SAW II turns 30

https://x.com/bleep/status/1765690269066830152?s=46&t=lzb--cRIkaiKMari_HPNtg
 

Hopefully a repress complete with stone in focus. 

  On 3/7/2024 at 6:56 PM, chenGOD said:

Hopefully a repress complete with stone in focus

no thx, more shiny metal rods pls

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4NJwNMo9z5/

I haven't bought vinyl in 20 years, but I would by this.

I would also buy a shiny new copy of this. 

I would pay for Richard to invite me to his lair where we listen to unreleased SAW tracks and he thinks I’m cool so he slowly starts showing me his whole collection of synths and gear and eventually gifts me something special like a rhodes chroma or whatever and we still talk on the phone to this day

Masterpiece. I'm still unlocking its mysteries all these years later. 

For anyone thats never read about the lucid dreaming angle:

  Quote

 

Broaching this subject of dreams, he becomes animated and talks a long streak. "This album is really specific," he says, "because 70 percent of it is done from lucid dreaming... To have lucid dreams is to be conscious of being in a dream state, even to be capable of directing the action while still in a dream. I've been able to do it since I was little," Richard explains. "I taught myself how to do it and it's my most precious thing. Through the years, I've done everything that you can do, including talking and shagging with anyone you feel that takes your fancy. The only thing I haven't done is tried to kill myself. That's a bit shady. You probably wouldn't wake up, and you wouldn't know if it had worked, anyway. Or maybe you would.

"I often throw myself off skyscrapers or cliffs and zoom off right at the last minute That's quite good fun. It's well realistic. Eating food is quite smart. Like tasting food. Smells as well. I make foods up and sometimes they don't taste of anything—like they taste of some weird mish-mash of other things."

..

"About a year and a half ago," he says, "I badly wanted to dream tracks. Like imagine I'm in the studio and write a track in my sleep, wake up and then write it in the real world with real instruments. I couldn't do it at first. The main problem was just remembering it. Melodies were easy to remember. I'd go to sleep in my studio. I'd go to sleep for ten minutes and write three tracks - only small segments, not l00 percent finished tracks. I'd wake up and I'd only been asleep for ten minutes. That's quite mental.

"I vary the way I do it, dreaming either I'm in my studio, entirely the way it is, or all kinds of variations. The hardest thing is getting the sounds the same. It's never the same. It doesn't really come close to it. When you have a nightmare or a weird dream, you wake up and tell someone about it and it sounds really shit. It's the same for sounds, roughly. When I imagine sounds, they are in dream form. As you get better at doing it, you can get closer and closer to the actual sounds. But that's only 70 percent of it."

 

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From David Toop interview, 1994 https://lannerchronicle.wordpress.com/2020/09/13/aphex-twin-the-face-magazine-1994/

Tbh I almost never return to Saw II. When I put it on its beautiful, sure, but I can't sit through it in one go. But that's a known problem to me when it comes to Ambient music.

Nothing but respect for it of course

tbh I bought the double cd the month it was released and I just listen to the 'nice' tracks. I am unapologetic about that.

My 'best of' playlist is:

• Cliffs
• Rhubarb
• Curtains
• Blue Calx
• Parallel Stripes
• Lichen

Have barely listened to any of the other ones for 30 years

It took me too long to get round to checking out Stone In Focus because it wasn't on the CD but its actually one of the very best.

  Quote

 

Broaching this subject of dreams, he becomes animated and talks a long streak. "This album is really specific," he says, "because 70 percent of it is done from lucid dreaming... To have lucid dreams is to be conscious of being in a dream state, even to be capable of directing the action while still in a dream. I've been able to do it since I was little," Richard explains. "I taught myself how to do it and it's my most precious thing. Through the years, I've done everything that you can do, including talking and shagging with anyone you feel that takes your fancy. The only thing I haven't done is tried to kill myself. That's a bit shady. You probably wouldn't wake up, and you wouldn't know if it had worked, anyway. Or maybe you would.

"I often throw myself off skyscrapers or cliffs and zoom off right at the last minute That's quite good fun. It's well realistic. Eating food is quite smart. Like tasting food. Smells as well. I make foods up and sometimes they don't taste of anything—like they taste of some weird mish-mash of other things."

