EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 45, Issue 7a This issue's topics: FAQ: Ambient music [1/3] Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 08:56:37 GMT From: "Mike J. Brown" Subject: FAQ: Ambient music [1/3] Part 1 of 3 | * * * | | THE AMBIENT FAQ | (Information about Ambient Music) | * * | * * | * | * * Last Modified 8 Oct 1992 Written by Mike Brown, mjbrown@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu. with contributions (some unsolicited) from readers of alt.rave and rec.music.industrial. This FAQ is for public use; distribute freely, just be sure the author's credit remains intact. Direct questions, comments, additions, and corrections to the address above. ______________________________________________________________________ Contents: Definition: FAQ Definition: ambient Definition: ambient house Definition: deep house History: earliest roots of ambient music History: dance music genres related to ambient house History: ambient house and The Orb Definition: ambient industrial Clarification: The Orb vs Orbital Recommendations: my own collection Recommendations: by others Ruminations: On the other hand... Ruminations: Chill Out Areas Ruminations: Eno Ruminations: Kraftwerk, LFO, 808 State Information: Where to find information Information: Where to find ambient music Late news ______________________________________________________________________ Definition: FAQ When I first sent out a request for recommendations of good ambient tracks, somebody actually asked me this. I laughed for a little while, then thought, well, it is a valid question, so here is the answer. FAQ is an abbreviation for Frequently Asked Question. Many of the hundreds of newsgroups on UseNET get the same questions being asked over and over, so it is now common practice for a list of these FAQ's and their corresponding answers to be compiled and periodically posted to the appropriate newsgroup. These "answers to frequently asked questions" documents are being referred to now as FAQs. I wrote this FAQ to answer the frequent questions that appear on the newsgroups alt.rave and rec.music.industrial, and the various rave mailing lists. I maintain and post the FAQ to those groups/lists as often as I can get to it. ______________________________________________________________________ Definition: ambient Here is my interpretation. In musical terms, ambient refers to an arrangement that surrounds the listener, usually with long, smooth chords, absence of hard rhythm or vibrant melody, and using instrumentation which is neither too sharp nor too round. Some soft music is ambient, to varying degrees. As with all attempts to pigeonhole a musical style, one ultimately has to admit that interpretation is always subjective and that the "best" definition of "ambient" or any other form of music is one's own. That said, here are some common characteristics of music people tend to think of as ambient: 1) sound effects, especially environmental sounds and voices you can't quite make out 2) long instrumentals, mainly done with synthesizers 3) one or more repeating synth lines, often sounding artificial but smooth 4) long, inoffensive tones and chords 5) all sounds are "softened" so there is no more than one sharp, abrasive sound (like an electric guitar solo) at a time 6) few or no vocals 7) rhythm tracks are limited and often muffled 8) new sounds, especially the repeating loops, fade in and out slowly, rather than cutting out hard at a 1-beat 9) dreamy or macabre moodiness, but usually never upbeat One alt.rave reader offered this definition: I think Ambient is generally characterized by long flowing sounds, pleasant atmosphere generating samples like waterfall, birdcall, wind, rain, etc. nature stuff.... long chords..... beats optional. ______________________________________________________________________ Definition: ambient house Ambient house is mostly ambient, as defined above, but with a bit of trance-dance percussion here and there. Some ambient house tracks have no percussion, and are only defined as ambient house by who made them and with what, rather than by what the music sounds like. The idea is you relax in the Chill Out room and listen to ambient music most likely while under the influence of psychoactives. You get absorbed into the music and sound effects and are transported to another reality. Every so often the sounds of the "real" dance floor in the adjacent room permeate your excursion and enhance it at the same time. Ambient House is the new psychedelic experience, no drugs required; it is the 1990's equivalent of old-New-Age. Now go listen to The KLF - "Witchita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard", track 9 on _Chill Out_, and see what I mean. Then listen to the whole ablum again. ______________________________________________________________________ Definition: Deep house I'm not sure how to best define deep house. It's house, but extremely repetitive, trancey... the