Best 1994 Ambient Album, round 1: FSOL - Lifeforms vs. Global Communication - 76:14

Of these 3, probably 76:14

But I'd pick SAW85-92 over all of them.

76:14 by a mile. Lifeforms felt bloated and overimportant to me, like they were trying too hard. 76:14 otoh stands outside time for me, even though I bought it on the day of release. I used the first track proper (the ticking clock one) as the soundtrack to my then infant son going for a morning sleep, and still makes him sleepy five years on.

The all-time best ambient album ever recorded was released in 1994, and it's 1194, by Woob.

More to the point, however... although Lifeforms is overlong, it's playful in a way most ambient albums aren't. But I still listen to 76:14 all the time, so I'll go with that.

Since 76:14 is getting most of the (deserved) love, I'll come to Lifeforms' defense... Agree with f.hazel. It's a pretty adventurous ambient album; it doesn't coast on a pretty melody or atmosphere, the way many ambient albums do. Which is both one of its strengths and weaknesses. I find 76:14 easier to listen to; Lifeforms requires a sharper attention to keep up with all the microscopic activity.

While some tracks work better than others (though the quality is pretty consistent), and there are plenty of 90s touchstones, I would argue that 76:14's synths sound more dated - both in terms of texture and composition. And while 76:14's compositions are beautifully crafted with just the right amount of discipline, to these ears, the techniques employed throughout Lifeforms - in which they build vast, ever-changing organic structures through the layering of samples - are nothing short of virtuoso.

Also, let's not forget that Lifeforms spawned - in addition to the beautiful Cascade EP - an equally stunning EP of the same name that follows the title track into a whole other set of soundscapes. Among other things, it features some jaw-dropping vocal improvisation from none other than Liz Fraser. It's a rich, deep listening experience that equals, and at times may surpass, the album itself.

I guess I should spend more time with Lifeforms. I like FSOL but they just seemed kind of, I don't know, silly. I guess that could be playful. Cascade and Lifeforms EPs are both on Spotify so I'll give them a chance.

I do not know Woob at all, but there are a couple of tracks on "ambient dub" comps on Spotify. (Which, again, like the Dub Qawwali yesterday could be a sign of something either very good or very very very bad indeed.)

the Global Communication album has some for-real moments. have never heard the FSOL album. will listen and report back.

While listening to the Cascade EP on Spotify, I accidentally tipped a Global Comms remix of Lamb into my play queue. Which I liked about 10x more than the FSOL tracks surrounding it, and just made me more convinced that my choice of GC was the correct one for me.

76:14, easy. Haven't heard Lifeforms in about 15 years though.

The Lifeforms EP has been toodling along a bit easier on my ears, but then OH HEY LOOK IT'S A GLOBAL COMMS REMIX OF THE GRID, like that doesn't have my name all over it and I started listening to that instead.

I like FSOL but for all their futurism, they sound so dated and just to listen to it reminds me instantly of the smell of that bit of Camden Market where the Cyberdog stall was (yes I know they were from Manchester, not London but I was never in Manchester during the 90s so that sound says Camden to me.) Which is fine, because I have a real nostalgic love for the early 90s. But Global Communication do that trick that I want ~ambient~ music to do, which is take me out of time entirely.

And sounding dated isn't always a bad thing - because SAW85-92 sounds more dated than SAW2 but still I love the former more than the latter.

Or maybe I'm just prejudiced against ambient artists that aren't Cornish, I don't know.

Ha ha. OTM. FSOL were very into fractals and conspiracy theories and other early 90s cosmic rave business, whereas Global communications recorded that album in the middle of the countryside with a view of cows. It wasn't about imposing imagery and ideas on the listener at all.

Did you hear FSOL's follow-up, Dead Cities? Incredibly pompous and dreary.

But I do love fractals and conspiracy theories and early 90s cosmic rave business. So I can't complain!

I have bits and pieces of FSOL, but I'm not sure I've heard Dead Cities. They're great fun when they're being all "whee! rave! wibble! let's fry the cosmic egg! here's a Dead Can Dance sample to mess up your ~MYNDE~!!!!" but when they try to be serious and Make Statements they can be v v tedious indeed.

Dead Cities is that point in the night where the stoned wibbling is replaced by earnest discussion of MKULTRA and the number 23.

23 obsessives are mere amateurs who've read Illuminatus too many times*. The true acid-damaged numerical wibbler knows it's all about 22 and starts muttering darkly about sephirot.

*And the KLF were better at that sort of thing anyway.

God, this brings it back. Too many earnest late night conversations on this new-fangled thing called ~the internet~ with boys who made me Loop Guru mixtapes and talked about Freemasonry and the secret meaning of Babylon5. Oh god, the mid 90s, did they really happen.

(I know from experience I'll be laughed off ILM if I even try to talk about Loop Guru records. But they seemed a lot more playful to me than FSOL did, really.)

ISDN is a good rec

...ord, though.

Yeah, ISDN is fun, with it's none-more-90s-tech title.

