SAW 2 F.A.Q by Alan Perry

Information

Title: Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Released: April 1994
Formats: CD\Vinyl\MC
25 track Warp LP21 (limited brown vinyl)(limited red/green/blue vinyl)
24 track Warp CD (RTD 126.1670.2)
23 track Sire CD (2-45482-A)

Layout

The layout for SAWII can be kind of confusing. Here's what I wrote about the CD when I first got it. It is applicable to all versions of the album. "There are 2 CD's, each with 12 tracks. Then in turn, the 12 tracks are subdivided into 3 groups of 4 tracks using circles with "pie" slices cut out of them to represent the length of the tracks. It kinda looks like a trivial pursuit playing piece. Then inside, there are larger circles with boxes laying on the perimeter, each holding a certain picture, texture, or shape. The size of the boxes holding the texture pattern also appear to be relative to the length of the track. Within each graphics box, there is then another representation of the pie slice showing which track each represents."

Warp Vinyl Tracks (25):

A1 'light green'

- 07:21 track #1 "cliffs"
- 06:27 track #2 "radiator"
- 07:37 track #3 "rhubarb"
- 04:35 track #4 "hankie"

B1 'dark green'

- 08:46 track #5 "grass"
- 03:28 track #6 "mold"
- 08:43 track #7 "ropes"
- 05:03 track #8 "blur"

C1 'light brown'

- 06:48 track #9 "weathered stone"
- 09:48 track #10 "tree"
- 07:11 track #11 "domino"
- 02:39 track #12 "white blur 1"

D1 'orange'

- 07:20 track #13 "blue calx"
- 08:01 track #14 "parallel stripes"
- 05:34 track #15 "shiny metal rods"
- 04:46 track #16 "grey stripe"
- 02:05 track #17 "z twig"

E1 'red'

- 07:17 track #18 "windowsill"
- 10:04 track #19 "stone in focus"
- 05:57 track #20 "hexagon"
- 04:16 track #21 "lichen"

F1 'dark brown'

- 07:09 track #22 "spots"
- 07:31 track #23 "tassels"
- 11:27 track #24 "white blur 2"
- 05:40 track #25 "matchsticks"



Warp CD Tracks (24):

Disc 1 'light green'

- 07:21 track #1 "cliffs"
- 06:27 track #2 "radiator"
- 07:37 track #3 "rhubarb"
- 04:35 track #4 "hankie"

'dark green'

- 08:46 track #5 "grass"
- 03:28 track #6 "mold"
- 08:43 track #7 "ropes"
- 05:03 track #8 "blur"

'light brown'

- 06:48 track #9 "weathered stone"
- 09:48 track #10 "tree"
- 07:11 track #11 "domino"
- 02:39 track #12 "white blur 1"

Disc 2 'orange'

- 07:20 track #13 "blue calx"
- 08:01 track #14 "parallel stripes"
- 05:34 track #15 "shiny metal rods"
- 04:46 track #16 "grey stripe"
- 02:05 track #17 "z twig"

'red'

- 07:17 track #18 "windowsill"
- 05:57 track #19 "hexagon"
- 04:16 track #20 "lichen"

'dark brown'

- 07:09 track #21 "spots"
- 07:31 track #22 "tassels"
- 11:27 track #23 "white blur 2"
- 05:40 track #24 "matchsticks"

* omitted track is "stone in focus" (red).



Sire CD Tracks (23):

Disc 1 'light green'

- 07:21 track #1 "cliffs"
- 06:27 track #2 "radiator"
- 07:37 track #3 "rhubarb"

'dark green'

- 08:46 track #4 "grass"
- 03:28 track #5 "mold"
- 08:43 track #7 "ropes"
- 05:03 track #7 "circles"

'light brown'

- 06:48 track #8 "weathered stone"
- 09:48 track #9 "tree"
- 07:11 track #10 "domino"
- 02:39 track #11 "steel plate"

Disc 2 'orange'

- 07:20 track #12 "blue calx"
- 08:01 track #13 "parallel stripes"
- 05:34 track #14 "metal grating"
- 04:46 track #15 "windowsill"
- 02:05 track #16 "b+w stripes"

'red'

- 07:17 track #17 "siding nails"
- 05:57 track #18 "corrugated tubing"
- 04:16 track #19 "lichen"

'dark brown'

- 07:09 track #20 "leaves"
- 07:31 track #21 "tassels"
- 11:27 track #22 "rusty metal"
- 05:40 track #23 "b+w stripesII"

*omitted tracks are "hankie" (light green) and "stone in focus" (red), which has been replaced by a white box on the Sire release.

**note that though some tracks on the Sire release have different pictures to those on the Warp version, they are still the same tracks.

Related works

Title: Aphex Twin - Words & Music (Promo only CD w/ SAWII and Interviews)
Released: May 1994
Label: Sire (PRO-CD-6878)

Tracks: - 00:27 Intro Words
- 07:15 Track #1 "blue calx"
- 00:33 Words
- 07:55 Track #2 "parallel stripes"
- 00:47 Words
- 05:50 Track #7 "stone in focus"
- 00:22 Words
- 05:02 Words (Processed)

Words Transcript

1. 00:27 Intro Words "I mean, I like original music basically and then to go further, I just like extremes of music whether it be totally chilled-out ambient music, the strangest bizarre music, or totally most aggro fucking mental hardcore. You know, it's just like, you know, I seem to go for the extremes"

3. 00:33 Words "So I expressed a very strong interest in putting the stuff out which, errm, I just thought they were gonna think `oh, this fuckin' artist', you know, `not Aphex Twin, he's a pain in the arse. He wants to do triple albums and not call any, put any track titles on his albums' and things like that, and I just thought they were gonna go mental but they've been really cool, not bad at all actually. So, you know, when I signed this deal, errm, I have total control and, you know, my own label, which is brilliant - about the biggest loophole that any artist has ever gotten at Warner Brothers probably."

5. 00:47 Words "I mean the way I do live stuff, errm, varies a lot even within the set and then different sets vary with the setups, depending on what tracks I wanna play, different tracks requiring different setups and the whole process is fuckin complicated, it really really, its is difficult to do for me. But for the stuff that I play that has already been released and recorded, errm, I usually try to stick to the originals as good as possible just for my own challenge basically 'cos its impossible for me to ever do it exactly the same. But, errm, I just felt like just enjoying trying to get it the same and, you know, its quite funny 'cos it never turns out like that *laughs*"

7. 00:22 Words "I just like, I dunno, I get a bit scared sometimes cos, errm, I just get too many ideas and that where my only problem comes in really. Its a bit like when someone asks you for your top ten records of all time and, you know, you know so many records that you can't actually think of 'em that easily. You get this sort of mental block."