Which SAWII tracks were inspired by lucid dreaming?

[Dragon]

According to an interview I read, about 50% of the tracks on SAWII are, as we know, inspired by music he conjured up while lucid dreaming. I'll say this again, it's fucking awesome that there is someone out there who can both lucid dream AND have enough musical knowledge to re-create the music they hear. Is it any wonder it gave rise to one of the greatest albums ever released?

 

Anyway, since I have a lot of time on my hands, I thought it would be interesting to try to figure out exactly which tracks were inspired by lucid dreaming, and which weren't. So far, here are my conclusions:

 

[cliffs]

This has some very distinct, weird sounds that are likely to be inspired by lucid dreaming. Probably included as part of a track that is padded out with conscious musical ideas.

 

[radiator]

As we know, this track is actually the ambient backing to an earlier track (which appears on Peel Sessions and 26 Mixes for Cash), which features a lot of percussion and heavy noises typical of Richard making music while fully awake. So, it's just an ordinary track (from hear on, "ordinary" just means "not lucid dreaming inspired").

 

[rhubarb]

Yeah, it's as if he sat there in his lucid dream and asked "what is the most relaxing sound in the world?". It seems to be a perfect recreation.

 

[hankie]

Hmm.. hard to say. He could have came up with this while awake, but on the other hand, it might be based on something he heard in his sleep. I just don't know.

 

[grass]

This would have been a fucking spooky dream! Or, perhaps, it was a conscious attempt to make a spooky track. Very well made, either way.

 

[mould]

The noise of the main melody is very distinct, a recreation of a lucid sound? And it seems rather unconventional to include the light, skittering beats, so it could have also been a part of the dream.

 

[ropes/curtains]

Maybe this is inspired by feelings and emotions from a lucid dream, rather than actual sounds. I bet he could easily come up with the main tune while fully awake, and there isn't much else to the track.

 

[blur]

Yeah, I think this was from a lucid dream. Spooky and atmospheric.

 

[weathered stone]

Nah, there's too much percussion, and the mood of the track almost reminds me of his sense of humour. If there is an element based on a lucid dream, I'm sure he had a lot of fun expanding and developing the percussion patterns.

 

[tree]

This definitely has something to do with a lucid dream. Fairly basic sounds, again, maybe he's trying to recreate a mood?

 

[domino]

I've actually heard this track while asleep, after leaving my headphones on, and I remember how incredibly fucking annoying the main melody seemed to be. I've never thought this about the track while awake. It's quite a complex melody, so it's likely to just be a weird-sounding track he created while awake, as it would be hard for a subconscious force to come up with it.

 

[white blur 1]

Fucking hell, I could believe this to be a live recording of a lucid dream! Everything is done just right, the haunting bells, the layers of strange voices all around ("where's my mind?"). Maybe this is inspired by drugs, too?

 

Blue Calx

Maybe he recreated a lucid sound or two, but there are definitely some conscious musical ideas going on.

 

[parallel stripes]

Now that is just an absolutely perfect sound, all the way through. Yeah, this is a lucid track.

 

[shiny metal rods]

Interesting.. this does sound very distinct and strange, but I can't imagine such rhythm and percussion coming from a dream. Maybe that's just how it came out when he recreated it.

 

[grey stripe]

Again, he's got some kind of advanced hardware that records every sound in his head while he's asleep. No question, straight out of a dream.

 

[z twig]

I'd just like to go ahead and believe this to be a lucid track, because I like the idea that even the deepest part of Richard's mind can make a beautiful, happy melody

 

[windowsill]

The only "ambient" part of this track is some short wind instrument sample, the rest is percussion. He was awake when he came up with this.

 

[stone in focus]

I'm inclined to believe that he heard these three notes during a lucid dream and thought, quite rightly, that he should base a ten minute track on that loop. Beautiful stuff.

 

[hexagon]

Too much percussion and rhythm to be based on a lucid dream. It's a conscious effort.

 

[lichen]

Definitely from a lucid dream. How else could someone possibly create such an unbearably sad piece of music? This came from the deepest regions of his soul. Also, this is one of only three tracks that has ever managed to reduce me to tears (heh, I've managed to mention all three of these tracks on WATMM over the last few days).

 

[spots]

Yep, straight from a lucid dream. He has captured a haunting atmosphere.

 

[tassels]

I dunno, something tells me he might have just been playing around with his hardware and making interesting, weird noises. Or maybe this is a recreation of what happened when he switched on his dream TV and got a load of static.

 

[white blue 2]

I know about sleep deprivation, I've had a sleep disorder for most of my life. This is exactly how it feels. All woozy and sleepy, you start to dream slightly while you're awake as you enter hypnagogia. So I'm pretty sure this comes from a hypnagogic hallucination (you know, that music you hear as you drift off to sleep). It sure explains the surreal voices.