only example of a deep house song breaking the Top 40 in America that I can think of is "Finally" by Ce Ce Peniston. If anyone else can offer a more descriptive definition, be my guest. ______________________________________________________________________ History: earliest roots of ambient music ===ccat@netcom.com (Chris Beaumont) In my opinion the first ambient musician was Eric Satie, the French composer of about the turn of the century. His "Gymnopeides" is one of the most moody pieces of music ever written. Years ago I met Brian Eno and he told me that Satie had been one of his main influences. Made me feel good because my father was a composer... and Satie was one of his friends in Paris in the 20's. (my father was 60 when I was born in 1958) My father was also one of the fathers of industrial music, but that's a different story...... If any of you have seen "Henry and June" they use some of his pieces in that movie. Never fails to raise a chill on the back of my neck. This is the music that Picasso liked to play when he was painting, I hear. ______________________________________________________________________ History: Dance music genres related to ambient house House music, a formerly underground form of New York black club music dating back to c.1985, is round and soulful, but relatively sparse, usually consisting of a wailing diva over a constant disco bass beat and hi-hats, repeating bassline, stumbling snare, and simple chords in place of complicated melodies. While mainstream music focused on lavish production, house was simple, being little more than the result of DJ's playing with drum machines at intimate 'house' parties and discos. The introduction of sirens, screaming, whistles, reverb, and squiggly 303 'acid effects' noises, with the removal of most of the vocals from house in 1987 resulted in Acid House. This hypnotic new form of house was popular initially in Chicago and England, existed as a fad in American gay clubs shortly thereafter, was merged with hip-hop and rap to form hip-house, then more or less died out (or went further underground) in 1989. It was then that the Belgian 'New Beat' sound fused acid house with rigid, soulless techno, using breakbeats and samples played at what was at the time fairly high speeds. Technotronic, a New Beat pop act, scored international success with their hits 'Pump Up The Jam', 'Get Up', and several other club chart-toppers. Sleaze, a slower, pseudo-ambient form of New Beat enjoyed brief popularity as morning music after hours at dance clubs. In 1990 and 1991 the UK acid house scene was revitalized by the new techno sound coming from the continent, a bleep-and-breakbeat merger combining all the elements of house, acid house, New Beat, the Detroit groove techno of Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, as well as the early electro of Kraftwerk. More and more 'raves' or 'acid house parties' started happening around the world, with hundreds and even thousands of young people coming together for secret, impromptu techno dancathons. In late 1991 and 1992 'Techno- Rave', which has come to describe the hook-oriented pop fringe of techno, dominated the UK and European pop charts and has begun to make its presence known in the USA. Following San Francisco's lead, major cities across the States got a taste of the rave experience in 1992, with fairly prominent scenes developing in Denver, Chicago, Boston, New York, and parts of Florida. _____________________________________________________________________ History: ambient house and The Orb Ambient house music is fairly new. Most of it is being made by a very small group of people, most of whom know each other. Most of what I know about it centers around the activity of The Orb. Things seem to have gone like this. 1987 WEA A&R man Bill Drummond meets London artist Jimmy Cauty while making arrangements for Cauty's band Brilliant to meet with the infamous Stock-Aitken-Waterman production team. The pair hit it off and form the JAMs, a novelty act of bad Scottish rapping over what was at the time dangerously blatant "sampling". 1988 The JAMs begin recording more serious dance tracks under the pseudonym Kopyright Liberation Front, unexpectedly scoring hits in the expanding acid-house scene. Jimmy Cauty meets Editions EG A&R man Dr. Alex Paterson, a London DJ with similar interests in 70's pseudo- psychedelic music. They begin working with the idea of something called Ambient House, a combination of modern dance percussion, sound effects, and ambient synthesizer sounds heavily influenced by 70s dinosaur progressive rock. In the Summer of 1988 ("the second Summer of Love" according to the British music press) S'Express, Mark Moore's acid house outfit, record their album _Original Soundtrack_, which includes the first ambient house track on wax, Coma II (Am/Ok). 1989 Guitarist Steve Hillage, fascinated by the house movement, wanders into the Alex's "Ambient Lounge", the first-ever Chill Out room, upstairs from Land Of Oz night at DJ Paul Oakenfold's London club Heaven. Alex is playing material by Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, and Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Music" over environmental sound effects and tribal chants as part of his set. Hillage, Paterson, and Oakenfold become friends and Ambient House soon becomes a reality. Jimmy Cauty and Alex Paterson record an album's worth of material under the name The Orb, though their album was never officially released. Alex DJ's for more than six hours at an eleven-hour ambiathon with the KLF. Alex and Jimmy's 20-minute tour-de-force "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld" is broadcast on the John Peel show in December. 1990 Alex gets tired of being treated with Jimmy's "you're just the DJ, I'm the artist" attitude and splits, retaining the name The Orb for himself. He begins collaborating with Hillage, Miquette Giraudy, Andy Falconer, Thrash, Thomas Fehlmann, Youth, and others, recording various tracks for his Orb project. The KLF cause some more head- scratching with the release of _Chill Out_, the first ambient house album, recorded live with two DATs playing cut-ups from the ambiathon. Jimmy calls himself "Space" and releases his own ambient house album, which is now nearly impossible to find. Youth and Alex form the WAU! Mr Modo label. Hillage, Oakenfold, Youth and Alex form System 7. Youth, Alex, and Falconer gently remix the Art of Noise's softer tracks for _The Ambient Collection_. The whole House scene becomes psychedelic and spiritual. The European outfit Engima, who have no Orb connections, release the Balearic-beat oriented _MCMXC a.D._, spawning the first international ambient house hit "Sadeness Part 1". 1991 The Orb, now officially the duo of Dr. Alex Paterson and Thrash, release the colossal double-album _The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld_, which along with _Chill Out_ clearly defines the new genre. Alex and Youth end up remixing everything by everyone. System 7 (Hillage, collaborating with Alex, Oakenfold, Giraudy, Youth, Zoe, Derrick May, Steve Waddington, Aniff Cousins, Mick McNeil, and Thrash) release a self-titled album. [System 7 = 777 in USA due to copyright problems with Apple Computer.] 1992 As techno-rave takes over, the boundaries between the genres disappear. All new dance music has a little bit of acid, ambient, techno, new-beat, deep, and hip-house in it. Ambient House music per se remains underground, but Chill Out rooms are now the norm at even the most commerical raves now getting started around the USA. Thumbing their noses at the music business, the KLF announce they've quit making music and head off to Mexico. Shortly thereafter the Orb release a 39 minute, 58 second single to spitefully comply with Britain's forty-minutes-is-an-album-not-a-single rule. The Orb's dazzling second album _U.F.Orb_ is released. Ambient techno appears on the scene quickly and in quantity, the most notable release being the acclaimed _Accelerator_ album by The Future Sound Of London. ______________________________________________________________________ Definition: ambient industrial (=postindustrial?) Ambient industrial has been around longer than ambient house, actually. A number of old-techno and industrial bands have been working ambient arrangements into their compositions since the early days of Kraftwerk. This ambient industrial music has a harder, angrier edge, usually consisting of repeating, often disjointed samples, and rigid, aggressive, often distorted dance beats. In this sense ambient industrial almost sounds like a contradiction in terms, but there really are great similarities between certain industrial tracks and more traditional ambient music. ===amanda@wam.umd.edu (Amanda Babcock) Can any of the classification fanatics out there tell me the name of this subgenre? Heard a program of slow, rhythmic, occasionally New-Agey industrial and this is the name that stuck in my mind. The name of the album sounded like "Estra"... ===tmcfarla@fraser.sfu.ca (Tara McFarlane) the name of this genre that i general use is 'postindustrial' but it doesn't really seem to get much usuage around here. other groups i tend to label post-industrial are nurse with wound, current 93, hafler trio, lustmord, organum--basically anyone who used to release on the united dairies, laylah, etc. labels and now tend to be found on staalplaat, soleilmoon, torso, dov, etc. the particular :zoviet france release you refer to is 'eostre', one of their best. fans of the band also tend to rank 'shouting at the ground' and 'misfits loonie tunes and other squalid criminals' as among their best albums though they also release complimentary tapes with each record which i am not as familiar with. i also like 'monomishe' very much, and unlike most fans i also liked 'a flock of rotations'. one noteworthy cassette release that i believe dov (death of vinyl) plans on rereleasing as a cd is 'soviet folk songs and dances' which accompanied 'eostre' but has long since been out of print (most if not all :zoviet france releases are limited). supposedly they will also be touring the u.s. in september, but you must really keep your eyes out as they likely will not be advertized anywhere. best to check at your local retailer of industrial/postindustrial music for tour dates. ______________________________________________________________________ Clarification: The Orb vs Orbital Just in case you're confused, The Orb and Orbital are two completely separate entities. Orbital are Paul and Phil Hartnoll, who do spacey synth techno, using very few if any sound effects. Their music is very good and is somewhat ambient, but not nearly as ambient as The Orb. William Orbit is not associated with either band. ______________________________________________________________________ Recommendations: my own collection AMBIENT HOUSE: The Orb Some of the remixes are more traditional dance tracks but most are still pretty good. In the interest of space I won't list them all here. My favorites are: Depeche Mode - Happiest Girl (Pulsating Orbital mix) Primal Scream - Higher than the Sun Sun Electric - O'Locco (Orbital Therapy pts 1-4) The KLF Space (1990) - Jimi Cauty's solo album. I recommend this as highly as the Orb. Good luck finding it, though. Chill Out (1990) - Belongs in every Orb fan's collection. No beats to speak of, except in one song. Music to stare at walls to. Classic. 3am Eternal (Blue Danube Orbital) Last Train To Trancentral (original Pure Trance mix) Last Train To Trancentral (Mu-D. Vari-Speed version) What Time Is Love? (Virtual Reality mix) America No More Not quite as ambient but worth mentioning: What Time Is Love? (Moody Boys vs the KLF) 3am Eternal (Wayward Dub) Pet Shop Boys - It Must Be Obvious (UFO mix) A minute of the song, followed by 6 minutes of wild sound effects and broadcast samples, then the last couple minutes of the song. Pet Shop Boys - So Hard (The KLF vs Pet Shop Boys) Not that ambient, just kind of smoothed out. Depeche Mode - Policy Of Truth (Trancentral mix) Mistakenly called Pavlov's Dub on the US 12". Very smooth, has a beat. Art Of Noise The Ambient Collection (1990) is one of the dullest Art of Noise albums, especially considering who remixed it --Youth and Alex Paterson. But they've had their share of beautiful, mellow, borderline ambient tracks through the years. I can't recommend them more highly. Before the Orb my world was Art of Noise. The Beloved Hello (Godfrey's Tonic) Ingrid Chavez Hippy Blood (Freedom's Beating Heart mix) A happy pop instrumental. A good 12"/CD5 to pick up. She's one of Prince's projects. The Dream Academy Love (all mixes) A tasteful Lennon cover with Funky Drummer beats. Some mixes are more ambient than others. Reminiscent of Strawberry Fields Forever by Candy Flip. Enigma I think they deserve more respect than they get, or he gets, or whatever. The album MCMXC a.D. is as ambient house as they come. No one will ever be able to produce a Balearic (Soul II Soul) beat ambient track without sounding like Enigma. Mea Culpa is exquisite. Sadeness is classic. Gregorian chants galore. (1990) Fortran 5 Crazy Earth (Music For Ice Caps) US 12"/CD5: Elektra 66587; UK: Mute 113 (remix) (1990) Jam & Spoon Stella (all mixes) Get them!!! UK 12": R&S RSUK 14X Kirsty MacColl Walking Down Madison (6 A.M. Ambient mix) Moby All of his stuff is trancey, some things are really ambient, some are noisy. I highly recommend all of his work including the remixes he's done for other artists. For a good sampling of his music, try his self-titled album. New Order Confusion (Trip 1 - Ambient Confusion) Very very good. US 12": Minimal Records QAL-249 (1990) Pet Shop Boys We All Feel Better In The Dark (all mixes) As much as I like them, I'm saddened by how they're never at the forefront of dance music; they just copy whatever else is going on at the moment. Luckily, they do it extremely well. This song is the tops. PM Dawn Paper Doll (instrumental) More remixed than the title suggests. Very pleasant. Primal Scream Higher Than The Sun (produced & mixed by The Orb) Inner Flight Shine Like Stars All from the album Screamadelica (1991) The Shamen Possible Worlds (Imaginary) Shades of Tangerine Dream. Tracie Spencer This House (Space Dub) This House (Ambient Dub) Remixes by Justin Strauss, actually quite good. Dope beats, smooth keys. U2 Mysterious Ways (Apollo 440 Magic Hour remix) Mysterious Ways (Tabla Motown remix) I assume the Apollo 440 mixes of Even Better Than The Real Thing are equally ambient. Has anyone heard them? What about Apollo 440? Yazoo (Yaz in USA) Situation (Space Dub) A Francois Kevorkian remix available on the 1990 re-remix single. NON-AMBIENT HOUSE AMBIENCE: David Byrne Forestry EP remixes of material from his excellent orchestral album The Forest. Two of the mixes are by Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto. Very cool. (1991) Dead Can Dance Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987) The Serpent's Egg (1988) As depressing as 4AD label stuff can be, but mesmerizing all the same. Haunting pre-Renaissance female vocals, often in Latin. Future Sound of London sampled "Dawn Of The Iconoclast" for "Papua New Guinea". Depeche Mode Christmas Island PIMPF; FPMIP Never Let Me Down Again (aggro mix) Agent Orange Stjarna Sibeling Mephisto Gotta love those b-sides. Enya Love her or hate her, she's ambient. Massive Attack Safe From Harm (all mixes) Pink Floyd Recoil Hydrology plus 1+2 (1988) Bloodline (1992) Ambient industrial from Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode. The old stuff is very good. The newer stuff is more traditional electronic industrial, but not really like FLA, Front 242, Bigod 20, etc. Try them both; if you don't like one you might like the other. The tracks on Hydrology run about 15 minutes each. Ryuichi Sakamoto Exhibition The b-side to Field Work (Sakamoto & Thomas Dolby), 15 minutes of, umm, uh, ambient industrial...? No beats, just asynchrous bleeps over some orchestral and synthy stuff. Hard to describe. Sakamoto's stuff is really good, very diverse. Check him out. Severed Heads Clifford, Darling, Please Don't Live in the Past I haven't heard any of their other stuff. This is a very good compilation made mostly of looping sound effects. Ambient industrial. Single Gun Theory Millions, like stars in my hands, daggers in my heart, wage war Dancey, almost industrial, but with sweet female vocals. There is a lot of good stuff on Nettwerk Records that's in a more ambient, less industrial vein than Skinny Puppy. If you like Skinny Puppy and Pink Floyd, listen to The Tear Garden. Skinny Puppy Draining Faces This track is on Cleanse Fold Manipulate (1987). This one song is the soundtrack to my nightmares. It's evil, it's ambient, it's great. Get it. Slowdive I don't know whether it's a good idea to call shoegazer music ambient, but it's one of those things where if you like ambient stuff you'd probably like this stuff too, so give it a try. Other good bands in this genre include Curve, Lush, and My Bloody Valentine. Things on the 4AD label are kind of along these lines too. Check out the manchester mailing list for more. David Sylvian Words With The Shaman (Parts 1-3) with Steve Jansen, Jon Hassell, Holger Czukay (1985) Plight and Premonition with Holger Czukay Tangerine Dream Ricochet (1976, live) Force Majeure (1979) Tangram (1980) The further back you go, the more acoustic the music. These are the better of the albums I've heard from this time period. Pergamon (1981, live) Exit (1981) - Highly recommended, though some parts sound a bit dated. Risky Business (1983) - Some of the tracks are recycled from Exit and Force Majeure. The highlight is the immortal Love On A Real Train, which is unfortunately whittled down to 4 minutes from over 20 in the film. If anyone can find the long version for me, name your price. This album is well worth seeking out just for the Tangerine Dream tracks, but there are other good songs on it as well. Poland (1984, live) - Probably the closest thing to ambient house prior to the real thing. No sound effects to speak of; the emphasis is on ambient arrangements, melodic loops, and electronic percussion. The Park Is Mine (1986) - Recorded in 1985, much of it sounds like typical soundtrack music, other parts are excellent, like The Letter and Taking The Park (pts 1 & 2). Underwater Sunlight (1986) - Very good but sometimes the guitar work sounds more like Satriani than Floyd. This was the tail end of what is to me their 'good period'. Avoid the Firestarter soundtrack; sounds too much like movie music. I'm not sure about their other soundtrack albums. After Underwater Sunlight they switched to that awful (IMHO) New Age yuppie jazz. Tyger is alright, but Canyon Dreams and everything they've done for the Private Music label have been a far cry from their head-trippy roots. Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart Rising Above Bedlam A good album that incoporates 85% of all the different types of World Music out there. Various types of vocals. Some tracks more ambient than others. Visions Of You (various mixes) Yello L'Hotel (1987) Sweet Thunder (1991) I don't understand how these guys get overlooked as one of the driving forces in techno through the 1980s. Their stuff comes in pre-"Oh Yeah" and post-"Oh Yeah" flavors. Try them both out. I love the post-"Oh Yeah" stuff (the last three regular albums). Latin techno. L'Hotel and Sweet Thunder are very ambient tracks. various Requiem For The Americas This is an excellent album paying tribute to the American Indian culture. Lots of big names on it, including Jon Anderson and most of the members of Duran Duran. Lots of good ambient stuff, poetry, sound effects. (1989) ______________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************