Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
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- 27 Jan 2014
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So is the Blue text Gollum and the Black Smeagol? Or vice versa.
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The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
That's what I like a different outcome to something that in principal we agree on.I kind of figured that the distortion is totally intentional.
I almost get it, but ultimately it’s not for me.
I can see the music it influenced but, I end up turning it off every time.
denislawsbackheel
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- We went to Rotherham…
I have to say I don’t get ambient music.
I can understand it’s use in a documentary on the universe as a backdrop to pictures of the Orion Nebula etc. or as a drone flies and pans it’s cameras over the Grand Canyon. It might be useful playing softly in the background as you meditate in an isolation tank but on its own as a stand alone piece of music it does absolutely nothing for me. I just cannot engage with it at any level. It reminds me of a long bus trip I once took in Morocco to Fez. The drive was through mile after mile of desert and mountainous background where the horizon was such that the sky and the land bled together. Throughout the journey the driver played Jean Michel Jarre music through the tinny bus speakers. It made me aware how powerfully terrifying sound can be when used as part of sensory deprivation torture. Whilst this piece is far better than the Jarre music that day it’s not something I would ever want to listen to again.
2 points.
I can understand it’s use in a documentary on the universe as a backdrop to pictures of the Orion Nebula etc. or as a drone flies and pans it’s cameras over the Grand Canyon. It might be useful playing softly in the background as you meditate in an isolation tank but on its own as a stand alone piece of music it does absolutely nothing for me. I just cannot engage with it at any level. It reminds me of a long bus trip I once took in Morocco to Fez. The drive was through mile after mile of desert and mountainous background where the horizon was such that the sky and the land bled together. Throughout the journey the driver played Jean Michel Jarre music through the tinny bus speakers. It made me aware how powerfully terrifying sound can be when used as part of sensory deprivation torture. Whilst this piece is far better than the Jarre music that day it’s not something I would ever want to listen to again.
2 points.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
You've painted a great picture of your bus journey to Fez there. I can almost hear your teeth grinding!I have to say I don’t get ambient music.
I can understand it’s use in a documentary on the universe as a backdrop to pictures of the Orion Nebula etc. or as a drone flies and pans it’s cameras over the Grand Canyon. It might be useful playing softly in the background as you meditate in an isolation tank but on its own as a stand alone piece of music it does absolutely nothing for me. I just cannot engage with it at any level. It reminds me of a long bus trip I once took in Morocco to Fez. The drive was through mile after mile of desert and mountainous background where the horizon was such that the sky and the land bled together. Throughout the journey the driver played Jean Michel Jarre music through the tinny bus speakers. It made me aware how powerfully terrifying sound can be when used as part of sensory deprivation torture. Whilst this piece is far better than the Jarre music that day it’s not something I would ever want to listen to again.
2 points.
OB1
Well-Known Member
Ok, I'll put you out of your misery! I don't think anyone would guess this.
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading, and listening, through these music threads so I thought I'd like to contribute an album for you to listen to. I hope you enjoy listening to it just as much as I've enjoyed listening to all yours. And a big thanks to @BlueHammer85 and @RobMCFC for putting these together, I've found lots of new music to enjoy.
I could've easily picked Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, Revolver by The Beatles. Or Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones, Ok Computer by Radiohead, Pocket Symphony by Air or Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. Not to mention anything by Joni Mitchell or Steely Dan.
However, the part I've really enjoyed with the albums the most is the ones where it's something I've not heard before. I loved @KnaresboroughBlue 's choice - something I didn't expect. I also enjoyed listening to Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk, Let It Be by The Replacements and Foxtrot by Genesis as well as others. So my choice is something that I don't think many people will have heard, but I love. I have listened to this I'd say once a month for about 20 years now and I've never got bored of it. But first a bit of a backstory of how I came to find and love it.
When I was growing up, the main music I heard was my Dad's and he was really into Yes, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell etc. I didn't appreciate it as a kid, but as I got older I love it now! However, there was two songs I remember hearing quite vividly in the early 80s which had a profound impact on me: The Model by Kraftwerk and Joan of Arc by OMD. I'd never really heard this...'futuristic sound' before. The sound only a synthesizer can make. It sounded so other-wordly and unusual to me. I must've listened to The Model hundreds of times after I recorded it! It was a song which lead me to start playing the keyboards (badly).
