Aphex Twin's _Selected Ambient Works Volume II_ is ten years old

Mine too!!

For whatever reason, SAW II has never done much for me. I've always been puzzled by how underwhelming I've found it, considering how much music in this vein I listen to, and how much this record means to people whose taste overlaps with mine. I think SAW II sounds better scuffed up by majic markers and run through the ovalprocess.

I've been listening to Black Dog too!

Beautiful but so ephemeral that it slips my notice most times when I am looking for something like this to listen to.

By Aphex, I mean.

This album is so good I don't think 10 years matters much. Vol. 1 sounds dated, this one doesn't and probably won't.

My selected coincidence is yesterday being puzzled by this Allmusic synopsis -- now you take a look:

Despite James' appearance on the pop charts, his following album Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2 appeared to be a joke on the ambient-techno community. So minimal as to be barely conscious, the quadruple-album left most of the beats behind, with only tape loops of unsettling ambient noise remaining. The album mostly struck out with critics, but hit number 11 on the British charts and earned James a major-label American contract with Sire soon after.

I'd say joke on the pop chart community, home run with critics, and WTF to tape loops? This ain't Strafe F.R.

i can't overstate how much i love this piece. (as a side note cddb now calls it "rhubarb," which seems a bit odd...are these the unofficial titles people puzzled out from the pics in the liner notes?) it marks the only time i've ever used a repeat function on a cd player. i wanted to listen to it a few times and accidentally left it on for at least an hour or two late at night. it must be tapped into my personal resonant frequency or something.

it seems strange to me that this and nirvana were happening coincidentally, on virtually opposite sides of the world. i experienced them sequentially but they've coincidentally both drifted back into my life- i just added saw II to itunes finally, and it and nevermind keep cropping up on random play.

I've managed to lose about 4 copies of the thing during the last 10 years, and I've always gone straight back out and replaced it. Much as I love Richard's later stuff, SAW II is a unique thing of wonder.

And where would BBC2 documentary Producers be without it?

I remember listening to it a lot and being thoroughly terrified by a couple of tracks. I found it as scary as Rosemary's baby.

Dummy
Second Coming
Vulvaland
Protection
Hex
D.I. Go Pop
Snivilisation
Ill Communication
Grace
Amber
Parklife
Music For The Gilted Generation
Crooked Rain Crooked Crooked Rain
Definitely Maybe
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Independancy
Weezer
Illmatic

1994 seems like a very ILM-friendly year.

yes.

what a fubny questoin. does one need anny rock beynod white ligt white heat and in teh court of the crismon king?

That is the funniest thing I've read in a while. I want to try that some day.

We had a fine thread on recommended ambient records a while back. I'd add me some fine releases from the Improvised Music from Japan label and the Necks' Drive-By.

i thought we werent't talking about SAW 1.

oh, this is a great album. i was being semi-facetious with the "what other ambient do you need" comment. what i sort of meant is that for a given type of music that i'm not all that interested in, there are at least a couple of records that are undeniably amazing, that i would be loathe to get rid of if i were ever to have to pare my collection down to say 20 records...saw II might be one of my token ambient rekkids in that case.

"-- :|", i could easily knock my rock stuff down to a couple of records and never worry about it!

also comparing saw i / saw ii = completely dud.

and what of the ten previous years? I personally love Analogue Bubblebath's (whatever volumes I have, 3 and 4 i think) noisier moments, and Tamphax Hedfuq and Digeridoo, etc...

I don't like how SAWII is sometimes treated like a touchstone for his wor

...for his work to be compared against

this is one that always comes to mind when someone starts a "top x albums of all time" thread here, but i haven't heard it for a very long time. thanks for the reminder ned!

but I generally agree with the statement about his musical output as of late. I long to hear him do beautiful music again. I actually liked some of the satie inspired piano pieces on druqs just for that reason.

I know you are a killer programmer mr. james you no longer have to go on about it at length. Just give me some beauty.

Could drill and bass be the ultimate prog music?

SAW II is unique. If Richard had tried to repeat the trick, chances are he'd have fallen on his arse. The joy of stuff like "Girl/Boy Song" is that he jams the beautiful bits against the drill 'n' bass and lets them work on each other.

I assume the peeps that lost interest after SAW II are the ones responsible for buying all those Greatest Chill-Out Album in the World....Ever! CDs that polluted the air a couple of years back.

Yep, the R&S release was in 92, and I'm pretty sure there was an earlier version on white label...

oooh that hurt.

No sorry but I don't have tons of those records and I didnt say that everything after SAW II was shit but there have been quite a few shit things released. I mean that recent mixes for cash release? He has lost respect for his audience.

It just seems that his releases have become kind of half ass. I really dug that remix he did as afx for the 808 state track but most of druqs was lame.

I know, like noodle vague says, it's unique; you can hear its coming in his pre-SAWII work and see what he did next with I Care 'Cuz U Do and RDJ album.

I think digeridoo was released before saw II
I know, which is what i was drawing attention to; why isn't this pre-sawII the touchstone?

I guess, like noodle vague says, SAWII is unique; you can hear its coming in his pre-SAWII work and see what he did next with I Care 'Cuz U Do and RDJ album.

Richard likes to give the impression in interviews that he doesn't give a shit whether his music is released or not, nor whether the stuff that is released is his best work or not, so I guess his respect for his audience has always been minimal. But hey, that's okay. I also get the feeling that his relationship with Warp has deteriorated over the last few years.

I don't think drukqs is terrible, it's just disappointing in its failure to be brilliant. Windowlicker was fabulous, and if he'd pursued that warped (excuse pun) R'n'B vein then drukqs could only have been better for it.

But if he never releases another decent tune again, his highs, like SAW II, have been stratospheric.

THIS IS MY THEORY AND IT IS RIGHT SO DO NOT QUESTION IT

So, I'm just listening to SAWII for the first time in years, and boy is my tape copy worn out. I need to buy this on CD tomorrow.

i think to myself, now this is a declaration of intent if i've ever heard one. simply massive...

i think my favorite thing about "sawII" and "amber" is the way they reference nature.

And people who say that SAWII is "beatless" are clearly mentally unstable and should be lock'd up forthwith.

: (

Anyway, ten years on I think this is absolutely brilliant and have spent all of the last two weeks listening to it.

Nice one!

I listened to disc 1 of SAW II [Sire] this morning, after about a year's gap. Love it to bits. It hasn't dated at all.

The quality gap between this and the horrible Drukqs is enormous*, although Drukqs does have the odd passable track.

Analogue Bubblebath? I've got 3 and 4. They both ooze creativity, but are a bit difficult to listen to from start to finish.

* matron

Let me see what kind of analogue bubblebath CD's I have...(pulls out very dusty plastic cases...) Yes I have the third one with no sleeve as previously described, and a 4 song E.P. on U.S. label TVT Records just called "AFX: Analogue Bubblebath". It's possible I had more on vinyl, but my Aphex vinyl is still sitting in my parents' house many miles away, and I can't remember exactly what I had of him, now.
I do remember these two 12" EP records entitled "Hangable Auto Bulb" -
anyone else remember these? They were pretty limited as I recall but I thought they were really spectacular at the time. It was the first time he'd started that really quirky kind of fast drumming stuff he tried to develop further on the RDJ album and in my opinion, failed.

Fortunately, I realized that I had forgotten about the shoebox and my copy was safely tucked away in my girlfriends apartment. You have to give the man respect; there are very few records in my collection that I would get upset about not having. SAWII is one of them.

I also figured out last night that Shutov Assembly by Eno is a vastly under-rated ambient album. Ambient music rules and I hope it comes back with a vengance.

Hmm, I ought to really, oughtn't I?

The trouble is it reminds me of the decade-long passage of time in a less positive way - i.e. in 1994 Laura was here and it seemed as if we had 50 or 60 more years ahead of us as a couple. So, like a lot of music I love but don't write about on my blog, SAWII came under the category of "our music," that is music which belonged to Laura and me, not just to me.

And there are so many memories, sights, sounds and feelings which the record conjures up for me - it got played all the time, everywhere, in God knows how many different locations and situations - so I'm not averse to writing something about it on my blog, it's just that I have to get it right. There will be a lot of arcane references which no one could possibly get apart from Laura and myself (yes, I know, cue Maja readers' cry of "no change there then") but it's the only way that I can write about it and feel fulfilled.

It might be the most personal thing I've ever written, and probably will turn out to be the longest and most abstruse thing I've ever written (yes OK there's plenty of competition) - but yes it is ten years and I must think about it. And also SAWII remains one of my big ten in terms of records I would wish to be buried with.

He should stick to what he does best. And spend time on doing that.

To play favourites, I absolutely adore 'Stone In Focus' and 'Blue Calx'. The latter makes me think of water, godly celestial beings of scifi, slow peaceful death (relief) through suffocation, drowning, peacefulness. 'Curtains' will always bring me back to the halcyon days of my school years, where friends and I would go to the nearby botanical gardens and smoke dope and tell each other what the music made us think about - one of the happiest times of my life thus far.

There have been very few other artists who've been able to even approach James' attention to texture as exhibited on this release. The subtle distortions and (aforementioned) microtonal deviations are what makes this album so effective. In the three weeks before my end-of-highschool exams I listened to this whole album every morning before getting out of bed. I maintain that it was more than somewhat responsible for my excellent marks.

if the Richard D. James Album isn't beautiful, I'll eat my Windowlicker CDs.

Agreed. Anybody who can listen to 'fingerbib' or 'Yellow Calx' and not feel moved is an emotional simpleton. I also adore much of Drukqs - most notably Meltphace 6 (which I believe to be James' best work ever) which brought me to tears both times I saw him play live.

Okay, okay. I love RDJ.

