IDM Mailing Archive

ambient to billboard all this chat about major labels avoiding ambient like the plague sounds like unfounded rumormongering to me. the current issue of Billboard Magazine has a huge article on "ambient" which starts on the front page with pics of Brian Eno and Aphex Twin. (ironic given Eno's comments about James in the Eno Instrumental Box Set...) there's a sidebar on Waveform Records (US version of Beyond). For those who keep asking, the domestic release of Higher Intelligence Agency is given as September 7. The Internet gets three mentions in the article as well, first as source of information about ambient artists (gee, who are they talking about!), second as reason for speed of ambient info dissemination, and third as possible source of sound samples. Warp claims to have sold 60,000 copies of SAW 2, and 30,000 copies of AI2. (these are non-stateside copies.) I can't possibly imagine with coverage like this that WEA has issued a blanket ultimatum to cancel all ambient projects. Billboard is about as corporate as music mags get. If they are devoting that much space to it, you can bet that it's just about over for this genre as an underground phenomenon. There's another front page article headed "Time Warner Companies Making Multimedia Moves" but it's not strictly IDM material (interesting though). Deep Forest's eponymous single appears on the Hot Dance Breakouts (Club Play) chart at #1... Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column: "The members of guitar-driven modern rock outfit LOVE & ROCKETS have bravely reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters for their American recording debut, "Hot Trip To Heaven". The set owes a tip of the inspirational hat to ORBITAL in many places, though the band succeeds in mining interesting new ground on cuts like the single-worth "Body & Soul". Good chill-out fare..." Color me terrified. /jon

John Drukman wrote:

quoted 11 lines Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column:

> Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column: > "The members of guitar-driven modern rock outfit LOVE & ROCKETS have bravely > reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters for their American > recording debut, "Hot Trip To Heaven". The set owes a tip of the > inspirational hat to ORBITAL in many places, though the band succeeds in > mining interesting new ground on cuts like the single-worth "Body & Soul". > Good chill-out fare..." > > Color me terrified. > > /jon

Surreal? Hell, I'm going into hiding at the thought of that one! -bella -- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ slw4blb@cabell.vcu.edu / FC 10 8B D4 FE 02 49 FE B7 D0 9D 5F D4 19 8E 88 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

On Tue, 19 Jul 1994, Belinda L. Bowen wrote:

quoted 12 lines John Drukman wrote:

> John Drukman wrote: > > Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column: > > "The members of guitar-driven modern rock outfit LOVE & ROCKETS have bravely > > reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters for their American > > recording debut, "Hot Trip To Heaven". The set owes a tip of the > > inspirational hat to ORBITAL in many places, though the band succeeds in > > mining interesting new ground on cuts like the single-worth "Body & Soul". > > Good chill-out fare..." > > > > Color me terrified. > > Surreal? Hell, I'm going into hiding at the thought of that one!

Why? Am I the only IDMer who loves his Tones on Tail discs too? And if you take the L&R track "Bike" and "Bikedance" and replace the guitars with well-sequenced synth riffs, it'd sound a LOT like Orbital (though Orbital's power is in the richness of their sounds, so I guess that's not saying much :) Brian "The Bubblemen are coming...."

quoted 13 lines John Drukman wrote:

> John Drukman wrote: > > > Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column: > > "The members of guitar-driven modern rock outfit LOVE & ROCKETS have bravely > > reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters for their American > > recording debut, "Hot Trip To Heaven". The set owes a tip of the > > inspirational hat to ORBITAL in many places, though the band succeeds in > > mining interesting new ground on cuts like the single-worth "Body & Soul". > > Good chill-out fare..." > > > > Color me terrified. > > > > /jon

I saw the new single last week with a Secret Knowledge remix on it, although I didn't get a chance to listen to it. Maybe this explains why David J. has been seen at a few raves here in LA. Joe

quoted 5 lines All this chat about major labels avoiding ambient like the plague sounds like

>All this chat about major labels avoiding ambient like the plague sounds like >unfounded rumormongering to me. The current issue of Billboard Magazine has a >huge article on "Ambient" which starts on the front page with pics of Brian Eno >and Aphex Twin. (Ironic, given Eno's comments about James in the Eno >Instrumental Box Set ...)

OK, I'll bite - what were Eno's comments? As a fan of both, I fail to understand why some people claim "Oh, Richard just regurgitates what Eno and Tangerine Dream used to do". Hogwash. Something like "Discreet Music" is *much* quieter than "Selected Ambient Works Vol. II".

quoted 8 lines There's a sidebar on Waveform Records (US version of Beyond). For those who

>There's a sidebar on Waveform Records (US version of Beyond). For those who >keep asking, the domestic release of Higher Intelligence Agency is given as >September 7. > >The Internet gets three mentions in the article as well, first as a source of >information about Ambient artists (gee, who are they talking about!), second as >reason for speed of Ambient info dissemination, and third as a possible source >of sound samples.

