"New Age Music", search and destroy.

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (444 of them)
Kitaro - duddy
Tomita - yeah!!!!! (The star hustler theme is by tomita, that's all you need to know!)

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

although, like i said on a thread last week: the over-the-topness of some kitaro records is kind of a hoot. when he's got all the bells, gongs, synths, and pomp going at once.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

what's the diff between ambient and new age (if any).

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I just read pitchfork media mark's article linked above, and it's fucking good.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

agreed.

stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

on a similar tip of breaking down boundaries between electronic instrumental scenes

Star's End - 25 Significant STAR'S END Albums
http://www.starsend.org/25albums.html

DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, i just read it too. it's good. and it does a good job of describing that fine line between ambient/kraut/electro/windham. Julio, read that article linked above.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

So what happens on the later Jade Warrior records? Because I like the Vertigo stuff I've heard a lot, but I guess I never liked 'em enough to go out and acquire the whole catalog or anything. The early stuff has some pretty rocking moments! Do they just go all faux-ethnic?

Also, seconding the Deuter recommendation. Codona too, if they count. I guess I don't think of those records that way, but they do walk a fairly fine line.

Broheems (diamond), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

thanks, martian. i think part of the stigma problem is that all those 80's records have such shitty covers. re-do the covers and put them out on a hip label and they would sell like hotcakes to the kranky krowd.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

check out this pic ov michael stearns:

http://usuarios.lycos.es/audionautas/Paranoias/michaelstearnsmid80s.jpg

I mean, I'd pick up an album of his in the '80's, flip it round, and see that on the back, and I'd have to fucking buy it!!

Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Aslo popol vuh related, does anyone have any of alois gromer khan's solo music? IIRC he did at least one album, thet I've never heard.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

i've never been much of a Hillage fan. maybe i never had the right records.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

now that i think of it, a lot of the hating can be layed on the doorstep of Vangelis. Some of his 80's stuff is just abysmal.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

and his early stuff rules, needless to say.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"Antarctica" IIRC is about the only good '80's vangelis.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

HIS album on Vertigo rocks the house. i love that record.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"Vangelis A. Papathanisou"? I used to have that one, if so.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I've listened to L'Apocalypse Des Animaux a hell of a lot over the years, oddly enough.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

that's not that odd, ned. it's a good record. and yeah, pashmina, that one.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, it is good, no question, it's just that I've never particularly investigated his early stuff beyond that! It provides my needed fix.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

one of the early titles for the latest M*untain G*ats album was "New Age Music Will Save Your Wretched Soul"

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I was just looking at the vinyl copy of the new M.G. record at my local record shoppe here the other day but i didn't buy it cuz it didn't have that title.:) (you have a lot of fans here on martha's Vineyard, by the way.)

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Mark R., I always loved "Resonant Frequency" -- any plans to revive it, or write in that form elsewhere?

jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"what's the diff between ambient and new age (if any)."

Take the NPR shows "Echoes" and "Music from the Hearts of Space", there are times those two shows are great and there are times where I cannot turn it off fast enough.

I'll be the first to admit, I can't take the celtic or indian flute music other than as musak, but I tune in as there have been a few times those shows are fantastic. Echoes did a two hour tribute to Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh when he passed away and had an hour with Brian Eno a month or so ago that was great.

earlnash, Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

See, that's the crux of the problem: the crap stuff takes good ideas from people like reich/eno/etc. and then adds a didgereedoo or soundbites of pygmies and calls it art. And sometimes you have to wade thru that stuff to get to something good.

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Scott: re:

"i heard this beautiful recording once of nothing but droning trombones taped in some underground catacombs and i forget the title and it's been bugging me for years"

You might be thinking of one of the recordings by the Deep Listening Band:

http://www.pofinc.org/DLBhome.html

Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah just did scott (I just read through the thread quickly at first, and didn't notice the link).

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks, Nom! It might be. I'll check out the recordings. I love Pauline! I'm even quoted on her web-site somewhere cuz I wrote a review of the Ohm box that included her. And my wife, who is writing a book, has been getting a lot of help from Pauline's partner at the deep listening HQ. (the book she is writing doesn't have to do with music though.)

