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