suspect that for every person who sees eg Vangelis on something like this and turns their nose up at the obviousness of it all, there's someone else for whom it's the hook to investigate further
LITA is more a label for curious dabblers rather than srs heads I'd say
― Vlogs from other credible bands such as Shed Seven (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 5 January 2017 14:41 (seven years ago) link
not sure I agree with that. I don't see a lot of curious dabblers shelling out $50+ for a box set because they're mildly curious about ambient music beyond Eno
tbh I was a bit put off at first by the inclusion of some of the "big" names on here, too; I'm pretty sure I own everything Popol Vuh and Ash Ra Tempel have released, for one thing. But there's a lot on here I'd never heard, and the whole thing flows rather nicely, like a playlist where you occasionally recognize the song playing but not the ones surrounding it.
xp the complaint about the maleness is valid enough, but I Am The Center is what introduced me to the music of Joanna Brouk, for which I am very thankful. Probably one of my favorite discoveries of 2013
― Wimmels, Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:45 (seven years ago) link
i get not wanting to include more well-known artists on a comp like this, but I also think it's useful/interesting to hear those "big" names in the company of obscurities. i'm probably a curious dabbler in this kind of thing anyway. love to dabble.
― tylerw, Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:57 (seven years ago) link
and while i'm here, let me highly recommend this series of amazing mixes (some of which falls into the "new age" category, some of which may not) that a friend of mine put together over the last few years: http://loveallday.com/category/gown-control/ so good!
― tylerw, Thursday, 5 January 2017 16:00 (seven years ago) link
xp relatively speaking, so am I! I leave it to experts to compile stuff like this because I no more want to needle drop on a thousand shitty new age LPs looking for hidden gems than I do scour bins looking for demotik Greek 78s or researching unlabeled dub plates.
― Wimmels, Thursday, 5 January 2017 16:01 (seven years ago) link
These comps looks great, Tyler, thanks!
― Wimmels, Thursday, 5 January 2017 16:02 (seven years ago) link
yr welcome -- the piano one in particular is AMAZING. but they're all good -- this guy Michael has indeed needle dropped on a thousand shitty new age LPs (and listened to even more tapes) looking for hidden gems. he is great at finding them.
― tylerw, Thursday, 5 January 2017 16:11 (seven years ago) link
and the whole thing flows rather nicely, like a playlist where you occasionally recognize the song playing but not the ones surrounding it.
sold
― though she denies it to the press, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 5 January 2017 16:54 (seven years ago) link
I wonder if anyone can ID the first track here or have a stab at who it might be by. Or indeed any others in the first 17 minutes (before the two Kraftwerk tracks), or the one at 29 minutes after No Man...
https://www.mixcloud.com/distantdrums/offshore-state-circus-outer-bongolia-solid-steel-kiss-100fm-6-2-1994/
― Noel Emits, Friday, 6 January 2017 12:41 (seven years ago) link
And the echoey acoustic guitar + wave sounds & flute + harmonium tracks after that, before the Robert Leiner etc. You get the idea.
― Noel Emits, Friday, 6 January 2017 12:46 (seven years ago) link
Gown Control mixes are amazing (I am through Volume 3 and Sunpath are blowing my mind. Thinking about picking up the two tape set. Loved the Planetary Pleasure track on the first one, downloaded the whole tape and found it a little different (more Christian hippy dippy amateur harmony vocals over Joseph Byrd style experiments than I was expecting) but pretty charming none-the-less.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Saturday, 4 March 2017 22:59 (seven years ago) link
been listening to those sunpath cassettes on Apple Music ("yasimin and the snowflake dragon" and "sunpath 2") and yes they are marvelous
― the late great, Saturday, 4 March 2017 23:04 (seven years ago) link
Sunpath! Where has this been hiding?! Beautiful stuff.
― Wimmels, Sunday, 5 March 2017 02:55 (seven years ago) link
It's weird to me that there isn't a book about this scene--its origins, politics, most famous practitioners--by now. Surely someone is working on one? If one exists, can anyone point me in that direction? A few years ago I had a book from the eighties that was sort of "who's who" of new age, and it was enlightening enough (if dated), but was more a 'guide' in the Trouser Press sense, with an alphabetical listing of artists and short, paragraph-sized spotlights on particular high points of the respective discographies.
