chill out

padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
empty mirror said:
i checked out that irresistable force and the global communication albums and both are exactly what i have been looking for. i don't know how those passed me by.
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Global Communication are kinda like the Todd Osborn of the 90s - whatever genre they touched turned to gold. 76:14 kills the early 90s ambient business, they also did amazing deep house records, electro, acid techno, you name it really. they even have an astoundingly fabulous ambient jungle 12" on Good Looking as Chameleon.

empty mirror said:
been meaning to get that Vangelis Bladerunner OST but never have gotten around to it!
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things is there's like 4 or 5 versions of it - make you sure you get the Esper version, that's the most complete I think.

also makes me think;

Tangerine Dream - Zeit, Phaedra, probably more but those are the only ones I'm familiar with

E2-E4

& can't believe no one's mentioned Pete Namlook yet - I've no idea which records specifically but surely someone else does?
 
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massrock

Well-known member
Namlook - yikes ;)

I stopped paying attention after a certain point. Some of the early ones are good -

Silence definitely.

Air I at least. Maybe II.

Dark Side of The Moog with Klaus Schultze. They went on to do like five volumes of this.

The aforementioned Dreamfish albums with Mixmaster Morris.

The first 3 or 4 Ambient comps.

Other things on Fax -

Tetsu Inoue - Ambiant Otaku is teh classic deep chill.

Sad World.

Will have to look at the discography to jog my memory. I sold quite a few of these CDs for stupid (i.e. lots) amounts of money. People go crazy collecting this shit.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
Leo said:
for example, his "untitled #104"...about 50 minutes of micro-edits of totally insane/extreme metal riffage that is so "tuneless" and relentless that after a while, it blurs into a hypnotic and trancelike din. definitely not the type of chill out originally asked about here, but a different kind of chill out.
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i was being sarky with the francisco lopez...

most of that 90s ambient aged HORRIBLY (irresistable force, etc), and then there's the stuff that was never any good to begin with.

my favorite from back then was Tesu Inoue's first one, "World Receiver", which was really beautiful (before he went all digi-mind fuck unlistenable).

just saw massrock recommending Ambient Otaku... i know it's really rated but i've never understood why. it's nice but by FAR the inferior record compared to World Receiver, which is so lush and full of ideas but a lot more quiet and uses a lot less cliche sounds.
 
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Client Eastwood

Well-known member
The Namlook/Hawtin From Within Series is pretty good. Ive not listened to it for many years tho. Acid lines, lots of immersive bass and subtle drum/synth programming.
 
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massrock

Well-known member
zhao said:
most of that 90s ambient aged HORRIBLY (irresistable force, etc),
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I don't know. I've thought this at times, had some massive righteous purges of that stuff but it's also something I come back to from time to time. Became overly maligned too quickly I think.
Bang Diddley said:
The Namlook/Hawtin From Within Series is pretty good. Ive not listened to it for many years tho. Acid lines, lots of immersive bass and subtle drum/synth programming.
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Good call, at least a couple of tracks anyway.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
there is only one piece of Orb music i want to listen to again: that live, like 20 minute version of Assassin. which album is it off of? or was it a remix version on the Auntie Aubrey turtles cover comp?
 
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massrock

Well-known member
zhao said:
iWorld Receiver, which is so lush and full of ideas but a lot more quiet and uses a lot less cliche sounds.
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Don't know that actually. I'm not recommending as such, just talking about what are the big records in that area. Like you say it is rated. I sold mine before it was reissued. £75 for a CD? Ok, it's all yours.
 
empty mirror

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
yeah, i am on top of the tangerine dream/klaus shultze/harmonia/cluster/eno/fripp end of things

i guess they sort of occluded my view of the early 90s torchbearers
 
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massrock

Well-known member
Why do you think it's aged badly Zhao?

Well of course there is lots that wasn't very good to begin with to be fair.

The ambient techno side of things was also part of 90s 'chill out'. B12, Black Dog, Autechre, As One, ART, Irdial, Reflective...

Can I just say the first two links on archive.org I just posted above are probably the absolute definition of early 90s ambience, even though there's a lot of 70s records in the mix.
 
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zhao

there are no accidents
massrock said:
Why do you think it's aged badly Zhao?
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why does anything age badly... over indulgence in trendy formulas, lack of actual musical content or ideas, etc. etc... and also maybe i listened to that stuff to death coming down from ecstasy or speed in my highschool and early uni days...

that KLF record with the sheep on the cover... what the fuck was the buzz about? it is lame, lame, lame.

there was one Axiom Ambient 2CD, maybe the first one or second one, with a bunch of different artists on it, that was surprisingly good (maybe because Laswell didn't make most of the tracks.
 
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massrock

Well-known member
Yeah true, there's certainly a contextual aspect to why some of it worked. But good ambient music still stands up, or er, lies down ;)

I edited my post to mention the more techno side of things which I think people feel more comfortable with now because it's more 'stylish' or something. There wasn't so much of a distinction at the time, all that stuff was mixed up. Even then I think things like B12 can come across as quite blandly anodyne.

Funny how The Orb went out of favour so quickly. The Orb and KLF were always slightly more ironic and arch than a lot of chill out practitioners though.

-

The thread started out on a space / samples tip but I remember Life Before Land by Another Fine Day as being a really nice bucolic / idyllic chill out record. Another one on Beyond.

Oh, one more spacey thing - Dr. Motte's Euphorhythm - Chill Out Planet Earth.
 
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oswellm

Member
If you like the already-and-thoroughly-well-recommended Ambiant Otaku, I strongly recommend "Mu" by Masters of Psychedelic Ambiance, a collaboration between Inoue and Uwe Schmidt that also came out on Rather Interesting around the same time.

Lots of snippets of Japanese radio noises and synthetic textures. Mmmm..
 
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