Back in the 80s you could easily learn to play songs like The Model on cheap keyboards. I could never dream of copying any prog rocker! My Mum n Dad got me a Yamaha keyboard and I copied Kraftwerk songs even though it was hopeless - my £50 Yamaha couldn't cut it and in truth I got bored of it a bit. It might sound odd, but even though a lot of music in the 80s was made with synths, it wasn't the synth sound I liked as it sounded too modern - the original, soft, analogue sound. I think there was a certain naivety about the sound I loved.
By the time the late 80s came around I lost all interest in synths especially once the Stone Roses etc came in. I dropped the keyboard and started playing the guitar. However, after a few years I was getting bored of guitars and one day I heard The Model again and basically rediscovered my love of synths. I very nearly chose Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk as my album (I know The Model isn't on it). I am a big fan of pretty much any music from the 1970s and I started looking at the origins of synth music and discovered ambient music. The starting point was Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" and I found it astonishing that anyone would write music that didn't have to be listened to actively! I had no idea music could be like that! I found the whole idea of it nonsense and yet fascinating - surely there couldn't be any decent music like that?
For those who've not come across it before, ambient music is designed to sit in the background and be unobtrusive. It doesn't grab your attention, it's not meant to. There's no choruses, sometimes no form or structure, it's meant to enhance the atmosphere. It could be music for lifts, meditation, a 'soundscape', noise or whatever. However, when it's done well it's superb. It does take a certain amount of listening to as it's very different to pop, rock or jazz.
I soon started scouring the internet for reviews of 70s ambient music as I knew I would find that soft synth sound I loved. Instead, I found this entire "world" of music that was never played on the radio or TV, never really discussed, never bothered with apart from a few websites dedicated to ambient music. I was finding some music that I found astonishing in it's ambition, particularly given the technological limitations of the times.
I loved ambient from the off and went from Brian Eno's "Music for airports", through to Steve Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Musick", Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene" and "Equinoxe" to Tangerine Dream's "Phaedra" and "Rubycon". Phaedra and Rubycon were superb and reminded me of the worlds that Roger Dean drew for Yes album covers which I adored looking at as a kid. I started to remember the "other-worldly" sound from The Model and Kraftwerk with "new ears". I loved it. However, none of these albums were a patch on one I found which absolutely blew me away:
Planetary Unfolding by Michael Stearns:
Planetary Unfolding is an ambient masterpiece.
It was recorded in 1981 by the American artist Michael Stearns. He composed it on a synth and it is based on a dream he had where all of the Universe was made up of sounds. It sounds absolutely pretentious, but it's not - I can't think of any other piece of music which sounds so perfect to describe what space sounds like. It is regarded as a classic of ambient music. It can be played in the background but you'd do it a huge disservice.
There's 6 pieces on the album and it only lasts 45 minutes which is quite short for an ambient album. Some of the songs are on Spotify, but the full album isn't sadly. If you want to listen to it in full, you will have to listen to it on YouTube. The tracks are:
In The Beginning...
Toto, I've A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Where Ever Two Or More Are Gathered...
Life In The Gravity Well
As The Earth Kissed The Moon
Something's Moving
I won't go through each track, I just think you have to listen to it for yourself. The opening track begins from a low rumbling to a crescendo at around 5 minutes where it sounds like the entire Universe has been created, it's the only words I've got to describe it.
I expect a lot of people will find this something quite different. It's not an album to make you move, sing or dance to. It's there to provide background atmosphere, meditate or just sit outside watching the stars. It moves slowly, builds up slowly and gives you the time to listen to it. If you persevere with it, you'll find so much in the music. It is simply beautiful. In my mind, rightly or wrongly, I think this could be played by a classical orchestra and I kind of see it as a 'classical piece'.
I can put this album on at work and just get absorbed in the sound and block out any distractions. I can put this on at night with a few beers and just relax. If I've been listening to something like Rage Against The Machine, it calms you down and soothes! If you've had a mad Pantera-half-hour, this is ideal to cleanse the ears! Even though it is a synth album, I find that it has such a natural, organic sound, I really can't describe the sound at all - you just have to listen to it. If someone asked me what a fly-by of the early Universe sounded like it would be In the Beginning! What sound does a star make as it's pulled into a black hole? Life in the gravity well. It's got that epic "size" of sound.
