YOU'VE GOT SO MANY MACHINES, RICHARD

musical faces

30 minutes should be ok

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In interviews (of dubious sincerity, of course), James has suggested that the record was in part informed by his considerable experience with lucid dreaming. While you have to take that with a grain of salt, Selected Ambient Works Volume II does have a definite dream-like quality. Unlike the first, more conventional sounding Selected Ambient Works 85-92, each song eases in and out seamlessly when the time is right. There are definite boundary points, as each track is its own fully formed piece; “Blue Calx” hardly bleeds into “Parallel Stripes”, which again differs greatly from “Shiny Metal Rods”. But while there is hardly any blending between songs, they each wash over into one another, as two separate dreams might over the course of a night. In this respect, it’s a remarkably abstract, hands-off album. James’ compositions feel as though they’re guided by an unconscious, fluid expressiveness. Selected Ambient Works Volume II isn’t exactly engaging, but it doesn’t aim to push listeners away either. What it does to is offer a window into a world which is both vivid, entrancing, and worth every second.

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