 

[matchsticks]

This is a fairly ordinary, conscious track, even if it is very atmospheric. It has a slightly eastern feel to it.

 

So, in conclusion, I believe that:

13 tracks are based on lucid dreams in some way

8 tracks are not based on lucid dreams

I'm unsure about the remaining 4 tracks

 

Let us discuss SAW2 and it's influence by lucid dreaming, and if you want, help me decide exactly which tracks come from dreams and which tracks come from the waking world.

 

Whoa, this took over an hour and a half to write.

[Guest Calx Sherbet]

white blur 2 has always reminded me of novacaine and laughing gas at the dentist

[Boxing Day]

He is a LIAR !!!

[Ragnar]

Curtains is totally like one of those dreams where you're just wandering aimlessly through hallways or something

 

or maybe I'm thinking of a movie shit

[Guest steveffisher]

I'd like to know who came up with these preposterous track names.

[beerwolf]

I can lucid dream if I can be bothered. I have to wake up from my first big sleep, I have to lay on my back otherwise it wont work and drift into a lighter secondary sleep. I guess the second phase is less deep so I am in touch with my dream but also more conscious hence the amount of control.

 

Though how anyone makes music from the experience is beyond me.

[Guest AcrossCanyons]

All I know is I had a lucid dream once and I was trying to think of all the hot girls to bone but I couldn't stop thinking about super mario and shit like that so instead of getting my funk on with Jennifer Aniston I was flying around in raccoon suits and instead.

 

:(

[Guest Calx Sherbet]

wall to wall carpet has always been my favorite alt name

[Guest nene multiple assgasms]

it's the ones that sound like dreams. I remember an interview where he said this, plus that it's about 2/3 of the tracks on the album. I don't know how else to explain it, really. he expressed something that as far as I know no other musician has been able to. if I'm wrong I'd love to hear suggestions of music with a similar feel. I made a thread asking for just this a while back. even though I discovered some great ambient music from that thread, none of the music sounded like the dreamlike tracks on sawII.

[Terpentintollwut]

I've got no idea which ones were composed following real dream-inspiration, if there are any at all, or maybe all of them were, but the ones that sound most like the dreams I'm having are Radiator, Mold, Domino, White Blur, Spots, Tassels and White Blur 2. Most of the others are good too though.

 

I've had a few conscious dreams before, they were enjoyable, but I wouldn't want to always have full control over my dreams.

 

Jennifer Aniston

 

[manmower]

I don't think my dreams have music in them, or if they do I never remember it after waking up.

 

That's also why I tend to think RDJ was taking the piss with the lucid dreaming thing.

[Cryptowen]

I figured he probably experimented with the lucid dream thing at one point, but it was more along the lines of general inspiration than "here's the specific notes & synth patches you need to make wicked ambient music".

[Guest nene multiple assgasms]

the thing is, you'd think there would be plenty of newage-oriented ambient artists trying to do a similar thing with lucid dreams, but I'm not aware of any. steve roach has some great dream-inspired music, but it doesn't sound like those sawII tracks - as if they were ripped right from your subconcious.

[Cryptowen]

Maybe it's sort of like how sound effects in movies are usually something totally different because the real thing doesn't sound how we expect it to. Dream inspired music doesn't sound like dreams, so I'm thinking Richard wrote SAWII via an entirely different method & ended up getting closer to to the collective idea.

[beerwolf]

Aphex also said something about SAW II was meant too sound 'like standing in a powerstation on acid'. Allegedly.

[Guest drukqs]

Aphex also said something about SAW II was meant too sound 'like standing in a powerstation on acid'. Allegedly.

 

I'd say this is most definitely either TRK12 or TRK14. Both contain sounds very akin to large machinery. TRK12 containing that rumbling, pulsating sound of a huge motorr, and TRK14 containing a very distinct hum of a generator of some sort. I remember taking a tour of The Dalles dam this summer and hearing a motor with almost exactly the same hum that resonates throughout TRK14. I heard the motor humming and my mind began to fill in the harmonizations that occur throughout the song, and I thought "Hmm, I bet Richard was trying to imitate this sound"

[Joyrex]

I'd like to know who came up with these preposterous track names.

 

That would be Gonzi Marchan and Allen Parry from the old AFX Discography days... officially, all the tracks are untitled, and represented by images that are in proportion in size to the length of the track. There's an old interview with Phil floating about in this subforum, who created the Aphex Twin logo and worked with Richard on the visual design of the SAW II artwork, photography, and packaging.

 

Also, that lucid dreaming stuff was (probably) just more of the Aphex Twin 'mystique' meant as a weird way to sell more records and build up a myth around the music and the man who created it.