I am astonished it was made 40 years ago, it's not aged at all. I also find it astonishing how anyone could 'hear' this in their head and then start to find the sounds and put it together. To make each piece sound different, yet blend to the next movement so naturally just astounds me. The music doesn't change much, but it changes a lot too.
It is something very different to the rest of my favourite albums, but I love it just as much as any Beatles, Stones, Bjork etc album. It's just different, very different. And that's what I love in my music, different sounds for different moods.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed your choices!
I like this album; shame it's not available as a cd at a reasonable price.
I do enjoy this kind of synth music. My most played band of the last 12 months is probably Tangerine Dream, whose music I have very little of until last December as the bit I did own hadn't impressed me overly but I took a punt on expanding my collection and now wonder why it took me so long.
I've given the Stearns album a couple of listens, while working, and I can't say it grabs me as much as the Tangs but it's not meant to be grab you music. I am not as enamoured by the bits that sound like voices but I would buy this if it was available on cd at a normal price; as it isn't, it's not going to get any more of my time invested in it but I will keep an eye out to see if I ever find a used copy cheap enough to buy.
I'm torn between 6 & 7 out of 10 and as it is the season of goodwill:
7/10
mancity2012_eamo
Well-Known Member
Just read DLBH’s experience and totally get it.
This will be a good counterpoint to his view of it, as that could have been my experience although I doubt I’d have scored it as low as a 2.
But here goes.
I think the planets are aligned or something, Goater. Because you’ve caught me personally, at the perfect time to experience this piece.
I won’t call it music as I think there will be plenty in here who may dispute whether it is or not.
I read your review and thought, I’ve listened to Tangerine Dream and the rest lying on the floor with a cushion under my head and headphones on. In the front room of the house, on the floor in the dark, because the chord from the headphones won’t stretch from the stereo to the couch. All distractions eliminated. Total peace.
The thing is I was sixteen or seventeen at the time and the worst distraction would be my mother coming in and saying, ‘I thought you went out.’
So I listened last night and really had no distractions. One benefit of covid. You are left alone. I really got tones of Tangerine Dream, I also envisaged Vangelis’ Blade Runner sound track. I could see similarities with Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre and probably snippets from various other artists, but what seemed missing was a focus into a pattern or a rhythm that is recognisable as music to take away as a memory. Something that we can repeat in our minds after. All the others have this at some point even T.Dream from my memory of the various albums I had.
Oxygene, definitely does in six pieces. I found that lacking.
And yet I really enjoyed it and was glad I held my powder dry last night, to listen again this morning.
This morning, I made a pot of tea. Fluffed up the pillows. Sat back on the bed. Shut my eyes again, headphones on, music turned up. A cuppa, and let’s see where this journey takes me.
It surprised me. The opening piece is beautiful, even without form.
In the second piece you can hear random bits of pattern at times but they are just swallowed up and consumed as quickly as you think something is happening. By the end of the third movement you can distinguish a rhythm for the first time really.
In the fourth movement, for the first time, you can discern what sounds like human voices, bird noises, perhaps water. At the end of the fifth you have a complex pattern or rhythm forming, into the sixth you think it’s racing onwards only to slow down and get left behind by the overarching force of the ‘music’ that was always there.
Wow. Did I really write all that hippy-trippy rationale?
The thing is. I fully realise, this album is a moment in time for me. Now is the ideal opportunity for me to indulge in exploring it, but the fact is, I’m not that seventeen year old kid anymore and like DLBH, the likelihood is it’s not something I’ll listen to, let alone get the opportunity to listen to beyond this week.
It’s not background music. I couldn’t put it on with the missus or when having friends over. Pottering around doing other stuff, working in the garden etc. what would be the point. It would get lost. It doesn’t have recognisable patterns, it is not Jean Michel Jarre. It is an event in itself, the type of which I thought I had long outgrown.
I’m not going to score it yet though, as I feel the more I play it the higher the score I’ll give it.
Might not be the highest score, from myself included Goater, but I think this has been the best pick for this thread so far and you have me doubting myself regarding choosing to nominate a piece of my own.
This will be a good counterpoint to his view of it, as that could have been my experience although I doubt I’d have scored it as low as a 2.
But here goes.
I think the planets are aligned or something, Goater. Because you’ve caught me personally, at the perfect time to experience this piece.
I won’t call it music as I think there will be plenty in here who may dispute whether it is or not.
