Aphex Twin top 200 - 100-81

100. Aphex Twin: Hexagon (1994)

Beat-laden, consciously pretty piece that presages the trip hop-esque explorations of I Care Because You Do. Listen.

99. Polygon Window: If It Really Is Me (1993)

Simplicity in electronics. A quick piano riff, a couple of uneasy chords and some muttered, breathless vocals - what else do you need? Listen.

98. Aphex Twin: Weathered Stone (1994)

Years ago, when Aphex had just burst on the scene, Grant Wilson-Claridge spoke of an unreleased hip-hop track by James that had blown him away when he first heard it. I've no idea what the piece was, and whether it was ever released, but I always wondered whether this slow, slightly funky cut might have been it. Listen.

97. Caustic Window: Joyrex J5 (1992)

Although the Analord series as a whole was enjoyable, for pure acid pleasure, the early Caustic Window releases are far more potent. Joyrex J5 was one of the first pieces to exhibit pure Jamesian idiom - a mixture of sonic mayhem and a strange, lingering melancholy. Listen.

96. Aphex Twin: Shiny Metal Rods (1994)

Probably the track that got me hooked on Aphex, this was the first piece on Selected Ambient Works II that actually made any sense to me as a 15-year-old. It's lost some of its power now to surprise me, but it is still an intense piece, opening a window on a wild, weird, desperate world. Listen.

95. Aphex Twin: White Blur (1994)

It might surprise some people that this is in the list at all. It's the two minute piece that wraps up the first half of SAW II. But I have always found it intriguing. Something about those slowed down, enigmatic conversations gets me every time. Listen.

94. AFX: CAT 00897-A2 (1993)

Analogue Bubblebath 3 ends with this weirdly striking, acid-heavy dirge. Despite the seeming scarcity of variety in the piece, it's strangely memorable - even though it ends drearily, with the gurgling sound of a plughole. Listen.

93. Aphex Twin: Grass (1994)

Another funereal piece from SAW II that could only ever have been penned by James. It's a sort of death march heard from a million miles away. Listen.

92. Meat Beat Manifesto: Mindstream (The Aphex Twin Remix) (1993)

On-era dream techno, from the same source material that triggered Orbital's masterful - and very different - Remind. Where Orbital stamp hard on the beats and crank up the frequencies, Aphex goes for a delicate, soft focus reverie. Listen.

91. Aphex Twin: Parallel Stripes (1994)

One of the most singular pieces in the Aphex canon, this could have been released a decade later and not have seemed out of place. Drone music, pure and simple. Listen.

90. Aphex Twin: Girl/Boy Song (£18 Snare Rush Mix) (1996)

Does in less than two minutes what Squarepusher has been trying to do for his whole career. The quintessence of early drill 'n' bass conjoined to a spectacular slow jam hip hop lament. Amazing.

89. Aphex Twin: Ptolemy (1992)

Of a piece with Pulsewidth on the same album, this has some similarities with Model 500 and the Detroit masters in whose footsteps AFX followed. But James infuses this with his own sad, squelching twist. Listen.

88. The Tuss: Alspacka (2007)

Inner City's Big Fun reimagined as West Country acid oddity. Listen.

87. Aphex Twin: Actium (1992)

The swansong from Selected Ambient Works. After 70 minutes of ecstatic highs and harsh, intense lows, this track just levels everything out, allowing the album to fade away beatifically. Listen.

86. Aphex Twin: Radiator (1994)

After the blissful opening piece on SAW 2, track number two jars us horribly to life. It's cacophony personified. And yet, once you get used to the dissonance, it is a remarkable, arresting number that could only have been produced by James himself. Incomparable.

85. Aphex Twin: Peek 824545201 (1996)

It is a sign of how strong the Richard D. James Album is that this is one of the weakest tracks on it. But its mesmerising melody, overladen as it is with bittersweet chords, would stand out on almost any other record. Listen.

84. Aphex Twin: Petiatil Cx Htdui (2001)

Easily the best instrumental piece on Drukqs, and the only one to really suggest James could force his sensibility to shine through on any instrument. Listen.

83. Aphex Twin: White Blur 2 (1994)

For many years, I found this piece valueless. But there is something genuinely, unnervingly powerful about it. That wonky, discordant refrain that at first seems so grating, and that weird, distorted laughter, merge through loop after loop, into something strange, chilling - haunting. Listen.

82. The Gentle People: Journey (Aphex Twin Care Mix) (1995)

Another Aphex remix that transforms completely the source material, this takes on the languid air of a French disco track played at 10bpm. Listen.

81. Polygon Window: Portreath Harbour (1993)

Did this only see the light of day in 2001? I'm not sure, having picked up the Surfing On Sine Waves album in its original form long before the US re-release. But it's easily one of the best pieces from the Polygon Window period - making its exclusion from the original release all the more confusing. Listen.