[hardcode]

also as we all saw in that aphex set live in dublin 93', that Phil guy is quite a raver.

[goDel]

it's the ones that sound like dreams. I remember an interview where he said this, plus that it's about 2/3 of the tracks on the album. I don't know how else to explain it, really. he expressed something that as far as I know no other musician has been able to. if I'm wrong I'd love to hear suggestions of music with a similar feel. I made a thread asking for just this a while back. even though I discovered some great ambient music from that thread, none of the music sounded like the dreamlike tracks on sawII.

Brian Eno's On Land should have convinced you otherwise. I don't no wether it came up in the thread. It probably did, because the connection is quite obvious. To my ears, at least.

[TwiddleBot]

On Land is a keeper for me too, and to continue this train of thought Eno was influenced by electronic Krautrock bands like Harmonia.

 

I wouldn't say it's impossible that AFX was at least inspired by dreams. I've heard lots of music in my dreams and have sometimes pulled out script paper and written the music down when waking up.. but typically it is more about the feeling and there's no way to totally recreate that.. Meaning I have a bunch of useless sheet music containing uber simple melodies with all the most important emotive elements forgotten (this is assuming I wasn't just dreaming that the music sounded good, like being on mush and being entranced by a single note for like 30 mins because it sounds so damn good at the time). As far as sounding like dreams goes, that's going to be completely subjective. Someone who is interested in subtle timbral music is more likely to dream about it than someone who plays folk rock and never listens to electronic music.

[kinski]

rdj quote about lucid dreaming and it's relation to 'saw ii' from 'energy flash' book if anyone's interested:

 

'just before i started work on the album i tried experimenting with the idea of dreaming about recording tracks. the main problem is remembering what i've dreamt about. melodies are easy, but the actual sounds can be a little more difficult.sometimes i sleep in the studio so that i can start working as soon as i wake up and there's less of a chance of forgetting anything.'

[joshuatxuk]

I'd like to know who came up with these preposterous track names.

 

That would be Gonzi Marchan and Allen Parry from the old AFX Discography days... officially, all the tracks are untitled, and represented by images that are in proportion in size to the length of the track. There's an old interview with Phil floating about in this subforum, who created the Aphex Twin logo and worked with Richard on the visual design of the SAW II artwork, photography, and packaging.

 

Also, that lucid dreaming stuff was (probably) just more of the Aphex Twin 'mystique' meant as a weird way to sell more records and build up a myth around the music and the man who created it.

 

Did they come up with the Star Wars names for the Joyrex J5 EP as well? (4-LOM, Jedi, R2D2...)

[Joyrex]

I'd like to know who came up with these preposterous track names.

 

That would be Gonzi Marchan and Allen Parry from the old AFX Discography days... officially, all the tracks are untitled, and represented by images that are in proportion in size to the length of the track. There's an old interview with Phil floating about in this subforum, who created the Aphex Twin logo and worked with Richard on the visual design of the SAW II artwork, photography, and packaging.

 

Also, that lucid dreaming stuff was (probably) just more of the Aphex Twin 'mystique' meant as a weird way to sell more records and build up a myth around the music and the man who created it.

 

Did they come up with the Star Wars names for the Joyrex J5 EP as well? (4-LOM, Jedi, R2D2...)

 

Yep - as well as the track names for ABB4, and the other Joyrex tracks - they only officially received names when the Caustic Window Compilation came out.

[Adieu]

I've actually had this experience many times. Usually it happens after I've been working on music for a long period of time. I'll start to fall asleep, but I will start to be able to construct and play songs in my head. For some reason in this state distinguishing the separate parts of the track and how all the notes work together is very easy. It is cool because it is like a free-form music creation with no thought on actually notes or anything like that. Just playing a song in your head and being able to edit it however you would like. That is what I think he meant by lucid dreaming.

[joshuatxuk]

I'd like to know who came up with these preposterous track names.

 

That would be Gonzi Marchan and Allen Parry from the old AFX Discography days... officially, all the tracks are untitled, and represented by images that are in proportion in size to the length of the track. There's an old interview with Phil floating about in this subforum, who created the Aphex Twin logo and worked with Richard on the visual design of the SAW II artwork, photography, and packaging.

 

Also, that lucid dreaming stuff was (probably) just more of the Aphex Twin 'mystique' meant as a weird way to sell more records and build up a myth around the music and the man who created it.

 

Did they come up with the Star Wars names for the Joyrex J5 EP as well? (4-LOM, Jedi, R2D2...)

 

Yep - as well as the track names for ABB4, and the other Joyrex tracks - they only officially received names when the Caustic Window Compilation came out.

 

Oh ok, cool. I assumed that but never knew for sure. That IG-88 moniker also comes to mind. Woot Rephlex + SW