wanted: ambient/drone/transcendental rock

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I'm looking for bands that do with rock what Kraftwerk did with proto-electronica, Push/M.I.K.E./Plastic Boy with trance, Death In June with folk, Sort Vokter or Burzum with metal - long compositions, unobtrusive or no vocals, unchanging simple rhythms under a shifting melodic context, which achieve a drone-like, transcendental effect. Surely some rock bands exist who do this? What bands fit this description?

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Monday, 2 September 2002 09:32 (twenty-four years ago)

My Bloody Valentine, American Analog Set, Yo La Tengo in places, e.g. on May I Sing With Me or "Blue Line Swinger" on Electropura did similar things.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 2 September 2002 11:33 (twenty-four years ago)

Your description made me think of Th' Faith Healers track "Everything All At Once Forever," which, at 30-minutes plus, certainly meets the length requirement, and is indeed trancendental. Bit too noisy for ambient, though.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 2 September 2002 11:50 (twenty-four years ago)

Hawkwind? Sounds too simple. The Melvins put me there sometimes, too.

― matt riedl (veal), Monday, 2 September 2002 13:04 (twenty-four years ago)

sounds like what most people thinks circle sound like. i hate them, personally.

surface of eceon?

― your null fame (yournullfame), Monday, 2 September 2002 14:33 (twenty-four years ago)

early Cluster?

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 2 September 2002 14:48 (twenty-four years ago)

Just downloaded "Blue Line Swinger", and it's pretty cool. Reminds me a lot of Dinosaur Jr's earlier stuff, the vocals and some of the guitar melodies. The "drone aesthetic" is indeed there, lovely.

Th' Faith Healers [...] Bit too noisy for ambient, though.
Bring it on. If it's noisier than Sort Vokter, I've got to hear it regardless, hehehe...

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Monday, 2 September 2002 15:52 (twenty-four years ago)

Also, Acid Mother Temple's "In C" is mega drone-intensive, and with no vocals.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 2 September 2002 18:22 (twenty-four years ago)

Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun, maybe Seefeel as well.

― phil turnbull (philT), Monday, 2 September 2002 18:30 (twenty-four years ago)

windy and carl. and ditto to the acid mothers temple recommendation.
oh and good god please please listen to spacemen 3. vocals are pretty prevelent in a lot of their music, but they are GODS of drone rock.

― Justin, Monday, 2 September 2002 22:57 (twenty-four years ago)

BARK PSYCHOSIS

― Andy K (Andy K), Monday, 2 September 2002 22:58 (twenty-four years ago)

Tarentel, esp the "Looking for things, Searching for things" single (if you can call over half an hours' worth of music a single).

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 2 September 2002 22:59 (twenty-four years ago)

Earth - "ambient metal" band from Olympia Washington formed circa 1990.

I recommend their first 2 albums: Extra-Capular Extraction (1991) and Earth 2 (1993)... in total 6 songs over 110 minutes.

links:

― gygax!, Monday, 2 September 2002 23:54 (twenty-four years ago)

search also:

neu! - "hallo gallo"
faust - "krautrock"
stereolab - "jenny ondioline" (some vocals)
unrest - "hydroplane" (aka "hydro")
boredoms - super ae and vision creation newsun (second the earlier recommendation)
― gygax!, Tuesday, 3 September 2002 00:01 (twenty-four years ago)

hell, while we're at it... skullflower. "xaman" being the best place to start. for some reason i own mountains of stuff that could be the described style but i can't seem to think of any names.

i would say gravitar but they're on the outside edge of cracked-out noise rock/psych/drone, though they do generally follow a mantric groove and the vocals are subsumed as another layer of noise in the music. "freedom is just another word for never getting paid" or "you must first learn to draw the real" are good starting points, the latter approaching mellowness at times.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 00:43 (twenty-four years ago)

and since i'm running my goddamn mouth, ash ra tempel's self-titled first album if you haven't heard it.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 00:43 (twenty-four years ago)

