Eno's Ambient 4 'On Land' - Recommendations for Similar?

Benny B

Well-known member
Not an expert on ambient or anything but this was the first thing that sprang to mind thinking about stuff like 'on land'

 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Eno and Aphex, Aphex and Eno. Apex en Ephos.

A glow of distant hum, the sound of someone whistling into a half empty coca-cola bottle getting louder and louder. But never audibly enough to drive you mad. Just a distant noise like the buzz of the refrigerator that occasionally makes you stop and pause but refuses to intrude into your life, deliberately.

The comet ever coming closer and closer, but not enough that you can tell its substantially gotten closer. You think it must have, it wasn't quite as big as it was last week, but its still nowhere near closer. You know it'll get there, and it drives you nuts because you can't chart when it'll finally kill you. At age 50? 60? 70? You can't do anything long term with this knowledge that you could get interrupted and it'd be all for naught. You fool! You only made it for the 56th rotation of the same melody for 27 minutes, and there were 18 more to go! You stupid fuck!

Genius music. Made by geniuses who like to tell bad jokes. Shorthand. Can't become exemplary acts within a specific vein. A general practitioner. Nobody knows what they do. A lot of hired guns helping prop up their vision, like directors who have masterful camera men and give vague directions. Their fees are reasonable given their achievements, despite making no innovations whatsoever. They come from the hills. Wizards. Conmen. Deluded charmers from the woods who have private lives and never ever think they themselves are terribly interesting so they like to hide behind games and toys and tricks. Do you get the feeling that when they grew up in their respective childhood schools, they were overly invested in playing with blocks or board games to the point they didn't actually socialize or participate in the material? Kids who would play with graph paper, drawing on the lines endlessly in this never ending mass of assumption and acquiring, like cancer. Eno's battled Cancer, does Richard have cancer in his family? He should watch out. His mind works like cancer. His career is cancer. His career is a cancer on music because he doesn't actually believe in music he just likes making toys and playing games.
 

luka

Well-known member
one of the interesting things about ambient is that although theres good ambient, there's virtually no bad ambient. you can make drab, perfunctory ambient, but actively bad ambient seems to be impossible.
 

droid

Well-known member
Crowley doesnt get it on any level. Its not his fault though. Like expecting a Mormon to appreciate funk and soul.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
I actually like the music at times, I just want to take a meat cleaver to Richard D James' head out of illogical dispassionate hate to stop the bullshit. The people who have pretended his last two albums were somehow important, essential or even worth discussing, like one of the lead singles wasn't a literal rewrite of "Windowlicker" is horseshit.

Eno I like more than James but there's definitely a point where you want to tell Eno fans "you know he's absolutely full of shit?" 'Neroli' is good though.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Thanks for all the suggestions so far (mainly to droid, obs). And thanks to Crowley for the superb rant.


This Aphex tune is blatantly On Land inspired, and shits me right up.
 

luka

Well-known member

coil ruin their records with campy, hammy whispering about satanic owls and vampire priests but this has none of that on it and its amazing.
 

droid

Well-known member
Thanks for all the suggestions so far (mainly to droid, obs). And thanks to Crowley for the superb rant.


This Aphex tune is blatantly On Land inspired, and shits me right up.

Yeah, SAW 2 is the obvious homage, though I think it crosses the line into Dark ambient at times. On Land is unsettling at times, but never bleak.
 

sufi

lala
What happens if you listen to ambient at ear-splittingly loud volumes? does it work better/differently?
genuine question
partlyhttp://www.dissensus.com/
 

droid

Well-known member
It generally stops being ambient. Some discussion of this on the other threads IIRC.
 

jenks

thread death
That Sylvian/Czukay LP is great.

Yes, I think that and the whole Gone To Earth period Sylvian are some of his best post-Japan work. Obviously a group of musicians like Fripp, Wheeler, Taylor, Bill Nelson help but all the same some just lovely stuff on there.

I can remember Virgin being committed to the ambient cause in the 90s releasing series of compilations including Toop's stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Ambient_series

I always liked the Skylab #1 Howie B's 90s outfit but don't know it's strictly ambient for the purposes of this thread.
 

droid

Well-known member
The Gone to Earth Instrumentals are great.

Im a big fan of his Stephan Mathieu collaboration LP. Not a bad contender for this thread actually.

 

BSquires

Well-known member
If 'sinister/atmospheric' = 'dark ambient' then what about:

Lustmord - Dark Matter, Place Where the Black Stars Hang, Strange Attractor 12" (also on the Purifying Fire compilation)
Deathprod - Morals and Dogma, Imaginary Songs From Tristan Da Cunha
:zoviet*france: - Digilogue, Shouting at the Ground, The Decriminalisation of Country Music

I can also suggest several German industrial/ambient outfits like Inade, Herbst, etc. but that might be stretching the definition (and your indulgence :eek: ) - as usual I am probably simplifying/getting this all wrong, so apologies for that :)
 
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