This "third" sounds ominous ...

quoted 2 lines There's another front page article headed "Time-Warner Companies Making

>There's another front page article headed "Time-Warner Companies Making >Multimedia Moves" but it's not strictly IDM material (interesting, though).

See? See? If we don't get the "distribute your music in 44.1/44.8 KHz form via your Web Home Page" going soon, these bastards will catch on and try to stop it, or play the game themselves ... arrgh ...

quoted 9 lines Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column:

>Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column: > >"The members of guitar-driven modern rock outfit LOVE & ROCKETS have bravely >reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters for their American >recording debut, "Hot Trip To Heaven". The set owes a tip of the inspirational >hat to ORBITAL in many places, though the band succeeds in mining interesting >new ground on cuts like the single-worth "Body & Soul". Good chill-out fare." > >Color me terrified.

Hah! Color me unsurprised in the slightest. At two of the most recent events down here - a Moontribe totally underground outdoor event on a Sunday late in June, out in the wilds of the Angeles National Forest; and just last weekend, at the Astralwerks-sponsored "World Cup of Trance/World Cup of Ambient" double event at Public Space which several SoCal-Ravers attended - I saw Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus/Love & Rockets. Both times I saw him he was groovin' to the 'choons. After I got over my initial surprise, I thought "Hey, that's pretty cool". And given that Daniel Ash was quoted as describing The Orb as "being on drugs without being on drugs" (paraphrasing here) and was supposedly seen jamming with Genesis P. Orridge in San Francisco, hearing that Love & Rockets have "bravely reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters" doesn't surprise me in the least. I wish more "older" bands would take that kind of risk; I certainly appreciated Psychic TV playing a completely-improv no-vocals Tribal Techno set a helluva lot more than if Gen had gotten up there and said "Here's some old chestnut" and they'd launched into something from "Allegory & Self" or something else similarly ancient and molding ... (Actually, it just makes me sad/frustrated, since there's this certain other recently-signed-to-American beat combo whom Jon and I are well familiar with, whom I dearly wish would bravely reinvent themselves, but unlike Love&Rockets the "let's reinvent ourselves" contingent doesn't have a quorum :-( :-( ) Speaking of "reinvent themselves", anyone see the Killing Joke "Millenium" video at the very tail end (natch) of (US) MTV's "120 Minutes" last weekend? I've heard there are more Techno/Dub remixes on the single ... and it sounds like they're creeping into recent Laswell territory, to some extent ... - Greg

On Tue, 19 Jul 1994, - Greg Earle wrote:

quoted 6 lines There's another front page article headed "Time-Warner Companies Making

> >There's another front page article headed "Time-Warner Companies Making > >Multimedia Moves" but it's not strictly IDM material (interesting, though). > > See? See? If we don't get the "distribute your music in 44.1/44.8 KHz form > via your Web Home Page" going soon, these bastards will catch on and try to > stop it, or play the game themselves ... arrgh ...

This is off the topic of IDM, but since I am hosting this list I can do this :) I think there will be a position for large established record labels to be in the net for two reasons: 1) Image. Think 4AD records, and what it meant for artists to be on it. That will exist on the net; in fact it'll be even more important on the net. 2) Distribution. Yes, you can put your files up on the net and make it available to 20 million users very easily. But you can't make it available to *every* one of them at once - some elements of the web do scale well, but Michael Jackson won't be able to put his new album on anything less than a T3. So don't count them out :) And in the same way that AOL serves a purpose by getting people interested in reading email and then by incompetence showing them there's a better paradigm to follow, getting majors on the net would be a good way to show bands that they can try doing this themselves :) Brian

To tell you the truth, I can't see ambient music becoming pop at all. I think that's what a lot of us fear about the large American record labels. It seems as soon as they pick up a genre, they blow it up into a huge imagefest. That doesn't change the fact that the music can still be underground, and that the underground music can be (and probably will be) much better than the new soundgarden of IDM. The Aphex Twin played his cards right as far as major labels go. He's made a mystical embodiment to attatch to his name, and his music, at the very least, is unconventional. So... after a while, he got press and major label attention. Now he's on the cover of a magazine distributed in Sam Goody! However: if Mr. James hadn't made the image/name conglomeration for himself, I don't think he'd have as much press. He's illustrated as a novelty because of his 'strangeness.' Most other IDM or techno acts don't have this marketability even though the music is on par. So what's my point? I don't know... for one, I don't think we have anything to fear as far as major record labels go. They can try to make pop radio djs play the brand-spankin'-new ambient supergroup music, but *I* don't think pop culture will eat it up. It's not edible :). Tom

