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Underground > Radio & Music >

Ambient Music

17:25 / 14.08.01

Is anyone else having the same problems I am in finding decent new ambient music?

'm probably not looking in the right places, but I used to be able to find loads of the ambient music I like and I can't anymore.

I'm talking about the found-sound, sample-packed stuff such as the KLF's Chill Out and The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, two of the finest albums ever.

Any recommendations, anyone?

Molly Shortcake

04:05 / 15.08.01

Haujobb, highest recomendations. Netbanshee will back me up on this one. For some reason Haujobb is pidgeonholed as an industrial group. This is not true. Diverse ambient techno with breakbeats and vocals.

Personal recs, Solutions for a Small Planet, Polarity. Stay far away from less and the ninetynines.

[ 15-08-2001: Message edited by: Ice Honkey ]

No star here laces

11:34 / 15.08.01

Not in the least bit new, but I had a bit of a dig through the far reaches of my record collection when I was moving house and dug out Biosphere's album (think it was called 'Patashnik'). This was indeed a fucking beautiful record and didn't sound nearly as cheesy as I thought it would 7-8 years on (unlike the KLF, I have to say).

Also if you're looking for nice ambient chill/smoking music, you can do a lot worse than dig out the Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin record called, I think, Improvisations, which is my favourite chill-out record ever.

11:49 / 15.08.01

quote: and dug out Biosphere's album

Brrr. I remember having a particularly hair raising evening on acid with that CD as the soundtrack. Biosphere on continual loop all night. All lights in the house fusing as we we're coming up. Heating turned up to full in summer so the place is like a sauna. Doom Patrol inspired paranoia about demons using candle wax to give them physical form and invading our space/time continuum to feed on my bad trip. Fun night.

No star here laces

12:07 / 15.08.01

Those were the days, eh? Wibbly wobbly synth music, lots of drugs, freaky comics.

I'm actually getting nostalgic about the early 90s. Probably cos I didn't have to try getting a job at the time...

Jamieon

13:23 / 15.08.01

If you can get hold of it, try out the 'Barberella' remix by the Irresistable Force (or Mixmaster Morris to his friends). It's about seven years old, but soooo lovely. Hard to Find records may have it in stock. Otherwise, I could put it on a CD for you. It still brings back lovely memories of camping out for a few weeks on a beach in Spain. Sleeping on a lilo under the stars and snorkelling around the reef in the morning....

And all that.....

But without the corbis.

13:47 / 15.08.01

Is that the Barbarella remix on Rising High? I've got that somewhere... But you have reminded me that he had an album out a while ago and I never got a copy. Cheers.

And the Biosphere record is Patashnik - at least it's the one with Gravity Waves (?) on.
Again, I've got it, but it's a bit fucked.

That was a good time, wasn't it, the 90's? Do you reckon they'll have 'I remember 1990' on the BBC soon?

[What's that? This weekend? Fuck me, I'm getting old... or they're getting desparate.]

Black Dog, Artificial Intelligence, Polygon Windo/Aphex Twin - especially 'On', Drum Club (who were a bit shit), Orbital's Brown Album, Sven Vath's Accident in Paradise, those 'Ambient Dub' albums (because, let's face it, most dub is not that chilled at all, is it?), R and S and their Apollo compilations, the Sabres of Paradise.

Oooh, I could be here for years reminiscing.

I'll check out Haujobb and the Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin record as well. Cheers for all your tips - keep 'em coming.

13:47 / 15.08.01

It's not new, but if you haven't got it try and hunt down Global Communication's 76:14 - absolutely seminal as far as British Ambient music's concerned. The sort of record that you can read, sleep, fuck, and trip to with equal satisfaction. When it came out I also managed to convert the death metal loonies I was living with over to the wunnerful world of electronica. No bad thing.

[ 15-08-2001: Message edited by: Dee Vapr ]

14:32 / 15.08.01

Oh, god yes. The second one, the one with the ticking clock - 14:16 or whatever it's called. That's one of the loveliest pieces of music ever.

And Remotion, their collection of remixes for people like the Grid, Chapterhouse and Warp 69, is really damn good too. Have they split up now?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

15:11 / 15.08.01

Is that Biosphere album the one with the scary children in the first track; "I had a dream last night. We had the same dream."?

None of the big ambient types do ambient music any more, the last Orb album was an experiment in piss-poor FSOL noise wankery (and whatever has happened to FSOL, M.I.A. since the dubious 'Dead Cities') Is there anyone who isn't scared to bring a little space into their music any more?

15:31 / 15.08.01

Slight cross-over with this thread here.

15:59 / 15.08.01

Is that Biosphere album the one with the scary children in the first track; "I had a dream last night. We had the same dream."?

That'd be the one. I'd hate to hear it on acid, Ghost Doctor.

Oh, and I've been watching the 'Help with New Music' thread and the electronica [shudder] recommendations - but I'm aware that some of them are not 'ambient' chilled, relaxed music, but bloody scary stuff.

