Aphex Twin's _Selected Ambient Works Volume II

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"Excurisions in Ambience 3" is awesome! (but EiA4 is better)

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

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 23 February 2006 04:24 (twenty years ago)

its found on the otherwise useless "excursions in ambience: the third dimension" comp

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!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 23 February 2006 04:27 (twenty years ago)

What do ye all think of Labradford?

― Freud Junior (Freud Junior), Thursday, 23 February 2006 05:12 (twenty years ago)

Love 'em.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 23 February 2006 05:27 (twenty years ago)

C/D: Labradford, pre-Mi Media Naranja

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 23 February 2006 05:30 (twenty years ago)

thanks snakeshit

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Thursday, 23 February 2006 06:53 (twenty years ago)

;]

― snakeshit ;] (eman), Thursday, 23 February 2006 07:31 (twenty years ago)

according to amazon.com reviewer THISKET "thisket", the US cd version is missing TWO tracks, "stone in focus" and "hankie":

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

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Thursday, 23 February 2006 08:16 (twenty years ago)

btw "this track" = hankie

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Thursday, 23 February 2006 09:16 (twenty years ago)

ah yes, well done. i did not have this.

― snakeshit ;] (eman), Thursday, 23 February 2006 14:17 (twenty years ago)

telephone thing NB: "stone in focus" isn't on the UK CD of SAW II neither.

― Abu Hamster (noodle vague), Thursday, 23 February 2006 14:24 (twenty years ago)

Ah- thanks. I must've been thinking of "Hankie." Looks like I'll end up getting it off Bleep after all as it's fairly cheap for a double album and has both "Hankie" and "Stone In Focus" in high bitrate.

― telephone thing, Thursday, 23 February 2006 22:42 (twenty years ago)

I love the click in "Stone in Focus." It sounds like a raindrop in an echo chamber.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 24 February 2006 01:09 (twenty years ago)

It sounds like someone's bad car ignition in the desert 20 miles away from you.

― Suzy Creemcheese (SuzyCreemcheese), Friday, 24 February 2006 02:11 (twenty years ago)

I'm with Suzy. The click sound in "Stone In Focus" needs to go. It's like your constantly on the verge of a dreamlike reverie, but your neighbor keeps tapping on the wall and distracting you.

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.

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Monday, 27 February 2006 02:14 (twenty years ago)

please do, and post it here!

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 27 February 2006 12:01 (twenty years ago)

SAW II is all about the clicks, mister.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Monday, 27 February 2006 12:14 (twenty years ago)

yeah i quite like the clicks, but an hour of stone in focus would be great, anyway.

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:18 (twenty years ago)

an hour+ of stone in focus = the tired sounds of stars of the lid

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:22 (twenty years ago)

Those little gritty imperfections that you don't notice immediately are key to the album's longevity. It seems such an obvious trick, flawed beauty, but it's key to RDJ's work. I love how sections of SAW II get distorted, or create sub-melodies of wheezing dissonance like the music's asthmatic or slightly senile. Agreed that stretching the tracks out would be great, I just think that the album wouldn't be so loved if it wasn't so idiosyncratically shonky.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:27 (twenty years ago)

"Those little gritty imperfections that you don't notice immediately are key to the album's longevity. It seems such an obvious trick, flawed beauty, but it's key to RDJ's work. I love how sections of SAW II get distorted, or create sub-melodies of wheezing dissonance like the music's asthmatic or slightly senile. Agreed that stretching the tracks out would be great, I just think that the album wouldn't be so loved if it wasn't so idiosyncratically shonky."

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

― Suzy Creemcheese (SuzyCreemcheese), Monday, 27 February 2006 16:15 (twenty years ago)

Suzy OTM. I totally agree with you, noodle vague, about the album in general, but Stone In Focus in particular oughtta be click-less.

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

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Monday, 27 February 2006 18:05 (twenty years ago)

I'm with Curtis, I love the click on that song.

― pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Monday, 27 February 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

people who don't love clicks can never truly love themselves

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 27 February 2006 20:04 (twenty years ago)

(x-post) thanks!

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 27 February 2006 21:58 (twenty years ago)

DON'T LET THE CLICK RUIN WHAT WE HAVE!!!!!!1

― Suzy Creemcheese (SuzyCreemcheese), Monday, 27 February 2006 22:29 (twenty years ago)

i didn't realise there was a track missing from the CD. i wonder if this could be about to settle a strange and bewildering argument between me and a friend?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:56 (twenty years ago)

I like the click. If it was out of time, or not euphonious then maybe you could have issue with it. But it's perfectly on time and innocuous.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:58 (twenty years ago)

a a aaah ... yes, this could be it. yes. after all these years!

fucking hell.

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

thank you for the YSI.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 01:05 (twenty years ago)

But do you like the click? is the important question.

― pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 02:28 (twenty years ago)

The click just mocks you, saying, "Sleep, little child, sleep ... CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK sleep, little child ..."

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

― Suzy Creemcheese (SuzyCreemcheese), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 02:35 (twenty years ago)

I don't know, jimnaseum, the click seems to go at different speeds depending on the part of the song. I know for sure it has longer intervals at the end of the track. But maybe I'm just blinded by my HATRED FOR THE CLICK to be able to make realistic observations.

― Lingbertt, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 02:38 (twenty years ago)

I think, and I'm sure someone may correct me on this, both the click and the track as a whole change tempo but the click is always in time. Either that or after about 8 minutes my brain starts lying to me and makes me think things have just slown down and then reverted to their original speed.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 02:48 (twenty years ago)

And music as trippy as this will do those kind of things to me.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 02:49 (twenty 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?

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

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:02 (twenty years ago)

(I will say that I find Lull's Cold Summer essential, addictive listening.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:03 (twenty years ago)

Things are so smooth and blissful once the click drops out of the track, and it's such an unwelcome guest when it comes back. The fact that it comes in at different intervals (even if those intervals are regular during that part of the song) makes it even more unwelcome. I shit on the click.

― Lingbertt, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to check out Lull's Cold Summer because of you, Ned Raggett

― Lingbertt, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:13 (twenty years ago)

Right, I'm actually agreeing with you about the click now. Earlier on through my speakers, with the bass booming and all, the click was really inconsequential. Through headphones, pre-slumber, the click is like a total hangnail on the hand of joy.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:16 (twenty years ago)

It's good to know you aren't part of the pro-child-eating/anti-sleep camp, jim.

― Lingbertt, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:19 (twenty years ago)

psshh, you guys just haven't had 'em cooked right. THE CLICK IS A TEST AND YOU'RE FAILING.

― pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:24 (twenty years ago)

Ned, Cold Summer often makes me feel like I should be playing Silent Hill 2, but it's pretty great. I'm glad you mentioned it.

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Friday, 10 March 2006 10:10 (twenty years ago)

Yer welcome. A dark gem, that one.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 March 2006 13:35 (twenty years ago)

five years pass...

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.

― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 12 June 2011 19:48 (fifteen years ago)

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

― geeta, Sunday, 12 June 2011 20:01 (fifteen years ago)

Fair enough.

― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 12 June 2011 20:07 (fifteen years ago)

Blue Calx!

― corey, Sunday, 12 June 2011 20:17 (fifteen years ago)

That's one of 'em...

― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 12 June 2011 20:20 (fifteen years ago)

More electronic/synthesizer power station connections:

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

― Actual LOL Tolhurst (Doran), Sunday, 12 June 2011 20:20 (fifteen years ago)

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.

― The best solid love doll Candysteen (absolutely clean glasses), Sunday, 12 June 2011 20:28 (fifteen years ago)

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