Of course, this shouldn't put me off RDJ but coming back to him I realise that he isn't "all that". Druqks played a big part in this I think. Sure it had some "decent bits" here and there, but nothing that merited six years of waiting around for a musical genius to release his tour-de-force.

Tracks that once sounded all at once beautiful, alien and unique such as "Alberto Balsam" now don't do it for me and I can't even see what the appeal was originally. Nowadays I feel Autechre are more interesting, BoC more ambient and moody, Plaid more beautiful and all are better produced and better accomplished musically. By comparison Aphex tracks sound like rough sketches, simple repetitive beats (even the drill stuff sounds a little flat these days).

Of course I don't hate RDJ, in fact I still regard him very very highly and the acts I compare him to released their best works well after Aphex's peak so I supppose the comparison is a touch unfair. Also the initial "wow" factor is going to have disappeared five or six years after hearing Bouncing Bucephalus Ball for instance.

Anyway, I'm not going to be an apologist for other peoples tastes. I've always felt that RDJ's real talent lies in his melodies/harmonies. While I really adore much of his drill'n'bass work, it's the underlying melodies of those tunes that really pushes me along. (in 'Meltphace 6', for one) When it comes to insane production skills and amazing break cutups I turn to Squarepusher who is purely virtuosic in his talents.

Err, why? I heard he did it to get out of contractual obligations.

That's the kind of pressure I meant. Sorry if I was unclear.

Still in debt to this thread for finally getting into this record; it's a belter.

SAW II is the only album that i have perfectly heard while sleeping, which is scary. I think is one of the greatest recording of the (past) century. Volume 1 come very close.

OTM, I still feel that the best way to listen to SAW II is while lying down in the dark at night.

that's one of my favourites too robin. i like how after a couple of tracks that are more about creating a creepy atmosphere, a really simple, childlike melody appears out of nowhere. it's what makes the album such a gripping listen.

(The second one I found too ambient - maybe be strange with me - of all people - missing a beat, but I did in the case of that one)

"Cliffs"? "Radiator"? "Hexagon"? "Shiny Metal Rods"?

I stil remember the first time I heard this record. My friend Sean and I were dropping off a gorgeous friend of ours who had just started seeing a sleazy Scandiweigan guy named Sven who lived is a megahuge loft in Brooklyn and did lots of drugs. We'd been imploring with our friend all day not to date this guy, but she was smitten (he later knocked her up and abandoned her -- went back to whatever Nordic rockpile he climbed out from under, but I digress...) In any case, we pulled up to the guy's building -- in a then-desolate area of Brooklyn (not so anymore), and decided to escort our friend inside. On the way up the stairs, there was this HUGE, sound emanating from the floors above....just bizarre and otherwordly. We walked into Sven's huge, cavernous loft, and it was like a scene out of "Excalibur". Just weird shit all over the place, incense burning, really dim lights and candles everywhere, and this intensely beautiful but somewhat disconcertingly foreboding music playing. Sean and I stayed for a few moments. Our friend immediately vanished into a back area somewhere, no goodbyes or anything. I was too busy being creeped out/intrigued by the music. Before I could ask Sven (who hadn't gottten up when we came in, sitting at a long wooden table in a bizarre stupor) what was playing, Sean had grabbed my arm and was pulling me to the door. We left feeling hugely weirded out.

A couple of days later, I got a package from Sire records (I was writing for a few periodicals at the time, and used to be on several labels' mailing lists). At the time, I'd never heard of the Aphex Twin, but the cover art to this strange looking album looked like some ancient artefact prized from some interdimensional time capsule. I slipped the disc into my player and hit play, and intstantly knew what this was.....and it instantly gave me the same sort've creeps. It still does. And I love it.

I've known this since I first got the CD! They got most of the titles wrong, though.

I think the reason this cd goes for a lot of money is that Warp originally used a cheap cd manufacturer to print this as a double-cd and a lot of copies (mine included) will have started oxidising about 5 years ago.

I was just reading Ned's review of a Black Tape for a Blue Girl album today; I would like to talk some ambient with him.

If he's listening, I would ask: I love my Aphex Twin SAWII, and I am in love with 'Tired Sounds of the Stars of the Lid," what should be next in that haunting, gorgeous vein?

OTM. I remember losing my SAWII and DLing it and crying when it didn't have Stone in Focus. All is better now.

Err. Have they fixed this? I'm ordering some junk from Warp soon, and I was going to do SAW II because for some damn reason the US track is missing "Stone in Focus," but if this is true I might just get it from Bleep...

Aphex Twin - #19 (aka Stone in Focus)

i like that metronome sound!

and yes, "#19" is the best thing on SAWII

Ah, you know, then I did have this, because I used to have this around somewhere and definitely ripped it before I sold it. But this saves me the trouble of scrounging through the CDRs. ;-) Thanks!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars Pay attention..., September 14, 2005

Reviewer: THISKET "thisket" (Point D8.) - See all my reviews
I am not going to "review" the album, but I'll tell you it is the best I've heard so far.

You must know that there are two songs missing from this album. The original three-12 inch vinyl contained 25 tracks. The original CD release (UK) was a bit stingy, and only allowed two discs, and all 25 couldn't fit. It left out #19 (aka "stone in focus").

The US CD (this one) left out a total of two - #4 ("hankie") and #19. No one knows why both were left out... because there was enough room for #4 at least.

So to complete the album in a digital format, you must have the UK version of the album on CD, and an obscure Astralwerks compilation that's very available here on amazon.com entitled "Excursions in Ambience: Third Dimension" (also nice). Your experience will be made much nicer as well as longer if you copy & divide them onto 3 CDs, or any other suitable way. Please enjoy.

i have procured a copy of this track. here's a ysi for other unfortunate US people:

http://s4.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0JBLR7O2ZP3SR0BJEUZW6QYT5M

I'm thinking of using a wav editor and making a CD-length version of just the parts of SIF that don't have the click. It would be perfect for so many situations. The super-extended treatment would work well with a lot of the SAWII tracks, actually.

OTM ... except for the clicks on Stone in Focus. Wouldn't hurt to excise dem clicks.

toby, if I can ever be not lazy enough to actually make an extended, clickless SIF, I'll post it here.

fucking hell.

this is like rediscovering something that you only had a vague inkling you'd lost.

thank you for the YSI.

And if you're a part of the pro-child-eating/anti-sleep camp, then maybe you're into that. BUT I'M NOT.

If he's listening, I would ask: I love my Aphex Twin SAWII, and I am in love with 'Tired Sounds of the Stars of the Lid," what should be next in that haunting, gorgeous vein?

Wait, I don't think I ever answered this. Er, did the links above from others help?

Digging this out -- I'm finding that I'm a bigger fan of the pretty, Eno-esque/"An Ending (Ascent)"-style stuff more than the "I WAS LUCID DREAMING IN FRONT OF A POWER STATION, YO" stuff, which I do feel has maybe lost a bit of its luster in the intervening 17 years.

hey, power station translates to 'kraftwerk' in german -- and i lucid dream to kraftwerk all the time

Fair enough.

Blue Calx!

That's one of 'em...

More electronic/synthesizer power station connections:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtbqFNxIHyI

the "I WAS LUCID DREAMING IN FRONT OF A POWER STATION, YO" stuff, which I do feel has maybe lost a bit of its luster in the intervening 17 years.

no way man. the sounds on this album are still fucking incredible to me.

more references to power stations in electronic music--

louis and bebe barron's 'krell shuttle and power station' from the forbidden planet soundtrack, circa 1956

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djpJd5RmQxk

also the legendary techno club berghain, in berlin, is inside of an abandoned power station

"Power Station" in Cornish is "tredanva". Surprisingly, there isn't an Aphex Twin tune of that name. That we know about, at least.

Karen D. Tredanvaskin

'tredanva' is a nice name--i approve

oh! i just remembered another reference to power stations in electronic music! the power plant, the legendary club in chicago in the 1980s, one of the early birthplaces of chicago house

and i just pulled out a classic strictly rhythm 12" from '91, photon inc - 'generate power'--i have not listened to this in forever

XP: There's a windfarm at Goonhilly Downs, which I'm guessing has nothing to do with Goon Gumpas.

Actually OMD did a track called Sealand which is a much better fit.

Wow, it just hit me that I haven't listened to this record in at least three years, despite considering it one of my favorite records ever... I need to change that right away. Each track is its own strange little room, and I find it an almost frighteningly transportive experience to listen through them all.

Wow, it just hit me that I haven't listened to this record in at least three years, despite considering it one of my favorite records ever... I need to change that right away. Each track is its own strange little room, and I find it an almost frighteningly transportive experience to listen through them all.

I listen to this album every morning at work. I like it a lot.

I love it, but I'd be a mess if I listened to it every day.

How long have you been doing this for Mr Snrub?

about a year now. i've tried getting into other "classic" ambient albums, like "74:16" by global communication and "the orb's adventures beyond the ultraworld" and "another green world" and "music for films," but none of them even come close to the same effect

The only problem I have with this album is finding a three-hour block in which I'm guaranteed to not be interrupted. Consequently I've not played it all the way through in at least 10 years.

XP: That's pretty impressive.

been listening to it a lot again lately but all mixed up with other ambient stuff. the tricksy little sonic details in the corners really make it stand up - the obvious classic tunes don't get tired for me but the less obvious tracks bear repeat visits

Mr. Snrub: Do you have Eno's Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks? Or Ambient 4: On Land? Both are gorgeous, texturally amazing records with direct links to Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2... Start with those if you don't know them. You should also check out William Basinski's Shortwave Music at some point. Another Green World I wouldn't call ambient, and Music for Films is more about brief little motifs and less about immersion in sonic "environments" (which SAW Vol. 2 to me is all about). And the other two records you list I feel truly aren't anywhere near as good (or as beautifully alien sounding) as the Aphex and Eno records (few records are, to be honest!).

will do, thanks! i do like that "deep blue day" song from trainspotting. another green world: definitely not ambient. that album was such a disappointment. there are like two ambient songs on the album. "becalmed" is great, though.

