Aphex Twin ‎– Selected Ambient Works Volume II

Bought this thinking that Stone in Focus was on it :( Argh, it's my fav from AFX.

I think this is a legitimate release. It also comes with a insert and the mastering volumes are perfect.
Sound quality is really nice as well.

Do you know that state of being half-awake/half-asleep? Like if you had been working for the whole 24 hours of a day, and finally lay down on the bed, but just after an hour you are suddenly forced to wake up? Listening to this record puts you in a mood that is very similar to that sensation, only much more relaxed and light. In fact, a better definition of it is that it is the most impressionist record i have ever heard in my life. Every sound is smudged and blurred, reduced to texture, which creates very minimal-like atmospheres. And i am not referring to minimalism in the sense of cold and clean. They are the musical equivalent of a Monet, Pissarro or Renoir painting. Warm, cozy, quick sketches of light and shadow, fire, water, air and earth, metal and wood, etc. etc., that sound infinite as their unusual lenght (still fair for ambient standards) drag you into what it seems to be never ending listening time.
Besides the aesthetic uniqueness to it, the range of moods is striking as well.
You will find melodies for an afternoon lying in the reeds, a walking by the seashore, a moment of contemplation while stuck at home during a rainy night, an attempt to find the way out of a cave you got stuck in, a trip to an abandoned house, a walk through an unhinabited, but still operational factory, a tribal ritual being recreated around a campfire at night, looking at the clouds out the window of your usual airplane. There is a track for every possible mood, story and situation.
Lately i have been playing this in my car, in the morning, while trying to get to my workplace, between all the chaotic traffic, and it works so well in contrast, even though i can't understand why.
I guess there is a bit of mystery to this record as well, and for me that is an unquestionable and necessary part of the whole magic.

Very happy this is available again on vinyl. Unfortunately with my copy, record 1 is riddled with "non-fill" issues (the "crackling grooves" that aaroninky mentions). Not in just one spot either, but at least 10 times throughout both sides of the first record. The second record is not nearly as bad as the first, and the third record is just about perfect. I'll be exchanging for a new copy and hoping for the best.

is this release limited? if so, to how many copies? thanks

Does anyone else's version of this have a crackling groove on the start of Rhubarb? Very annoying, one of my favourite songs on the album. Between tracks A3 and A4.

thanks for the tip, is that also the 180 gr version, or are there even other versions around?

Lol everyone should say thanks to Mr Shield. To add another worry the to the vinyl tribe.

Sound Quality is fantastic at my house. Even if Daft Punk is not Playing.....

This and the SAW1 reissues are both bootlegs taken from one of the CD versions (thus the missing Stone In Focus).

I got mine from Juno today, comes on black wax. I hear people are saying this is a bootleg, seems pretty legit to me, sound quality is even better than my brown copy. The cover doesn't look like a nasty JPEG, It's also a decent sturdy cover, with the insert, the labels say published by Sire. Unfortunately "Stone In Focus" is missing from this 3xLP...:(

Anyway Bootleg or not, I'm happy with this. 5/5