Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy [320][MP3]

Come to Daddy
Label: Warp Records
Format: CD
Country: UK
Released: Oct 1997
Genre: Electronic
Style: IDM, Abstract, Ambient

It was the titular song that gave me the early impression Aphex Twin was a seriously disturbed individual (no doubt perpetuated by the accompanying music video). Delving further into the CD however will reveal some audio delights. I was expecting more tracks in a similar vein to the first, however, to my surprise the song that immediately follows the single is the complete opposite in terms of style! Slower, softer and more melodic. At only four songs it's still a great sample of Aphex Twin's musical flexibility.

Review by Nepthys [http://www.discogs.com/user/Nepthys]

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Ólafur Arnalds – ...And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness [MP3][320]

...And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness
Label: Erased Tapes Records
Format: Vinyl, Album
Country: UK (CD) & Iceland (Author)
Released: 2010
Genre: Classical
Style: Classical, Electronic, Neo-classical







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As I sit down to write these words I can't help but wonder if there was a time lapse in my memory - haven't I covered this before? I could have sworn I shared my excitement for this album in the past - after all, I hungrily consume everything by Ólafur Arnalds since his 2007 debut on Erased Tapes, Eulogy For Evolution. Well, if I haven't shared my enthusiasm for this release, I apologize... Profusely... Incredibly lovely, sad and beautiful, music from Arnalds will melt the toughest hearts. If melancholy could be wrapped in sadness drenched in longing, then Arnalds captures it all. This is precisely when words loose their meaning, and the music sings... ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness is a second full-length album from this prolific Icelandic modern classical composer. In places uplifting, and always gorgeous, the contemplative passages escaping Arnalds' fingers on the piano, and the crying stringed instruments, leave the listener reflecting on all that is present in this moment, even if its veiled by the past. You absolutely have to pick up Arnalds' masterpiece, Variations of Static, (Erased Tapes, 2008), as well as his 2009 EP on the same label, Found Songs. It is also worth mentioning that Ólafur's 2009 album, Dyad 1909 was selected in Headphone Commute's Best of 2009 : Music For The Film behind Closed Eyelids.

Review by Headphone_Commute [http://www.discogs.com/user/Headphone_Commute/]

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Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92 [MP3][320]

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 

Label: Apollo

Format: CD

Country: Belgium

Released: Nov 1992

Genre: Electronic

Style: Techno, IDM, Ambient, Experimental

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Stop me if this gets sappy. And it might. Because Selected Ambient Works 85-92-- recently reissued by PIAS America-- was the very first electronic music I ever bought, and certainly the first I ever heard over and over again. Long ago, before I was old enough to drive, I would sit in a small, cluttered bedroom in my parents' suburban ranch house, absorbed for hours by the sounds contained on this disc. The creeping basslines, the constantly mutating drum patterns, the synth tones which moved with all the grace and fluidity of a professional dancer, the strange noises that I'd be unable to identify even if I tried. Back then, Aphex Twin was making music like nothing I'd ever heard before.

What's become apparent since is that I probably wasn't the only one affected. After last year's disappointing Drukqs, it's easy to forget that, back in the Warp Records heyday, Richard D. James was to this new breed of ambient and electronic music what Babe Ruth was to baseball. Sure, there were upstarts; \xB5-Ziq, Squarepusher and Autechre were all on the scene by the time this collection hit shelves. But James was still the posterboy, the presumed ringmaster, single-handedly defining a style of music in the minds of many. Now, as a new wave of mostly twenty-somethings step to the forefront of IDM, redefining electronic music for the third time in a decade, it becomes more and more obvious just how far reaching James' influence was.

There's nothing new about this re-release, aside from improved availability and decreased cost. But then, improving on this package would be near impossible. Sure, the music on Selected Ambient Works 85-92 may sound a bit dated (as does, to be fair, most electronic music more than a few years old), but there's no denying it was the defining statement of Warp's early years, and the foundation for the careers of bands like Boards of Canada and Plaid.

