Last year's album Elite Feline by Lotto is a minimalist/mantric guitar trio take. bandcamp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErG7vJ-L5-M
― Sanpaku, Saturday, 8 April 2017 18:44 (seven years ago) link
Must be something in the water: Latest Mojo with cover story on The Joshua Tree has an accompanying CD of "desert songs" that seems very, uh, compiled by British rockists who've never been to the desert
― Wimmels, Monday, 17 April 2017 21:09 (seven years ago) link
Good to see a mention of Giant Sand upthread---here's a little review of their uncrowded expansion I did several years ago---if you don't mind some company way out yonder, more than the occasional lizard etc., it's agreeable:Giant Giant Sand, Tucson: It's not so uncommon to hear albums inviting comparisons to spaghetti western soundtracks, but few really 'ppreciate the possibilities of American and European give-and-take: Latin in the Southwestern and Transatlantic senses, small room jazz a la Weill, Ellington, Arizona highway lounge; steel guitars and twang bars with nothing left to prove, Giant Sand (many of whom have been Danish for some time) are now momentarily expanding into Giant Giant Sand and offering Tucson---which is billed as a country rock opera, uh-huh---without ever being anythang that can't be hitched to s dustcloud drum kit, usually bouncing through stagecoach ruts. Sometimes swinging a little, though a droll drawl and and a tall tale (of love, y'all--it's all very romantic, in a worldly, wide open spacey way). "You're so much like the river/Beautiful, twisted and blue/You appear to be here forever/Passin' through." And baby, it’s hot outside.
Also you might want to check the Giant Sand/Howe Gelb thread, or maybe not.
― dow, Monday, 17 April 2017 22:08 (seven years ago) link
So Floating Points has literally been in the Mojave desert and recorded a load of "wide open desert music" which he is releasing soon.
https://www.floatingpoints.co.uk/
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 13:15 (seven years ago) link
Oof - that sounds interesting. The Mojo CD, not so much.
Also thought about Alan Lamb's wire recordings, but I guess once we get into field recordings the whole thing suddenly widens into incomprehensibility.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 21 April 2017 12:16 (seven years ago) link
Alan Lamb's recordings don't really evoke the desert for me. They're somewhere in the space between the Voyager probe's electromagnetic recordings, Thomas Köner's glacial atmospheres, and contact-mic'd long-string instruments (Alvin Lucier, Ellen Fullman).
― behavioral sink (Sanpaku), Friday, 21 April 2017 12:59 (seven years ago) link
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski)
oh god i thought you meant something else when you said "wire recordings"
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Friday, 21 April 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
Like what?!
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 21 April 2017 18:28 (seven years ago) link
Either wire recording or Wire recordings, I imagine.
― behavioral sink (Sanpaku), Friday, 21 April 2017 19:11 (seven years ago) link
assuming the former :)
― sleeve, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:31 (seven years ago) link
Found this on an old hard drive: https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/left-in-the-desert/
Couple of missteps, but basically full of excellent desert-y goodness (Earth, Lanois, Six Organs, Roach, Ennio etc)
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Monday, 5 June 2017 21:10 (six years ago) link
Ikue Mori w/ Robert Quine and Marc Ribot, "Painted Desert."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjxbU-GlVag
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 5 June 2017 22:27 (six years ago) link
I nominate the severely underrated Steven R. Smith:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsFD4Drgs3s
― pomenitul, Monday, 5 June 2017 23:03 (six years ago) link
Captain Obvious checking in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPVexT6itPA&list=PLs2o_po-FzbF0Z_P-l4bQUDAllxLlFdry
― SlimAndSlam, Tuesday, 6 June 2017 00:22 (six years ago) link
Tinariwen:https://youtu.be/PItnw3Z7WgY
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 12 June 2017 21:23 (six years ago) link
Harold Budd "The Photo of Santiago McKinn" or pretty much all of Dawn's Early Light
― Hilarity Winner (doo dah), Friday, 16 June 2017 14:35 (six years ago) link
that Mori/Quine/Ribot record is excellent and I had forgotten about it, good call
― sleeve, Friday, 16 June 2017 14:44 (six years ago) link
HI DERE (cross-posted from main Eyvind Kang thread for interested parties
A gorgeous set of new tracks by the brilliant composer and multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang. It took him a decade and a half to revisit the vibe concocted on his masterpiece from 2001, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age, but the wait was worth it. It features an array of spiritually intoxicating instrumentation: tamboura, electric guitar, organ, trumpet, oboe, trombone, and Korean traditional instruments. Eyvind Kang on Plainlight: "In 2002 I wanted to make a kind of sequel to my first solo record on Abduction, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age. I found that the 'weight' of sounds seemed to evaporate the compositions. The last thing I wanted to make was a traditional shoegaze recording. 15 years later, I had a strange dream: a voice said 'Because a plainlight has fallen in Heaven, heartbreak would cease.' This statement then became a kind of guiding image and method. Thus, with Korean traditional instruments playing the ostinato and drone, things fell into place. I would like to thank all the musicians, Randall Dunn, Alan Bishop, and each and every listener." Limited edition, one-time pressing; Edition of 400.