This Sunpath stuff, I just want to reiterate, is great, btw. Almost in a too-good-to-be-true way, like it could be a hoax or something. Any way it could be a hoax or something? Kinda weird that the only link on Discogs is to this 2016 "reissue"
― Wimmels, Sunday, 5 March 2017 21:06 (seven years ago) link
There's an interview out there with the guy who made it: https://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2016/05/sunpath
― larry appleton, Sunday, 5 March 2017 21:12 (seven years ago) link
Well, yeah, but that could just be someone's dad or something in that photo! It wouldn't take a great amount of effort to just have someone pose as this guy in phone interviews and then provide a picture of some rando guy who looks the part.
Let me be clear: I am in no way suggesting this is a hoax, only that it would be funny / neat if it was, and would not diminish my enjoyment of it whatsoever. You have to admit, though, the fact that Google turns up no info at all on this guy before 2016 is somewhat suspect, given that even the most obscure shit (even obscuro new age tapes - see the many blogs) has at least some web presence.
― Wimmels, Sunday, 5 March 2017 23:32 (seven years ago) link
"Sonic Seasonings" (1972) by Wendy Carlos must be one of the earliest ambient/new age albums in existence?
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Sunday, 5 March 2017 23:34 (seven years ago) link
sunpath interview is awesome
― the late great, Sunday, 5 March 2017 23:59 (seven years ago) link
i'm really digging the sunpath, thanks. esp. the song "gá te", particularly the passage from about 18:00 to 19:30. wow.
― Karl Malone, Monday, 6 March 2017 04:00 (seven years ago) link
i realize it's silly to isolate a brief section from a 30 minute song, but it enters into a true magic zone there
the fact that Google turns up no info at all on this guy before 2016 is somewhat suspect
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ZOsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=%22Jeff+Berry%22+sunpath&source=bl&ots=lR6-kW8oxb&sig=PI-Qk9SV1XRSTW4ykYAktxVGDr4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj036-Zg8HSAhXEg1QKHZrZAuA4ChDoAQg7MAY#v=onepage&q=%22Jeff%20Berry%22%20sunpath&f=false
― just sayin, Monday, 6 March 2017 04:21 (seven years ago) link
Whelp I guess that answers that. I find the fake lost recordings phenomenon/marketing to be a little interesting as I'm not sure if most cases the music wouldn't be just as warmly received without it (Unknown Krautrock and Stefano Loprato spring to mind).
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Monday, 6 March 2017 13:04 (seven years ago) link
I agree. There was a metal band a few years ago called Velvet Cacoon who (iirc) were exposed as some sort of phonies, but the records they made are still great imo. See also: Marvin Pontiac
xp Yeah, good sleuthing! Still, crazy that that's what you turned up. It's crazy that something in this day and age can remain so (almost) completely off the grid.
― Wimmels, Monday, 6 March 2017 14:24 (seven years ago) link
Wasn't the Jurgen Muller 'lost' album from a few years ago famously a hoax?
― groovypanda, Thursday, 9 March 2017 14:40 (seven years ago) link
Absolutely.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, 9 March 2017 15:27 (seven years ago) link
Lovely mix:
https://soundcloud.com/heavybreathingarchive/the-entrance-to-creation-sacred-gems
― groovypanda, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 11:07 (seven years ago) link
When I click show all messages in this thread, Chrome blocks the page and warns that www.technodisco.net is an attack site. I'm guessing there's a message with some embedded dodgy code/links? All I wanted were some blissed-out Aquarian vibes...
― the_ecuador_three, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 12:14 (seven years ago) link
I put a note in to Mod Request
― sleeve, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 13:55 (seven years ago) link
nice stuff on that mix
― ogmor, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 14:05 (seven years ago) link
http://iasos.com/artists/chandler/https://www.discogs.com/artist/561784-Geoffrey-Chandler
Word on FB from mutual friends that Geoffrey Chandler has passed. Only one album in his discography but that one helped define the entire genre. We need a cleaned up remaster of it very very badly.