Another Green World took a while to grow on me, but it's now one of my very favorite Eno albums, and maybe the one I listen to the most frequently. I came at it from the opposite side as you, expecting it to be an upbeat thing more in line with his first few solo records and being somewhat frustrated by its relative quietude. It's hard to find records with that same mix of deep-space utter coldness, suggestions of machinery/technology, and drifty bliss as SAW Vol. 2. If you're not familiar with Main, some of his stuff strikes that balance: Hz in particular is pretty immersive. I also love Permafrost and Teimo by Thomas Koner. Dettinger's first record on Kompakt is incredible as well, though less visually suggestive/cinematic and more miniature-ish.

You should check out Biosphere - Substrata (and then work your way through his catalog)

Coincidentally I listened to this yesterday afternoon.

A pivotal album for me. When I first discovered it I made up my own track titles.

Goon is actually a quite common placename in Cornwall because in Cornish, goon means "meadow".

It would be great if he wrote a song called Goon Tredanva, which would be a meadow pun on power plant.

This is such a nice album to paint to, it's really good for doing lots of detailed textural work. Especially late at night, when you actually have the time to get a block of a few hours to listen to it all in sequence.

Apparently he played some of the tracks from it at the gig in Dublin last weekend. But I've no idea how that would work at a festival, quite hard to yell for songs which don't have names.

I wonder if people sang along...

"PLAY THAT ALIEN ONE THAT GOES DING-DANG-DONGGGGG"

"Radiator pipes! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! RA-DI-A-TOR PIIIIIIIIIIIIPES!!!!!!!"

"Bit of rock with some lichen on it!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

"TWIG!!!!"

Actually I've got so used to the fan fiction names that sometimes I forget what the pictures actually look like.

yeah plus my copy is on the computer so i haven't looked at the disc insert in an eternity

the pictures were pretty bad at capturing the track iirc. it was just a wind up wasn't it?

everything's just a wind up isn't it?

i dunno, i like the puzzle of the pictures' relationship to the tracks, even if the secret answer is "there isn't one". the pictures are there, and we can make of them what we will, and they add to the whole subterranean blur for me

Hate the way that every time Mr D.James does something opaque, it's automatically assumed to be "a wind up." His sense of humour is pretty distinctive but I sometimes suspect that because he's often so oblique, people often assume that if they don't immediately get it, it must be a "wind up" rather than him creating something they don't understand. He seems to be about links and puzzles and interrelationships rather than direct correlations, so that's how I understand the picture-song interlink.

(or perhaps I'm just defensive on his behalf.)

I think as long as you don't see something that's a joke and something that has artistic merit as being two mutually exclusive things then there's less of a problem.

how are the pictures-to-songs a wind-up anyway? The whole thing makes sense if you look at it. Wasn't it Designers Republic who made the inlay anyway?

this album

They're not mututally exclusive at all. And with Mr D.James I think the line is often very close - in fact, he's expressed being mystified at how people take things that he intends entirely as a joke, completely seriously. (Come To Daddy being the prime example.)

It's more that kind of kneejerk anti-abstraction, anti-intellectual (you see the same thing with abstract or conceptual art "what, 1 million quid for a pile of bricks?" type thinking) that if something is not immediately apparent, it must be a wind-up (and, to me, that concept of wind-up has a slightly malicious overtone) that he's always somehow fucking with his fanbase rather than just doing something he thinks is cool or interesting or just needs to be done.

Don't see this attitude so much on ILX but on tWATMM it's completely rampant. Every time RDJ or Rephlex or whoever do something a bit sideways, they howl "he's taking the piss, they're winding us up!" rather than realising they're doing something amusing for their own benefit.

But I guess if I judged artists by their fanbases I'd never listen to Aphex Twin. :-/

DL - the photographs are his, he's actually done quite a lot of his own photography for his albums.

I had no idea they were his photographs :-)

i haven't actually sat down and listened to anything aphex-related in a very long time...i do like a lot of his stuff, but it's so tied to a particular time and place in my life, for me.

i was at a party in new york a few months ago and the DJ put on the afx remix of 808 state's 'flow coma', and i kept wishing that they'd play the original 808 state version instead. the original bangs so much harder than his distorted-to-hell remix

Twin mixes tend to be a bit hit and miss. Can't say I ever really got into his 23 Mixes For Cash album, but by that point my obsession was admittedly starting to wane a little.

I do like this though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J55uy2b_x_Q

KDT if you think my response was anti-abstraction or anti-intellectual you obv don't know much about me (why would you? etc) it's just that in this case i think he probably was on one, nothing wrong with that, he's a wind up merchant a lot of the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SP_OE3qrbk

rah

He's not a wind-up merchant. Sometimes he jokes, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he does both at the same time. But that doesn't mean that every single thing he does is somehow a wind-up.

I dunno. Older Aphex (everything pre-Drukqs, which was where I originally got off the bus, but particularly the SAWs) is also so much a time and place for me, but it was a time and place where I was particularly happy so I get the pleasant twinge of being reminded of happier times as well as the enjoyment of listening to the music.

I love that Flow Coma remix. I use it a lot when I'm DJing between bands. It has an immediately energising effect on people when it's on a good system. It's usually either that or Logan Rock Witch when I'm playing records.

Or that hardcore track off Smojphace...

But that doesn't mean that every single thing he does is somehow a wind-up.

I don't think so either. The photos thing may not be a wind up but the tracks are (on the whole) good or very good and the photos are rubbish. it looks like he spent about 20 minutes on the whole thing.

the pictures also remind me of those Ask the Family "familiar object from an unfamiliar angle" questions where the camera wd slowly pan back until the identity of the object was blindingly obvious

the sound of SAWII is often like lying on the ground in a quiet spot staring at something mundane until you don't recognise it any more

I don't get it, Jed. It's like... Mr D.James makes set of ambient tracks which are fuzzy, indistinct, distorted, blurred and that makes him a genius expressing a deliberate aesthetic. Mr D.James makes set of photographs which are fuzzy, indistinct, distorted and blurred with which to express the ambience of said tracks without the use of words - and that makes them rubbish he spent maybe 20 minutes on?

I've taken some great pics that took me all of 20 mins to take, total!

He may well have spent 20 minutes on them TBF, doesn't make them a wind-up. And yes, some of the things RDJ has got up to could well be considered a wind-up (thinking things like the Jesus Jones remix etc). But it's his prankster reputation that lends him a lot of ears. No one's saying he's not a great musician without a considerable amount of ideas, but he is also a jester who will wilfully take the piss to a degree. The difference is, he's one of the few artists I can think of for whom it never feels like the listener is being duped necessarily. Like, he could if he wanted to, release a single consisting of three particularly fruity fart noises and know that it would sell. But he's never done that. Even at his most irreverant, RDJ's music manages to be worthy in some fashion.

'worthy' is an awful word, but yeah.

SAW Vol. 2 is actually the only Aphex record I actively love, and I'd always wished he'd done more like it. The Biosphere recommendation above is a great call... I also forgot to mention Roedelius as a precursor to this stuff, but the more lo-fi records like Selbstportraits I and II.

See, this is one reason I like not knowing everything about music: There are still worlds undiscovered that I can explore when I get ennui about the stuff I own.

Thing is, I've just bought 'myself' (with some birthday funds from both sets of parents, mine and my wife's), a Technics 1220Mk2 turntable, and have since discovered that those records I thought I'd worn out bass frequencies on, tuen out to be 'not the case', maybe this different stylus is touching new parts of the groove.

So, am rediscovering all sorts of vinyl from within!

Although, our alice asks "can you play some Beatles?" at which pont I went, oh OK.. and stuck on Revolver as I nipped around the shops.

Anyhow, she wants to take the "School's Out" album to school to show her teacher, and the 'cool' way it folds out into a desk...

Anyway, back to the ambient masterwork...

I don't get it, Jed. It's like... Mr D.James makes set of ambient tracks which are fuzzy, indistinct, distorted, blurred and that makes him a genius expressing a deliberate aesthetic. Mr D.James makes set of photographs which are fuzzy, indistinct, distorted and blurred with which to express the ambience of said tracks without the use of words - and that makes them rubbish he spent maybe 20 minutes on?

― Karen D. Tregaskin, Monday, 13 June 2011 14:17 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

eh this isn't what i'm saying. this is what you think i'm saying.

there's clearly a qualitative difference between these photos and these tracks. i don't think they express the tracks well. i like the concept i just think the execution is poor. you're perfectly entitled to think they're great.

i agree that they're not exactly amazing photographs, especially not compare dto the music, no. Certainly not what I think of when I hear these songs. But the concept is good - I like the way each picture is a different size according to length of track.

match sticks

Tredanva-wyns.

wind farm? I could see that — one 500 years from now in a posthuman world

Tredanvayow-wyns a wra gul tros hevelep ilow dhe Afeks Twyn. Pur deg yw!

(I have no idea what "ambient" is yn Kernewek, will have to ask my teacher. I'm guessing "ambyennek" or something like that?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goDd02TTxBA

OMG why am i just finding out now that there is finally a 3LP repress out?!??

"stone in focus" not included though -.-

http://www.discogs.com/Aphex-Twin-Selected-Ambient-Works-Volume-II/release/3577040

shit pressing unfortunately ):

... both of which i found out to my cost this week. smh :(

What exactly constitutes a shit pressing of a record full of ambient noises and drones?

loud scratches and distortion

the original pressing was shit as well.