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks to those who liked the column -- if you read the Gas thread linked above you can see how it grew out of that.

Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

yes good article, especially the line to simply listen to what sounds good

in the early 80's, there wasn't really anything else like Stephen Hill's Hearts of Space program on the air... occasionally too much flute, but frequently it was just solid, bizarre electronic drone. also it was truly independent, he'd play weird cassette submissions you couldn't hear anywhere else.

>Deep Listening Band:

they made a few recordings in the water cistern. the debut album and The Ready Made Boomerang. (My favorite album of theirs is Non Stop Flight mainly for the last 50 minute track.)

Dempster returned to the cistern with 9 other trombonists for Underground Overlays, which is staggeringly gorgeous.

(Jon L), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

(and if the record scott's thinking of was solely constructed from a trombone ensemble, it was almost certainly the Dempster record)

side 2 of L'Apocalypse Des Animaux. rules.

(Jon L), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't Hearts of Space still going?

Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Read a John Fahey interview where he said he knew George Winston when he was starting out and he rated him as a guitarist but he didn't quite know what went wrong with him. In a similar vein to Deuter and similarly proto-New Age, Peter Michael Hamel and Between (in fact Alois Gromer was in them too) - all quite pleasant, but the blandness and niceness of it all is a bit wearying, in contrast Popol Vuh were never remotely bland.

Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 02:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah - Fahey actually released Winston's first album Ballads and Blues, on his Takoma label.

Broheems (diamond), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 02:23 (twenty-two years ago)

'Hearts of Space' is bitchin' in winter, as he starts making all of these really icy mixes of really minimal ambient music with titles like "dust of grain in winter ice flow". I like those shows.

Both of the shows I mentioned are still play some obscure, unsigned artists. I listen to both quite often, usually as I go to bed.

Someone that I heard on "Echoes" that I would like to hear an album is Cliff Martinez. He played drums with Beefheart and was an early member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and now he makes film soundtracks including many for Stephen Soderberg including Solaris, Narc, and Traffic. I've actually not seen these movies, but the music they played was interesting and had some really interesting sounds.


earlnash, Wednesday, 24 March 2004 03:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I loves me some Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 04:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I always love when John and I can sync up on our Projekt catalog loves.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 March 2004 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...
Is George Winston really considered new-age? I mean its just piano compostions for crying out loud. I have most of his releases and they seem just right for me. I also like his cd of Peanuts music.

Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Thursday, 13 May 2004 11:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, George Winston is considered new age. He's like the king of new age. And there ain't nothing wrong with that.

FYI - I got a great album in the mail. Eluvium - An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death (temporaryresidence ltd.)

Its solo piano by a guy named Matthew Cooper. Like Sate, Winston, and Budd all wrapped up in a big sad ball. Really beautiful stuff.

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 13 May 2004 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Welcome to ... Bashovia
http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/dre800/e875/e87582v0u0n.jpg

seyxDancer, Thursday, 13 May 2004 14:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Those boots need to come back in style.

Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The John Fahey-penned liner notes to the above comp are priceless.

sexyDancer, Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I was just thinking about George Winston. December, Winter and Spring are all fabulous. Spring was the one that opened me up to him when I got it for free back in college to review. I didn't review it, but found myself starting the day with it for months after. Also, Michael Hedges was Windham Hill and therefore "New Age". What a fantastic guitarist.

frankE (frankE), Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Don Ross - Passion Session as well as Huron Street are wonderful new age fingerstyle guitar albums.

Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

A while back, I spent some serious time researching Windham Hill for a possible book that never came to be -- had an agent, did up a proposal, actually got a couple of bites on it. But for the most part publishers were scared of the "New Age" tag, and I really couldn't work up much enthusiasm for the label, which pretty much let itself go to hell after, oh, say, 1983, if not earlier. And I couldn't make a case for the label's ongoing importance that wouldn't be complete bullshit ("New Age" records account for 0.5% of record sales). The end result is that I have a lot of WH LPs in my apartment that I do like (mainly the early guitar stuff, particularly Robbie Basho and Alex DeGrassi's Turning: Turning Back, which really deserves a re-release). And did have a few interesting conversations with the label's folks, including Daniel Hecht, Will Ackerman, some WH refugees who later founded the Six Degrees label, and Winston.

