The ambient/IDM thread.

[Fitz]

Copped that Occams Laser bundle, thanks for the link.

[Knuckledragger]

25 years on, I just managed to figure out that SETI and S.E.T.I. are different artists.  As you were.

[Knuckledragger]

I've mentioned on my show a great many times that it's unwise to get into a bidding war with ambient collectors.  Demographically, they are the oldest, most well heeled, and the ones most interested in owning original physical media.  Today's example.  Mama mia.

[Knuckledragger]

Wow.  Groupees is at it again.  They've got more or less the entire catalog of The Flashbulb in a bundle.  $3 for a lot of it, $20 for all of it: https://groupees.com/vip18

[Knuckledragger]

https://blog.discogs.com/en/discover-10-of-the-best-ambient-albums/

Substata at #9.  🤦‍♂️

[Dusty Chalk]

And no Pete Namlook SMH 

[Knuckledragger]

Oh snap!  I just found out that a German ambient artist I like put his entire catalog on Bandcamp (in FLAC, of/c) ...much of it for free(!) https://phelios.bandcamp.com/

[Torpedo]

8 hours ago, Knuckledragger said:

Oh snap!  I just found out that a German ambient artist I like put his entire catalog on Bandcamp (in FLAC, of/c) ...much of it for free(!) https://phelios.bandcamp.com/

What album would you recommend to someone not into the genre and completely new to the artist?

[Knuckledragger]

It's not one of the free ones, but my personal favorite is Farcaster, particularly for Cluster Anomaly:

 

[Dusty Chalk]

On 4/30/2021 at 5:44 PM, Knuckledragger said:

Oh snap!  I just found out that a German ambient artist I like put his entire catalog on Bandcamp (in FLAC, of/c) ...much of it for free(!) https://phelios.bandcamp.com/

And I immediately got this in my email:

Quote

This sunday I will play a special edition of my home concerts where I will perform the whole album live from my studio. Please note that this one will be broadcasted from the synphaera youtube channel! I will play later than usual so that you guys from the States can catch it at a better time than early morning breakfast. You can bookmark the stream here:
youtu.be/9LBGsmekbGA

See you soon,
Martin

 

[Knuckledragger]

Oh, wow.  So anyone who has listened to my show has at some point heard me rant about Planet Dog records which was the record label arm of the infamous Megadog series of nightclub events.  There was a time in the mid 1990s when Megadog was the most happening thing in the UK, and the UK in the mid 90s was popping TF off.  Planet Dog helped launch the careers of Eat Static and Banco De Gaia, two artists that have been staples in both on my radio show and my personal listening for decades.  One of the lesser know Planet Dog acts is somewhat awkwardly titled Children of the Bong.  CotB put out one album, which is absolutely brilliant, completely of its time, and a decidedly lo-fi affair.  They also released a few singles, some compilation-only tracks, and then promptly disappeared.  

Well, apparently they're back.  The just re-released their album in digital format, though I am unsure if it's been remastered.  It has some bonus tracks, but AFAICT they are nothing newly available.  That is, the bonus songs were already on plenty of releases.  That said, I stumbled on to a really good blog piece about them.  They cover the thought process and studio work on the tracks from the album.  As someone who spends entirely too much time thinking about electronic music from the first half of the 1990s, this is absolute catnip for me.  Later this evening I'm going to put on my copy of the album (and by that, I mean load up FLACs in Foobar) and read along as I listen to it.

Bonus: check out the gear in the vintage photos of Banco's studio:

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Did you see that about the livestream of the new album tomorrow, @Knuckledragger?

[Knuckledragger]

On the CotB website?  I did not.

[Dusty Chalk]

No, Phelios/Martin Stuertzer, on Youtube.  It starts in 9 minutes:

 

[Knuckledragger]

I spy a synthcat.

[Knuckledragger]

Brian Eno Is Launching His Own Radio Station With 300 Unreleased Tracks.  Neat.

[Dusty Chalk]

I've been studying all week, so have eschewed my usual variety of musicks.  I somehow managed to accidentally create a Testtone-adjacent radio station in Tidal using just one track, but it literally played several tracks I recognized from Knucks' show including the opening track from last night.

I don't remember which track.  XD 

Tidal doesn't track which "track radio" stations I play, and yesterday I switched to the new Lustmord/Karin Park album, Alter (dambient), which worked just as well for studying, so it's not at the top of my Play Queue any more.

