recommend me early-mid90's ambient records

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been listening to some of this lately and am hoping to pick up the following in the next few weeks...

klf - chill out
orb - uf orb
ultramarine - "every man and woman..."

what else would you recommend? something lush, dreamy, hypnotic blah blah ambient cliches rule etc.

thanking you in advance...

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Global Communication - 76 14
Space - Space (it was a KLF side project, I think)

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:22 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, michael wells is burning me that GC album. many thanks to he.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:24 (twenty-three years ago)

It's well worth tracking down the album Sea Biscuit by SpaceTime Continuum. Really lovely stuff.

― M Carty (mj_c), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:28 (twenty-three years ago)

SAWII, obv.

― Wintermute (Wintermute), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:29 (twenty-three years ago)

have. but thanks all the same. i may check out space time continuum...

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Biosphere 'Patashnik'
LFO 'Advance' (just for 'Shove Piggy Shove')

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:34 (twenty-three years ago)

i have substrata which is great, so i may check that out, thank u steve.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:35 (twenty-three years ago)

More votes for "Patashnik" and "76:14".

― Siegbran (eofor), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:36 (twenty-three years ago)

"shove piggy shove" - that's the one ber-jork added vox to and put out as a b-side innit? (it rules btw)

speaking of the bjorklady her mini-LP "the best mixes from the album debut for people who don't buy white labels" contains quality ambience from the likes of black dog, sabres of paradise, dunderworld etc

― j0e (j0e), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Sabres of Paradise, maybe?

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Woob 1194 - tongue-in-cheek tribal ambient, can you believe it?

― Wintermute (Wintermute), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:49 (twenty-three years ago)

black dog - spanners. not super ambient, but one of my fave 'electronia' albums

also, seefeel - succour (sp?)

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Monday, 31 March 2003 11:11 (twenty-three years ago)

"shove piggy shove" - that's the one ber-jork added vox to and put out as a b-side innit? (it rules btw)

GIMME!

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:25 (twenty-three years ago)

no-one's mentioned FSOL! 'Expander', 'Lifeforms' and 'ISDN' all recommended

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:27 (twenty-three years ago)

steve, it's probably a piece of piss to find on soulseek etc. it's called "I Go Humble" and was the b-side to ummmm Isobel

― j0e (j0e), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:30 (twenty-three years ago)

That bitch Abbie Mardell still has my copy of Lifeforms. I lent her it in 1995

― j0e (j0e), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Biosphere - Patashnik - great record, and even has the levis ad tune on it that hit the charts..

Ultramarine - Kingdoms - a bit more whimsicle than "every man and woman" and has robert wyatt on it, one of my favorite albums at the time

B12 - Electro Soma - most warp stuff around then was good..

Sun Electric - O'locco - Thomas feldhman..

― jk_______________90000000000000000000, Monday, 31 March 2003 12:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I love Ultramarine

― j0e (j0e), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:36 (twenty-three years ago)

i havn;t heard from them in while, is any of there more recent stuff worth finding?

― jk@gabba.net___, Monday, 31 March 2003 12:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I've not listened to these in ages, mind, but I used to really love Colourform by The Higher Intelligence Agency (Waveform 1993) and Manna's untitled debut (Apollo 1995)

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:41 (twenty-three years ago)

The electronic listening albums on Warp were very good, I'm mourning my copy of volume 1, it was very very good.

― chris (chris), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Everything that the Future Sound of London put out between '93 and '97 is excellent. Lifeforms, ISDN, Amorphous Androgynous, and Dead Cities.... bestest.

― maria b (maria b), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:51 (twenty-three years ago)

does anyone have the Carl Craig remix of Ultramarine's 'Hooter' btw? i've been after it for a long time

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I got it on a record somewhere.. its got a Drummie Zeb (of aswad) remix on it too thats pretty funny, like dub played on a 20£ casio keyboard.. I'll rip em if you cant find them on soulseek,,

― jk_______________90000000000000000000, Monday, 31 March 2003 12:55 (twenty-three years ago)

that would be 'mazin of you jk fanks!

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:58 (twenty-three years ago)

i am having real trouble with Soulseek at the moment - i keep trying to open all my folders for sharing but it can't handle it and always crashes on launch, even tho i only have about 7000 files to share overall anyway (seen users with a lot more than that on there)

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:59 (twenty-three years ago)

the track garbage by autechre is exceptional
the klf chill out is also really good
not quite ambient (in that there are beats) but everything i've heard by the third eye foundation has been brilliant...

― robin (robin), Monday, 31 March 2003 13:04 (twenty-three years ago)

you can't go wrong with any of the Rising High and R&S/Apollo titles from this period. Ten (sure, why not) especially good'uns, in order of personal preference...)

Io (MLO) - Original Soundtrack
James Bernard - Atmospherics
New London School of Electronics - The Deepest Cut
Moonwater - In Existence
Uzecht Plausch - More Beautiful Human Life
Wagon Christ - Phat Lab Nightmare
Sketch - Reasons to Sway
Tournesol - Kokotsu
Bedouin Ascent - Art & Science
Tanzmuzik - Sinsekai (the last two get fairly beat-y. maybe bypass the Tanzmuzik for their offshoot Akio/Okihide - Little Scratches - a wonderful CD on Sublime. a label whose early releases are every bit as canonical as those on RH/R&S)

April Records (DK) had a fine parallel line in ambience. the three DMD discs - My Left Side is Out of Sync, The Lions are Growing and Who's on Third - are especially sublime.

and a few others for your list:
Christian Høy Knudsen - Hav (unsung and oustanding)
Mark van Hoen - Playing with Time
Joey Beltram - AONOX
Aphelion - Zugzwang (early '00s. but evokes the 76:14 vibe dead-on)

aw, hell. just e- me, and i'll burn some cds.

― summerslastsound (summerslastsound), Monday, 31 March 2003 13:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Man, those were the days.....

Autechre - Amber
Tetsuo Inoue - Ambient Otaku, World Receiver
Atom Heart - Dots (good luck finding the actual CD)

here is a site very obsessed with this sort of thing:

http://www.sleepbot.com/ambience/artist.html

and some dark ambience from around then:

Coil - Black Light District, Worship the Glitch.
Lustmord - The Monstrous Soul

― fletrejet, Monday, 31 March 2003 13:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Labradford 'Prazision'. I relaise this is deviating a little from the general stuff being discovered but I have yet to hear anything from that rough era that better encapsulates my idea of 'ambient'.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Monday, 31 March 2003 14:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Not mentioned yet, and perhaps slightly outside the genre requested but worth a stroll down memory lane:

Skylab - #1
Two Lone Swordsman - The Fifth Mission (Return to the Flightpath Estate)

For an entirely different type of ambience, try Thomas Koener's Nunatak Gongamur, Teimo, Permafrost, and Aubrite.

― Lee G (Lee G), Monday, 31 March 2003 15:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Wagon Christ - Phat Lab Nightmare

This is the least early-90s-cliché-sounding album I can think of. And it's also incredibly immersing (immersive?).

― Etienne (Etienne), Monday, 31 March 2003 15:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I second Koner's Aubrite, but be warned its not the sort of melodic synthy stuff that's made up most of the other recommendations. A lot of it is pleasant(imo) rumbling with muted noise over the top and sometimes some very distant chords. Sometimes it sounds like being on a plane or maybe in a massive HVAC duct.

― Elliot (Elliot), Monday, 31 March 2003 19:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I am useless; I saw the thread title and went, "OOOH, _Chill Out_!"

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 31 March 2003 19:52 (twenty-three years ago)

kilian, you shall have the global communication cd, i promise! i have a new job and have been working 55 hrs a week (it tired me just typing that) but i will get it to you when i get the chance.

(btw. check the positiva ambient collection (seriously) and 'you' by air (not that air - pete namlook) on fax.

― michael wells (michael w.), Monday, 31 March 2003 19:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Moby had some good ambient tracks ("Mercy," "Mobility (Aqua Mix)," the better tracks on Ambient)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 31 March 2003 23:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Great picks, fletrejet. I'd also like to add the Atom Heart/Tetsuo project Datacide and their "Flowerhead" release.

― adam west (adamwest), Monday, 31 March 2003 23:22 (twenty-three years ago)

My vote goes for the TeleFunken / Flying Saucer Attack remix album.

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 01:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Baked Beans: "Bean Me Up Scotty"
*Though it was released on Sven Väth's label, this is great old school ambient with acoustic guitars and pianos. Other Baked Beans material is also good, especially "Desert Bean".

Single Cell Orchestra: "Dead Vent 7"
*There's a silly sci-fi background story running through this album, but otherwise it's very effective, menacing and paranoid as hell. Also, for an ambient record it's got some great beats.

Air Liquide: "Nephology"
*Another record exploring the more somber side of ambient. There are elements of techno here, but Nephology still has a definite ambient feel to it. Perhaps the best illbient/dark ambient record of that era.

About some of the other records mentioned here: unless you have a very broad definition of "ambient", I wouldn't call them that. Black Dog is electro, Higher Intelligence Agency is trance, and Ultramarine is... erm... ..."folk techno", perhaps? (Fine records, though.) My definition = if it makes you wanna dance, it's not ambient.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 08:36 (twenty-three years ago)

global communications "remotion" is very nice. also the feed your head comps (they are the things which actually, er, turned me on to this stuff). you can e-mail me too, glad to burn stuff.

stevem, i have that carl craig mix on ceedee!

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 09:32 (twenty-three years ago)

cheers gaz, i got it on my hd now thanks to jk

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 16:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I've heard great things about Irresistilbe Force's 'Flying High', but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. (I own 'It's Tomorrow Already' and like it much)

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 17:01 (twenty-three years ago)

'flying high' is on the positiva ambient collection i mentioned above.

― michael wells (michael w.), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 21:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I take it your referring to the song 'flying high' whereas I was referring to the album 'flying high'.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 21:27 (twenty-three years ago)

lie down and be counted.

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 08:20 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

are there any fans of time recordings on this board? i see woob's first album has been mentioned up there, but how about any of the other em:t CDs? there were a couple dozen of them. gas, woob, international people's gang... the comps were the best, however.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Saturday, 24 May 2003 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

carl stone's 'nyala' was on that label. probably his best record after 'mom's'. the hendrix/miles davis/eastern mix at the end is really beautiful.

― jl, Saturday, 24 May 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Apart from the ones mentioned, there's also Brian Eno's "The Shutov Assembly", from about 1993?

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Saturday, 24 May 2003 22:50 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, the carl stone CD is one of the couple i didn't get... the place i bought them wouldn't let you listen to them, and after getting a couple i didn't like (undark's CD was dissapointing) i hesistated, and then the label went bankrupt. poor mr. stone... if he'd had a cooler name i probably would have chanced it!

supposedly they've gotten things going again and there's a new compilation coming out this summer, em:t 0003.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Sunday, 25 May 2003 03:33 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Revive!

New em:t releases, finally! link

I see they've redone their webpage too.
Has anybody heard the new stuff?

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

The Grid - 'Flotation'
Love Corporation - 'Palatial II'

Both long tracks rather than albums. The latter is completely wonderful, I think. You may find it pretty hard to find. It may have popped up on a Creation compilation at some point, but don't confuse it with 'Palatial' (without the II) - which has a much more spiky electro backing and I don't like nearly as much.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 4 September 2004 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

New em:t releases

THERE'S a phrase I'd never think I'd hear again.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 4 September 2004 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I was gonna recommend Baked Beans and Air Liquide but apparently I already did, a year ago.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 4 September 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

What about the Underworld debut "Rez" in 1993. It never charted but everyone remembers the video......

― JTS, Saturday, 4 September 2004 23:04 (twenty-one years ago)

if you can find it, get the compilation Excursions In Ambience: The Third Dimension. it has Spacetime Continuum, Seefeel, Steve Fisk, Air, Spectrum, FSOL and the track #19 of Aphex Twin's SAW II (left off the American cd versions, for some stupid reason).

also Irresistible Force aka Mixmaster Morris did some good stuff back in the day.

― joseph pot (STINKOR™), Sunday, 5 September 2004 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Higher Intelligence Agency deserve a mention.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Sunday, 5 September 2004 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

SAWII track 19 = "Stone in Focus"? That's a really really great track.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 5 September 2004 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm with Joseph -- the "Excursions In Ambience" series kept getting better as it went along. I thought vol 4 was the best, with FSA, Node, Freezer, Far Out Son of Lung (aka FSOL) and lots more. Certainly the most ambient of the four (in the strictest sense of the word). Unlike the first two volumes, vols 3 and 4 have hardly any beats.

If you're into SAW II and haven't heard #19, then you really must ... it's EASILY better than anything on (the American) SAW II. It's sad and blissful, with little of the cold, uninviting feel from most of Aphex's other ambient work. It's closer to "Music For Airports" than the average SAW II track.

