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