Log #108 - Lifting the Lid on Some Ambient Classics

Following a couple of weeks of tentative excursions into the world of IDM, electronica and ambient, I've gone full steam ahead this week and embraced 6 albums across the genres:

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of (CD 1)

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of (CD 2)

Brian Eno - Music For Airports

Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here

Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records

Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher

When reviewing music that is off the mainstream it is sometimes difficult not to compare such artists with more well known equivalents. Perhaps it's a lazy method but nevertheless it does quickly convey an impression.

So here we have the following impressions -

Stars of the Lid  bring ambient lushness that recalls Brian Eno and the quiet bits of Godspeed You Black Emperor. To me this music also seems to provide a bridge between electronic ambient and classical minimalism with the slow droney strings in keeping with composers like Arvo Part, Gorecki and Philip Glass. The cheery track titles include the following - Requiem for Dying Mothers, The Lonely People are Getting Lonelier, and Austin Texas Mental Hospital. The band hail from Texas which seems unlikely but for no good reason. Why would a couple of electronic music innovators necessarily need to come from New York or Berlin? This 2001 album (their sixth) consists of lengthy pieces of 2 or 3 parts each, spread across a double CD (or triple vinyl) which clocks in at a total of over 2 hours. It's pure atmosphere music which gradually creeps up on you enveloping you in a cathartic reverie before bringing you to an unexpected and sudden orgasmic climax with a perfectly placed unexpected key change.

I'm at mind to recall a sample from the Orb's groundbreaking Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld album - I've been waiting for music like this all of my life (which I read came from a Sex Pistols interview).

Aren't the covers of these classy bands, classy too? This one graces the head of the post.

Brian Eno requires no equivalency. Rightly or wrongly Eno was credited with "inventing" ambient music. I don't know how true that is in reality - we even had an ambient record last week which predates this one as does the work of the classical minimalists, but Music For Airports from 1978 is perhaps the first to coin the term being actually subtitled Ambient 1. The concept derived from Eno waiting in an airport terminal and coming up with the idea for a background sound that could meet a range of  different attentions spans and "induce calm and a space to think".

Emeralds  with their gated pulses, looped keyboards and mixed low guitar, are the band in this selection that sound the most like Tangerine Dream (particularly around their late 70s/early 80s time - think Force Majeure). They also remind me of Terry Riley and Philip Glass. The music is dense and loud creating an immersive soundscape.

Jan Jelinek  offers lots of clicks, glitches and vinyl static most similar to Boards of Canada and early Efterklang. The album is particularly satisfying as a whole with a thread of similarity across it's 10 tracks of lo-fi beats and understated jazz samples. The homely crackle gives the record an authenticity and warmth like an open fire at Christmas (crikey, I received my first Christmas newsletter last week!).

Prefuse73 is the nomenclature for US DJ/Producer Scott Herren. This album is the most genre busting one in the selection touching on hip hop, electronica, dance, IDM, rap and even grime. The record sounds like a mash up of DJ Shadow and The Beastie Boys with lashings of Daft Punk too. It's the most upbeat album of the six and possesses some infectious hooks and melodies. My only criticism could be that the "funky drummer rhythm" which was innovative in the early 90s (including the 1991 Orb release mentioned above) is done to death throughout this 2003 release.