The songs here are not ambient in the same way as those on this disc's sequel. Technically, most fall into Brian Eno's broad definition of the style-- it can be appreciated in small segments just as much as in its entirety. The music develops slowly, unafraid to linger on a particularly effective sound for as long as necessary-- the creeping keyboard loop of "Schottkey 7th Path," for example, is continually modified throughout the course of the song, but never once eliminated from the mix-- but James would never be content as a mere follower in anyone's footsteps. His work here serves a model for what would come to be known as traditional IDM. A simpler version of the style we've grown accustomed to, certainly, but IDM nonetheless.

James' early work is heavily indebted to early dance music, filled with beats so eminently danceable as to confuse those who only know him from the spastic drum patterns that came later. There's little of that here, though. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is, rather, an album stretching back to the days before software allowed for heavy sampling or glitch technology. Drum machines serve as its backbone and synthesized bass and keyboard sounds provide the meat. Most of the songs follow a relatively basic formula as well. One element-- say, a synth melody-- is introduced and repeated, and as new elements are added with each go round, the song gradually builds to a dense, multi-layered swirl. This Ravel-esque approach flavors much of James' older material, and yet, despite the simplicity of his equipment and approach, the songs here are both interesting and varied, ranging from the dancefloor-friendly beats of "Pulsewidth" to the industrial clanks and whirs of "Green Calx."

Indeed, these early works do a fine job of showcasing James' ability to transform even the most seemingly mundane patterns into something unique and interesting. "Hedphelym," for instance, is built around a relentless headache-throb cliché of a house beat. But James surrounds the pulsation with an ethereal feedback that bleeds all over the track, leaving the percussion awash in a murky solution of synth tones, pairing dance music with ambience in ways the Orb never dreamed possible.

Slightly more structured (and equally enjoyable) is "We are the Music Makers," a track which follows a drumbeat and a bassline past a pair of intertwined synth loops and a repeated Willy Wonka vocal sample as simple keyboard melodies pour down from overhead. But the aforementioned "Green Calx" is the closest Selected Ambient Works 85-92 comes to the spastic trickery of which James would become such a pioneer. It matches pitchshifted tones and drum machines with a burbling bassline, assorted machine-gun synth interjections, the slightly effected tones of various pistons, motors, and machines, and even the occasional cartoon spring noise. Moments like these serve to foreshadow both James' later work, as well as the infinitely more complex twists and turns that IDM would make in the years that would follow.

They say next to no one heard the Velvet Underground's first album when it was released, but everyone who did went on to start a band. Listening to Selected Ambient Works 85-92, one can't help but imagine the seeds being planted in the imaginations of the lucky few who were there when it all began. Nestled in these simple, undeniably danceable tracks are the roots of contemporary IDM. And despite its somewhat primitive origins, the final product remains among the most interesting ever created with a keyboard and a computer.

Review by Pitchfork [http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/223-selected-ambient-works-85-92/]

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Biosphere - Substrata [320][MP3]

Substrata 

Label: All Saints

Format: CD, Album

Country: UK

Released: 1997

Genre: Electronic

Style: Ambient, Field Recording

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It rapidly turned into my favorite ambient music album, ever. I'm sad I didn't find this before. It's genius how this guy could transfer the ice, mountain and wind into music. Listen to it in your way back home and a simple walk will transform the place around you into a incredible, nature-driven scenery. A must have for all Ambient fans!

Ripped from pure FLAC.

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This small description will fit it. Everything I'd say about this album wont be enough to describe how genius it is. This album is responsible for the coined term "Ambient music". Nice, isn't it?

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Substrata by Biosphere is one of the all-time classic ambient albums, if not THE all-time classic album. Chilling atmospheric tones with ambient samples of ice, snow, forests, Twin Peaks-samples and Russian radio broadcasts… Substrata is difficult to describe in words alone. This is one album that every ambient fan needs to hear, if not own. For my own part the album is never far from my stereo. From the initial drone of an aircraft high overhead to the rambling monologues of later tracks every minute sends a chill down your spine. 