I read your review and thought, I’ve listened to Tangerine Dream and the rest lying on the floor with a cushion under my head and headphones on. In the front room of the house, on the floor in the dark, because the chord from the headphones won’t stretch from the stereo to the couch. All distractions eliminated. Total peace.
The thing is I was sixteen or seventeen at the time and the worst distraction would be my mother coming in and saying, ‘I thought you went out.’
So I listened last night and really had no distractions. One benefit of covid. You are left alone. I really got tones of Tangerine Dream, I also envisaged Vangelis’ Blade Runner sound track. I could see similarities with Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre and probably snippets from various other artists, but what seemed missing was a focus into a pattern or a rhythm that is recognisable as music to take away as a memory. Something that we can repeat in our minds after. All the others have this at some point even T.Dream from my memory of the various albums I had.
Oxygene, definitely does in six pieces. I found that lacking.
And yet I really enjoyed it and was glad I held my powder dry last night, to listen again this morning.
This morning, I made a pot of tea. Fluffed up the pillows. Sat back on the bed. Shut my eyes again, headphones on, music turned up. A cuppa, and let’s see where this journey takes me.
It surprised me. The opening piece is beautiful, even without form.
In the second piece you can hear random bits of pattern at times but they are just swallowed up and consumed as quickly as you think something is happening. By the end of the third movement you can distinguish a rhythm for the first time really.
In the fourth movement, for the first time, you can discern what sounds like human voices, bird noises, perhaps water. At the end of the fifth you have a complex pattern or rhythm forming, into the sixth you think it’s racing onwards only to slow down and get left behind by the overarching force of the ‘music’ that was always there.
Wow. Did I really write all that hippy-trippy rationale?
The thing is. I fully realise, this album is a moment in time for me. Now is the ideal opportunity for me to indulge in exploring it, but the fact is, I’m not that seventeen year old kid anymore and like DLBH, the likelihood is it’s not something I’ll listen to, let alone get the opportunity to listen to beyond this week.
It’s not background music. I couldn’t put it on with the missus or when having friends over. Pottering around doing other stuff, working in the garden etc. what would be the point. It would get lost. It doesn’t have recognisable patterns, it is not Jean Michel Jarre. It is an event in itself, the type of which I thought I had long outgrown.
I’m not going to score it yet though, as I feel the more I play it the higher the score I’ll give it.
Might not be the highest score, from myself included Goater, but I think this has been the best pick for this thread so far and you have me doubting myself regarding choosing to nominate a piece of my own.
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BimboBob
Well-Known Member
Let's start by saying something.
I am a huge synth fan. From Eno, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Can, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, OMD, old Human League right up to more recent stuff. If it's out there, I'll listen to it and probably buy the vinyl. I've looked at a few compilations I have on the usb in the car and it's full of late 60's and upwards synth bands...or at least bands that use them from time to time. I love a synth. I love the atmosphere it gives. I love the way it can be used in every type of genre. Sometimes hiding in the background, sometimes up front and in your face. I can play a few songs, and get immense satisfaction from getting Enola Gay bang on only to be asked by my 9 year old Niece if I can play anything "decent" or something she's "heard of".
This is my fault.
Before I listened to this album I had Wish You Were Here playing. It was, in retrospect, the worst album to have on first, although it wasn't planned that way.
This was also my fault.
Shine on you Crazy Diamond has a fantastic ambient start. It evokes wonderful images in my head of star systems, colourful nebulas surrounding me as I fly past in wonderment at the whole universe. Then Gilmour kicks in and Wright backs him up providing a dream like experience. A sit in a comfy chair with a decent scotch, fire crackling, the only light causing flickering dancing shadows mimicking the aural excellence. You are washed over with calming thoughts. Relaxed. In the moment. You, a fire, a scotch and music. Plus a comfy chair. You always need a comfy chair.
Planetary Unfolding starts out the same. It's mellow, in a good way, calming, it builds, swirling making me feel like I'm diving through cloud waiting to see the whole planet below me, and then...have I landed? Am I on a planet? Am I exploring? Is there danger? It's all very samey. Maybe I missed a bit. Dozed off. Comfy chair be damned.
But no, it did get all a bit samey for a while. I've lost the narrative. Oh wait...I'm back on track, taking off, engines firing up, and now bird noises. Forest. Jungle. Something. Which means I must have landed. I landed before in my mind though, before I lost the narrative, before I got confused.
