Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (As it was created?)

  On 10/26/2011 at 9:17 PM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

I wish that they would release a complete Aphex boxset so that the whole world would be aware of how much work this guy has actually put out.

  On 10/27/2011 at 1:53 AM, marf said:

hes had too many aliases. might be impossible. im not a lawyer though

The biggest issue would be the cross-label usage of his aliases - With the exception of Hangable Auto Bulb on WARP (and the AFX/LFO split), all his AFX output has been on Rephlex (along with Analord, Caustic Window, and The Tuss), whereas Aphex Twin has appeared on R&S and WARP, along with Polygon Window also on WARP. I don't know if we should count the "one off" aliases like PowerPill or Bradley Strider.

The biggest issue with a "complete works" would be the sheer number of discs!

Plus I doubt Pac-Man or Expert Knob Twiddlers are strictly legal, given all their samples, unless they really went to the trouble of clearing them all, which would explain why they've been out of print for so long. That and if you charge a price appropriate to the volume of music, no one would pay it all in one go, which is why you don't see whole discographies for sale very often. Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and a few other popular groups being a good exception to this... The rights of the different record labels to different RDJ monikers and releases is probably the biggest stumbling point. Just look at 26 Mixes for Cash on CD (26 tracks, as you'd imagine) compared to the download (a mere 2 tracks), for instance.

It's a good job I'd rather see a re-release of Selected Ambient Works Volume II with all the different tracks, as that'd at least be possible to pull off because Warp owns the rights to them all. Not that I'm bothered, I just bought On and Excursions in Ambience: The Third Dimension. Sorted. ^.^