YOU!
Yes, you at the computer!
READ THIS!
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THE AMBIENT FAQ and THE AMBIENT SURVEY
initial announcement - 28 Aug 1993
(and call for contributions)
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As you may know, I compiled the "Ambient Music FAQ" about a year ago in an
effort to quiet down the surges of posts to the alt.rave newsgroup in which
people kept asking where they could find more music that sounds like The
Orb. At this point the old FAQ is outdated and cumbersome, and I'm
embarrassed to think people still have any use for it, but if you want
to check it out anyway you can acquire it via anonymous FTP from
techno.stanford.edu in the /pub/raves/music directory. Be nice; FTP at
night.
The FAQ contained a large "recommended listening" list which I did try to
make look nice, but I just didn't have time to really go through and
organize it. In the time since compiling it I ran across the 1993
Progressive Rock Survey, which is a mammoth document you can get from
cs.uwp.edu in the pub/music/lists/gibraltar directory. The Prog Rock
Survey is my inspiration for a much more ambitious Ambient FAQ and a
separate Ambient Survey.
I am in the process of rewriting the Ambient FAQ from scratch. The new
version of the FAQ will be written almost entirely by me except for some
parts which I need help with. It will also include the liner notes from
some of Brian Eno's albums. I would like to hear from anyone who is
interested in ambient music as to what you would like to see included in
the FAQ. Chances are, if I haven't thought of it, I don't know about it,
and I'll need you to write something about it for me. I want this document
to not just answer common questions but to really be informative in a
proactive way.
As for the Ambient Survey, basically what is going on is this:
I want you to write something *intelligent* about one or more artists,
labels, genres, or compilations. What you write should be 1 to 5 paragraphs
long depending on how confident you are with your knowledge and opinions.
The subject matter should in some way be "ambient." What exactly "ambient"
means is up to you. Think: to what other artists would you introduce
someone who is into one form of ambient music (say, The Orb)?
Anything is valid -- from Eric Satie to Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno to Aphex
Twin, Moby to Pink Floyd. If they have produced any "headphone music,"
they should be written about.
The finished Ambient Survey will include all the contributions --except the
redundant or poorly written ones-- in an alphabetical, encyclopedia-like
format just like the Progressive Rock Survey. Each artist will be listed
with information about them, who they've worked with, what their music
sounds like, reviews of their releases, a mini-discography, and whatever
else people cared to write about them. Everything should be written from
an "ambient perspective," so if you are writing about a band that has a
variety of musical styles you need not discuss the things about them that
aren't all that ambient. The survey will be posted to the net and made
available at various archive sites whenever the contributions stop coming
in.
Suggested things to write about... these are *only suggestions* off the top
of my head. The idea is to give people information about artists and
labels about which they've not heard or known.
labels-- artists--
4AD Records 808 State, Richard James, ART,
Apollo Records Duran Duran/Arcadia/(Alex Sadkin),
Brain Records Art of Noise, B12, Banco de Gaia,
Creation Records Black Dog Prod., CJ Bolland, David
FAX Records Bowie, Michael Brook, Harold Budd,
FNAC David Byrne, C-Schulz, Paul
Private Music Schutze, Klaus Schulze, Cluster,
Plus 8 / Probe Records Can, Chapterhouse, Cocteau Twins,
Rephlex Records Coil, Colourbox, Holger Czukay,
Virgin Records Depeche Mode, Yanni, Philip Glass,
Warp Records Jan Hammer, Jon Hassell, Steve
WAU! Mr. Modo Records Hillage, Enigma, Jonathan Elias,
Windham Hill Records Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Enya, KLF,
...many, many more, I'm sure... Hypnotone, Fortran 5, Christopher
Franke, Future Sound of London,
Kraftwerk, Laraaji, LFO, Edgar
Froese, Johannes Schmoelling,
Tangerine Dream, Peter Gabriel,
Holger Hiller, Higher Intelligence Agency, The Irresistible Force, Jam &
Spoon, Jean-Michel Jarre, Tomita, Kitaro, Jaydee, Lush, Marathon, Massive
Attack, Material, Moby, Moodswings, My Bloody Valentine, New Order, Mike
Oldfield, The Orb, Ozric Tentacles, Steve Roach, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny,
William Orbit, Orbital, Pet Shop Boys, Pink Floyd, Prefab Sprout, Primal
Scream, Psychedelic Research Lab, Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia, Recoil, Terry
Riley, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Severed Heads, The
Shamen, Skinny Puppy, Solaris, Spacemen 3, Speedy J, Spiritualized, Sun
Electric, Sunsonic, David Sylvian, System 7 / 777, T99, The Tear Garden,
Throbbing Gristle, Tranquility Bass, Psychic TV, Transformer 2, Simon
Turner, Ultramarine, Vangelis, Vapour Space, Hafler Trio, Mad Professor,
Lee "Scratch" Perry... etc.
Some of these artists produced only one or two ambient tracks, others put
out nothing but ambient, and still others have gone through a wide variety
of musical styles, some more hypnotic than others. Again, this list is
only just to get you started; it is biased towards my collection and
certainly does not reflect the direction in which I want the Survey to
lean.
So this is what you need to do --
1. Think of things that should be in the Ambient FAQ,
2. Think of artists, labels, and genres about which you would like to
tell people.
3. ** SEND A MESSAGE TO ME at: ambient@techno.stanford.edu **
to let me know what you are going to write about.
4. If you have already written something, send it!
Here is a sample submission:
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THE IRRESISTIBLE FORCE / MIXMASTER MORRIS
albums: Flying High (92), Underground EP (93)
singles: various promo 12"s and compilation appearances
remixes: Barbarella "Barbarella", Rising High Collective "No Deeper Love",
Transform "Transform"
Eno says it's brilliant. Paterson says it's rubbish. With song titles
like "Spiritual High", "Sky High", "Mountain High", and "High Frequency",
it's no mystery what Morris, one of the first acid house DJs in the UK,
expects you to be doing when you're listening to his album. Little more
than an exercise in running a couple of analog synthesizers through a delay
pedal while lots of bleepy, filtered scales oscillate and sweep around,
Flying High manages to be tonal and somewhat melodic without lapsing into
techno for more than a few seconds. It's sort of like a deluxe, extended
version of the Space album (see KLF). Too bad he plops in drug-oriented
vocal samples, like Terence McKenna's nasal proclaimation that "DMT is a
MEGAtonnage hallucinogen." Nevertheless, every track Mixmaster Morris does
is interesting, and most of his work has a distinct sound. He compiled the
Chill Out Or Die! album on Rising High in 93, which features "Space Is The
Place" and two of his remixes. He spun on a mix tape available from DMC.
The Underground EP, recorded prior to Flying High but recently released on
Instinct, includes the epic, insane headtrip "Underground (Ambiant mix)"
and the bassy space jazz cut "Flow Motion"; check out these two tracks for
a fairly good representation of the content of Flying High.
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Thank you for your time, and please, even if you only have one album by an
ambient artist, contribute your thoughts on it. Describe and evaluate it
for everyone else. Also, please distribute this announcement and
forthcoming announcements to other networks and mailing lists, wherever it
would be appropriate. I'd like to get some contributions from BBS-based
networks (e.g. FidoNET, WWIVnet, etc) if possible.
All responses to:
quoted 8 lines Mike J. Brown>
> Mike J. Brown
> Internet: ambient@techno.stanford.edu
>
> those without Internet access can send regular mail or disks (preferred)
> to me at 120 Wickfield Road
> Blacklick, OH 43004-9624
> USA
Mike