quoted 5 lines I wasn't going to bring this up, because I didn't want a personal petty>I wasn't going to bring this up, because I didn't want a personal petty
>argument to rage about something as menial as labels. However, enough people
>have written in to make it clear that more than half of you are irritated
>(to say the least) about the use of the word Ambient. If you'll just let me
>get this out of my system....
whoa, calm down there Tex! it's just that Ambient as a label is
becoming the Fashionable Thing of the moment and it's becoming
increasingly useless as a result. same thing happened with Techno. i
suppose part of this is just due to the corruption of language. words
never mean the same thing for long enough...
quoted 4 lines "When we picked the title Ambient Dub it was to use "Dub"> "When we picked the title Ambient Dub it was to use "Dub"
> in it's modern sense as indicating stretched out, spacy,
> dreamy mixes, although we were well aware of the Jamaican Music that
> also bore the name "Dub"..." - Beyond InfoPak2,3
right, well, i respect and admire Beyond a *lot* but i wish they had
picked a different term for their excellent series of albums.
preferably one that didn't use any of the following set of words:
ambient, trance, techno, house, dub, reggae, jazz, acid. true, there
are bits and pieces of *all* those styles in their music, but i really
think of Beyond as having a certain characteristic sound that is
billions of light years away from, say, "Ambient 1: Music For
Airports". or any of the zillion dub albums at the local monstromart.
quoted 6 lines I) Ofcourse Ambient House means House with Ambient influences. I can't> I) Ofcourse Ambient House means House with Ambient influences. I can't
>see how it ever meant anything else. Surely house, and dance as a whole, can
>do nothing to advance "Ambiance" proper. The fact is that whilst Ambiance
>has been around since the neanderthal (as natural music), dance is still
>mutating and Ambience is just an influence it picked up. I could remember the
>quote from LX Patterson (Issue 2: OUTLOOK) who said EXACTLY that.
right, well, it's also got disco influence in it but i don't hear too
many people trumpeting that angle. similarly, seefeel (who i am
listening to right now) remind me a lot of the old school minimalists
but i don't hear too many comparisons to terry riley or lamonte
young being drawn. mainly because most people would say "WHO!?" it
just so happens that right now (march 1994), "ambient" is *the*
buzzword. in 1992 it was "progressive." in 1993 it was "trance."
quoted 4 lines III) Personally I consider the concept of Ambient to include ANY and> III) Personally I consider the concept of Ambient to include ANY and
>ALL music and noise. Its a grand idea, backed up when FSOL delivered their
>"..new ambient station FSOL" last year. The music was so varied. It was like
>a brilliantly produced John Peel show (he's ambient).
see, this makes the term even less useful. we've already got words
for "sound" and "music" and "noise" and their definitions are pretty
rigid and well accepted. you're hurting the word "ambient" by
corrupting it in such a fashion. it's already pretty badly damaged,
anyway.
quoted 2 lines V) Is this an American thing? I can't help noticing that most (all?)> V) Is this an American thing? I can't help noticing that most (all?)
>of the people who wrote to me, wrote from America.
i'd hope anyone with a bit of interest in the english language would
get upset about it.
if i give you a record and say "this is techno" you probably wouldn't
have a clue what it sounds like. ditto "this is ambient." to me,
ambient means what Brian Eno (and even earlier, Erik Satie) meant it
to mean: music that you can just as easily NOT listen to. "thursday
afternoon" is an ambient record. if you can't see the difference
between that and "slow dance music with real-world sound effects",
then you don't deserve to use the word.
i'm not angry, really. just interested in preserving our language.
Jon Drukman jdrukman%dlsun87@oracle.com
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This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence.