Day 0709 - Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" (1992)

Richard D James AKA Aphex Twin had, by this point, moved to London, started a record label with Grant Wilson-Claridge, and released a few EPs.   However, this compilation actually constitutes his first full-length long-playing release. 

James was born in 1971, meaning that some of these tracks were written/recorded when he was only 13 or 14 years old.   By all accounts he seems to have been an audio experimenter from a young age, tweaking, rebuilding, and otherwise fiddling with synthesizers and computers.

The tracks are (aside from a sample of the Willy Wonka "we are the music makers...." quote) entirely instrumental.  The bleeps and bloops, sparse beats and bass lines with synthy shadings are well ahead of their time, even without taking into account James' young age when making them.... "start as you mean to go on" as they say.

Day 0663 - Straight Outta Compton

N.W.A. "Straight Outta Compton" (1989)

We wrap up the 1980s with another classic rap release.   Oddly, this album was funded via a canny marketing move from Priority Records, who licensed and released an album by the fictional group 'The California Raisins' who had hit it big with their cover of 'Heard it on the Grapevine'.



Eazy E assembled the group of DJs and MCs, and put together an undeniable slice of gangster rap.   Whereas Public Enemy brought their 'wall of noise' and De La Soul, their pop-leaning sample-based tracks, N.W.A. just lay down sparse rhythms with some scratches and a few well-placed sounds and beats-by-Dre (and Yella) to create the backing for Eazy-E, Ice Cube and Mc Ren to rhyme over. 

The tracks are famously aggressive, packed with violence, which the group were accused of glorifying, but as they pointed out, they were just reporting on what life was actually like in their neighbourhood.  The opening salvo of "Straight outta Compton" "Fuck Tha Police" and "Gangsta Gangsta" set the scene, but the album holds its own throughout the duration.

The mix of the three MCs works really well and adds variety enough to keep things spicey across the album's runtime.