..

"About a year and a half ago," he says, "I badly wanted to dream tracks. Like imagine I'm in the studio and write a track in my sleep, wake up and then write it in the real world with real instruments. I couldn't do it at first. The main problem was just remembering it. Melodies were easy to remember. I'd go to sleep in my studio. I'd go to sleep for ten minutes and write three tracks - only small segments, not l00 percent finished tracks. I'd wake up and I'd only been asleep for ten minutes. That's quite mental.

"I vary the way I do it, dreaming either I'm in my studio, entirely the way it is, or all kinds of variations. The hardest thing is getting the sounds the same. It's never the same. It doesn't really come close to it. When you have a nightmare or a weird dream, you wake up and tell someone about it and it sounds really shit. It's the same for sounds, roughly. When I imagine sounds, they are in dream form. As you get better at doing it, you can get closer and closer to the actual sounds. But that's only 70 percent of it."

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  On 3/7/2024 at 6:56 PM, chenGOD said:

https://x.com/bleep/status/1765690269066830152?s=46&t=lzb--cRIkaiKMari_HPNtg
 

Hopefully a repress complete with stone in focus. 

maybe the warp ceo just listed their original copy on discogs and needs to flip it asap

You really owe it to yourself to take this one on a journey out in nature with you. Preferably at a beautiful place you’ve never visited before. There’s nothing like coming across Lichen while listening to it as well. 

Even the 2012 repress I have is selling for like $200. Crazy.

True story I never liked this album when I first bought it. 

  On 3/7/2024 at 8:48 PM, thumbass said:

Tbh I almost never return to Saw II. When I put it on its beautiful, sure, but I can't sit through it in one go. But that's a known problem to me when it comes to Ambient music.

Nothing but respect for it of course

Agree, sitting through the whole thing from beginning to end is an endurance test. My cd copy has hand written notes, 1 to 24 with either ticks or crosses next to each number, then every few months after more plays crosses were scrubbed out and became ticks. I think there's about a dozen classics on it. Some tracks have never grown on me and remain with the original X. Of course thanks to Spotify its all in one juicy playlist.

1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20

one of the absolute very best of anything. music, art, whatever. miles better than anything else he's done.

  On 3/7/2024 at 7:38 PM, silentvision said:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4NJwNMo9z5/

 

 

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If you zoom in on the label it says "© Warp Records 2024". Subtle hint??

Warp is very very good at trolling or repress is really in the work.

Enhance

https://twitter.com/bunnyhop69420/status/1765664581249368256/photo/1

Strange album, not my fav from him but i still go back to it

  On 3/7/2024 at 10:44 PM, NI64 said:

If you zoom in on the label it says "© Warp Records 2024". Subtle hint??

they should try doing this with some boards of canada record. start a flipping riot.

  On 3/7/2024 at 8:30 PM, Alcofribas said:

I would pay for Richard to invite me to his lair where we listen to unreleased SAW tracks and he thinks I’m cool so he slowly starts showing me his whole collection of synths and gear and eventually gifts me something special like a rhodes chroma or whatever and we still talk on the phone to this day

Sounds well lush.

  On 3/7/2024 at 10:22 PM, beerwolf said:

True story I never liked this album when I first bought it. 

Agree, sitting through the whole thing from beginning to end is an endurance test. My cd copy has hand written notes, 1 to 24 with either ticks or crosses next to each number, then every few months after more plays crosses were scrubbed out and became ticks. I think there's about a dozen classics on it. Some tracks have never grown on me and remain with the original X. Of course thanks to Spotify its all in one juicy playlist.

1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20

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See, #19 should have been on there but of course it was never on the CD versions.

I have 2 copies of this on vinyl, still listen to it on CD or on my phone, the 1977 (label) vinyl repress from a few years back without stone in focus is dubious, its so crackly, I barely played my copy and it sounds like it was used as a frisbee, thought I had lost my warp copy and found it, sounds much better, the crackling on the sire 1977 version actually sounds OK to my ears but if you didn't want it you can't ignore it, not sure what contraption they pressed it on