vinyl Selected Ambient Works Vol II

they may still hold rights to previous releases, i think 20 years is a standard which means it's still theirs to repress/license it.

Not sure about that - Warner were licensing it from WARP to release in the States - they wouldn't have repress rights unless they get permission from WARP to do so, and even then, that might only apply to US-based releases (don't recall if this repress is US-based or not).

That, and considering the tidbit I mentioned above, I don't think Warner will be worrying about repressing SAW II unless Richard suddenly becomes huge in the US via a new album that wakes up the electronic music world in such a way it brings the genre to the mainstream.

Is there any proof that the original release is licensed to Sire/Warner?

because:

©℗ 1994 Sire Records Company, marketed by Warner Bros. Records Inc., A Time Warner Company.

Made in U.S.A.

Warp only appears in logo form...

So what you're implying is Sire Records was the distributor, and Warner was just the marketer? The original is WARP's property - I don't think there's any doubt about that. I think Sire might be like Chrysalis is in the UK, but I haven't looked further into that.

Again, WARP released it in the UK and there is no mention of Sire/Warner Bros. on it's packaging - so Sire licensed (or was the US distributor for WARP) it and Warner Bros was the marketer/publisher in the US (I recall my US SAW II jewel case has the Warner "W" logo stamped on it as part of the plastic).

As mentioned by Richard in the "Groove" Interview, the name Aphex Twin is (or was at the time) the "Property" of Sire/Warner in the US and Japan. They are / were releasing his music in the States / Japan and holding the copyright in this territory.

According to Discogs, there isn't even a Warp Logo on this new re-release:

http://www.discogs.com/history?release=3577040#latest

Nevertheless, I think it's a good thing that this beautiful album is available to the public for a reasonable price, again. i think it sucks that it's lacking "Stone in Focus", tho. (for which i think only Warp is the copyright holder).

#19 (the track you refer to - I refuse to use the "names" given to those tracks) was released in the US by Astralwerks - it says "Appears Courtesy of Warner Brothers Special Products. Chrysalis Publishing holds the publishing rights to the song.

Interesting that Warner could/would license a track that appeared only on the UK release of SAW II (there was no US vinyl release)...

I'd also question whether what Richard said in the interview was entirely accurate - I know at the time because he didn't deliver the promised album followup to Windowlicker, that Warner Bros were upset with him - he eventually delivered several years later. I was in contact with Warner Bros. at the time (they were wanting to expand their current Aphex Twin web site with a more comprehensive site in anticipation of the upcoming album they though was going to be out in October of 1999), and I recall that they were upset they paid Richard a rather large advance and hadn't heard a word from him since Windowlicker had been released.

He was probably contractually bound to release something, but as to whether Warner "owned" the Aphex Twin moniker or not is not certain.

yeah, we can never be sure if anything is accurate in richards interviews.

but fact is, richard never released anything under aphex twin after drukqs (except for analord 10 which was released on rephlex).

Sometimes I think Windowlicker was perhaps more than Richard bargained for. All of a sudden he appeared like a massive pulsating blob on the record companies radar, whereas before he probably operated without too much hassle.

Windowlicker was a doubled edged sword.

That's true - and it was just an attribution on Rephlex's part (and putting the Aphex Twin logo on it, although the logo's been used for AFX releases as well) - I don't think the actual copyright went to Aphex Twin. There's no c and p on the vinyl versions, and the p and c is attributed to Rephlex on the Chosen Lords CD release (which features the tracks from Analord 10).

Might also be a contributing factor to why there hasn't been an Aphex Twin release on any other label since 26 Mixes for Cash...

  On 5/7/2012 at 9:44 PM, beerwolf said:

Sometimes I think Windowlicker was perhaps more than Richard bargained for. All of a sudden he appeared like a massive pulsating blob on the record companies radar, whereas before he probably operated without too much hassle.

 

Windowlicker was a doubled edged sword.