So nobody's heard the new em:t CD's?

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 5 September 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't remember 'Rez' being remotely ambient but maybe I am confusing it with something else.

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 5 September 2004 04:06 (twenty-one years ago)

SAWII track 19 = "Stone in Focus"? That's a really really great track.

-- Curt1sss (sevenxvii...), September 5th, 2004

you are correct, sir.

― joseph pot (STINKOR™), Sunday, 5 September 2004 04:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"Rez"/"Cowgirl" isn't ambient in the least.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 5 September 2004 04:16 (twenty-one years ago)

being - tides
mysteries of science (dominic woosey)
va - chillout or die 2
va - the spacefrogs vol.2
john beltran - earth and nightfall
va - singular emissions

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 5 September 2004 04:37 (twenty-one years ago)

also: the space'n'bass 12xcd box on dressed to kill (the first 4 discs - which previously came out as "amberdelic space" - is especially fine, compiling names like toop, scanner, the orb, loop guru, pentatonik, FSOL etc. The remaining discs dip too far into trancy ambient for my taste but at the bargain price collect enough gems to make it worthwhile)(i got mine for $20 aust!)

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 5 September 2004 05:06 (twenty-one years ago)

check the positiva ambient collection (seriously)

yeah this is really good. the rhthim is rhythim track ka-otic harmony is fucking astonishing.

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 5 September 2004 05:50 (twenty-one years ago)

o my: alter ego - decoding the hacker myth (harthouse)

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 5 September 2004 05:51 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a damn good record, but it's hardly ambient. Well worth listening though.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 5 September 2004 12:39 (twenty-one years ago)

The Alter Ego one, I mean.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 5 September 2004 12:39 (twenty-one years ago)

But anyway, I might just as well repeat my former recommendation: if you like the more paranoid sort of ambient, Air Liquide's early to mid-nineties stuff is great, and criminally overlooked too. "Nephology" is a good place to start, but almost anything by them is worth listening to. Their newer material is still good, but it's more like electro/techno instead of ambient.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 5 September 2004 13:02 (twenty-one years ago)

sixteen years pass...

Baked Beans (93), Bean Me Up, Scotty! (95) and Two Beans Or Not Two Beans (98) are all stellar recommendations. Silly titles but really good.

― mmmm, Saturday, 4 September 2021 20:22 (four years ago)

five months pass...

Bobby Bird released a new Higher Intelligence Agency album last Month: https://higherintelligenceagency.bandcamp.com/album/song-of-the-machine

― StanM, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 17:59 (four years ago)

I’ve never found an all ambient Air Liquid album. Which albums are ambient and don’t just include one or two beatless songs?

― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 18:58 (four years ago)

I don't think there are any?

― StanM, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 19:57 (four years ago)

anthony manning - chromium nebulae

― massaman gai (front tea for two), Wednesday, 16 February 2022 20:19 (four years ago)

^ very cool record

― brimstead, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 20:40 (four years ago)

one month passes...

Could some knowledgeable soul point me toward some more 'Woob 1194' style ambient records?

Exotic bird/jungle sounds, 90s drum loops, recording of a psychologist on Radio 4 talking about what makes a soul, etc

― Maresn3st, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 19:01 (three years ago)

That’s a great description and almost anything is going to fall short, but last time I listened to these two I remember them being in that wheelhouse

https://www.discogs.com/release/13810289-Trans-4M-Sublunar-Oracles

https://www.discogs.com/release/324208-Mappa-Mundi-Musaics

― I am using your worlds, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 19:19 (three years ago)

And substitute David Attenborough for a psychologist and this one ticks all boxes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4QOG3G4QLw

― I am using your worlds, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 19:23 (three years ago)

One of the Time Recordings' sister releases, Lucid Dreams 0096 comes very close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuQj1txL2Bs

― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Tuesday, 5 April 2022 20:10 (three years ago)

one year passes...

It's well worth tracking down the album Sea Biscuit by SpaceTime Continuum. Really lovely stuff.

Just discovered this, really good, though the album cover is horrendous. Very Global Communication adjacent, but has in parts something of the steam driven industrial flavour of amber/tri repetae.

― ledge, Monday, 5 June 2023 08:48 (two years ago)

The Anthony Manning album mentioned upthread, Chromium Nebulae, still sounds fantastic

― sawdust lagoon, Monday, 5 June 2023 09:21 (two years ago)

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