this always feels like you've stepped out from a rave to grab a smoke and you're just processing the vibes while you can still hear the music from outside

Aphex is timeless. Richard released that track 28 years ago and it sounds even fresher and more relevant today.

the kind of music you want as background when you are having a nice moment and want to keep it as a memory.

I grew up in the countryside as a child, and whenever there was a snow day and school was cancelled, me and my best friend would take the wheels off our skateboards and use them as snowboards on all the newly formed slopes. I would have Xtal & Pulsewidth playing on my mp3 player as the soundtrack to those snow days, I don't know why but something about those two tracks really suited the snowy landscape. Now whenever I hear these tracks as an adult, I get the strongest sense of nostalgia and those magical snowy childhood memories all come flooding back. I can't thank Aphex Twin enough for creating this music. If you ever happen to read this, Richard - thank you for making my childhood just that extra bit more special :)

I first heard this track xtal when my friend handed me his headphones sitting on the bow of a ferry from Rottnest island to Perth Australia at dusk in 2001. With flat calm water, a warm breeze & the lights of Perth in the distance, this tune takes me back there everytime.

Every time I test a pair of headphones, it's tradition for this song to be the first song to listen to. If this song doesn't sound good, the headphones aren't good.

This song feels like drinking a cold water at 3am

I will love this record until the day I die.

This music is an alarm clock for the soul

I wish I could listen to this song for the first time again so badly.

I love the airy feel this song has

Aphex Twin has made such beautiful music that has actually helped me through some tough times and that is super impressive for a sound that rarely EVER has lyrics. When you hear this stuff, you can ACTUALLY FEEL SOMETHING. Richard is a very talented and creative person, I want to meet him one day.

Every time i jam this album..it inspires me to write and record..

If I ever come across Richard one day, I won't bother him too much, I'll just thank him for Xtal and tell him that I love him. That's it.

This song is like standing outside in the snow late at night with yellowed lights that only slightly illuminate the area around you but just enough to make you feel safe and cozy

I used to play this on loop whilst sinking off into a K-hole, always felt like I was in a elevator going up to a different dimension lol. This is definitely the music they would play in the elevator up to heaven!

This feels like when you play Aphex Twin's "Xtal"

I feel like I’m walking down an elongated hallway in a hospital while listening to this. I feel like I’m in an empty train station while listening to this. I feel like I’m in heaven while listening to this.

This song feels like going on a bike joyride with your friends on a chilly summer night

twenty six years later is still fresher than most of modern music

This song is timeless. ridiculously good

This song feels warm and cold at the same time

yummers

I remember the first time when I heard of Aphex, it was through his grammy win in 2014. At the time, I only listened to electronic music in the form of house and synthpop, and when I heard Syro and the RDJ album, I was turned off on how cold and calculated it sounded. But then I found out about his 2 Selected Ambient Works albums, and that was when I was struck by the wonderment of it all. And it all started with this song.

weird that this is 30 years old. feels so much newer

The disbelief when i found out xtal was made in the 90s is unexplainable

the best aphex twin song..

its 2019 and you took a trip with 3 friends to small seaside city in Poland called Łeba. after arriving at 10pm you take lsd night pass by Sun starts to rise around 4am you sit at the beach and sky is 100% pink you put this track on everything you see is pink sky, empty beach and local fishmens on their boats starting day on the ocean. nobody speaks. wonderful

Hauntingly Beautiful.

This is my go to song for coping with depression

music to exist to.

Listening now I can recall the smells, the places, the friends of 28 years ago when I first heard it. Still vibrant, still brilliant.

this song never gets old

I first heard this when a buddy visited me at my new place ,when I first moved out of home, rolled my first spliff to christen the new pad... I lit it, and he pressed play on the CD player... MAGIC

Absolutely tranquility with a little bit of madness flung in. 😊

this one of the best songs ever made

I'm gay

prob the best song ever made

this song is so damn beautiful, I just wan't to cry

I think it’s the only song i’ve ever heard that makes you wanna both dance and chill, it’s both cool, dancy music but also relaxing ambient

listening to this on a really good bluetooth speaker, on a big boulder aside the waves clashing and just looking at the sky full of star, the lucky thing is that there is not much light pollution so the sky is ungodly clear and as you and your best friend are just here smoking on a blunt that is not too harsh and just enough to feel your body float and ascend to a greater world where the only things you care are about space philosophy and debate. It's to this day one of the best night I've ever lived thru (even if some other friends didn't feel the same and felt like brainrot debate was a better thing to do) I will never forget this experience or for the vibe giver that made everything possible : Aphex twin

I had myself a wee journey a couple of weeks ago out in a local national park, just me, the milky way, a bunch of pademelons and this track. That memory is going to be with me for a very long time. Thanks RDJ

I heard this at Woodstock '94. He opened with Xtal and the audience went silent.