Yeah, I think his popularity was reaching critical mass at that time, and I wonder if he feared what would happen if he got anywhere near mainstream attention. Come To Daddy started it, and Windowlicker whipped it to a fever pitch - both had controversial videos that put Aphex Twin in the public spotlight more than any previous release of his.

  On 1/17/2012 at 8:04 PM, oscillik said:

  On 1/17/2012 at 8:00 PM, Joyrex said:

What points towards this being an unauthorized release?

 

Not using the original masters would point to it being unauthorised.

from what i heard from someone at Revolver (the company who is joint pressing it) out of San Francisco is that either Sire or one of the companies above Warp gave the authorization. Warp did a lot of co-releases with bigger recordlabels at the time for the Aphex stuff. I don't know the exact details, but a company as big and as legit as Revolver would not get themselves entangled in something illegal like a bootleg pressing. They've been around almost as long as i've been alive.

edit: sorry just realized this has already been covered in the thread. I was actually worried when i first found out the company my friend worked for was pressing it, and informed him that Warp was screaming foul on facebook about it being a bootleg. He brought it to the attention of his boss and he hadn't seen the Warp statement yet, but was unconcerned due to the previous legal wrangling they did leading up to it.

yeah it looks pretty legit to me. I still wonder about the quality of the cover-artwork. What about mastering when they take the tracks from CD? They also have to be remastered right?

my copy arrived today. sounds nice, looks nice, feels nice. glad i bought it, as i had let it pass me by 18 years ago.

  On 5/9/2012 at 3:44 PM, CJM said:

my copy arrived today. sounds nice, looks nice, feels nice. glad i bought it, as i had let it pass me by 18 years ago.

could you post some pictures of your release?

wow that looks really nice. I am very glad I bought it. Hopefully it arrives here soon

I wonder if they had access to the original artwork, or these are scanned reproductions... any chance of a really close up shot of say the cover or one of the images that represent the tracks?

Also boo on them for using a standard font there - they should have used the same font used for the "Selected Ambient Works Volume II" text on the cover for consistency.

the warp logo is missing. that explains why warp had no idea of the release. they have not been involved in this as it seems

I'm not sure if the artwork is scanned or printed from the original, as i haven't seen the original.

can't make a better pic, 'cause i only have a 2mp phone cam atm.

  On 5/7/2012 at 9:03 PM, Joyrex said:

#19 (the track you refer to - I refuse to use the "names" given to those tracks) was released in the US by Astralwerks - it says "Appears Courtesy of Warner Brothers Special Products. Chrysalis Publishing holds the publishing rights to the song.

 

In spotify the official tracklisting by warp is also just numbers:

Y

  On 5/9/2012 at 4:22 PM, Joyrex said:

I wonder if they had access to the original artwork, or these are scanned reproductions... any chance of a really close up shot of say the cover or one of the images that represent the tracks?

 

Also boo on them for using a standard font there - they should have used the same font used for the "Selected Ambient Works Volume II" text on the cover for consistency.

Yeah thats pretty retarded, Eurostyle is a pretty easy font to get.

  On 5/9/2012 at 4:34 PM, o00o said:

  On 5/7/2012 at 9:03 PM, Joyrex said:

#19 (the track you refer to - I refuse to use the "names" given to those tracks) was released in the US by Astralwerks - it says "Appears Courtesy of Warner Brothers Special Products. Chrysalis Publishing holds the publishing rights to the song.

 

 

In spotify the official tracklisting by warp is also just numbers:

 

In iTunes I have them all as CDx TRACK x, to match what was on 26 Mixes for Cash. The fact they use numbers here is a bit confusing, since #19 is NOT actually #19 if you think of SAW II without a particular format in mind.

Is it sold out? Im actually quite impressed now.

  On 5/9/2012 at 4:22 PM, Joyrex said:

I wonder if they had access to the original artwork, or these are scanned reproductions...

Well, not sure if you have an original vinyl copy, but the centre labels on the records aren't the same as the original, which is a shame because the original labels are pretty amazing. The rest of the artwork on the repress looks great though!

Still, glad I have an original copy even if only for 'Stone in Focus'.