post your best aphex mixes

whenever i burn someone some aphex the selection and sequence is different, its a strange meditation. one of my favorites i call aphex for babies, i made it for my friend and her young son who is energetic. it's relaxing songs, and it works to calm the kid. it goes like this:

avril 14th

z twig

cliffs

ageispolis

i

iz-us

blue calx

nanou 2

lichen

parallel stripes

rhubarb

post your best rdj mixes, and, if u want, the stories behind them

I like that you kept Ageispolis and I in their original order, they go so well together.

Jynthweythek Ylow

Vordhosbn

Tha

Come On You Slags!

To Cure A Weakling Child

Xtal

Journey (Aphex Twin Care Mix)

Mt Saint Michel + St Michaels Mount

Avril 14th

Wax The Nip

Z Twig

Alberto Balsalm

Heliosphan

Nannou

Flim

Heliosphan

Girl/Boy Song

Afx237 v7

On (Reload Mix)

Next Heap With

Well I just made an introductory Aphex Twin mix for a friend. My goal was to represent the different styles and moods of Aphex Twin in one coherent listening experience, without one style or tracks from one album dominating the playlist. I tried to make all the songs flow into one another yet keep things changing and I avoided plugging the obvious favourites and most well-known tracks because I wanted to leave room for my friend to discover some great tracks on his own if he so wanted. If a favourite song of mine didn't seem to fit in the playlist, I left it out, however brilliant the track was. Here's the playlist and some comments:

Acrid Avid Jam Shred: a pleasant slow jam that sets up a mood (though the last two minutes after the pads fade out go on for nothing).

kladfvgbung micshk: to introduce a weird mood of mystery

xmd 5a: continues the piano theme, introduces relaxed breakbeats and acid bass lines, rises tension.

gwely merlans: the FX outro of the previous track flows well with the cavernous analogue sound of this ambient track

Flow Coma remix: here an abrupt change somewhat, to keep things moving and rise tension and energy. Still dark, but a little fun.

Mt-St-Michel mix: continues the acid breakbeat thing, starts with a lot of energy but morphs into something more emotional and sparse, rises tension yet again, showcases tour-de-force digital programming that keeps eveloving for every bar for 7 minutes.

Backdoor.spyboter.a: time to take the tension down a few notches after a very busy track, this is a simple relaxing riff that yet continues the acid theme, still has a good beat that makes you nod your head, clean analogue sounds

fingerbib: emerging out of a dark mood after a long patch, still with analogue bubbly pleasant sounds

avril 14th: setting up a "solo" beatless section of the playlist

beetles: a weird, short lullabye before going to sleep

curtains: I like the sound of the chimes in curtains following those of beetles, seems like a logical progression. perhaps hard to listen to the whole 8:30 minutes of this track in this position, but this was the best spot for SAWII material as far as I could see.

blur: the only place where two tracks from the same album played back-to-back on the playlist, but I'd rather have one go of hypnotic repetitive ambient beats rather than slow down the mix in two spots. Reintroduces beats into the mix.

pancake lizard: after a long quiet hypnotic patch, time to bring in a more immediate and enjoyable song to the mix with brighter emotions. has a beat similar to blur.

ventolin (crowsmengegus mix): my favourite part of the mix. The first two minutes are a bit repetitive, but they are playfully noisy and exciting. Then the jazzy machine drum part comes in as a surprise and is the hilight of the mix for me. the respect list is a rapid-fire WTF moment that abruptly cuts to:

Start as you mean to go on: reintroduces energy into the mix, showcases the distorted sound of the on-ICBYD period, is way aggro but still has a gentle happy mood

yellow calx: keeps up with the rapid beats and gentle happy feeling (with some melancholy), points the mix to its conclusion with a raise in emotivity and insistence

Alspacka: takes the BPMs down a little bit, but still a good housey beat. mostly a relaxed set-up for the next track.

ziggomatic17: in my mind, the ultimate tour-de-force of Aphex Twin, though not the easiest song to get into, but a very rich and dense song with many beautiful micro-tracks mixed one into another into a very flowing structure.

at this point, nobody can continue listening to this in one go without taking a break (i did try and I gave up at this point), so in retrospect I would consider this the proper end of the mix. but I did include a few more tracks in the playlist I gave to my friend before testing it.

Hangable Auto Bulb: wanted to showcase this album but found no good spot elsewhere in the mix

Alberto Balsalm, after the apocalyptic ending of the previous track, I thought it was a good time for this soothing melancholic gem

Boxing day: a simple track, but emotional and somewhat climactic

Bodmin 3: a powerful track that rises and rises without going to extreme and resorting to tricks. just a good solid composition and sounds straight out of an analogue synth.

Flim could have worked in this mix, but the MP3 I have of it has very annoyingly a few miliseconds of the noisy start of Little Lord Faulteroy on its tail and I was too lazy to edit the mp3 and reencode it.

Epilogue: I don't think my friend cared much for the mix or its sequencing, but he did like some of the songs, and I had fun putting it together.

I wrote an alternate to Chosen Lords a while back. It's all tracks from the original Analord series, and at 1:10:17, it would fit on a real CD.

1. Lisbon Acid

2. Boxing Day

3. Canticle Drawl

4. I'm Self Employed

5. Medievil Rave 1

6. VBS.Redlof.B

7. 2 Analogue Talks

8. Pitcard

9. Home Made Polysynth

10. Backdoor.Netshadow

11. MC-4 Acid

12. Medievil Rave 2

13. Bwoon Dub

14. PWSteal.Bancos.Q

15. Backdoor.Ranky.S

Starts off solid with Lisbon Acid and goes through some pleasant transitions along the way. Gets a bit mellower in the second half, before Analord 09 jolts upright with its manic sirens. Backdoor.Ranky.S closes the mix nicely.