Winston: Fascinating guy to talk to, and he's extremely talkative. Deeply encyclopedic in his musical knowledge when it comes to ragtime and New Orleans piano music, and completely dismissive of the "New Age" tag -- he prefers "folk piano," which is kind of silly (cue Tom Lehrer joke here). I've seen him live twice, and didn't regret it either time -- he spends more time playing interpretations of Randy Newman, Frank Zappa, the Doors, etc., than doing his own stuff. Pretty good guitarist and harmonica player in his own right as well. Easily the humblest platinum-selling artist around, and though he's a bit eccentric, there's nothing terribly New-Agey about the fellow.

At least early on, WH was a fascinating business -- they completely owned its market, and it got record stores to create "Windham Hill" sections, a remarkable accomplishment for any label, let alone a relatively small Bay Area indie. But the market got polluted with lots of Narada knockoff shit, and today Windham Hill drinks its own Kool-Aid, releasing junk like Lullaby that repurposes the mid-'80, Shadowfax-sick back catalog. There's some amusingly angry agitation against the label on its own Web site (www.windham.com), with old fans demanding the re-issues of the (good) old records, which the label or its BMG parent has refused to do.

m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Thursday, 13 May 2004 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...
...

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 19 September 2004 15:36 (twenty-one years ago)

amateurist, that Eluvium album that I mention on this thread is truly lovely if you ever see it anywhere.

scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 19 September 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.lemuria.net/images/timeline5.jpg

Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 19 September 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Eluvium

ok, will keep an eye out.

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 19 September 2004 23:09 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...
Hmmmm:

http :// www.mgmusic. ltd .uk/default.asp

3,000,000 sales over the last 10yrs apparently. that's quite a lot! Who buys it? What's it like?

Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 26 November 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

Douglas Mcgowan with a remembrance:

https://numerogroup.com/blogs/stories/master-wilburn-burchette-1939-2023

Also Bill Perrine, who just published a book on 1970s San Diego experimentalism and included Burchette as part of it, is asking for anyone who might be able to help in preservation of his material to contact him at bill at billingsgate dot org

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 12 July 2023 18:55 (two years ago)

oh unbelievable. i love his music so much. i had no idea he was 1) still alive and 2) so close by!

his music means a lot to me, so it’s frustrating how hard it is to get in physical form. i particularly like the one with the giant flaming eye ball floating in space like a flaming eye ball nebula. i feel like it speaks directly to my innermost self

i am waiting for the new bill perrine book to show up at the brick and mortar, instead of mail order from massachusetts or whatever. very excited for this one!!

the late great, Wednesday, 12 July 2023 20:31 (two years ago)

one year passes...

this is a really beautiful solo flute and voice tape recording. parts of it were recorded inside of an abandoned water cistern in washington state for maximum echo effect. also incredible mid-90s cover art lol.

Laura Sperling - Water Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0SCH--79hc

donna rouge, Friday, 10 January 2025 23:32 (one year ago)

eleven months pass...

Heard this in a cafe, it’s quite beautiful, and I couldn’t get it out of my head for a while. Apparently she is, uh, one of Oprah’s favourite singers, and it’s got 12m views on YouTube, so I guess it’s big with whatever its audience is.

In a good way, it reminds me of “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaaP-hrUDFI

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 8 January 2026 21:49 (four months ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGRWNjHVH3s

Maresn3st, Sunday, 18 January 2026 18:08 (four months ago)

Andreas Vollenweider rules ok

corrs unplugged, Monday, 19 January 2026 13:52 (four months ago)

^ Just picked up Caverna Magica for super cheap on vinyl.

Here’s a beaut from South Africa I just found

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn0IcB-ycwk

Heez, Wednesday, 21 January 2026 03:04 (four months ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.