposed.
More songs by Aphex Twin
Analogue Bubblebath, Ageispolis, Come to Daddy, Windowlicker, Avril 14th
Sources
- Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Wikipedia
- Paul White salutes the world-building genius of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Fact (2017-02-12)
- Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Volume II, Pitchfork (2019-05-05)