This was probably my fault.
I'll start again. What? Why can't you go shopping on your own? Oh...bad back. Just don't go then? Ok, I'll be 2 minutes. What? No, I won't put this on in the car.
I've worked it out. I like an ambient song. I like the images in my head. I just can't manage to focus for 45 minutes.
This is obviously my fault.
I am a huge synth fan. From Eno, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Can, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, OMD, old Human League right up to more recent stuff. If it's out there, I'll listen to it and probably buy the vinyl. I've looked at a few compilations I have on the usb in the car and it's full of late 60's and upwards synth bands...or at least bands that use them from time to time. I love a synth. I love the atmosphere it gives. I love the way it can be used in every type of genre. Sometimes hiding in the background, sometimes up front and in your face. I can play a few songs, and get immense satisfaction from getting Enola Gay bang on only to be asked by my 9 year old Niece if I can play anything "decent" or something she's "heard of".
This is my fault.
Before I listened to this album I had Wish You Were Here playing. It was, in retrospect, the worst album to have on first, although it wasn't planned that way.
This was also my fault.
Shine on you Crazy Diamond has a fantastic ambient start. It evokes wonderful images in my head of star systems, colourful nebulas surrounding me as I fly past in wonderment at the whole universe. Then Gilmour kicks in and Wright backs him up providing a dream like experience. A sit in a comfy chair with a decent scotch, fire crackling, the only light causing flickering dancing shadows mimicking the aural excellence. You are washed over with calming thoughts. Relaxed. In the moment. You, a fire, a scotch and music. Plus a comfy chair. You always need a comfy chair.
Planetary Unfolding starts out the same. It's mellow, in a good way, calming, it builds, swirling making me feel like I'm diving through cloud waiting to see the whole planet below me, and then...have I landed? Am I on a planet? Am I exploring? Is there danger? It's all very samey. Maybe I missed a bit. Dozed off. Comfy chair be damned.
But no, it did get all a bit samey for a while. I've lost the narrative. Oh wait...I'm back on track, taking off, engines firing up, and now bird noises. Forest. Jungle. Something. Which means I must have landed. I landed before in my mind though, before I lost the narrative, before I got confused.
This was probably my fault.
I'll start again. What? Why can't you go shopping on your own? Oh...bad back. Just don't go then? Ok, I'll be 2 minutes. What? No, I won't put this on in the car.
I've worked it out. I like an ambient song. I like the images in my head. I just can't manage to focus for 45 minutes.
This is obviously my fault.
Ok, I'll put you out of your misery! I don't think anyone would guess this.
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading, and listening, through these music threads so I thought I'd like to contribute an album for you to listen to. I hope you enjoy listening to it just as much as I've enjoyed listening to all yours. And a big thanks to @BlueHammer85 and @RobMCFC for putting these together, I've found lots of new music to enjoy.
I could've easily picked Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, Revolver by The Beatles. Or Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones, Ok Computer by Radiohead, Pocket Symphony by Air or Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. Not to mention anything by Joni Mitchell or Steely Dan.
However, the part I've really enjoyed with the albums the most is the ones where it's something I've not heard before. I loved @KnaresboroughBlue 's choice - something I didn't expect. I also enjoyed listening to Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk, Let It Be by The Replacements and Foxtrot by Genesis as well as others. So my choice is something that I don't think many people will have heard, but I love. I have listened to this I'd say once a month for about 20 years now and I've never got bored of it. But first a bit of a backstory of how I came to find and love it.
When I was growing up, the main music I heard was my Dad's and he was really into Yes, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell etc. I didn't appreciate it as a kid, but as I got older I love it now! However, there was two songs I remember hearing quite vividly in the early 80s which had a profound impact on me: The Model by Kraftwerk and Joan of Arc by OMD. I'd never really heard this...'futuristic sound' before. The sound only a synthesizer can make. It sounded so other-wordly and unusual to me. I must've listened to The Model hundreds of times after I recorded it! It was a song which lead me to start playing the keyboards (badly).
Back in the 80s you could easily learn to play songs like The Model on cheap keyboards. I could never dream of copying any prog rocker! My Mum n Dad got me a Yamaha keyboard and I copied Kraftwerk songs even though it was hopeless - my £50 Yamaha couldn't cut it and in truth I got bored of it a bit. It might sound odd, but even though a lot of music in the 80s was made with synths, it wasn't the synth sound I liked as it sounded too modern - the original, soft, analogue sound. I think there was a certain naivety about the sound I loved.