Why would anyone even want a vinyl version of an ambient album?

i read this thread & full of nostalgia popped this out of filing for a listen & i found it hugely insubstantial. like a bad roedelius album. thomas köner's first few were contemporaneous w/ this & infinitely preferable to my ears. don't get me wrong, I love SAW1, & that fusiony new tuss stuff - i think he's a good but imperfect composer. lionising this heap of shit (SAW2)is simple hero-worship, wish fulfilment, & nostalgic longing, IMO

lionising this heap of shit (SAW2)is simple hero-worship, wish fulfilment, & nostalgic longing, IMO

― iglu ferrignu, Tuesday, June 5, 2012 1:52 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ouch! What about those of us who don't love that much of Aphex's stuff outside of this particular record? Early Koner is on a very different wavelength too, I think.

lionising this heap of shit (SAW2)is simple hero-worship, wish fulfilment, & nostalgic longing, IMO

fuck you.

1) I heard to SAWII for the first time in like 2003; it's not "nostalgic longing"
2) I don't give a shit about the rest of RDJ's career; it's not "hero-worship"
3) SAW2 is one of the most intricate, moving albums of all time; it's not a "heap of shit"
4) fuck you

anyone with a dissenting opinion on Aphex Twin get the FUCK off ILM

it's not that; it's just that I'm going to give anyone who shits on my favorite album & its fans a hearty "fuck off."

crüt otm

haha. you fanboys !

Also, FUCK YOU.

And it's "phangirl" thank you very much.

I mean I wouldn't call it a "heap of shit" but I can't help but wonder what kind of person is listening to this all at once

lionising this heap of shit (SAW2)is simple hero-worship, wish fulfilment, & nostalgic longing, IMO

Heh. I feel that way about a lot of shit ILM talks about, but this is the only Aphex Twin album I like, so it's not hero worship at all for me.

well, OK, so I might have conflated the nigh-on rabid fanaticism that aphex seems to inspire in some (BUT NOT ALL) of his audience (both male and female) with my disappointment at how this album no longer holds my interest, so i'm projecting that arbitrarily onto an external strawman, and making crass generalisations, to boot.
my mistake.
'pologies there.
but my, aren't you all so fucking touchy !

I mean I wouldn't call it a "heap of shit" but I can't help but wonder what kind of person is listening to this all at once

― frogbs, Tuesday, June 5, 2012 11:11 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk, someone with some time on their hands who likes this album? what a bizarre post.

i mean, its a lot to take in at once, but you wonder "what kind of person," really?

i am just wondering whose brain is still being stimulated by the 100th minute of static ambient music. like you can use it to calm yourself, but I'm always there by track 3. if you sleep to it, you're asleep by track 1. if you're just chilling out, I dunno it's awfully long. yes I want to know what kind of person.

satan worshippers

but my, aren't you all so fucking touchy !

I've noticed repeatedly that people are really touchy about their music around here, especially on threads discussing canonical albums or albums where there's some ILM consensus. If you drop a line saying "this album is awesome!!" then it's all good, but if you write "I don't like this," or "I think this album is terrible," then people get all outraged and act like you've just murdered their children. it gets really personal, and it's weird. of course, your comment kind of says that the people who like this are stupid, rather than saying the album is stupid, but nevertheless, I've seen my observation hold in both circumstances.

yes I want to know what kind of person.

A person who enjoys it as working music, for one. It puts me in a very productive state when I'm working on assembly of long documents.

i have nothing against its length, or static ambient music in general, but maybe IN MY OPINION (i'm sure it's fucking brilliant and i just fail to understand) it lacks any sense of development or ambiguity. horror/sci-fi track - remains horror sci-fi in one key and then ends. slow techno track remains slow techno and then ends. something through a delay device does that for a bit and then ends. i think we've got one or two nursery rhyme ABAB.. structures - i think i remember finding those ones tolerable, perhaps even agreeable - whoa.. what a hypocrite i am ! but it sounds like mister james messing with faders & knobs (or not) throughout, because IN MY OPINION (i'm sure it's fucking brilliant and i just fail to understand) the music's not strong enough FOR ME to suspend MY sense of disbelief.
of course i will love this album once i rid myself of these accursed expectations that it should be any better (how did i ever accrue such sorry barnacles?)

expectation is a prison, etc

black iron prison, tell me about it !

hey iglu-- check out "Blue Calx" again. I'd like to hear your criticisms of that particular track.

Why would anyone even want a vinyl version of an ambient album?

― Tuomas, Monday, June 4, 2012 9:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no CD player, computer speakers sound bad.

there have always been people here who thought this album was BS, its not untouchable ILX canon.

boner in focus

@poliopoliceyour comment kind of says that the people who like this are stupid, rather than saying the album is stupid
yeh i acknowledged this - my motives aren't always clear to myself.
the insult was offhand & on closer inspection aimed at what seems to be a strawman of my own making, OK, the apology was offhand, but my aim is not to piss people off. in my experience aphex does attract fanatics / inspire fanaticism (in much the same way steve albini does), and fanaticism over something so dreary as a CD of tunes by some bloke depresses me immensely.
that's my problem.
i'll check out blue calx.

Does anyone who does not like SAW II like "An Ascent" by Brian Eno (quite possibly the single greatest composition in the history of mankind)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKw5mbcE7VY

thank god u didn't have to live thru beatlemania! xp

aphex does attract fanatics / inspire fanaticism

http://forum.watmm.com/forum/7-aphex-twin-forum/

oops, "An Ending (Ascent)". I got the title of the greatest composition in history wrong.

fanaticism over something so dreary as a CD of tunes by some bloke depresses me immensely.

I don't...I can't even...what...

lol

I think one of the things about SAW II is time and place. You can't listen to it in a football stadium during the summertime.

i'd say more often than not what switches peoples snappy comeback mode on, on ILX, isn't a question of what's being said but a question of how you say it. we've tried often enough to reach consensus on something everybody likes or hates and it doesn't exist. there isn't a hivemind, tho there are a few boisterous constituencies of fandom for different artists/genres. thinking about why you don't like something is cool, making grand declarations about goodness/badness less so depending on how funny y'are about it.

WmC OTM, it's really good music to work to, to draw/paint to, to write to. It's blank enough that you can have your own thoughts to, but unlike lots of ~ambient~ music has enough little odd quirks that it hooks the part of my brain that needs to be distracted by music to shut it up.

Yes, I am a rabid phangirl, but he's earned that obsession over and again. As an album it's just quite unlike anything else he's recorded (even SAW85-92) so I think that's why it earns such a place in people's hearts.

But, y'know if you want to talk fanatics/fanaticism ha ha WATMM vs AtEase: FITE! Who has the worse fanbase?

(Actually I think WATMM is probably worse than AtEase, to be honest, it takes a certain kind of reality-denial to post on the forum of a man who hasn't released a record in over 5 years, and still insist that something is imminent.)

And as others have said - on ILM, it's actually fine to say that you don't like something. But if you start insulting, or drawing conclusions about people who *do* like it, then you will get kicked back fairly swiftly.

I'd like to say that's true, but it's not. If you say something bad about an album (and not the people who like it), particularly if you have a strong opinion, people take it very personally.

particularly if you have a challenging opinion

Or just repeating common (often popular press) criticisms which have been discussed and countered a dozen times up the thread.

if you troll you will get trolled

OK so you're bringing your own strawmen to the party?

i'm glad "An Ending" got posted above; dunno if RDJ knew of this track before he made SAWII but that's very much the vibe he's going for on that album IMO but only maybe one or two things on there can ever touch it ("Rhubarb", of course)

what other albums sound like "An Ending"?

Stars of the Lid: The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid

Vangelis: Le apocoleyisis de los animuex (sp?)

I have that Stars of the Lid album, and I get the comparison, but it's nowhere near as good. There's nothing remotely as affecting and penetrating, or memorable really.

"An Ending" is absurdly beautiful, and "Rhubarb" captures the same feeling, but i don't think i'd want an entire album of that

Oh dang, I would want a 168-hour-long album of that.

Is "Rhubarb" the standout track for you guys (like, if you have to pick one song)? I would have said "Blue Calx."

i'd be afraid of ruining something that beautiful by stretching it out until its mundane or cloying

xpost

yeah, "Rhubarb" is the standout track for me, but i think the mood of the album varies a lot, and that's part of what puts it above a lot of other ambient stuff.

"Stone in Focus" (not on some of the release versions) is one of my favorites.

Lichen is the one that sounds like An Ending to me.

Just picked up the new vinyl and it does crack and pop a little, yes. I think this might be the only record that I have bought on cassette, cd and vinyl.

"Weathered Stone" is the standout for me. It sometimes reminds me of Gregorian chant: lonely, deep, slow, cavernous...

I have that Stars of the Lid album, and I get the comparison, but it's nowhere near as good. There's nothing remotely as affecting and penetrating, or memorable really.

― Poliopolice, Tuesday, June 5, 2012 1:53 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not much is near as good as that Eno, man! That's why he's Eno... It's the melodic development of that track combined with its utter serenity that makes it so compelling. Tough to think of stuff that combines those two things in quite that way... I also disagree that "An Ending" was the blueprint for SAW2; there are tracks that resemble it, but there's so much other stuff that's so wildly different. That's one thing that's so compelling about SAW2: each track is its own little universe, and it's not going for the overarching monovibe of a lot of (really good, even) ambient records.

Shiny Metal Rods and Z Twig for me if we're going by the fan fiction names.

There's this moment in Shiny Metal Rods where this strange noise like a dentist's drill comes in, just once and only once and never appears again. It just confounds me, I always expect it to repeat, like it hooks my brain.

But the whole run of Disc 2 from Blue Calx is extraordinary.

Does anyone who does not like SAW II like "An Ascent" by Brian Eno (quite possibly the single greatest composition in the history of mankind)?

Only if I'm listening on vinyl, dude.

Not sure I understand what you mean.

Lichen is the one that sounds like An Ending to me.

I think I would agree with that. What a great track.