Biosphere’s work is often described as “dark ambient” but to me this sounds to negative as every piece of music Geir Jenssen composed expresses so much different feelings and his albums are not simply a couple of “drones” thrown together. Neither is Substrata 

Substrata is inhabited by the vast spaces spreading across the artic region, endless nights and midnight sun, sub-zero temperatures and northern lights.

Review by Moanerman [http://www.discogs.com/user/Moanerman]

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Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music for Airports [MP3][320]

Ambient 1: Music for Airports 

Label: Polydor

Format: Vinyl, LP

Country: US

Released: March 1978

Genre: Electronic

Style: Ambient, Experimental

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This small description won't fit it. Everything I'd say about this album wont be enough to describe how genius it is. This album is responsible for the coined term "Ambient music". Nice, isn't it?

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From Wikipedia

Music for Airports was the first of four albums released in Eno's "Ambient" series, a term which he coined to differentiate his minimalistic approach to the album's material and "the products of the various purveyors of canned music".

Notice of similarly quiet, unobtrusive music had been given on albums such as Another Green World, Evening Star, Discreet Music, Music for Films and Harold Budd's The Pavilion of Dreams (which he produced), but in this album it was given precedence as a full-blown concept.

The music was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent to diffuse the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. Eno conceived this idea while being stuck at Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany in the mid-1970s. He had to spend several hours there and was extremely annoyed by the uninspired sound atmosphere.

It was installed at the Marine Air Terminal of New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

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Dolphins Into The Future – Canto Arquipélago [MP3][320]

Canto Arquipélago 

Label: Underwater Peoples Records

Format: Vinyl, LP

Country: US

Released: March 2012

Genre: Electronic, Non-Music

Style: Abstract, Field Recording, Experimental, Poetry

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This sound will take you out your bedroom for a small trip around windy mounts. I promise you.

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"There is something phenomenally enticing about a sequestered island chain, literally bounded by a vast and enveloping sea.Perhaps it’s the romance of discovery – the knowledge that here lies the safety of land within the great seclusion of nature. Perhaps it’s the raw beauty that is simply emerald speckled turquoise.Lieven Moana as Dolphins Into The Future dedicates his latest effort to the Azores, a remarkably beautiful volcanic archipelago that lacks very little by way of inspiration. The ambient conjurer weaves glorious tones and minimal percussion with brilliant and evocative field recording, having spent several weeks on the island cluster for this body of work. "Once an island gets born," Lieven articulates, "it’s a continuous struggle, a continuous dialogue, a learning, a BATTLE and cooperation of influences. The sea starts bashing on it’s shores. Erosion starts the complete demolition of the island. But at the same time, sun and sea give birth and food... Archipelagos have a heavy rhythm."

Quoted from http://underwaterpeoples.com/

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Grouper - A I A : Alien Observer [MP3][320]

A I A : Alien Observer

Label: Yellow Records

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album

Country: US

Released: April 2011

Genre: Rock

Style: Experimental, Drone, Ambient

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The tools Liz Harris uses to make music as Grouper tend to be pretty basic: piano, guitar, synths, drones, hiss, and lots of reverb. If you've been following along with the twists and turns of noisy ambient music these last few years, this collection of elements may sound familiar, possibly bordering on cliché. But it's all in how you fit the pieces together. Despite sharing characteristics with a lot of other current music, Harris' has a distinctive sound that she pretty much owns. These short LPs, released at the same time and that share an overall aesthetic, sound beamed in from another realm, and they also sound like they could have come from no one else.

Part of the distinctiveness can be traced to Harris' voice, which floats above the music and can sound delicate and shrouded and mist and can also evince an approachable earthiness. Particularly on Alien Observer, she layers her voice in a way that occasionally brings to mind Julianna Barwick, but Harris sounds comparatively distant and less immersive. Her voice haunts these songs instead of leading them; it's a presence and not a personality, and the voice and instruments are in balance, serving each other without any one element becoming more prominent.