― Milton Parker, Sunday, 16 July 2017 20:54 (six years ago) link
idk about the first track but otherwise SEARCH: Remote Dreaming by The Ghostwriters, from 1986. absolute bliss. basically sounds like the album title + the cover illustration
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zfQ-_EIeWc0/VezZ6hojGnI/AAAAAAAACrw/TMdAO1NlpfI/s640/R-3802176-1352461788-6287.jpeg.jpg
― brimstead, Thursday, 5 October 2017 02:06 (six years ago) link
CALM ENERGY CHROME
― brimstead, Thursday, 5 October 2017 02:07 (six years ago) link
Mu-Psych Music!
― doug watson, Thursday, 5 October 2017 13:13 (six years ago) link
i lived long enough to see this dollar bin record get a fancy new vinyl reissue that will probably cost you about 25 bucks with shipping:
https://www.discogs.com/Jon-Hassell-Dream-Theory-In-Malaya-Fourth-World-Volume-Two/master/33904
― scott seward, Thursday, 5 October 2017 13:31 (six years ago) link
also came here to say that this album is awesome and should cost you about five bucks now so don't wait for the 30 dollar reissue in ten years:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=275&v=oHgek1ufoJI
― scott seward, Thursday, 5 October 2017 13:34 (six years ago) link
when the hell what that a dollar bin album, the early 90s???
― brimstead, Thursday, 5 October 2017 14:26 (six years ago) link
what=was
well, yeah. i'm old. i just meant nobody really wanted it until internet era.
― scott seward, Thursday, 5 October 2017 14:50 (six years ago) link
ha yeah it's kinda quaint reading the beginning of this thread. "who the hell listens to this stuff? why?"
― brimstead, Thursday, 5 October 2017 14:52 (six years ago) link
It’s totally not worth a search but just want to mention that in my city every adult seemed to have only 3 new age artists in their collection and they were always the same: Enya, Spyrogyra and Secret Garden. Era was also huge but that was in the new age revival attempt in the late 90’s. Were “Ameno” and “Misere Mani” as huge in the US or Europe? I know they were also huge in France. Here in Mexico they would play in the hits radio every single day. And both Era 1 and Era 2 were selling like hot bread and would be featured in the top 10 of every fucking music store you entered.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 5 October 2017 15:26 (six years ago) link
“Misere Mani” is actually a guilty pleasure of mine... I feel it would be an awesome song with better production it makes pop with gregorian chants work better than they should.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 5 October 2017 15:29 (six years ago) link
spyro gyra are a jazz group, yo!
― brimstead, Thursday, 5 October 2017 15:45 (six years ago) link
or like, when jazz-funk started to stink. some of their early stuff is nice, though
― brimstead, Thursday, 5 October 2017 15:46 (six years ago) link
Oh you’re right! Tbh I’ve never listened to them I just related them to new age because they were popular around the same time and the same audience as new age consumers.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 5 October 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link
Re: Ghostwriters, I've been wondering what you can say about Charles Cohen these days. He made some really fantastic synthesiser music. One of those tracks is on the A Retrospective compilation.
― Noel Emits, Thursday, 5 October 2017 16:08 (six years ago) link
new age fans might be into the other spirogyra though. especially first wave new age fans who went from art/prog rock to new age.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkSFlJubQU8
― scott seward, Thursday, 5 October 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link
the few obits i've seen for him have definitely been somewhat awkward xp
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Thursday, 5 October 2017 16:20 (six years ago) link
Xpost is fuzak kind of a suburb of new age? I think it is
― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 5 October 2017 23:08 (six years ago) link
― brimstead
see also grateful dead thread
― the late great, Thursday, 5 October 2017 23:23 (six years ago) link
UK-centric ILX had some weird blind spots, see also Tom Petty
― sleeve, Friday, 6 October 2017 00:04 (six years ago) link