I frequently listen actively to Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 in its entirety; it's one of the few albums I keep coming back to in that way. There's always something new to notice & it's an eternal challenge to me to figure out the timbral and harmonic nature of the sounds he's using. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the microtonal stuff in track 2.

also the reason iglu ferrignu's post set me off was that it was insultingly presumptuous about the reasons people listen to this album. I don't see why that's so controversial to get upset about. if he had just said "this album is a piece of shit" I wouldn't have given a fuck.

I've already retracted that cos i type before i've thought, and i'm an angry twisted weakling with issues, but, it wasn't about the reasons people listen to it - it was about the lionisation of the album.

i am going to post to this thread even though it seems certain my opinions will be discussed and countered

like a bad roedelius album

it struck me recently that SAWII is pretty much what you'd get if you crossed the composition tactics of selbstportrait 1 and 2 with the sounds of zuckerzeit and the eno produced tracks. and then you put that SAWI endless reverb and hiss over it.

anyway if our metric is selbstportraits and zuckerzeit and eno how bad can that be? we give boards of canada a pass, right?

btw unlike harmony and tone, timbre is a completely subjective term

well, i should say another order of subjectivity past harmony which is probably an order past tone

Why would anyone even want a vinyl version of an ambient album?

― Tuomas, Monday, June 4, 2012 9:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no CD player, computer speakers sound bad.

Unless you have a really weird computer or stereo set, you can buy a cheap cord that connects the computer to the stereo, and as a result your computer is now your new CD player. It's like magic!

... or i can just play the vinyl record on my record player. It's like magic.

Get a vinyl drive for your PC and then plug your computer into your stereo. It's like magic!

if you write "I don't like this," or "I think this album is terrible," then people get all outraged and act like you've just murdered their children.

I don't think this is true. Like crut says, people get irate when someone suggests that they don't really like something but are blinded by hero worship or herd mentality. For me the first rule of debate about music (or any artform) is crediting other people with sincere motives for their tastes. To do otherwise is to pretend that you are a more perceptive and honest listener and fans of the record in question will quite rightly tell you to go fuck yourself.

... or i can just play the vinyl record on my record player. It's like magic.

Except that you have to get up every 20 minutes to changed sides, plus the quality of the sound gets gradually worse as the record gets older. Not my definition of magic.

btw unlike harmony and tone, timbre is a completely subjective term

mmmm, not quite. tonal sounds get their timbre because they contain different combinations of harmonic partials. when I said figure out the timbral and harmonic nature of the sounds he's using I mean I've been loading the tracks into spectrograms and looking at the relative amplitude of each partial.

"to lionize" = to treat as a celebrity or cause for celebrity.
it's even the wrong word - it should really only be used to talk about people, not things. whatever, figurative usage.
are you lionizing, or attempting to lionize this album?
if yes, then you can take umbrage at my scoffing at your motives for lionization, but i didn't suggest how or why you were listening to it.
if no, then the criticism should not concern you.
if you're really dying to get that last nail into the cross, then go for it.
why do people lionize, or feel the desire to lionize anything?
releasing audio noodling on commodifiable formats is hardly classifiable as philanthropy, now, is it?
ffs, you guys are as bad as michael jackson fans.

Are there two people with control of your ilx account?

two people in my fucking brain

sorry for being tetchy, iglu.

me too.

anyway if our metric is selbstportraits and zuckerzeit and eno how bad can that be? we give boards of canada a pass, right?

exactly; I don't want to say I dislike this album, just that I'm glad the Selbstportraits only run 40 minutes, y'know? I dunno I'm kind of weird when it comes to ambient music - "Orbus Terrarum" is like my high watermark

Except that you have to get up every 20 minutes to changed sides, plus the quality of the sound gets gradually worse as the record gets older. Not my definition of magic.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, June 6, 2012 12:36 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ there are many threads about why people would choose to listen to a record over a cd, i suggest you read them!

also if you play your records with a good needle they will not really wear out--that is an old wives tale--take care of your records & they will outlive you.

And balance your tonearm properly!

people get irate when someone suggests that they don't really like something but are blinded by hero worship or herd mentality.

The question to me is whether we need to defend our opinions, particularly if we don't like something. I noticed that people get snippy if you drop into a thread and say you don't like something. In this situation, someone typically demands an explanation or otherwise derides the comment or the commentator (I've even seen people dig out other comments the commentator has made in other threads, as if to discredit or ridicule him-- fairly disgusting behavior); whereas, you never have to explain yourself if you like something. I guess I understand why, but it annoys me that people get so personal about it.

hey crut

you can't get two people or a two machines to reliably identify two different sounds as having the same or different timbre in any reliable way, as opposed to things like loudness and tone and rhythm

xp Huh, OK. That's not my experience of ILX at all, outside of a few specific ongoing feuds.

I'm all for people having to defend their opinion on a piece of work, pro or con! Poor defenses will be immediately apparent. Going a step farther and judging people for their judgments on works is a lot more problematic.

I wonder, though, whether we are allowed affective responses to art. Like, if I say I don't like Slipknot or Justin Bieber or Skrillex, do I need to explain myself? Do I actually have to go through some cognitive process where I must dissect my immediate reactions? I mean, my response to this stuff was never intellectualized before I had to justify to others my distaste for it.

In the examples you've given I don't think it would take too much deep thought to examine why you don't like them. I assumed the point of visiting a music discussion forum was to explore your tastes beyond "I like this, I don't like that." That's what the thumb icons on YouTube videos are for.

hey crut

you can't get two people or a two machines to reliably identify two different sounds as having the same or different timbre in any reliable way, as opposed to things like loudness and tone and rhythm

yes, because there are no measurable standards for timbre like there are for loudness and tone and rhythm. but you were responding to how I was using the term "timbre," which has nothing to do with people or machines identifying anything. I'm talking about the nature of the actual sounds used on this album and how the tonal sounds are constructed in terms of their harmonic content (I used "timbral" as shorthand for this).

like I never said timbre wasn't subjective

In the examples you've given I don't think it would take too much deep thought to examine why you don't like them. I assumed the point of visiting a music discussion forum was to explore your tastes beyond "I like this, I don't like that." That's what the thumb icons on YouTube videos are for.

I get your point, and it seems completely justified to me to have to defend your opinions on matters of public policy, but all the big thinkers on on the phenomenon of taste and art (i.e. Bourdieu, Veblen, Simmel) seem to suggest that taste is not gained through an intellectualized process so much as it is inherited and formed as a response to your social class and environment. Yes, we are on a music discussion board, but it's leap to me to say that every single thing posted needs to have a strict thesis and argument behind it.

I wonder, though, whether we are allowed affective responses to art. Like, if I say I don't like Slipknot or Justin Bieber or Skrillex, do I need to explain myself? Do I actually have to go through some cognitive process where I must dissect my immediate reactions? I mean, my response to this stuff was never intellectualized before I had to justify to others my distaste for it.

That's...a really good question. I guess it might depend on whether you're trying to convince anyone you're right? "I don't like it...but I don't need you to agree with me" is fine as far as it goes, but "I don't like it, and I don't think it's good enough to like" is going to require more on your part.

xposts

right crut but when you say you detect timbral complexity and you're trying to figure it out still i could just as easily say i don't perceive timbral complexity and i've figured it out and both of us would be right

here's a way that an undefended negative or positive comment can be useful: if someone else who likes the same music as me notices that I like/dislike something, it gives them more information about whether to invest their time in checking it out.

Exactly, I've discovered a lot of great music on here b/c of certain users who are into a lot of the same stuff I am, it goes beyond RYM-level "hey you like electro? check out Boards of Canada they are great"

Put it this way: nobody has any obligation to explain/defend their tastes but don't be surprised if someone asks you to.

fair enough; but I also don't think I should be asked to do it because of moral outrage or personal affront either. It's just an etiquette thing.

right crut but when you say you detect timbral complexity and you're trying to figure it out still i could just as easily say i don't perceive timbral complexity and i've figured it out and both of us would be right

I don't even know what you're referring to here.

it's an eternal challenge to me to figure out the timbral and harmonic nature of the sounds he's using

there is no "timbral nature"

you can't get two people or a two machines to reliably identify two different sounds as having the same or different timbre in any reliable way

i must not understand words, how is it that people can distinguish between a piano and a guitar?

I think he's talking about ways to quantify timbral differences

still dgi, but that's ok

people can't distinguish between a piano and a guitar, not reliably

i mean people can say "it sounds like a piano" but then all john cage has to do is throw some shit on the strings and suddenly you don't know what you're hearing. or, i could put you blindfolded at the end of a tunnel and ask you to try to figure out whether you're hearing a clarinet through a tunnel or a pipe organ and you might not be able to.

timbre is like color. you can say "this beam of light is at this wavelength and intensity" or "that beam of light is at that wavelength and intensity" or even "this other beam of light is made of these different wavelengths at these different intensities"

but you can't say "this wavelength is blue" and "that wavelength is green", or draw a line anywhere. and if you fuck with things like luminosity and whatnot people will see pink dots when they're looking at a fluorescent blue and green grid or even a spinning black and white disc.

i guess what i'm saying is that like color, timbre is a perception that a lot of people tend to agree on in broad ways, but it's not actually quantifiable the way tone and volume are. so when you talk about the "timbral complexity" of aphex twin you might as well talk about the "mood complexity" or "feeling complexity" or "sound color complexity" because that's basically what timbre is, it's a subjective perception.

on the other hand, leaving aside the normative connotations, you could talk about relatively complex and simple rhythms in terms of how what sorts of fractions and how many you need to accurately describe that rhythm ("the bass drum and cymbal do four beats every four measures" vs "the drum is beating in 7/4 while the cymbal is doing 3/4") and you could talk about relatively complex and simple harmonies and melodies based on what kind of chords are being used and how many different tones, etc

btw i think that whole "spectral analysis" thing that keeps popping up on the blogosphere is rather nonsensical but that's just me

i mean this isn't to say that crüt can't say "i think this aphex song is incredibly timbrally complex" but it would be just as easy for iglu to say "i think this aphex song is incredibly timbrally boring" and both statements would carry about as much weight

whereas if crüt and iglu were both standing in the same spot and iglu said "i think this foghorn is louder than that mockingbird" then you could easily rig up a computer to check whether he's right or not (assuming crüt and iglu's ears are equally sensitive to matching frequencies!)

how do microphones pick up timbre?

how do cameras record color?

look i'm just nitpicking here, if crut just mean that there's subtle effects going on w/ the way different harmonics and overtones are emphasized in SAWII that's fine, that's most of what we hear when we hear timbre anyway, right?