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 December 2017 19:29 (six years ago) link
That's me well and truly sold - Live Low is magnificent.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Wednesday, 13 December 2017 21:46 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP1G-cdRuCM
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 31 January 2018 20:17 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BZnSC2u7RU
or any Thin White Rope song really...
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 31 January 2018 23:10 (six years ago) link
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0152862597_16.jpg
Admittedly, the resultant wares don’t stray too far from the crafted templates McPhee has used previously but his capable hands continue, with increasing authority, to render bleakly alluring atmospheres that both express the intimacy of a solitary artisan and the desolation of wide empty landscapes. Hence, the opening “The Blood of St John” unfurls as a slow-motion desert-blues with a shimmering inscrutable underlay; “The Devil’s Knell” drifts along in a buzzing shadowy blur; the more sonically linear “The Rule Of Threes” pirouettes as a madrigal-like meditation; “Dance Macabre” curls yearning slide-playing around a pattern of looped melodic low-end parts; and the closing epic 14-minute title-track sprawls e-bow and slide manipulated figures across a heartbeat-pulsing percussive underbelly.
https://deanmcphee.bandcamp.com/album/four-stones
― Dinsdale, Thursday, 1 February 2018 21:43 (six years ago) link
McPhee is brilliant. Been meaning to check this.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Thursday, 1 February 2018 21:50 (six years ago) link
https://barthel-boehm-bauer.bandcamp.com/
― skip, Thursday, 1 February 2018 22:05 (six years ago) link
― Sanpaku, Saturday, April 8, 2017 11:44 AM (ten months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i would just like to say i've really been liking this, thank you
― del griffith, Thursday, 22 February 2018 02:00 (six years ago) link
Would like to nominate “Ain’t Talkin’” by Bob Dylan (Modern Times album) for this thread.
Also: Andean music is pretty much made for this - high desert in particular (e.g., Inti Illimani, Atahualpa Yupanqui)
― never have i been a blue calm sea (collardio gelatinous), Thursday, 22 February 2018 05:17 (six years ago) link
Co-sign the Lotto album. The Instant Classic label is a goldmine right now.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Thursday, 22 February 2018 09:12 (six years ago) link
Bull of Heaven have a (mostly deserved) reputation for being a meme/gimmick/rymbait act, but I must admit that Return of Ghost Sheriff is some of the better desert ambient I've heard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibu4bdRWCZQ
― the yolk sustains us, we eat whites for days (unregistered), Monday, 2 April 2018 01:31 (six years ago) link
Thought this would be about Become Desert
― Moo Vaughn, Monday, 2 April 2018 03:22 (six years ago) link
My son out of the blue asked me if I'd 'ever been to a desert' before and I sort of have (drove from LA to Vegas, Dungeness is classified as a desert, a couple of the Cape Verde islands, particularly Boa Vista) but damn do I want to go to the desert right now. Doing the next best thing and listening to Paris, Texas.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Monday, 20 April 2020 18:36 (four years ago) link
this is more like a fata morgana in the desert:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3YwOYjrqbQ
― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 25 May 2020 15:25 (four years ago) link
some incredible acoustic psych released a few months ago that i believe fits this mold:https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/album/beacon
― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Monday, 25 May 2020 17:21 (four years ago) link
I love them!!!!