By the time the late 80s came around I lost all interest in synths especially once the Stone Roses etc came in. I dropped the keyboard and started playing the guitar. However, after a few years I was getting bored of guitars and one day I heard The Model again and basically rediscovered my love of synths. I very nearly chose Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk as my album (I know The Model isn't on it). I am a big fan of pretty much any music from the 1970s and I started looking at the origins of synth music and discovered ambient music. The starting point was Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" and I found it astonishing that anyone would write music that didn't have to be listened to actively! I had no idea music could be like that! I found the whole idea of it nonsense and yet fascinating - surely there couldn't be any decent music like that?
For those who've not come across it before, ambient music is designed to sit in the background and be unobtrusive. It doesn't grab your attention, it's not meant to. There's no choruses, sometimes no form or structure, it's meant to enhance the atmosphere. It could be music for lifts, meditation, a 'soundscape', noise or whatever. However, when it's done well it's superb. It does take a certain amount of listening to as it's very different to pop, rock or jazz.
I soon started scouring the internet for reviews of 70s ambient music as I knew I would find that soft synth sound I loved. Instead, I found this entire "world" of music that was never played on the radio or TV, never really discussed, never bothered with apart from a few websites dedicated to ambient music. I was finding some music that I found astonishing in it's ambition, particularly given the technological limitations of the times.
I loved ambient from the off and went from Brian Eno's "Music for airports", through to Steve Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Musick", Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene" and "Equinoxe" to Tangerine Dream's "Phaedra" and "Rubycon". Phaedra and Rubycon were superb and reminded me of the worlds that Roger Dean drew for Yes album covers which I adored looking at as a kid. I started to remember the "other-worldly" sound from The Model and Kraftwerk with "new ears". I loved it. However, none of these albums were a patch on one I found which absolutely blew me away:
Planetary Unfolding by Michael Stearns:
Planetary Unfolding is an ambient masterpiece.
It was recorded in 1981 by the American artist Michael Stearns. He composed it on a synth and it is based on a dream he had where all of the Universe was made up of sounds. It sounds absolutely pretentious, but it's not - I can't think of any other piece of music which sounds so perfect to describe what space sounds like. It is regarded as a classic of ambient music. It can be played in the background but you'd do it a huge disservice.
There's 6 pieces on the album and it only lasts 45 minutes which is quite short for an ambient album. Some of the songs are on Spotify, but the full album isn't sadly. If you want to listen to it in full, you will have to listen to it on YouTube. The tracks are:
In The Beginning...
Toto, I've A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Where Ever Two Or More Are Gathered...
Life In The Gravity Well
As The Earth Kissed The Moon
Something's Moving
I won't go through each track, I just think you have to listen to it for yourself. The opening track begins from a low rumbling to a crescendo at around 5 minutes where it sounds like the entire Universe has been created, it's the only words I've got to describe it.
I expect a lot of people will find this something quite different. It's not an album to make you move, sing or dance to. It's there to provide background atmosphere, meditate or just sit outside watching the stars. It moves slowly, builds up slowly and gives you the time to listen to it. If you persevere with it, you'll find so much in the music. It is simply beautiful. In my mind, rightly or wrongly, I think this could be played by a classical orchestra and I kind of see it as a 'classical piece'.
I can put this album on at work and just get absorbed in the sound and block out any distractions. I can put this on at night with a few beers and just relax. If I've been listening to something like Rage Against The Machine, it calms you down and soothes! If you've had a mad Pantera-half-hour, this is ideal to cleanse the ears! Even though it is a synth album, I find that it has such a natural, organic sound, I really can't describe the sound at all - you just have to listen to it. If someone asked me what a fly-by of the early Universe sounded like it would be In the Beginning! What sound does a star make as it's pulled into a black hole? Life in the gravity well. It's got that epic "size" of sound.
I am astonished it was made 40 years ago, it's not aged at all. I also find it astonishing how anyone could 'hear' this in their head and then start to find the sounds and put it together. To make each piece sound different, yet blend to the next movement so naturally just astounds me. The music doesn't change much, but it changes a lot too.
