SAW II turns 30

I don't buy vinyl/physical releases but I feel like this release is kindof justified, its his most interesting album, its been 30 years, and the original brown vinyl is reportedly not that great. No one has to buy it if they dont want to.

A bit baffled by the inclusion of Rhubarb orch rev, that track doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the album. Especially when you've got Red Calx available.

Guess he finally got what he asked for ( https://aphextwin.warp.net/release/68148-aphex-twin-selected-ambient-works-volume-ii )

  Quote

19 track 19 [side 5, track 2, omitted from CD's]

This track has now thankfully been found and uploaded here, I was very worried it had been lost, very relieved*** It was not included on the original CD’s as there wasn't enough room. I usually always give priority to the vinyl versions of all my releases as I never ever really liked CD's much, think I would have liked CD's a little bit more if you could put 90 mins on them, who decided they were to be 74 mins anyway? Thinking about this now I'd love to try and get Warp to do high quality chrome cassette versions of all my Warp musics, maybe even metal ones if possible. If I wait a year or so for this I could include all the extras on the cassettes as there would be plenty of room, would have to sign the tracks over to Warp first for a physical release, something I don't have to do for this website but that shouldn't be too difficult.

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I like his new Spotify background!

stone in focus was never my fav track from the album

there! I've said it!

$300+ for that box is a hard lol. They really should have done way more tapes - that’s a big miss. Also the 100 day countdown on Spotify? 100 days?  My brother in Christ it is 2024 and the album is 30 years old. Oh well. Maybe Drukqs repress in 800 days. Hoping he’s got something new coming soon..

  On 6/19/2024 at 10:59 AM, mcbpete said:

Guess he finally got what he asked for ( https://aphextwin.warp.net/release/68148-aphex-twin-selected-ambient-works-volume-ii )

 

I love his notes he made on some tracks.. I wish he could have done it for all the tracks! 

Maybe have that in the Limited edition box set? Can only hope! 

  On 6/18/2024 at 3:32 PM, Rubin Farr said:

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For anyone who missed out, or doesn't want to wait until October to buy from discogs scalpers, I still have my original copy of SAW2 on cassette...

  On 6/19/2024 at 8:23 PM, jules said:

They really should have done way more tapes [...] it is 2024 [...].

  On 6/19/2024 at 10:10 AM, danshoebridge said:

A bit baffled by the inclusion of Rhubarb orch rev, that track doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the album. Especially when you've got Red Calx available.

Yeah it mustve been a special track for him to prioritise it like this. I prob would have preferred Red Calx as well.

Happy about Stone In Focus, I'm of the mind that it should have been on the record anyway, replacing one of the more creepy/illbient tracks. Theres a risk of the record becoming too sweet, but I still think its a good balance.

Its a huge monster of an album already so we're only getting a fraction of the extra material, which is a shame but understandable. There are not enough nerds out there to warrant a full SAW2.5 record with Just Fall Asleep, 07 b, Lush Ambulance, etc on there.

 anyone know what that ugly sound at 3:46 is ? doesnt seem to happen in the older upload of stone in focus

hey you're right, some sort of artifact/glitch at 3:46

  On 6/20/2024 at 9:08 PM, Wunderbar said:

 anyone know what that ugly sound at 3:46 is ? doesnt seem to happen in the older upload of stone in focus

 

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Dont worry! it's just another version ... this one's apparently called 

Stone in Focus (MILF_Egg27yx4_Synthi_CakeGlitch_mx)

  On 6/20/2024 at 9:08 PM, Wunderbar said:

 anyone know what that ugly sound at 3:46 is ? doesnt seem to happen in the older upload of stone in focus

 

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to me, the first one sounds louder/more compressed. perhaps some compression artefacts?

(i'm no expert!! - experts on this forum, pls correct me!!)

  On 6/20/2024 at 10:23 PM, Satans Little Helper said:

(i'm no expert!! - experts on this forum, pls correct me!!)

no need, you are correct; you are not an expert!

  On 6/19/2024 at 7:45 PM, Pirtek said:

I like his new Spotify background!

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here’s the full image 

  On 6/20/2024 at 9:08 PM, Wunderbar said:

anyone know what that ugly sound at 3:46 is ? doesnt seem to happen in the older upload of stone in focus

Also Hearing that in the flac download from warp (upon a closer listen)

Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Expanded Edition-01-019-Aphex Twin-#19.flac

(edit)

Put the warp flac into audacity and did a normalized side-by-side with a youtube download. there is certainly some hot level distortion going on in the flac compared to the YT version.  8:13 is pretty bad.

 

  On 6/21/2024 at 5:05 AM, CarpetSoup said:

Not hearing that in the flac download from warp.  Perhaps a codec artifact.

Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Expanded Edition-01-019-Aphex Twin-#19.flac

The sound is also present on the spotify upload. Really hope those artifacts are not present on the vinyl. They suck especially on an ambient album.

  On 6/18/2024 at 3:25 PM, voicemail said:

Is there any word on the music getting remastered or anything?  I don't see that anywhere... 
Just curious

Yes; by Matt Colton (https://www.thisismetropolis.com/engineers/matt-colton/) Listening to them now they seem much louder than the originals (maybe due to streaming loudness rules??) That being said, the low end seems to be consistently more defined (especially in Grass and Weathered Stone) but i'm no expert

SIF is definitely way more compressed. The ticks sound just a touch tinnier/sharper as well. I imagine whatever processes they used also brought out some artefacts from the original tape.

I see they have reduced the delivery cost of the 4lp tshirt bundle by more than 50% I knew they had made a balls of that, tellingly they haven't put out any messages on social media that they made a balls of it and will refund people they ripped off but I suppose they may have emailed people who bought them who hadn't noticed, if they haven't it's really poor form, people have paid good money for this 3-4 months in advance of its expected release, don't be a cunt, simple interpersonal cuntinomics

As a regular EU purchaser of AFX merch from Bleep I would love to hear the reasoning of the price differential for the goods themselves, seems like EU were being charged somewhere in the region of 20% premium for no apparent reason vs UK/US

Email communicaton from Warp

Production of the Selected Ambient Works Volume II limited box sets is well underway. The individual copper plates for the boxes are turning out beautifully, with each one developing a unique patina. We’ll keep you up to date with progress.

  On 8/23/2024 at 2:48 PM, silentvision said:

Email communicaton from Warp

 

Production of the Selected Ambient Works Volume II limited box sets is well underway. The individual copper plates for the boxes are turning out beautifully, with each one developing a unique patina. We’ll keep you up to date with progress.

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They look well in fairness, I have to say I'm keen to see what some tycoon pays for one of these when they go up on ebay and discogs having missed the pre-order while trophy hunting lion in the serengeti