― sleeve, Monday, 25 May 2020 17:25 (four years ago) link
really happy we have this connection crut, I am in a FB record geek group with Matt and Jen and it has been great to hear their sound develop.
― sleeve, Monday, 25 May 2020 17:26 (four years ago) link
the solo Rolin and the Powers-Rolin duo recs are more post-Fahey but I agree that Cercyz' singing bowls etc. take this to a different wide-scope psychedelic place
― sleeve, Monday, 25 May 2020 17:32 (four years ago) link
nice! I'm friends w/the dude who runs the label :)
― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Monday, 25 May 2020 19:42 (four years ago) link
Beacon is a pretty cool record
― weekly shopper helper (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 26 May 2020 05:28 (four years ago) link
been lucky to play a handful of times with matt and jen, they are some of nicest people i've ever met and the real deal. happy to see them getting more reknown. true underground stalwarts
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 26 May 2020 18:59 (four years ago) link
they've also been putting on shows at a laundromat in cleveland, and i think it might be the coolest venue in the country. well, was, with covid. you get the idea. imagine seeing bitchin bajas at a laundromat!
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 26 May 2020 19:10 (four years ago) link
SUSS posted the playlist for their recent Ambient Country mix and it's pretty great:
1. Swimming in a Western Hotel - PanAmerican2. Body in a Room- Bing & Ruth3. Thresholds ( through a hole in the fence) - Walt McClements4. News About Heaven- Marisa Anderson, William Tyler 5. Ending- Bruce Langhorne6. Love Scene - Jerry Garcia7. When You Sleep - Japancakes8. Welcome - Harmonia & Eno9. Desert Rose - Daniel Lanois10. Anteludium - Luke Schneider11. Wichita - SUSS12. Clouds - Bruce Kaphan
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 21 April 2022 06:27 (two years ago) link
Thanks Elvis - this feels right up my alley. Going to check out everything here I've not heard before.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 22 April 2022 20:16 (two years ago) link
Thinking that Bruce Langhorne's Hired Hand soundtrack is to ambient country as Paul Giovanni's Wicker Man soundtrack is to acid folk
― doug watson, Saturday, 23 April 2022 00:04 (two years ago) link
About half of that playlist is new to me and I’m thrilled to find them. Lots to dive into as this is my exact sweet spot these days.
By coincidence I’ve been fiddling around with a playlist to scratch this itch - not just the ambient but also some more traditional songs that rise and fall out of the moodier bits. There is no order to it, and I’m still adding and subtracting as I hone it. But in any case folks on this thread might enjoy this as a kind of radio station. Shuffle away: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1hfogoxEEmNfs3b8eG4u3X?si=rJI-IObaShi0kY4KxuXU9A
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Saturday, 23 April 2022 00:25 (two years ago) link
This playlist is great pgwp! Thanks for the share.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Sunday, 24 April 2022 10:34 (two years ago) link
Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying it.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Sunday, 24 April 2022 13:37 (two years ago) link
Cross post from the Fahey thread: the latest Imaginational Anthem compilation, featuring latest pedal steel excursions totally fits this thread's remit: https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/luke-schneider-presents-imaginational-anthem-vol-xi-chrome-universal-a-survey-of-modern-pedal-steel (on Spotify too, if that's your thing).
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Wednesday, 18 January 2023 21:08 (one year ago) link
oo la la, thanks for the cross post
― ꙮ (map), Thursday, 19 January 2023 02:54 (one year ago) link
Speaking of SUSS, the new self-titled one, a compilation of four different EPs, is really incredible. I love the vibe.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 30 January 2023 22:53 (one year ago) link
seems relevant
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/ambient-country-list
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Sunday, 4 June 2023 20:16 (eleven months ago) link
so I guess this stuff is called "ambient country" now, ok