The other aspect that sets Grouper apart is an approach to sound that feels somehow both cruder and more sophisticated than the majority of the lo-fi crop. It's crude in the sense that it seems to hearken back to the dark, home-recorded songs of an earlier era. David Pearce's music as Flying Saucer Attack, recorded mostly during the 1990s, was often referred to as "rural psychedelia," and that description would fit this pair of records. This music feels both spacey and expansive and also oddly intimate and grounded, the work of someone who has mastered her tools and knows how to get the most out of them. The sophistication comes from the care in presentation. This music doesn't sound like it was built from mistakes or thrown together, it seems precisely ordered and arranged even while it's often muffled and warbly and distorted. Every sound exists for a reason.

Full review and more please follow this link [http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15332-a-i-a-alien-observer-a-i-a-dream-loss/].

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Grouper - A I A : Dream Loss [MP3][320]

A I A : Dream Loss

Label: Yellow Records

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album

Country: US

Released: 2011

Genre: Rock

Style: Experimental, Drone, Ambient

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The tools Liz Harris uses to make music as Grouper tend to be pretty basic: piano, guitar, synths, drones, hiss, and lots of reverb. If you've been following along with the twists and turns of noisy ambient music these last few years, this collection of elements may sound familiar, possibly bordering on cliché. But it's all in how you fit the pieces together. Despite sharing characteristics with a lot of other current music, Harris' has a distinctive sound that she pretty much owns. These short LPs, released at the same time and that share an overall aesthetic, sound beamed in from another realm, and they also sound like they could have come from no one else.

Part of the distinctiveness can be traced to Harris' voice, which floats above the music and can sound delicate and shrouded and mist and can also evince an approachable earthiness. Particularly on Alien Observer, she layers her voice in a way that occasionally brings to mind Julianna Barwick, but Harris sounds comparatively distant and less immersive. Her voice haunts these songs instead of leading them; it's a presence and not a personality, and the voice and instruments are in balance, serving each other without any one element becoming more prominent.

The other aspect that sets Grouper apart is an approach to sound that feels somehow both cruder and more sophisticated than the majority of the lo-fi crop. It's crude in the sense that it seems to hearken back to the dark, home-recorded songs of an earlier era. David Pearce's music as Flying Saucer Attack, recorded mostly during the 1990s, was often referred to as "rural psychedelia," and that description would fit this pair of records. This music feels both spacey and expansive and also oddly intimate and grounded, the work of someone who has mastered her tools and knows how to get the most out of them. The sophistication comes from the care in presentation. This music doesn't sound like it was built from mistakes or thrown together, it seems precisely ordered and arranged even while it's often muffled and warbly and distorted. Every sound exists for a reason.

Full review and more please follow this link [http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15332-a-i-a-alien-observer-a-i-a-dream-loss/].

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Jürgen Müller - Science Of The Sea [MP3][320]

Science Of The Sea

Label: Digitalis Recordings

Format: Vinyl, LP

Country: US

Released: 1982 (Remastered 2011)

Genre: Electronic

Style: New Age, Experimental, Ambient

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Let me have a try to change your day. Download this album, close your eye, put in the first track and let it go. Forget your bad feelings, your pending to-dos, your worries, and let it all go. Let the ocean take it. Let the wind blow you away today, open your window and see how wonderful the world is. Look at it carefully.

Maybe this will change your day.

Ripped from pure FLAC into MP3 320kbps.

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In 1979, Jürgen Müller, a self-taught amateur musician studying oceanic science at the University of Kiel, travelled with a film crew to document a mission testing sea-water toxicity a few kilometres offshore in the North Sea. As ever, necessity was the mother of invention, and the experience proved so memorable that he was impelled to create a soundtrack to the footage and his own recollections using some electronic equipment borrowed from friends and a local school.

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A wonderful album full of fragile beauty and a delicate sense of melancholy and longing. Liz Harris has a rare talent for evoking these emotions in the most vaporous, subtle way, without ever gliding into dull and obvious territory. Next to her timeless classic "Cover the windows and the walls", this is her most accomplished and heartfelt work. A must for all those who relish peaceful solitude and introspective, emotive journeys.

Comment by chris.topp

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