Aphex Twin top 200 - 120-101

120. The Tuss: Shiz Ko E (2007)

Is Aphex Twin the Tuss? Yes. The gimmicky alter ego aside, there are too many clues here for coincidence - the label, the secrecy, the Martin Tressider references. And, of course, the music itself - as densely layered as the Drukqs material, but somehow more human, more clearly just a little bit of fun. Like this piece here. Listen.

119. Aphex Twin: At the Heart of it All (1995)

A Nine Inch Nails remix by Aphex Twin - it doesn't quite make sense, really. But this slow-burning quasi-orchestral piece is exactly that. A sort of junior partner to Icct Hedral, this nonetheless carries its own unique appeal. Listen.

118. Polygon Window: Untitled (1993)

Tear-inducing acid laced with an emphatic organ lament. Aphex at his most distressingly intense. Listen.

117. Bradley Strider: Bradley's Robot A2 (1993)

Even many die-hard Aphex fans don't have this record - and I am among them. The Strider material is a hodge-podge of good and bad, but this dispassionate piece is perhaps the finest of the bunch. Listen.

116. Aphex Twin: Hankie (1994)

Perhaps the most unforgivingly bleak moment in Aphex's long career - and certainly one of the most often-played tracks from the SAW 2 album, Hankie - as it is known - is a strange, almost classical piece of terribly strident potency. Listen.

115. Caustic Window: Italic Eyeball (1992)

One of the few Caustic pieces where the foot is taken a little off the accelerator. Confused, reversed melodies gather over a menacing beat - and are then subverted by light, airy keyboard notes. Listen.

114. Polygon Window: Audax Powder (1992)

Part ambient bliss, part percussive insanity - this is as oddly schizophrenic as anything in the AFX catalogue. Listen.

113. AFX: W32.Deadcode.A (2005)

For a record so recent in the discography, Analord is a distinctly conservative body of work. It clearly aims to be an ode of some sort to acid music, though, and this is one of the high points of the series. Listen.

112. Aphex Twin: Pulsewidth (1992)

Aphex at his chirpy, playful early best. Listen.

111. AFX: Cilonen (2005)

Such an odd, sliding melody. James again plumbs the depths of his love of early acid music. Listen.

110. Caustic Window: Astroblaster (1992)

Persistent, unwavering, earth-crushing rave. Listen.

109. DMX Krew: You Can't Hide Your Love (Aphex Twin Mix) (1997)

Bittersweet bliss. From an unpromising original, Aphex pared back, refined, and here turned around one of his miraculously poppy numbers. Listen.

108. Aphex Twin: Fenix Funk 5 (2005)

The first thing many Aphex fans heard from the Analord series, when it jolted scratchily into life at the start of Chosen Lords. Still bearing some of the hallmarks of the Drukqs era, this piece feels like a bridge between that album and much of the other, more nostalgic works in the Analord collection. Listen.

107. Caustic Window: Cordialatron (1992)

If the Caustic Window compilation is Richard David James at his most zealously acid-crunching, Italic Eyeball is a moment of welcome relief. A simple melody and a quick-fingered, mazy refrain are all it takes to keep this number ticking along - and, gladly, it all somehow works. Listen.

106. Aphex Twin: Hedphelym (1992)

Probably the most discordant piece on Selected Ambient Works by a distance, this is techno played at twilight in dimly lit caves. Possibly. Listen.

105. Aphex Twin: Curtain (1994)

Eeriness defined. It's hard to understand how a piece about a curtain could be so unsettling, but this really is. And it's incredible to think that this was made by the same person who released Flaphead just two years earlier. Listen.

104. AFX: Arched Maid Via RDJ (1995)

I was so excited at the release of Hangable Autobulb 2, I bought it as a 12" the moment it came out - even though I didn't have a record player. I've only heard the vinyl itself at friends' houses once or twice since then - but it's one of the darkest and most compelling pieces from RDJ's drill 'n' bass period. Listen.

103. Aphex Twin: Ventolin (Plain-An-Gwarry Mix) (1995)

A deeper, funkier version of Cow Cud is a Twin, this is one of the many fine pieces on the Ventolin EP set. Listen.

102. Aphex Twin: Start As You Mean To Go On (1995)

I read somewhere that I Care Because You Do is the ultimate expression of IDM in the 1990s. Which I think is unfair to Aphex, really, as his music rarely descends into the formulaic in the way that much IDM so often did. And this piece sums that up as well as any. Listen.

101. Soft Ballet: Sand Lowe (The Polygon Window Remix) (1993)

One of the least well-known of all the Aphex remixes, this is easily one of the best. Slow, crunching rhythms - and the inaugural wail borrowed from Garden of Linmiri - rumble beneath a soft, looping, undulating melody that is pierced by a despairing vocal. Uncomfortably good. Listen.