Tbf, he already acknowledged that's what he meant:

yes, because there are no measurable standards for timbre like there are for loudness and tone and rhythm. but you were responding to how I was using the term "timbre," which has nothing to do with people or machines identifying anything. I'm talking about the nature of the actual sounds used on this album and how the tonal sounds are constructed in terms of their harmonic content (I used "timbral" as shorthand for this).

(Btw, I'd be interested to know your findings, crut!)

I never used the words "timbrally complex" wtf

you are completely misunderstanding my point here

You can call it timbrally complex if it floats your boat, but this thing is full of Vintage Keys presets and I've never really rated it. Would rather hit up De Natura Sonorum or Monoton or Soliloquies for Lilith or...

nobody has called this album "timbrally complex."

why is this thread full of trolls who don't know how to fucking read?

Richard D James certainly thought a lot of this album was yellow.

I mean it's one thing to argue about what timbre means, like talking about the subjectively complex aftertastes of a bottle of vintage wine. And it's perfectly fine to just like getting drunk on cheap plonk. But to argue that timbre - or the taste of wine - doesn't exist coz, like, you once read Derrida, that is folly.

I am just baffled that someone would think I don't understand what timbre entails just because I said... I don't even know what I said that caused someone to think that?

why are you guys so touchy all the time? you pulled this pissy routine on the "aphex twins i want in my vagina" thread too.

i'm sorry i'm misunderstanding your point. i will try to fucking learn to read. probably on another thread with less pissy people on it.

i admit, it is possible you understand timbre, though i'm still not convinced tbh

anyway next time just tell me to fuck off w/o the sputtering outrage and the disparaging of my reading comprehension

Amazing how anti-ambient this discussion became. More solid evidence, I guess, that this album just does not do the job!

\(o_O)/

8===D ~ ~ ~ \(o_O)/

They tried to assassinate my character, they tried to assassinate my swag

how about "spectral nature." let's use that instead of "timbral nature." are we happy now?

What if crut was standing right next to the mockingbird, but iglu was next to the foghorn?

"that mockingbird is quiet, but the foghorn out there is far away"

timbreland feat JT nely futoda
release pirate themed "booty shiver"

I was just curious about how timbre is converted to digital signal if it cannot be measured or quantified.

^

I guess he's saying that it isn't converted because timbre is entirely phenomenological in nature, like color or taste. we kind of just "make that part up" when we experience sound... somehow. i don't really get it, but i'm prepared to admit that i don't know much about the subject.

timbre is a combination of a bunch of different aspects of sound, we might not systematically quantify it, but we do have ways of describing it and it makes sense to analyze it or make observations about it just like we observe the use of color in paintings. we assign "colors" of noise based on how the sound is distributed on the frequency spectrum.

I've had this album playing quietly in the background as the skim this thread. I can hear it, but only if I want to hear it.

Hear a disc-rotted version of SAW II

though it quickly devolved into a clusterfuck, i'm glad that somebody took a whack at this album. i say that because i've never quite known what to make of it. it's often lovely and does generate a pleasant sonic atmosphere, suitable to gazing lazily off into space while imagining slow-motion industrial processes. despite that basic appeal, it often reminds me of the new-age meditation records a friend of mine used to own, simple recordings of vibrating bowls or drawn-out synth noodles. like SAW II, they were lovely and rather indistinct, useful in the provision of a certain atmosphere, but usually too elementary to reward active engagement outside their intended, meditative context.

i often wonder about time, place and chemical context in trying to come to grips with aphex twin's ambient music. at the time, this seemed to be a specific culture's chillout soundtrack of choice, the washed-out shadow of the dance music its audience might have been enmeshed in a few hours before putting it on. its appeal in dilated circumstances is undeniable, and i can see why EDM fans would choose this version of tones & drones over, say, sitar noodling, tibetan bowls, new age synths, or w/e. what i can't see is how SAW II is all that much more interesting or worthy of attention than than any other generally pleasant environmental music.

certain tracks do stand out (e.g., "stone in focus"), though given the context, it may miss the point to praise them for it. most do not. it seems to me that SAW II lacks the basic musicality and close focus on timbral and textural detail that makes eno's ambient 1 so rewarding, but i suppose that's subjective. i like it, on the whole, but it's hard for me to justify the idea that it deserves special recognition outside its obvious significance in its moment and influence on others. which in turn brings up the subjectivity of all artistic appreciation, the ridiculousness of any attempt to objectively "justify" any of it. people seem to think a great deal of it, and i suppose that has to be enough.

eno's ambient 1 is apples and oranges to this in my head. the comparable eno record is "on land" imo

^^ otm

It's a fair point to compare this with new age albums, but then why can't we lump Eno, Koner, Labradford, and plenty of others in there too? If you ask me, these distinctions between "new age" and "real" music have to do with marketing and image more than anything else. I heard an album by Zero 7 about 10-12 years ago that I felt could have easily have been a generic album of elevator music made explicitly to be innocuous background sound. But that's not the way it was marketed at all, and thus, not the way it was received.

eno's ambient 1 is apples and oranges to this in my head. the comparable eno record is "on land" imo

granted. i picked ambient 1 mostly because i like it a lot. agree that ambient 4 has more in common w/ SAW II - especially in generally sounding like what you might hear with your head underwater.

Another comparable to SAW2 that occurs to me is some of John Fahey's late-period ambient/droney playing. "Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today" and "Untitled with Rain" from Red Cross, especially. Maybe some aspects of Womblife.

I'm not that familiar with Eno's ambient work, but from what I can remember about his albums and those with Cluster, Roedelius etc that I've had the opportunity to sample, is that while they do compare to certain moments on SAWII, Aphex's album is so much more variegate in mood. Each track is drastically different in its imagery, making it far more than a new wave chill out record. There are tracks that are genuinely jarring or frightening, others that are plaintive, lonely, sinister, crepuscular, claustrophobic, airy... a real chocolate box of ideas. No two tracks make me think of the same thing, in fact I recall inventing my own titles for each one, based on what it would make me think of - e.g. 'child emperor', 'skywalkers', 'dawn battle', 'dwarf machine', 'grass snake' blahblahblah. Don't think I could do that with any other ambient record I've heard.

It's a fair point to compare this with new age albums, but then why can't we lump Eno, Koner, Labradford, and plenty of others in there too? If you ask me, these distinctions between "new age" and "real" music have to do with marketing and image more than anything else.

otm. i don't intend to disparage new age or any other form of ambient/environmental music. just pointing out that there's an awful lot of this music out there, much of it is quite successful on its own terms, and that the appreciation of aphex twin's ambient music rarely seems to take much account of this larger context. the same applies to eno et al. i guess i'm wondering what the evaluative criteria for assessing this sort of stuff might be. beyond "i just like it", i mean.

the same questions can be asked of minimalist abstract art, i suppose, with as little hope of resolution. what makes a rothko more intrinsically interesting than any other smear of appealing color? once you strip away the secondary, "extra-textural" considerations (the artist's stated intent, historical/cultural context, ideas of importance and influence), it's hard to say beyond one's personal perception of beauty or specialness.

...Aphex's album is so much more variegate in mood. Each track is drastically different in its imagery, making it far more than a new wave chill out record. There are tracks that are genuinely jarring or frightening, others that are plaintive, lonely, sinister, crepuscular, claustrophobic, airy... a real chocolate box of ideas. No two tracks make me think of the same thing...

this is an interesting point. it's true that SAW II is much less consistent in tone than the ambient albums that preceded it, less seemingly interested in conjuring and maintaining a smooth sonic environment. tracks like "rhubarb" pick away at my attention rather insistently (and unpleasantly). this quality makes it harder to "fall into" than the ambient albums i like best.

lol, i mean "[radiator]" or w/e. THE SECOND ONE. IT GOES BONKY BONK.

I've never really listened to this album as an "ambient" album, as such. It's too varied (which makes it to jarring), too discordant, too ... tactile to confuse with sonic mush. Like, did I see someone upthread deride this album as being formulated with synth pre-sets? Because that's not what I hear. I hear a lot more diversity, at lot more rough around the edges bits, which is one of Eno's key strategies, too. Keep it dark. "On Land" is a good comparison, because that album is weird, dark and diverse, too, though it's more, I dunno, organic sounding than this one, which is a purely (probably) electronic piece, albeit deliciously analog in nature.

I had never knowingly heard "Selbstportrait" until yesterday, but the element that caught my ears as SAWII comparative was not the melodies or prettiness but the pop and crackle of the vinyl in the rip I downloaded.

I think the first two Selbtportraits have kind of a lo-fi sound regardless of what format you get them in. They're definitely a good comparison (as is a lot of Roedelius stuff in general)

Obviously the occasional beat or two is another element that sets SAWII apart from many of its predecessors.

being boring shite is another element that sets SAWII apart from many of its predecessors

;-)

I'm not that familiar with Eno's ambient work
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Friday, June 8, 2012 1:33 PM

http://www.soccergaming.com/forums/images/smilies/facepalm.gif

"...it often reminds me of the new-age meditation records a friend of mine used to own, simple recordings of vibrating bowls or drawn-out synth noodles. like SAW II, they were lovely and rather indistinct, useful in the provision of a certain atmosphere, but usually too elementary to reward active engagement outside their intended, meditative context."