EDIT:  Potentially one of these:

Aim, "Cold Water Music"
Fila Brazillia, "Subtle Body"

[Dusty Chalk]

Knucks introduced me to my new favourite obsession last night: Border 50 by Master Margherita.  It's dubby, and downtempo, and super chill with an absolutely glacial pace.  I skimmed through the first track of a couple of other of his albums, and none of them are like this one, but the rest of the tracks on this one are of a similar ilk as the one track he played, so I will be adding this album to my studying playlist.

[Knuckledragger]

This is pretty fricken cool.

[Knuckledragger]

Live right now:

 

[mikeymad]

^^watched live.  Funny, I just found State Azure last week and subscribed. I came across them because of a Tangerine Dream cover. I have enjoyed the livestreams.

Edited September 9, 2021 by mikeymad
For Dusty

[Dusty Chalk]

4 minutes ago, mikeymad said:

^^watched live.  Funny, I just found Azure last week and subscribed. I came across them because of a Tangerine Dream cover. I have enjoyed the livestreams.

Actually, I believe it's State Azure.  Azure are great, too, but an entirely different genre -- modern prog.  (Definitely not of the Ambient/IDM variety -- very hard.) You should check them out, you might dig 'em.  Most recent album was released in June:
https://azureish.bandcamp.com/

[Knuckledragger]

Holy crap.  I have waxed poetic about the golden era of Eat Static many times, especially on my radio show.  The period from 1993-1995 when they had Steve Everitt working with them in the studio resulted in the best music they ever made.  'Static has been a Merv Pepler solo project for years now, and he occasionally strikes musical gold but it's never quite like the classic era.  I have just about all of Eat Static's material on CD and/or vinyl.  If I live long enough, I'll eventually get around to writing reviews of their better material.  One thing I have never bothered to get is the PAL-only VHS tape they released in 1994.   There was a time in the late 90s when I worked for an institution of higher learning where I had access to world format conversion decks (these things were insanely expensive, like $3500 in 1999 dollars) and could dupe tapes to my heart's content.  Of course at that point, Discogs did not exist, eBay was in its infancy and I had no way to get the tape.  It's now on YouTube in its entirety and ...it's okay.  The video effects are amusing, but very dated.  They're little more than fodder for a 1990s rave "acid wall" of TV sets.   Weirdly, there are a handful of exclusive track on that video tape that have never been released elsewhere.  This is odd as Eat Static have put out a number of anthologies over the years.  

I happened to look at Eat Static's social media for the first time in months, and discovered something amazing.  They're re-releasing Abduction and Implant both as 3CD sets.  They're ...expensive.  19GBP each + shipping form the UK (translates to "oww, my arse!")  

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/eat-static-abduction-3cd/

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/eat-static-implant-3cd/

Across the 4 bonus CDs on these pair of 3CD sets are just about all of the Everitt-era Eat Static, including the tracks from the Intrusion VHS (which, as I said, have never been released in another form.)  I have everything except the Intrusion stuff, though I have never seen the remixes from the Gulf Breeze EP released in a digital form before.  I have the original vinyl of course and FLACs of someone's needle drop that I got off slsk ages ago.  

The packaging on these sets is glorious.  It reminds me of riding my bike in 1994 or so, to the local Media Play record store which had a weirdly good electronic music section.  There I got Implant, Abduction and the US pressing of Epsylon with the bonus tracks from the Lost in Time EP.  I'm not entirely sure HOW, but I am going to get both of these re-releases.

Warning, copious porn below:

 

[Knuckledragger]

On the HC DC I snarked that meatspace conventions are buggy whips.  Someone said "Is that a Larry the Liquidator reference?" and I said "Yes, via this Norman Feller track from a decade ago:"

 

[Knuckledragger]

I've been listening to a lot of Steve Roach recently, particularly his 2003 album Life Sequence.  Steve is an insanely prolific artist and I will not live to get through his entire catalog.  Generally I prefer his late 90s/early 00s works.  I haven't kept up with what he's been doing for the last 15 years.  As I said, he cranks out the albums, his tracks tend to run long (it is ambient, after all) and it takes me time to digest long form music.  I keep coming back to this song in particular:

There is a live version from 2002 (before the album came out) on YT, but I find that version to be less clear and fully formed.  This studio version, OTOH, is quite a corker.