If anything, L&R have an amazing sense of rhythm, in the good old fashioned sense of keeping the beat; remember the great riffs of "Kundalini Express"? If they choose to go the ambient groove route, great! Their latest stuff was fairly drab anyway. Greg Earle <earle@isolar.Tujunga.CA.US> mentioned a certain band that should take more chances, and having seen his post on alt.music.something or other about it, I wish they would too. (For those of us who occasionally equate the 'i' in 'idm' with industrial, the band in question is Skinny Puppy.) At one time, I was especially enamored of SP's "Download" and Godflesh's "Pure II" - about as ambient as you can get, in that very abstract way of just waiting for noise. Dave :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::dmanning@cwis.unomaha.edu:::::::: :: "Guaranteed like Yoo-Hoo..." :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::--Beastie Boys:::::::::::::

On Tue, 19 Jul 1994, Jon Drukman wrote:

quoted 7 lines Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column:

> Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column: > "The members of guitar-driven modern rock outfit LOVE & ROCKETS have bravely > reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters for their American > recording debut, "Hot Trip To Heaven". The set owes a tip of the > inspirational hat to ORBITAL in many places, though the band succeeds in > mining interesting new ground on cuts like the single-worth "Body & Soul". > Good chill-out fare..."

Dunno, doesn't sound _too_ farfetched to me: have you ever heard the tracks on the first Love & Rockets album (_Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven_) and the stuff they did under the name Tones on Tail? I have no problem believing that the band that did "Saudade", "Real Life" and "Twist" would be able to do credible ambience. (oh god, my postpunk roots are showing...) :) ----------------------------------------------------------------- dave walker, detroit art services _ marmoset@msen.com play sim freeke <A HREF="http://www.msen.com/~marmoset/">Dave Walker</A>

quoted 24 lines On Tue, 19 Jul 1994, Belinda L. Bowen wrote:

>On Tue, 19 Jul 1994, Belinda L. Bowen wrote: >> John Drukman wrote: >> > Finally, on a totally surreal note, I quote from the Dance Trax column: >> > "The members of guitar-driven modern rock outfit LOVE & ROCKETS have >>bravely >> > reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters for their American >> > recording debut, "Hot Trip To Heaven". The set owes a tip of the >> > inspirational hat to ORBITAL in many places, though the band succeeds in >> > mining interesting new ground on cuts like the single-worth "Body & Soul". >> > Good chill-out fare..." >> > >> > Color me terrified. >> >> Surreal? Hell, I'm going into hiding at the thought of that one! > >Why? Am I the only IDMer who loves his Tones on Tail discs too? And >if you take the L&R track "Bike" and "Bikedance" and replace the guitars >with well-sequenced synth riffs, it'd sound a LOT like Orbital (though >Orbital's power is in the richness of their sounds, so I guess that's not >saying much :) > > Brian > >"The Bubblemen are coming...."

Love and Rockets, were they Bauhaus once? Can we expect "Bela Lagosi is still dead (Trancesylvania mix)?" time...space...transmat@teleport.com bleep on!

quoted 5 lines All this chat about major labels avoiding ambient like the plague sounds like

>>All this chat about major labels avoiding ambient like the plague sounds like >>unfounded rumormongering to me. The current issue of Billboard Magazine has a >>huge article on "Ambient" which starts on the front page with pics of Brian Eno >>and Aphex Twin. (Ironic, given Eno's comments about James in the Eno >>Instrumental Box Set ...)

quoted 4 lines As a fan of both, I fail to understand why some people claim "Oh, Richard

>As a fan of both, I fail to understand why some people claim "Oh, Richard >just regurgitates what Eno and Tangerine Dream used to do". Hogwash. >Something like "Discreet Music" is *much* quieter than "Selected Ambient Works >Vol. II".

That is true, 'hogwash.' Every ambient artist creates his own 'dreamscape.' I don't think it possible to 'regurgitate' what other ambient artists do. It may sound a lot like something that came before, but every ambient project is a trip in its own right. stan

The Duke writes:

quoted 5 lines And given that Daniel Ash was quoted as describing The Orb as "being on drugs

>And given that Daniel Ash was quoted as describing The Orb as "being on drugs >without being on drugs" (paraphrasing here) and was supposedly seen jamming >with Genesis P. Orridge in San Francisco, hearing that Love & Rockets have >"bravely reinvented themselves as moody, ambient groovemeisters" doesn't >surprise me in the least.

Awww yeah, but what happened to that mythical SWING album? L&R kicked into some swing tunes when I saw them for the first time and they completely bounced. I think they could have cut some broad paths of their own if they had pursued swing, but now they're just jumping on a bandwagon.