I mean, Come to Daddy by the Aphex Twin is 'electronica' but I'm fucked if I'll be listening to that as I drift off to sleep at night....

I want to relax, please...

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:33 / 15.08.01

Is 'Come to Daddy' and 'Windowlicker' on any Aphex Twin album?

17:09 / 15.08.01

Out of left field: anything by the early-music vocal ensemble Anonymous 4. Otherworldly and absolutely grounding: music with no edges. File under Classical.

Molly Shortcake

18:18 / 15.08.01

Windowlicker and Come to Daddy are available on a selt titled CDs.

The Return Of Rothkoid

18:43 / 15.08.01

The Come To Daddy EP is great. Although it does sound like a team of demoniac goats have been loosed in your head. Which may increase or decrease the ambience of your abode.

Ty: got some track names from the Shankar/Menuhin CD? And is it largely them (ie: only violin/sitar with occasional tabla?)? Because HMV have a Menuhin/Shankar CD in their own-range classical series. For the cash conscious... I almost picked it up today...

Jamieon

14:22 / 18.08.01

quote:Black Dog, Artificial Intelligence, Polygon Windo/Aphex Twin - especially 'On', Drum Club (who were a bit shit), Orbital's Brown Album, Sven Vath's Accident in Paradise, those 'Ambient Dub' albums (because, let's face it, most dub is not that chilled at all, is it?), R and S and their Apollo compilations, the Sabres of Paradise.

Yes. All of it. We obviously experienced a very similar "90's".

And you're right about Drum Club.

I was just listening to In Order To Dance 6 (or was it 7. Or have I got the number completely wrong?) the other day, and that album...... Polynominal G, At Les, Muziq's Phi 1700, Kenny Larkin's Soulman.... Fanfuckingtastic.

Have you heard any stuff by The Martians on Red Planet records (I think "The Martians" might be a psuedonym for Juan Atkins)? Windwalker, Cloud Dancer, Ride (or Journey?) of the Dragons. If you haven't, you must check them out.

Right now, I'm listening to a nice ambient tune by Susumu Yokota called Kodamotachi. Lovely.

[ 18-08-2001: Message edited by: runt ]

Red Cross Iodized Salt

18:03 / 18.08.01

'The Martian' has been variously credited as being either an otherwise unheard of producer called Will Thomas or - more likely - a colaboration between Mike Banks, Juan Atkins and a host of other Detroiters. Banks is (going by the sound of most of the records and the annonymous schtick) one of the most heavily involved, but you can hear touches of Atkins on tracks like Firekeeper. I recently heard that the DJ who represents the 'Red Planet' collective is a guy called Namowan, the studio engineer on several of the tracks.

Journey of the Dragons is actually an Underground Resistance track by Banks from the Galaxy 2 Galaxy EP. I don't know if I'd consider too much of the output of either Red Planet or UR to be ambient, but both labels are certainly worth checking out.

[ 19-08-2001: Message edited by: Suddenly there's Vancouver ]

19:27 / 18.08.01

JB - if you haven't already heard them, I strongly recommend Plaid. Ex-Black Dog (that's Black Dog circa the awesome Spanners), they've three excellent albums out under the Plaid name - Not For Threes, Rest Proof Clockwork and Double Figure There's also a collection of rare odds and sods from their varios side-projects, Trainer. All superb.

08:31 / 19.08.01

Chhers for the Plaid recommendation, E Randy - I keep on picking up their albums in my "five for £30!!" sprees, then going 'nah' and changing them for something else. They'll stay in the pile from now on.

And thank you everyone for the Red Planet recommendations - although I'd agree with Vancouver that they aren't ambient as such, they are still fucking great.
And Red Planet/Underground Resistance are also quite interesting from an anti-coporate standpoint - taking on Sony over that 'Nights of the Jaguar' rip-off; those statements they put out about buying their records from 'Mom and Pop' stores, not HMV; the fact that no-one seems to have a photo of 'Mad' Mike Banks - ooh, I could be here for years.

Oh, Runt -

Susumu Yokota - what's the album called?

Jamieon

08:38 / 19.08.01

Don't know. Someone did a CD for me. Try typing the name into a search engine. In the meantime, I'll try and dig some more info up.

And no, the Red Planet stuff isn't ambient, it's techno. But we had started to go off on one about techno so I thought I might mention it. Plaid aren't ambient either.

God, I was sooo obsessed with Not For Threes.........

14:22 / 19.08.01

quote:Originally posted by runt:
Plaid aren't ambient either.
Not exactly, but JB did mention a fondness for Black Dog.

Kodomotachi, by the way, is on Sakura.

[ 19-08-2001: Message edited by: E. Randy Dupre ]

13:54 / 20.08.01

Heheh- some hilarious early 90s recollections in this thread. What the hell happened to all those weird spooky synth tunes from that era? (Night Demon by Psyko, anyone?) And of course ambient, which seems to have died out as acid has receded from the easy-drug-to- get-hold-of category in the UK (?)