I forgot Dead Cities' saving grace - We Have Explosive. (Sorry, this isn't ambient at all is it?)

Probably its advantage is how devoid of concept it sounds.

ISDN is on Spotify so I guess I'll give that a chance. But right now I'm far more excited at having found Duniya on Spotify and all the memories that is bringing back.

The all-time best ambient album ever recorded was released in 1994, and it's 1194, by Woob.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, July 26, 2012 2:29 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. I played Woob and 76:14 constantly back then. Lifeforms is all right, but they were trying too hard to make a masterpiece and the concept overwhelmed the actual music. You could say the same about SAW II, although the execution is definitely better.

Write-in vote for Oval - Systemisch

Whoa, this is eerie: I pulled these two albums out recently. However, I only played Lifeforms once and have been listening to 76:14 every night so Global Communication it is.

76:14 used to be my going-to-bed-on-a-comedown music. Perfect apart from the ticking clock, which used to freak out my wife.

I think everyone has used the ticking clock for remedial purposes of some sort.

azarea OTM upthread. FSOL's saving grace is the sheer depth and quality of the sound (GC more timid in comparison, but they obv did heavier stuff as other names). Shame the New Age Cyberdolphin synonyms carry such clout. Not like they were Deep Forest etc - but every bit as skilled as Aphex and The Orb imo.

Still love that 'My Kingdom' off Dead Cities charted so highly given how meandering it is. Like they made it and thought 'yeah, THIS is the single...' - not that it's that weird but not surprised people thought it dull (tho it wasn't for ploddy ambience in general).

Dead Cities is that point in the night where the stoned wibbling is replaced by earnest discussion of MKULTRA and the number 23.

Maybe more applicable to The Orb's 'Orblivion' but that's still a fun record in parts (would concede FSOL didn't really do fun).

I sometimes find some of the Sci-Fi references, samples, etc. as cheesy and wince-worthy as any kind of Deep Forest type affectations.

I guess that there are both Aphex and Global Comms side projects that have them, but another thing that makes their landmark classics more classic is that they left them out.

been listening to 76:14 a lot lately, it's wonderful

biosphere 'substrata' >>>>>>>>> both of these

couple yrs later tho ;)

I do not know Woob at all, but there are a couple of tracks on "ambient dub" comps on Spotify. (Which, again, like the Dub Qawwali yesterday could be a sign of something either very good or very very very bad indeed.)

They have some interesting one-off tracks and remixes (Journeyman's Latneiro Woobs Sunrise Dub, for example), but the 1194 album is his undisputed masterpiece.

Dead Cities is that point in the night where the stoned wibbling is replaced by earnest discussion of MKULTRA and the number 23.

100x this. And it happened with a lot of 90s ambient artists' second or third albums, to my dismay.

But I will rep for Lifeforms some more. In addition to being playful, it also very much has the feeling of happening in a city, or some place full of people, and that makes it delightful to me... I get this same thrill from the KLF's Chill Out. Although like WCC, I usually want my ambient albums to knock me out of time and space, or take me to some natural landscape bereft of people... but Lifeforms doesn't do that and still works.

biosphere 'substrata' >>>>>>>>> both of these

Patashnik came out in '94, never heard that one though. Any good?

Was listening to this as much as anything else in 1994:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kJR_iicFxOY/SwGf4r_qLsI/AAAAAAAAD6Q/3Bs4RCPNxIs/s400/a1.jpeg

CD 1

KK Null & Jim Plotkin: "Lost (Held Under)"
Jim O'Rourke: "Flat Without A Back"
Ice: "The Dredger"
Raoul Björkenheim: "Strangers"
Zoviet France: "Daisy Gun"
Labradford: "Air Lubricated Free Axis Trainer"
Techno Animal: "Self Strangulation"
Paul Schütze: "Hallucinations (In Memory Of Reinaldo Arenas)"
Scorn: "Silver Rain Fell (Deep Water Mix)"
Disco Inferno: "Lost In Fog"
Total: "Six"
Nijiumu: "Once Again I Cast Myself Into The Flames Of Atonement"

CD 2

Aphex Twin: "Aphex Airlines"
AMM: "Vandoevre"
Seefeel: "Lief"
.O.rang: "Little Sister"
E.A.R.: "Hydroponic"
Sufi: "Desert Flower"
David Toop & Max Eastley: "Burial Rites (Phosphorescent Mix)"
Main: "Crater Scar (Adrenochrome)"
Final: "Hide"
Lull: "Thoughts"
Thomas Köner: "Kanon (Part One: Brohuk)"

None of your cyber-hippy wibbling for me.

I guess I will listen again to Lifeforms tonight now that I'm home and have access to it.

biosphere 'substrata' >>>>>>>>> both of these

OK, there are moments of Lifeforms that I do really love. "Among Myselves" is cheesy but still somehow amazing.

I've been listening to both, and both are really really good, but this track might decide it for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg9PDJh1OCc

76:14 one of my favourite 2 or 3 albums ever so that. bola's soup nearly as good too. remember pete namlook's air you album being really great around the same time but haven't listened in years. must rectify that.