It is something very different to the rest of my favourite albums, but I love it just as much as any Beatles, Stones, Bjork etc album. It's just different, very different. And that's what I love in my music, different sounds for different moods.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed your choices!
Love listening to nature and the many forms and variety of music it makes and to complete its second cousin on one instrument in effect takes some doing and Michael Stearns does it so well on this piece.
Synth albums IMO have to be so extra special and complex in many facets to grab your attention for any period of time and despite the calming and soothing effect for me it needs my attention for sense of purpose and it certainly achieved that.
This is definitely not pretentious , it is more than soothing , it takes you to a number of blissful places and as a big fan of JMJ and TD and of course Kraftwerk , I am disappointed in myself I had not heard this artist before but I shall certainly be playing this and his many other works in the years to come.
Great choice for an introduction to an ambient album if you haven't explored or listened to many of the artists you refer to GLS and for me this is not in the same vein and much less cumbersome and dramatic than much of JMJ whose Oxygene 1V blew me away in 1977 when everybody I knew was into Bat out of Hell.
7/10.
Citizen of Legoland
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Not something I would choose to listen to regularly I don't think, but it's not offensive. I just start listening to it then forget it's playing, probably because I have a short attention span.
Oh yeah, it triggers my tinnitus too, or it's at least more noticeable when ambient music is on. And I love JMJ, Mike Oldfield and all that stuff, but to me this just feels the same but without (m)any interesting bits to grab you.
I'm struggling to decide whether to award a 5 or 6 but as it's nearly Christmas, 5 /10 from me. Bah humbug.
Oh yeah, it triggers my tinnitus too, or it's at least more noticeable when ambient music is on. And I love JMJ, Mike Oldfield and all that stuff, but to me this just feels the same but without (m)any interesting bits to grab you.
I'm struggling to decide whether to award a 5 or 6 but as it's nearly Christmas, 5 /10 from me. Bah humbug.
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AustinBlue
Well-Known Member
Let's start by saying something.
I am a huge synth fan. From Eno, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Can, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, OMD, old Human League right up to more recent stuff. If it's out there, I'll listen to it and probably buy the vinyl. I've looked at a few compilations I have on the usb in the car and it's full of late 60's and upwards synth bands...or at least bands that use them from time to time. I love a synth. I love the atmosphere it gives. I love the way it can be used in every type of genre. Sometimes hiding in the background, sometimes up front and in your face. I can play a few songs, and get immense satisfaction from getting Enola Gay bang on only to be asked by my 9 year old Niece if I can play anything "decent" or something she's "heard of".
This is my fault.
Before I listened to this album I had Wish You Were Here playing. It was, in retrospect, the worst album to have on first, although it wasn't planned that way.
This was also my fault.
Shine on you Crazy Diamond has a fantastic ambient start. It evokes wonderful images in my head of star systems, colourful nebulas surrounding me as I fly past in wonderment at the whole universe. Then Gilmour kicks in and Wright backs him up providing a dream like experience. A sit in a comfy chair with a decent scotch, fire crackling, the only light causing flickering dancing shadows mimicking the aural excellence. You are washed over with calming thoughts. Relaxed. In the moment. You, a fire, a scotch and music. Plus a comfy chair. You always need a comfy chair.
Planetary Unfolding starts out the same. It's mellow, in a good way, calming, it builds, swirling making me feel like I'm diving through cloud waiting to see the whole planet below me, and then...have I landed? Am I on a planet? Am I exploring? Is there danger? It's all very samey. Maybe I missed a bit. Dozed off. Comfy chair be damned.
But no, it did get all a bit samey for a while. I've lost the narrative. Oh wait...I'm back on track, taking off, engines firing up, and now bird noises. Forest. Jungle. Something. Which means I must have landed. I landed before in my mind though, before I lost the narrative, before I got confused.
This was probably my fault.
I'll start again. What? Why can't you go shopping on your own? Oh...bad back. Just don't go then? Ok, I'll be 2 minutes. What? No, I won't put this on in the car.
I've worked it out. I like an ambient song. I like the images in my head. I just can't manage to focus for 45 minutes.
This is obviously my fault.
My own thoughts are almost identical, if less colourfully articulate. I made the mistake of having Jason Isbell on before, and the contrast was hard. I've got it on now as background to my contract review work. I like it - but I wouldn't ever reach for it as my ambient alternative. Eno, AIR, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Gabarek would all be put on first. 5/10