SAW II "Special Moments".

I had one a while back when I was listening to #3 (rhubarb) when I couldn't sleep and went outside (with my headphones/MD player) and sat around. I saw a shooting star and thought it was really neat in an extremely sappy way. And for some reason, I was walking outside tonight and saw another while listening to the same song.

I had another one while listening to #23 (tassels) while lying in my bed one night. The streetlight filtered in through some big green leaves and I was repeatedly going under and over the line between consciousness and every time I was above it, I'd almost be freaking out.

Another with Blue Calx and sitting out on a piling on Lake Ponchatrain (New Orleans). I was about 3 inches above the water and couldn't see anything but water and sky and eventually felt like I was levitating.

So what about yous guyses?

usually.. moment turns to 'special' when i listen to this.

well i dont have any stories about SAW2 but i do have one about SAW1. this is from my blog a few weeks ago (its kinda long, i know, and none of my friends listen to aphex so it might have explinations and descriptions of the music that you guys wont need):

I had an interesting experience not more than half an hour ago while I ate my dinner. I was looking out the window at the rain falling on the bricks outside; when the water fell on the crevaces between the bricks it quickly moved to fill the narrow shaft, and thus reflected the orange electric light outside.

Now, when a person looks in any direction the human mind usually focuses on only one thing. And so I really couldn't perceive all those movements of light on the bricks in perfect clarity, only 'know' what they looked like.

I was listening to the song 'Pulsewidth' by Aphex Twin when it happened. The song has alot of lower, queiter noises but with a repetitious, higher pitched noise. As I focused with my mind on both the noise and the bricks, I realized that on each 'ping' I saw every line of light in my feild of vision simaltaniously move.

This was an amazing thing to behold, it was as if the music was crossing over into reality and showing me a manifestation of itself in the moving lines of light. Perhaps it was because, subconsciously, my mind made my vision change for that instant to see this as part of a survival instinct in response to the sudden loud noises, allowing me to see more in order to 'protect' myself. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the sudden high noises caused me to blink slightly and therefore changed my ability to see in such a way that light was more distinguisable.

Either way I was absorbed in this little light show the world had put on for me. (Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that my mind put it on for me.) So I tried very hard to stay in this dreamy state of mind and skipped ahead a few tracks. Now the song "Green Calx" by the same artist came on; a song with alot more rapid high-pitched noises.

And my prediction came true: now the light seemed to dance with equal complexity and speed to the song I was listening to. This was even more amazing; if you've ever heard this song and could imagine dozens of lines of light seemingly dance to it's main tune you'd know what a thing it would be to experience.

Seeing this began to make me wonder about the nature reality and how music affects it; since we perceive the world mainly in sight do the songs we listen to perhaps synch up the world in unnatural ways? Does music that seems to make our lives more beautiful do this in a far more subtle way you imagined? Next time you walk down the street blasting music in your ears, try and see if your vision is actually effected by it. You might love what you see...

P.S. I am NOT high.

-Morgan

I fell asleep on the bus last week listening to SAW1 and ended up 2 villages away.

I want to go live on a space station with big windows and listen to it over and over and ovahhh. That would be most fun.

already told it many times

basically almost a religious experience walking in an open field, snow all around, listening to rhubarb. felt like everyone i knew was talking to me. didn't here people but felt them.

when aphex played my rmx of Lichen in Torino. zwnnnnn!

no but really... umm. one would becamping,and waking up very early in the morning to go for a walk in a deep green forest,floor covered with moss and ferns,listening to the album. very nice indeed.

Yeah I've had a few, might be too esoteric to explain, sort of involves personal rorshach images in my head, that I find revelatory but others would see no meaning in.

cliffs, rhubarb, lichen, the song after blue calx

i'm going to be lame and say another special moment was when i first heard the album

i was sitting in the car waiting for my mom and sister to finish shopping in the mall

the music was so alien and wierd and i didn't "get it" at all, yet i knew it was something special and forced myself to listen to it even though some bits made me uncomfortable

i guess that feeling i had could have been how many people react to music they don't understand therefor i should be easier on people that don't get my type of music

was huffing nitrous once while listening to Lichen and watching TV, had one of the most realistic hallucinations in my life of a waterfall with a rainbow overhead that lasted until my brother asked me why i was breathing so fast...fucker.

Not strictly SAWII i guess (only on the vinyl) but walking home at midnight listening to "Stone In Focus" was pretty amazin and unnerving.

But Blue Calx is definatly my favourite track.

Go to amazon.co.uk and find SAWII. My epic track by track review is the first review there!

Heres a link but it might not work:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...5236635-7052660

  Morgan Dunn said:

well i dont have any stories about SAW2 but i do have one about SAW1. this is from my blog a few weeks ago (its kinda long, i know, and none of my friends listen to aphex so it might have explinations and descriptions of the music that you guys wont need):

 

 

I had an interesting experience not more than half an hour ago while I ate my dinner. I was looking out the window at the rain falling on the bricks outside; when the water fell on the crevaces between the bricks it quickly moved to fill the narrow shaft, and thus reflected the orange electric light outside.

