Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Volume II

Just noticed after 24 years of owning that two out of three of my discs are marbled with the third being solid brown.

https://www.discogs.sie.com/release/10498799-Aphex-Twin-Selected-Ambient-Works-Volume-II States some copies have a brown swirl pattern but doesn't state whether this is across all or some of the discs only.

Labels are in black and white as per this release - at first wondered if the previous owner had mixed and matched versions or if this is straight from the plant at the end of a run/material switchover.

This release contains "Stone in Focus" as track E2, it's the missing one on other releases that has only 24 tracks.

Glad to see this album finally getting repressed, i hate these prices

People are seriously paying 250+ dollars for a sub-par pressing, just because it is the sequel to SAW. When will the insanity end?

The distortion on E4/F4 is, as described, very noticeable if you happen to end up with an off centered copy. It's only noticeable for around the last minute and a half of each track and gets progressively worse and worse, to the point of almost being laughable. This is especially poor for Lichen, one of my favourite tracks on the entire album.

The surface noise is also what one could describe as horrendous, being quite heavy and prominent throughout the entire album. It is, in fact, like listening to the album while sat beside a campfire. It's not necessarily a 'bad' experience per se, but those looking for a clean representation of the album's sound will be very displeased.

Yet, given the rapidly skyrocketing price of the black vinyl copy, the sheer magic of Stone in Focus, the genuine character and added atmosphere the "campfire" sound can bring at times, and possibly a heap of copium, I don't think this is still necessarily an awful way to own the album. Is it good? No. Yet I'd still take this over the awful 1972 pressings any day. I would advise not paying over £200 for a copy of this, no matter how much people try to charge for them, because I can tell you now that it just is not worth it. Nonetheless, if you can find a copy with a proper center hole and are willing to have some noticeable surface noise in your SAW2 experience, in exchange for one of the most amazing ambient pieces to ever be created, then go ahead and pick up a copy.

Picked up an NM recently and visually it’s in great condition. The press does suffer from surface noise after a clean but so much more depth compared to the cd release.
I wonder if burial was influenced by a copy of this :D

I recently dusted this off after a few years and I think the brown pressing gets a bad rap. There are some clicks and pops...and I get that it's a very quiet record...but they sort of add to the atmosphere and make it more of a living piece of art. My copy has no flaws that really take me out of it.

Very lucky to have a copy without background noise. This vinyl version sounds great and much better than CD I own too. And above tracklist is complete. Dreamlike and magnificent music.

Yes bad pressing but totally essential as Aphex Twin goes .The whole pie chart and pictures track system just adds to the package and mystery .i bought my copy at a record fair for £50 in vg condition and it still has insert and all four stickers so got a bargain .

I sort of like the bad pressing. Listening to Stone in Focus, the clicks and pops almost become the fire going in the old stove downstairs at my parents house during a power outage, the music perfectly fitting those warm memories.