Anyone else want to rep for that compilation NickB mentioned? I've been curious about it twice now.

Soup is great but never thought of it as ambient

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

It looks like this isn't even going to be close. So I'll make round 2 the final round and just include several 1994 albums all together and see how they fair.

In addition to the two albums polled here, these two have been mentioned:

Woob - Woob 1194
Oval - Systemisch

A few more that will be included:

Autechre - Amber
Tetsu Inoue - Ambiant Otaku
Lustmord - The Place Where the Black Stars Hang
Pete Namlook/Tetsu Inoue - 2350 Broadway II

Any other nominations?

Patashnik

Sun Electric - Aaah!
Tournesol - Kokotsu
Fires of Ork was 1994?

such a good year, so many people acting as if ambient had just been invented

I'm not sure if Hoedh - Hymnvs (best ambient record you never heard) and the Dreamfish album were 1994?

Also:
Namlook - Air
Main - Firmament II
Banco De Gaia - Maya

If we're including darkwave:
Abruptum - In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebrarum
Aghast - Hexerei Im Zweilicht Des Finsternis

I'm sorry, that seems like kind of a misguided idea? Aren't you supposed to include all the obscure albums most people haven't heard in the first round, and then have the face-off between the canonical giants that everyone knows? Rather than the other way around? Seems pointless complication and vote-splitting.

(But then again, I really think you should have made it a one-round between all three, so YMMV.)

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/92e64f494c334bd8ad2028ca227b381a/696633.jpg

1995 i think

http://musicwithsubstance.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/coodiii.jpg

overall i don't think much fsol has held up well but there are beautiful moments on all of their albums

anyway

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa415/dat4291/bjn23/1324730853_9d5a03c467f1df5b3add053ddcd4eb8d.jpg

how about children of the bong, that was better than 76:14 too - http: // www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnvrrcTKVS4

i'm just kidding i don't even know why they called that shit ambient

but i do like throbbing pouch more than 76:14 and plan to put my kids to sleep to it

can we do a "worst album cover ever created in five minutes from photoshop filters" poll

Cheesecake, you're absolutely right. Apologies, this was my first attempt at a poll, and didn't really think it through. I forgot how much quality stuff that can be called 'ambient' was being made in 1994 (let alone, the 90s in general).

Do you have any suggestions for wrapping this up properly, now that I've reversed the order?

I would suggest that your original intention was best. If it's a landslide, put the winner up against the third album. If it's pretty even, let the three albums fight it out.

You could still use this thread to take suggestions for lesser heard/more obscure 1994 ambient albums, and do a second poll that excludes the heavy hitters and encourages people to try and compare the lesser known material? I think that would be a better way of exploring the lesser known stuff while still letting the heavy hitters go up against one another? Maybe? Though I'd probably put Autechre's Amber in the heavy-hitters (though I don't really think of that album as ambient, certainly not as much as the other 3.)

Thanks. I'll try that. And I'll leave Amber out of both polls (doesn't really fit).

Amber is definitely ambient! Or at least as ambient as Lifeforms or Patashnik.

(thought the Banco de Gaia, Namlook Air I/II and Sun Electric records were pretty canonical as well. Maybe not as much in UK circles I guess?)

atom heart ... live in berlin 2.7.94, live in barcelona 2.6.94, ri030

Neither of the first 2 The Black Dog albums are from 94, right?

they were working w/ mark broom that year on minimal techno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7XjvbCp3o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycKH1u9hs3o&feature=related

i guess that's more of a drifty detroit kind of thing

flugel w blackdog getting into rising high territory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqhO-PboQOM

flugel also cutting his teeth that year on a jam and spoon product

tripomatic fairytales is 93 ;_;

this will probably surprise no-one but I completely love Dead Cities

y?

that paranoid vibe just works for me so well

I like my kingdom more than anything else by them except maybe some of isdn and some of accelerator

I like this comp from '94:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Ambient-Senses-The-Vision/release/42849

30.7.94 Live by Sun Electic is also really nice.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Well, yes, that was rather a landslide. Not unexpected, though.

I feel somewhat sorry for FSOL - Lifeforms is so unfashionable, which makes me like it more.

Oh come on, it's not that it's *unfashionable* - it's just so heavily a fashion from another time. That they were doing that thing where they were trying so hard to be really futuristic that they ended up completely dated.

It's not like anyone feels sorry for Banco de Gaia or Loop Guru or other things that were ~fashionable~ in the early to mid 90s.

it's not that it's *unfashionable* - it's just so heavily a fashion from another time.

I think the latter almost always precipitates the former.

Think I'll put on this Red Red Groovy album.

after years of regret, today i bought the 76:14 reissue.
(i.e. it was available in a cheap bin having missed out on it upon release)
now i understand the love that DL expresses in this thread and in the sleevenotes.

https://medium.com/12edit/global-communication-76-14-story-behind-the-album-b1fe01658bd8