Contenderizer, I don't really understand this line of thought... I mean, do you know of a piece called "Music on a Long Thin Wire" by Alvin Lucier? On one level, it's just, well, a recording of the hum made by a huge wire strung across an auditorium. On the other, it's a sublime and enveloping sound environment that's undeniably engaging. Is this music "simple" or "complex"? The set-up and execution is simple, sure, but there is a level of "holy shit" awe that I'd argue is pretty complex. We can have complex responses to simply created music, in other words, and ambient is a genre that I think is very ends-oriented--if the music takes me there, I don't worry a bit about what's behind it. You bring up Rothko later as well, and I think his popularity w/r/t other minimalist color-field painters is indeed hard to explain by formal assessment alone--but I also think it's no accident that he's so beloved and popular. It's the fact that "one's personal perception of beauty and specialness" is shared by so many persons.

I often think SAWII an ambient record like Metal Machine Music is an ambient record.

I kinda think of SAWII as an ambient record like I think of Victorialands as an ambient record.

Which is not entirely facetious, as that was the path that I first came to both SAWs, from the ethereal end of 'gaze and the dronier end of drone.

And it strikes me as the same kind of thing - lots of shoegaze, etheregoth, drone, whatever bands have since tried to do what the Cocteau Twins did, and they never really got it right, because they got the drifting prettiness down OK, but they never got the undercurrent of terror that is shot through the Cocteau's ecstatic beauty.

SAWII often strikes me the same way - that it's not just chillout, there's often an undercurrent of sadness, or creepiness, or aggression, or more often good old Celtic hiraeth - sorry, that's me letting the ~personality~ get in the way of the music again - but this is an undercurrent through all of Aphex Twin's music, the way that that element does come through, no matter what style he's working in. It's not that I'm lionising a record *because* it's a Richard D James record, it's because all of Mr D James' records have that vein of hiraeth which I find so beautiful and appealing.

Well, to explain a bit I don't think I've heard enough ambient in the first place but have a strong idea of the type and types of music (so when it goes blurs into Lucier and devotional buddhist chanting).

However I do think of both albums as very unsettling except there is far more variety in SAWII -- but that's only because MMM is a set of continuous streams of sounds and SAWII has different tracks/melodies.

But what both do share is a strong core sound with undercurrents that undermine it at the sametime -- so I agree that in SAWII that there is an undercurrent of creepiness/agression in a seemingly elegiac core whereas MMM has an undercurrent of serenity in an aggressive and very nasty core set of sounds.

The comparison to MMM is intriguing. One of my favorite Eno observations was his connecting ambient music with the overdrive of metal. Basically, once music goes far enough in the other direction, toward in the red noise and aggression, it sort of transmutes into a similar warm blanket of ambient sound.

But what both do share is a strong core sound with undercurrents that undermine it at the sametime -- so I agree that in SAWII that there is an undercurrent of creepiness/agression in a seemingly elegiac core whereas MMM has an undercurrent of serenity in an aggressive and very nasty core set of sounds.

This seems very otm to me. I've always thought MMM was a very warm/approachable/listenable record and wondered if it was just me being weird.

For me, I guess ambient has never equalled "chillout", so while I see those undertones of aggression/creepiness/etc in SAW2--and they're a big parrt of what I love about the record--they don't somehow make it not ambient for me. I don't look to ambient to relax, I look to it to immerse myself.

Well, all music can be ambient music, then. I'm not averse to that reading.

I don't think those undertones of aggression/creepiness/sadness/hiraeth make SAW2 *not ambient* - I think that they make it good, interesting, evocative, lasting ambient as opposed to churned out by-the-yard stuff.

Yeah, that's what I said a few posts above. This is no guy pressing random pre-programmed mush pads.

Anybody who grew up playing Metroid will feel absolutely no need to justify SAW II's beauty.

http://gamingirresponsibly.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Samus.png

http://gamingirresponsibly.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Samus.png

Why is Richard wearing a bikini again?

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdqVIqn-Pfnp1f2p-uheXFP40hgUrnuid68KB-5YMP5Anhk6j9cw

had planned to do a big is this cunt banned yet? compilation but the obviousness of the referents outweighed the effort of the compilation

Weirdly, listening to Loveless makes me think of Super Metroid. SAWII is synonymous with Five Letters From An Eastern Empire in my mind

wll u know yr the same old hangman who ratnalises hope

Sorry, did I say 'ten'? I meant 'twenty.'

it's about time he put a new record out!

Ned, you bastard. I've been patiently waiting for years to make a parody thread about how it's 10 years since the '10 years since SAW II' thread started.

Zing.

Just wait for the thirty year event.

Well, I'll have to now

Still one of my ten favourite albums.

I love this album (duh), and it's one of the few that I prefer to listen to digitally. My freshmen year in undergrad I had a weird moment with the second disc, late at night. I was kind of bumping my head against my computer monitor repeatedly with my eyes closed when my roommate walked in. If he didn't already, he identified me as a total weirdo from there on out.

lol, my dog is losing his shit at "Radiator"

Looking forward to reading the 33 1/3 that is about to be released (or is now available?).

Amazon delivered my preorder a couple weeks ago. It's good. I'm glad he doesn't go track-by-track.

I recently burned a 3CD version of this with the non-cd tracks inserted.. each CD corresponds to each vinyl disc. fun permutations, recontexified

which are the other nine, marcello?

Anyway in celebration -- um, me:

http://thequietus.com/articles/14552-aphex-twin-selected-ambient-works-volume-ii-review

Brilliant album. I wish I had more things like this in my collection, and that more things were out there that conjure this atmosphere.

Bought this on vinyl when it came out, brown vinyl which became unlistenable after a few plays. Listened to this again a few weeks back and couldn't get into it

The legendary unplayable vinyl. I mention in the article how I heard people complaining about that from the get-go online.

I have the brown vinyl too and it's a mess of crackle and surface noise.

Ned - is that Marc Weidenbaum book worth buying?

I've not read the whole thing but what I've seen is good stuff. As a friend noted, the fact that he's not doing it track by track is a plus. Marc also mentioned this tidbit over on FB in response to my article:

"Rhubarb" is a favorite, up there with "White Blur I." I have a small chunk of text in the book specifically about "Rhubarb," about my sense of how in essence the main thing that "happens" in the track is that what begins as a five-note phrase becomes a six-note phrase. As melodic development goes, that is way minimal, to say the least. In the course of my research I interviewed two musicians (one in San Francisco, another in Portland) who had independent of each other transcribed "Rhubarb" for solo acoustic guitar, but in the end I had no room in the book (35,000 words total) to fit their comments in appropriately.

Give it another spin thanks to this thread. I think I'm coming around to it now.

i never got into this, not 20 years ago, not ten years ago and not now. the cd in six words: too much repetition, too few ideas.

I still have the double cassette that I bought from King’s Road Our Price at the time and it still plays perfectly. Soundtracked innumerable Oxford Tube coach journeys and psychogeographic wanderings around London. An awesomely emotional album, I feel.

Like many ITT I dug this out again for the first time in years. So much I'd forgotten about it. Obviously Rhubarb is the stately easy-listening highlight, but this is a really diverse album. I fell asleep after about three songs, woke up at 4:30am with all the lights on. Woops.

I still prefer SAW85-92 but every time I listen to this album (yup, me too last night) I start out going "why do I even like this, it's so flimsy, so nothingy" and by the end I'm like "THAT WAS AMAZING HOW DID HE DO THAT."

I am all about Shiny Metal Rods. Always.

(It is funny how we all just know and use the "fan fiction" names.)

To be honest I don't really know it by the FF names, I'm more likely to know songs by track number.

this is still one of the best suites of music ever recorded and, y'know, the album is not on trial here etc

Who said it was?

people who comment to bury the album rather than praise it

People having different opinions about a record! Who'd've thunk it?

Added this on my tumblr after reading numerous comments yesterday -- some of the ones just now could have fit in. (Plus the Macross still, but it's not just about that.)

http://nedraggett.tumblr.com/post/77298022831/well-having-teased-the-mention-of-this-macross

xp

i think it's one of those records that, more than most, reflects back on the listener. but of course you're very right, it's important to respect other people's opinions

No it's not, this album's brilliant.

NV OTM, this is like the ultimate Juddian shiny metal box album. Which is one of its strengths, IMO. Everyone who looks into it sees something different.

(Sensitive to faith, not denial, but hey who's on trial?)

I wanted to start a thread asking who is today's equivalent of RDJ. It feels like for all electronic music's range, there's no one working today who matches him in terms of innovation, breadth of scope and also humour. Is it worth starting a thread?

I want to start a thread completely DECONSTRUCTING the idea that "today" has or even needs to have the "equivalent" of previous era's artists. I'm so sick of this meme!

Agreed. It's not like "Didgeridoo" or "Come To Daddy" get played regularly/at all on the Ken Bruce Show! Also it puts an unfair and unwarranted burden on people who ARE trying to do something new and different now. Hacker Farm and Stella OM Source are brilliant but they are not remotely Today's RDJ, nor should they be expected or set up to be.

Quite right. Please, this isn't a 'meme' though, or at least it's not meant to be one.

I'm not saying there ought to be an equivalent, but RDJ and his work and his attitude really does feel like a one-off and I can't think of any other electronic artist who comes close, which is kind of amazing considering how early his involvement was in techno/ambient/IDM and just how many boundaries he pushed back then.