I absolutely love this song, I can listen to it on repeat for days and never get bored. For me this song is my soundtrack for life. As today is my birthday and I'm here listening to this masterpiece to calm me through this rollecoaster of life

Richard really managed to capture the inherent beauty of natural electromagnetism tbh . everything in this track feels like its sparkling, like a crystal

I guess I have a new favorite song. i never heard it before and it's just beautiful 😊

Probably my favourite track of his. Compared to so much of his later stuff - more simple, more soul.

This is the only song I have listened to for 3 days with no other songs playing. Even though I could swear I’ve never heard it before it transports me back to days when I was happy. I’m not saying I’m not happy now, I’m just saying this song made me happier.

I used to listen to this alot while skateboarding around deserted Portland Oregon during the pandemic. The track made me forget everything and just enjoy the blue sky and cruising down the street.

Don’t ask who’s here in 2021, because we never left ))

It's like, like blissful bliss

" I feel like a time traveler "

imagina produzir um dos melhores álbuns da história da música tendo apenas 14 anos, instrumentos feitos à mão por ele mesmo, e fitas danificadas. um gênio.

track still feels new its amazing fr

This was way ahead of its time

The fact that this song was produced in the late 80s/early 90s is incredible, it sounds very fresh.

It's like taking a shower in an incredibly large pool.

i remember showing this song to a really close friend of mine while we were walking around an empty festival season downtown chicago. the shimmers in the river almost seemed to match up with the twinkly synths and i fell in love with life again

This song sounds like when you're swimming underwater and paddling your feet on the surface, and it reminds me of this strange place or dream I had when I was younger. Almost felt like the place you are before you're born, just floating in bright blue sky along the clouds.

I get a good mood from the song somehow

Beautiful sounds.

Man this song brings me so much joy :D

Leaving this comment for the very few that listen to this so often that they noticed the cover change and thought they clicked on the wrong video.

Bro was damn near 20

happy birthday, legendary man

Everyday for over a year I've listened to this before I go to work and it's never not relaxed me.

This song feels like when u randomly wake up at 3am in the morning and u can't get back to sleep

This feels like waking up before everyone else to see the overcast and fog suffocating the brick buildings. You percolate a cup of coffee and sit in the darkness, shaking off the dreams of the earliest reach of slumber. You hesitate to turn to screens for stimulation. You soak in the silence.

if hope, dreams, expectations, in a positive way were translated into music, so soothing and ethereal, something you can't grasp your head around, yet, it feels so familiar, as it was a feeling, a sound you've always knew. this is xtal for me

That synthline so simple yet so optimistic its unreal

3:05 beautiful and unexpected u-turn

I love how this whole record feels. Some of the tracks sound half asleep yet half awake. None of the tracks are the same yet they incorporate so well together. I see the whole record as one incredible recording. Xtal is sublime, deeply trippy yet focused. It's wonderful listening to it.

such an odd feeling. As if all the difficulties of life are left somewhere behind when listening, you just lie in your bed and talk about life. Nothing worries you.

Ok..in 1993 was in Montreal canada..and just was discharged from the army..I went a club called metropolis on st Catherine st..and said to my father this is my new hobby..now it is my new song to my woman that resides in Switzerland..maybe...it has always calmed me down and made me feel alive in my travels and creativity in somexway..thankyou gentleman .It was my final song..after I left the new rave scene in San Francisco 1993..that was the end

This track gives me power

This song feels a hotline miami vibe

Aphex Twin always makes me feel like im playing a valve game

I ascend everytime I listen to this track

Listening to this at 11:31 pm after one of the most traumatic events of my life has never made me feel so empty yet so full

Трудно поверить, что этот трек вышел в 1992 году

"So let me go over this again."

This song never gets old

Listening to this shit on a night hike with clear skies and good company was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. The morphine probably helped too.

I literally said "hey Google, play a song I can smoke weed to" and this came up :D nice I wouldnt mind listening to while I'm having psychedelics

Hmm really nice music. Peace and calm. I wonder if those "Aphex Twins" made some more music. I bet they make very "chilled out" music. Yeah I would love to hear more of their music, must be very undergroud.

This is the first song I ever heard from Richard.

When I'm at the most awakened state that I can, I feel like this song.

Great for Showers

this is an absolutely insane song

The amatuer feel of the mixing only adds to this songs charm. 10/10.

Masterpiece

In love with this tune

My first time hearing this track was in also the first time smoking weed with my older bro... 3 years later i still find peace in this piece. My dad even slept to this album once :D

This one's cold fresh like an igloo love it!

Thx Andy for introducing me to this album!!

When you hear some really old tracks it shows how loudness wars and the like are a bit silly, depending on the context and how you listen to music. No-one listens to magic like this and picks it apart, it just sounds great.

The most irresistible song I have ever heard. If I start playing it, I have to finish.

Man patīk šī dziesma! ❤

Listened to this on Many a come down in the early 90,s, still so divine 🌄

It was 1993 when I first heard this. On a Tape deck, in a mate’s new place - he’d moved to a farm in Sussex( converted pig sty) .listened whilst stoned looking at the stars on a clear night.