I tried listening to KLF's Chill Out again recently and it sounds like a rather scary wall of noise, although it's incredible how much of a weird mindset it still puts me into. And I notice when I've been staying up all night, that soundtrack still just enters my mind like its wallpaper.
Elvis singing ethereally over the noises of trains going past in the distance- brr!

There were some quite good moody ambient bits on the soundtrack to that film PI, which might be worth looking out.
I like how all these acts have weird maths-y sounding names like 'gravitational arch of 10' or whatever.

18:21 / 20.08.01

Not really maths-y Meme, but what about Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia? Used to really intrigue me, that one...

Yeah, I liked some of the PI soundtrack, though it's a bit scary to be the kind of ambient I was looking for. The film gets to me after a bit, too.

And to continue the hilarious 90's recollections in this thread, did you know the guy responsible for the music was Clint Mansell, from Pop Will Eat Itself (Bulletproof, XYZ etc)? I shit you not.

Next, the Wonder Stuff, Neds and EMF will reform and start playing concerts...
[What? They have? Oh, God, I'm going to look like an idiot now... I've already made this mistake once before in the thread, and now I'll look like a real moron. Oh, damn this 90's nostalgia....]

BTW, does anyone know what the KLF's Space album sounds like? I've seen it listed now and again and I might buy it, but I don't want to spend £25 and then find out it's the 'Doctorin The Tardis' KLF, not the Chill Out KLF...

Oh and Meme,

Night Demon by Psyko?

You've stumped me. Wassis and where can I find it?

Graham the Happy Scum

10:59 / 21.08.01

You dis Clint Mansell the Poppies again and I whack you one. (Why the hell am I getting all aggro towards people in here? Hmm...)

Tho' I hardly think the Pi soundtrack is ambient. And Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" could only be described as ambient if you work in a munitions factory or live on the West Bank or something. It's possibly the most Rock'n'Roll record of the past decade.
(Becephalus Bouncing Ball's on both the Pi soundtrack and the Come To Daddy EP, incidentally)

Umm. For something a bit more soothing, Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke's _Duality_ on 4AD is fucking brilliant. Far more tolerable than Dead Can Dance too. If you've seen the movie "The Insider" you've heard bits of it.

Boards Of Canada's _Music Has The Right To Children_ is another obvious one, though it has its catfreaking moments as well.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

12:50 / 21.08.01

quote:Originally posted by JB again:
<SNIP>BTW, does anyone know what the KLF's Space album sounds like? I've seen it listed now and again and I might buy it, but I don't want to spend £25 and then find out it's the 'Doctorin The Tardis' KLF, not the Chill Out KLF...

It's definitely more 'Chill Out' than 'Doctoring', there are tunes but it's mostly sampled stuff again. Along the same lines as 'Chill Out' but more minimal.

16:59 / 21.08.01

Hey, Graham, I wasn't dissing PWEI - I've still got an old Poppies T-shirt somewhere. And onyone whose lyrics go "Alan Moore knows the score" can't be all bad.

Cheers for the info Loz: I'm out looking already.

07:26 / 22.08.01

hmm, intrigued to hear your man Mansell was behind all that doom-laden spooky music in Pi, ambient it may or may not be.
The category I would prefer to start using is 'floaty' or something for all that druggy but soft n fluffy music, for everything from the Orb to Slowdive.
Now That's What I Call Floaty - Vol I...

Slowdive - Souvlaki
My Bloody Valentine - When you wake (you're still in a dream)
The Orb - Little Fluffy clouds
....
I can think of loads of other stuff that fits in here.
Oh yeah - the 'Night Demon' thing, JB, is not really that applicable - it's more of an old school dance thing, around at the same time as things like the Shamen and Harcore Uproar, when that was all at its height (and old shep was just a pup). But it's got loads of spooky/cool early 90s synth noises that you don't hear anymore.

The Return Of Rothkoid

07:26 / 22.08.01

Mansell's only responsible for a couple of the tracks on the CD - the opening title tune, the closing tune, and another called "We Got The Gun". The other tracks are by Orbital, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Roni Size, Massive Attack, David Holmes, Gus Gus, Banco De Gaia, Psilonaut and Spacetime Continuum - seems he had more of a curator's role in the soundtrack's production...

[ 22-08-2001: Message edited by: Rothkoid ]

16:38 / 22.08.01

Oi Meme:

I can think of loads of other stuff that fits in here.

Go on then, put 'em down...

04:07 / 20.09.01

Let's get it on, then. Can we (you) get a little more specific as to type (oh, I know- anathema here, but what better transgression than anathematizing anathema?)

I'm recently come to 'ambient' and the few Eno albums I have, I love. But, alas, new to the scene. Anyone into 'Sigur Ros'? I dig 'em, but I'm not sure they're technically 'ambient' per se.

More, please, with a li'l coaching as to style. Some of us (like me) live in the boondocks, no access to anything other than an order form. And some of us (like me) aren't rich. Mercy, freinds, mercy.