 

Now, when a person looks in any direction the human mind usually focuses on only one thing. And so I really couldn't perceive all those movements of light on the bricks in perfect clarity, only 'know' what they looked like.

 

I was listening to the song 'Pulsewidth' by Aphex Twin when it happened. The song has alot of lower, queiter noises but with a repetitious, higher pitched noise. As I focused with my mind on both the noise and the bricks, I realized that on each 'ping' I saw every line of light in my feild of vision simaltaniously move.

 

This was an amazing thing to behold, it was as if the music was crossing over into reality and showing me a manifestation of itself in the moving lines of light. Perhaps it was because, subconsciously, my mind made my vision change for that instant to see this as part of a survival instinct in response to the sudden loud noises, allowing me to see more in order to 'protect' myself. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the sudden high noises caused me to blink slightly and therefore changed my ability to see in such a way that light was more distinguisable.

 

Either way I was absorbed in this little light show the world had put on for me. (Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that my mind put it on for me.) So I tried very hard to stay in this dreamy state of mind and skipped ahead a few tracks. Now the song "Green Calx" by the same artist came on; a song with alot more rapid high-pitched noises.

 

And my prediction came true: now the light seemed to dance with equal complexity and speed to the song I was listening to. This was even more amazing; if you've ever heard this song and could imagine dozens of lines of light seemingly dance to it's main tune you'd know what a thing it would be to experience.

 

Seeing this began to make me wonder about the nature reality and how music affects it; since we perceive the world mainly in sight do the songs we listen to perhaps synch up the world in unnatural ways? Does music that seems to make our lives more beautiful do this in a far more subtle way you imagined? Next time you walk down the street blasting music in your ears, try and see if your vision is actually effected by it. You might love what you see...

 

P.S. I am NOT high.

 

-Morgan

what is wrong with us?

Hopefully in his new (reported) analogue phase he'll make a volume III. Or pull some old stuff out (oh god please).

Does anyone know if the "stone in focus" from that Astralweks CD "Excusions In Ambience Vol. 3" was a real digital one or mastered from the vinyl? I've almost bought the brown vinyl a few times, but am satisfied with my homemade three CD copy of SAW II made from the Warp copy & that Astralwerks CD. I made the case in art clath. Lookit:

Wheeeeeeee. Yeah I think we're all supahfreaks.

  felttipen said:

what is wrong with us?

no, what is wrong with THEM?

dude...listening to 'cliffs'...started seeing stuff in the puddle...duuuuuudddeeeee

A good thing to do while listening to it is to squint at some incandescent lights and make them fade in and out with the music.

First time I heard SAW II a friend of mine and I were driving home from the record shop and had it on in his car. We both went catatonic while stopped at a red light and came to with someone blaring their horn behind us. We woke up startled, looked at one another and said "I think we should listen to something else until we get home".

Last night, I had a dream I was in a car. We drove through a street near my home and "Lichen" was playing through the car radio. I swear this must be the first time I actually could dream a piece of music!

Unfortunately, some dude in the car turned it off after hearing the first chords :getlost:

I was listening to disc 2 one time in college and kept falling asleep during Blue Calx. And I swear that the music kept changing every time I dipped into sleep, like these happy chords would come in and change the mood of the track.

And, no, I wasn't on any substances.

got ahold of that astralwerks 'excursions' disc (the pinkish one) when i was 16 or so, before i knew what aphex was. then was exposed to aphex ten years later and recognized the track (from SAW II) as being very familiar. very warm track

My SAW II Special Moments i have on

Cliffs:Its a beautiful song!!!

Radiator:I have dreams my Musics teacher wants us to play it.

saw II is definitely something else. i spend a lot of time staring at walls normally (don't ask), but something about this album really zones me out like nothing else. i can't think of a specific saw II moment, because i tend to have them whenever i put the album on.

i've always wondered - what the hell is it about the songs that do what they do? the tempo? tweaks your breathing and heart rate, or something?

  DrHat said:

i've always wondered - what the hell is it about the songs that do what they do? the tempo? tweaks your breathing and heart rate, or something?

well he did compose them in and out of lucid dreaming supposedly... i always figured the dreaminess of the tracks had something to do with state of mind he was in while he wrote them ( half asleep)

i don't really lucid dream, but i've dreamt music, remembered it when i woke up, and been able to get it down. and it doesn't do what his stuff does. maybe it's just because i'm about 10 years behind him in the experience dept.

haha i had a special SAWII moment today, quite horrifying one though

after work i fell asleep in my bed with SAWII cd1 on and i woke up to these really loud hovering noises that sounded like the invasion of huge alien aircrafts. the brief seconds as i was waking up i really paniced

then i realise it's white blur 1 coming from my speakers :laughing: