Top 100 Ambient Albums

Yeah, I won't die on the NO BEATS hill. Happy to vote on whatever appears.

Can't say how excited I would be about this poll, were there anyone to run it. Sad.

lllooolll

The recent-ish (2018?) Jurg Frey 5-disc album on Erstwhile = top ambient

...if you like the sounds of ocean surf, jet planes carving holes in the sky, passive (background / adjacent room-) listening, incidental sounds, vague tonal content, and silence

also, very timely poll, as i just got David Toop's Ocean of Sound book on ambient music in the mail

― these are not all of the possible side effects (Karl Malone), Wednesday, May 15, 2019 9:42 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Excellent book.

Oh and Leee I'd never killfile you, honest!

i don't understand what this is supposed to be saying:

if Eluvium is on this list there's no credible reason the first two Enya albums wouldn't be, except Pitchfork finds her way too unbeardly

Me neither.

I propose a totally free nomination process, beats/no beats, the voters will decide what they deem ambient. We're more or less adults here, I think we can do without strict rules?

Yeah, that's how I'm thinking of doing the poll. I think I'm gonna write some simple guidelines of how ambient is usually defined, to steer the nominations, but I'm not gonna disqualify anything if someone feels it's ambient.

For example, to me it seems pretty evident that SAW 1 is not ambient (despite the title of the) because of its dancey rhythms and beats, while SAW II is. But if someone still wants to nom the further, why not. But since we've had numerous generic polls on electronic music, I'm hoping this won't turn into one too, so hopefully people will at least consider what ambient means before nomming their favourite Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada albums.

if SAW1 counts then I'd think early LPs by The Black Dog and Autechre should also count

I don't think any of those count as ambient, but I'd like to hear justifications why they would?

I mean, if the one characteristic of ambient most people agree on that it's non-intrusive and doesn't call attention to it, then the jerky mood and rhythm changes of something like Spanners or Temple of Transparent Balls would absolutely disqualify it.

The first four Enya albums are amazing (the next four... less so) but I wouldn't call them ambient. Enya is Enya.

Would love to see everyone's top ten or twenty too!

Yeah, I love Enya, and there are many new age albums that are among my favourite ambient records, but her music isnt ambient, it's too song-oriented.

SAW1 shouldn't be eligible imho.

Let the great ambient gatekeeping begin.

hey tuomas, can i passionately argue for the inclusion of a field recording that i made of a train that's on my hard drive and no one else has ever heard, just so that i can be the one person that votes for it?

(jk)

everything is permissible but nothing is ambient

FSOL and Banco De Gaia, ambient or not?

FSOL has to be, how can Lifeforms not be ambient?

Your nominations for the ILX AMBIENT ALBUMS POLL (nominations close on Friday, May 31st)

Zoning out to saw1 after too much drink and drugs when I was far too young, as the sun rose over the trees, where me and my friends sat in sleeping bags we needed only for comfort, in a bright light back room in the west of england, we knew we were already late for saturday jobs, but it was alright because this music

Isn't ambient?

Posted on the wrong thread. Not to be I suppose