Talking about this here now:

What Is The "What Is The X Of Today" Of Today? Why is this meme so bad and hated?

okay, well i didn't mean it as part of any meme, i was genuinely interested to see if anyone could think of anyone who came close. I mean, I was thinking maybe Oneohtrix (who I don't like much) could count in some way; maybe even Actress, but again much as those are respected and thoughtful artists, I don't think their scopes are anywhere near as broad.

mu-Ziq IMO, a much under-rated producer. And yes all comparisons are invidious etc. etc.

who is the Nicolas Jaar of the early nineties?

Ken Downie (jks)

went to Marc Weidenbaum's SF reading for his 33 1/3 book. read from it, had a couple musicians do cool live stuff, answered some questions. asked him if he had thoughts about why Aphex never returned to this style. he kinda contradicted himself, first admitting this album really stands alone, then saying that actually, it was a rhythmic / melodic work like the rest, and that far from abandoning the style, after SAW II Aphex built on what he accomplished there.

not sure if i agree, but interesting to think about.

i guess this is old news to SAW II fans, but i realized today that "Parallel Stripes" is basically just a binaural beat. it's not hard to tell that it's two very similar sine waves phasing in and out against each other, but i imagine that RJD had binaural beats' alleged effects on brain functions in mind when he made it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats)

http://www.kallbinauralaudio.com/crosstalk-cancellation-or-why-dr-edgar-choueiri-is-my-hero-part-2/

coming soon: loudspeakers capable of playing back binaural audio

about a year ago, i drunksplurged on two copies of "the most minimal record ever made", which does nothing but play a 33Hz sine wave. you're supposed to play two at once, and the unavoidable differences between record players and speakers will create a binaural beat. i haven't had an opportunity to try it yet, but i really want to crank it up and confuse my entire neighborhood

protip: use Audacity to play 33Hz sine waves instead

yeah, that's a lot cheaper too! there's something cool about owning a slab of vinyl that only plays one tone though.

the shot of the moire patterns formed by the grooves sold me. just bought one, thanks

Milton are you familiar with the Thomas Brinkmann "alphabet" series? speaking of patterns on vinyl...

that WOW record is super cool looking

was just looking online for some closeups of those Brinkmann records. had one of mine pinned to the wall at the office for a while.

clearly having a very very slow morning at work you guys

I fell asleep after about three songs, woke up at 4:30am with all the lights on. Woops.

Did almost exactly this last night. Disc 2.

A couple of months after the release of SAW II a free festival was held near where I was living at the time in Clissold Park. At least I think it was that year - this would suggest so -

http://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/hackney-homeless-festival-1994.html?m=1

Following the festival, some friends with a double-decker bus / travelling sound system stayed on in the park for a couple of days playing New Age / ambient music through the night as we hung out.

It was oddly idyllic and peaceful and Blue Calx at least would have gotten a spin. So the album is of course reminiscent of that time and place, but I didn't know then that it was also mostly recorded right in the area as well.

Also / as well.

23 years now anyway.

This might be the best album to listen to while sick. I've tried listening to all kinds of stuff over the past week and it all felt wrong but I kept coming back to this until I finally just conceded and put it on constant repeat.

Good god -- next week it's 25 years old.

monumental album.

stone in ... retrospect

I am puzzled by this “this album is 25 years old” trend...I guess its a way to keep the olds engaged

It's to remind you of the icy hand of relentless time.

Yeah, that it does

seems a natural and enduring way of looking at things

Remember when the US celebrated its bicentennial? That landmark recognized a span of time roughly eight times as long as SAWII is old. Hope that helps.

Think it's also that when SAW II came out, 25 year old albums were things like Abbey Road and Let It Bleed and there seems a disconnect thinking of it in those terms.

Fun fact: no human being has yet lived for a span of time longer 5X the age of SAWII.

also, if you listen to SAWII five times in a row with no breaks, you die

Happy early birthday

I already thought Aphex Twin had the best study music, but this has to be his best one. I finally got around to it last fall while organizing some longer papers for a class. I found it weirdly helpful and definitely my favorite of his at the moment.

The third-to-last song "Tassels" is metal as fuck. Is it #22? Are the numbers different depending on format?

It's #22 on Spotify.

#6 is a noir earworm.

If #6 is "Curtains" which it might not be.

Sorry #7 is the noir earworm.

love that one

Almost 30 years old!

Christ on a bike.

Sorry, did I say 'ten'? I meant 'twenty.'

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 18 February 2014 16:34 (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's about time he put a new record out!

― Crackle Box, Tuesday, 18 February 2014 16:37 (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ned, you bastard. I've been patiently waiting for years to make a parody thread about how it's 10 years since the '10 years since SAW II' thread started.

― If it was up to the unions we still have stream trains (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Tuesday, 18 February 2014 16:48 (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Zing.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 18 February 2014 16:50 (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Just wait for the thirty year event.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 18 February 2014 16:51 (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink

You've done it again, Ned. Now I've got to wait another decade.

Time to play the long game!

https://i.imgur.com/ALBJbdy.png

It's not April 5th yet!

so warp’s instagram has been posting some cryptic SAW II things and people are speculating that maybe it will be getting an anniversary reissue of some kind

!

Can we get a damn SAW III to follow it up too? Is that too much to ask for, Richard?!

you were right

Expanded edition coming in October. 3 CDs, 4 LPs, a super fancy box version.

dammit 2xCassette sold out! Great medium for this tbh

sadly i dont have £299 for an oak box

any indication of the regular vinyl getting wide release?

I'm confused, are there really only two bonus tracks?

you can preorder the regular 4xLP for $50, pretty good deal imo. I was on the fence about preordering since the Aphex vinyl that's in print is fairly available but SAW II has always been a pretty special/sought after thing so who knows. hopefully this means a drukqs reissue is in the works someday too

xp Looks like,yeah. And one of them is the 2017 digital bonus track. Plus #19 being available across formats finally (previously UK vinyl - and web digital - only). These would necessitate the extra CD but be a bit skimpy for an extra LP. Sides on the original are a bit long though so it looks to be rejigged, shown by the "tracklist" (several circles now have three images - before, every side had at least 4).

thanks, that was what I thought but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything

pitchfork all "check out the track list below"

said track list:

01 #1
02 #2
03 #3
04 #4
05 #5
06 #6
07 #7
08 #8
...

(it gets more interesting later but...)

my original cd has the rot and the outer tracks won't play (luckily i took a copy before it got bad). i meant to buy another copy when it came out in that fancy case (super jewel it appears to be called) but never did... perhaps now is the time...

Minidisc copy, I hope.

Wow $300 for the boxset. The normal vinyl at $50 is a good offer. I still don’t know if I’d buy… used to listen to this one fairly frequently and I think only about 1/3 would be of any use to me nowadays.

If it's only 3 tracks the bonus CD should be one of those 3" ones.

I burned a 3CD-R that follows the vinyl track list awhile back…I will buy this on CD

still have my cds, but if i didn't, lugging out a giant wooden box and then flipping all of those lps every 20mins or so seems like a uniquely awful way to experience this particular album

otm, this was made for long CDs

Check this:

https://www.oakfurnituresuperstore.co.uk/products/york-150cm-solid-oak-dining-table?gad_source=1

300 quid, and REAL SOLID OAK! I may get this to put my laptop on so as I can stream it.

I preordered it. I actually bought the repressing years ago, but heard some distortion and it was likely my turntable or stylus so I returned it (oops).

Now it goes for bloody ~$200 on discogs. And that version lacked Stone in Focus, which this will have (yay!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uho04jJzxjs

I did the pre order on CD, as I’d never owned this before!

No bonus tracks we haven’t heard before? Lame.

Can’t believe they still haven’t adopted the fan-made names as the official song titles after all these years. I still think the album is better listened to with the songs in alphabetical order from “Blue Calx” to “Z-Twig”.

What a great record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzuygQd3do

Thanks, I just matched this sample!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyCRiyMg2ik

“Blue Calx” is the ultimate

The CD of SAW II I bought in a charity shop years ago was bronzed. It has somehow persevered but now you can see actual rot on the outer edges. Time to buy it again I think.

Exactly what koogs said

yeah, it didn't help that they were long CDs and the data went right to the edges

I bought SAW II on CD back in 2004 and didn’t know stone in focus existed until last year, was a bit of a trip to discover one of the best songs by one of your favourite artists just hiding in a cupboard. It’s probably the closest I’ve come to realizing my recurring dream where I’m watching TV and a season 4/5 Simpsons episode I’ve never seen suddenly comes on.

have you looked into the soundcloud dump?

they should color the new release cds bronze just to fuck with people

(Saw 2 was one of the releases misprinted by Philips / Dupont in the UK. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc_bronzing )

tha1 (slo) is a bonus track right? that was part of the SoundCloud dump

yep, th1, th1 (slo) and this one, which is still online : https://soundcloud.com/user18081971/th1-evnslower
(he has been adding to that dump every now and then ever since, btw, most recent track was 10 months ago)

Right th1, not tha1, my bad

xp whoa, thanks

nice, I am 1 hour 45 mins behind on these tracks, listening now

i only just realized his soundcloud username is not just a random string of numbers

ohhhhhhh

Dispatched: 1 October 2024, 14:53 UTC

Aphex Twin
Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Expanded Edition)
CD (3×CD)

I got that email earlier today too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Ii9Q5YMeM

worth clicking through for the top couple comments

Despite owning this on multiple formats over the years, I'm still waiting-by-the-mailbox eager to receive my copy of the 3xCD reissue. Few albums from my youth have the kind of enduring power over me that this one does. And I say that despite still preferring SAW 1!

Dan Weiss has a great new piece up about a particular angle on the release/anniversary -- namely, a dive into how it was actually marketed and sold here in the US:

https://riotriot.substack.com/p/red-white-and-blue-calx-the-story

A lot of detail, including comparisons to other acts under the Warner umbrella and how they were marketed etc.

Well, the first part of the article seems interesting.