Essay about "25 Most Influential Ambient Albums"? ; Any opinions/counterarguments?

One of Eno's Ambient series albums should have been pulled and Pygmalion by Slowdive should have been added.

Dreamtime Returns should have been removed as welll because that album marks the rise of when ambient aquired crappy new age ethnic stylee.

LABRADFORD, BITCH!!!!

This list strikes me as the kind of ambient that crappy new age post-hippies with pony-tails from California would compile. You have to be a real piece of crap to rate Phaedra and Tubular Bells.

I would also mention that there should be mention of Future Sound Of London. I am not there biggest fan, but they definitely had their place in 90's ambient. Also, The Virgin Ambient series should be mentioned along with other early 90's ambient comps like Excursions into Ambient and File Under Ambient. Labels to look out for are: Rather Interesting, Apollo, Reflective, GPR, Silent, and Barooni.

Whatever hatred is thrown at new age music in general I think completely blurrs out some interesting music that Steve Roach and Robert Rich have made. Part of the problem is that both of these guys have released a bunches of records and their sound has changed over time.

I haven't heard everything by either artist, but the records I have by both are quite good and at least to me, more interesting in some of those deconstructionist refrigerator hum records.

Robert Rich's "Bestiary" has some very tweaked out and strange modular synths sounds that are at least the equivalent of some of the microsound people. He also has made a great dark ambient record with Lustmord called "Stalker".

Most of the Steve Roach albums I have are from the last few years. I like his record "Early Man" probably the best. It has these very twisted synths rolled up with this percussion that sounds like something out of the beginning of 2001. The album "Magnificient Void" is a very cold, slow dirge album that is in its own way not dissimilar to some tracks by Main. I also like the one collaboaration album by Rich/Roach that I have called "Strata".

Another ambient artist I like whose records seem to have all gone out of print is Paul Schutze. His records "New Maps of Hell 1&2", "Site Anubis", "Deus Ex Machina" and "The Surgery of Touch" are all good listens.

The New Maps of Hell and Phantom City records are heavily influenced by Miles Davis and are edits based upon guided improvs of a group that was led by Bill Laswell. (Mind you, I like these three much more than any of Laswell's ambient records.)

Biosphere became much better when he quit making techno. I really like Substrata and Cirque, but don't care much for the new one.

Then again...I like Phaedra.

Oval is over rated. "Do While" is cool, but isn't it just a track off of SAW II that has been mangled? None of his other records I thought were that great.

Phaedra is amazing.

I just discovered Cluster and I really like them...

I saw Cluster live. It was was like watching people playing chess. Every once in awhile one would lean over and turn a knob or make a change to the sequencer. It sounded nice.

not anywhere near stoned enough to live up to my promise to talk about roedelius for too long, but his first solo, 'durch die wuste' is the place to start (produced by conny plank). his second 'jardin au fou' is twee beyond belief but in a rather strange way and I love that record to bits; all pastoral cosmic. 'selbstportrait' volumes II & III are beautiful, nothing but the melodies of cluster reduced to blurry sinewave chords & rhythms. (volumes I and VI are also good). I have everything he released on sky, some albums are lazier than others, but something like 'offnen turen' is so primitive as to be baffling, even fuzzier & weirder than cluster's (wonderful) 'curiosum', i like it. later records get a bit too carefree, but if you get addicted and find cheap copies and the back cover doesn't mention saxophones, why not. 'der ohren spiegel' and 'sinfronia contempora no.1' are ok. haven't heard anything since 1998.

cluster, btw, I can't live without everything from 71-81, straight through. a great example of a band that drastically overhauled their style and sound with each new album, yet you could always tell it was them... but that should all go on a cluster thread.

Indeed, it's the best thing he (Roedelius, that is) ever did outside of Cluster - the "Selbstportrait" series in contrast is really throwaway, slapdash stuff for the most part.