Labradford - "A Stable Reference" on Kranky has a lot of good repetitive music, but the compositions are short. the vocals are not really meant to be listened to as much as heard.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 00:46 (twenty-four years ago)

I consider all of the following to be trance bands as much as neu!, Unrest, Yo La Tengo, Stereolab, and Seefeel:

Can
Public Image Ltd. (circa Second Edition)
James Brown (1968-1973)
The Velvet Underground
Fela
King Sunny Ade
Orchestra Baobab
Beat Happening
Macha
Low
D'Angelo
most of the rocksteady bands on "Duke Reid's Treasure Chest" (a collection of Treasure Isle label bands on Heartbeat)

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 3 September 2002 02:39 (twenty-four years ago)

Yume Bitsu (Adam from SoE's regular band).

― , Tuesday, 3 September 2002 05:47 (twenty-four years ago)

Of course I forgot Neu! The first album is great. The drumming on Hallogallo is trance pure. An endless beat.
And check Autechre's version of Weissensee on the Neu! tribute album. I wrote about it (and Neu!'s first album) recently in my blog.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 07:05 (twenty-four years ago)

I also agree with the Boredoms suggestions above--Both Super Ar and Vision Creation Newsun sound like what you're looking for. Also, be sure to check out Super Roots 7, which takes the Boredoms' sound in a more motorik beat-direction.

― Diego Hadis (dhadis), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 12:22 (twenty-four years ago)

Check on the Boredoms, though all of that has vocals (SR7 only at the beginning though). Actually, I figured you'd already heard that!

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 12:24 (twenty-four years ago)

Gygax is v. much OTM w/ his Earth picks - also maybe 'Hanging Gardens' by the Necks...

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 12:27 (twenty-four years ago)

Shalabi Effect - S/T

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 12:30 (twenty-four years ago)

Thanks - this was just the kind of information I was looking for. I need to do some (online) shopping and digging out fresh sections in the "used" bins. What puzzles me though: why is this kind of music so (relatively) obscure? Where's the demand for such (not too accessible, but certainly not anti-aesthetic) music?

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 14:38 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd say Experimental Audio Research here...the sensibilities of Spacemen 3 but with a more droney focus. I also wonder if Stars of the Lid might be a good fit.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Immediately purchase Spacemen 3's Dreamweapon. After that, snag the Harmony Of The Spheres comp that Drunken Fish released a couple of years back - 20+ minute compositions from Flying Saucer Attack, Roy Montgomery, Charalambides, Jessamine, etc. Also snag the Telefunken:Flying Saucer Attack remix album.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 06:25 (twenty-four years ago)

seven months pass...

Bardo Pond. Also, in addition to "In C" I would also recommend "La Novia" and "Troubadors From Another Heavenly World" by Acid Mothers Temple. Then there's Landing and Kinski. And let's not forget Flying Saucer Attack.

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 01:22 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

Seek ye also:

Troum
Maeror Tri

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Monday, 1 September 2003 23:39 (twenty-three years ago)

and MAIN if you can still get any of their stuff.

― jed_e_3 (jed_e_3), Monday, 1 September 2003 23:44 (twenty-three years ago)

the new skullflower record actually fits this pretty well. i'm not hearing the 'rock' in troum or maeror tri, tho.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 02:58 (twenty-three years ago)

nine years pass...

You know, The Janitors from Sweden, who I recently read about on the Aquarius site.

Pretty top-quality stuff in the Spacemen 3/Loop vein. They're on Spotify.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHNTvSMA-sI

― dlp9001, Wednesday, 7 August 2013 17:33 (thirteen years ago)

Thanks for posting that Janitors clip, just downloaded a couple of their EPs and it's great stuff. Wish I had gotten in on that reissue of their EPs that Cardinal Fuzz did.

― get in yr plastic FEMA coffin & stop asking questions (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, 11 August 2013 10:53 (thirteen years ago)

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