The mind revealing itself to itself: the TOP 100 AMBIENT ALBUMS as voted by ILX

Controversial? I completely missed hearing this in 2010 even though I remember it being discussed on ILX, so I'm listening to it now for the first time... It's not half-bad, but among the top 100 ambient recordings of all time, maybe not.

Sorry, the points for that should be:

217 points, 3 votes.

And I just realised it isn't a tie, since the other album with 217 points got more votes. So the actual placing is:

85. Justin Bieber: U Smile (800% Slower) (2010)

It's great to listen to and was a *thing* before the Great Slow Down All The Things era. It being an early-ish highlight of the "genre" will have something to do with it.

I didn't vote for it as I had already picked something else as a gimmicky (but genuine) vote.

Was there ever an 'I Kill Everything I Fuck (800% Slower)'?

On it.

V high on my ballot. Here's a video of me drumming to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1qpR2DGb5k

84. Windy & Carl: Depths (1998)
217 points. 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/qFc6BOA.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru6mCSvITB8

ABSOLUTELY, yes. It's a whole 'nother thing to listen to ambient music loud and give it all your attention. Think Windy & Carl or Oval (though only the mid-period Oval could be considered ambient.) Play it on a nice stereo and crank it up and let the complex sound wash over you, I say.

― Mark, Wednesday, April 25, 2001 3:00 AM

Alot of Windy and Carl sounds like the sea.

― jel, Wednesday, August 1, 2001 3:00 AM

I went through a phase of writing my dissertation listening exclusively to "Depths" by Windy & Carl. Mutually exclusively even, in that I couldn't do the work without the record, and I found it impossible to listen to the record when not working. Weird.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, September 28, 2004 11:32 AM

The Bieber thing isn't an album and shouldn't have been allowed

you're not an album

you don't know what format I am

83. Henry Flynt: You Are My Everlovin / Celestial Power (1986)

https://i.imgur.com/0PevLn3.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttltmnbJ1po

Nah, that dbl CD of 'You're My Everlastin' is the one to go for first.
It really is like hillbilly Tony Conrad. Is it just me, is one CD of this stuff - holy minimalist fiddling - abt all you truly need?

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Friday, April 25, 2003 11:43 PM

"you are my everlovin/celestial power" is beautiful, really dancing on that edge between western folk music and indian drones.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Saturday, April 26, 2003 2:09 AM

listened to you are my everlovin' for the first time in ages, i had forgotten/underestimated the sheer surging POWer of flynt's playing, so estatic and inspired and abandoned - really one of the greatest things

― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, October 7, 2008 1:11 AM

19648 = my favourite year!!

the distinction between theatre and social change maybe isn't one *flynt* wd have made: like the sits, he had moved by the mid-60s into a phase where the only valid art wz stuff that actually "created situations" (ie active interventions in history blah blah, the assumption being that these alone changed things) (following marx's theses on feuerbach, only reading "art" where it says "philosophy" blah blah)*

(i think flynt wz a leninist at that time, whereas technically the sits repudiated lenin...)

by throwing music open to the whole of possible noise — inc.in particular sounds not made or intended by the composers/performers, ie trucks driving past the building, rain on the roof — cage had declared that the entire world was the stage => the logical inference, that every single member of the audience is a contributing artist/composer/performer (and that the "audience" includes everyone in the entire world)

what links everyone mentioned so far is that, insofar as they realised this wz the logical conclusion of cage's work (if you took this aspect of it seriously), they found SOME way to resist its political implications (cage himself waved around a kind of vacuous pseudo-maoism) => flynt's (in part) wz to reach for the language of expression of his admired political forebears, a formal self-enchainment which effectively transformed his every action back into (the pre-cage idea of) theatre, in that it turned all reportage of it into reviews of performances

i don't think anyone in the entire "orthodox" happenings/creating situations/political theatre/agitprop/performance art/conceptual art arena really escaped this dilemma, tho a nice angle on its is (kaprow-student) richard meltzer's argt that yoko's trip to london to pick her up a beatle was a fluxus-prank (and therefore that EVERYTHING that followed — including May 1968 etc — was part of the piece, punk and the tumultuous 70s as rain on yoko's performance-space roof)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, April 26, 2003 12:55

The Bieber thing isn't an album and shouldn't have been allowed

In the nomination thread, I specifically said that non-album pieces were fine too, as long as they are at least 30 minutes... This was mostly so that EPs/maxi singles could be nominated too, but the poll was never "albums only". Even the Buddha Machine was allowed in the end!

wow, this sounds really interesting!

how many flynt votez?

Ah, I miss my days of watching grown men hit colanders with spoons.

This Flynt is awesome. Forgot to vote for it.

Sorry, the Henry Flynt album's points are:

218 points, 4 votes.

81. (tie] Woob: Woob 1194 (1994)
219 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/gH3Tuqe.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S3owK3pN64

Woob 1194 - tongue-in-cheek tribal ambient, can you believe it?

― Wintermute (Wintermute), Monday, March 31, 2003 1:49 PM

I SLEEP TO THIS ALBUM 3/7 NIGHTS A WEEK

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, September 15, 2004 3:35 AM

I'm in a rush, so perhaps I will write more later ... but the album more or less covers the entire spectrum of ambient music : ambient dub, to tranquil floaty ambient, to cold, scary, rumbling ambient. One minute you're grooving along to some gentle percussion and suddenly, a couple of minutes later, the temperature in the room has dropped several degrees and you're in a bewildering, clammy haze. All these shifts aren't sudden cuts, they take place fluidly.

Pardon the brutal cliche, but with all the stylistic shifts, this album takes you on a journey like no other I've heard.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, September 15, 2004 2:15 PM

Great to see the love for Windy & Carl.

xp WOOB WOOB

it's the sound of the ambient police

I've never really warmed up to 1194... I guess most of what Barry Bruner said in the quote is true, but to me the things he mentions sound more like early-nineties ambient clichés than something awesome when you actually hear them on the album.

My #2 pick! Does not bode well for the rest of my top ten.

Also it's funny, if you wanna sleep to this album, you gotta watch out for the scream at the end of Strange Air that comes after about twenty very quiet minutes.

I once fell half asleep to Vladislav Delay's Anima, and was scared shitless by the creepy-voiced monologue at the end of the album, which is otherwise completely electronic. For a second, I thought someone had broken into my apartment.

Just listening to Henry Flint now, so good!

The last entry for today coming up, and it'll be the most new age thing in the poll so far...

Yanni time!

Lol

81. (tie) Syntonic Research Inc.: Environments 2 - Tintinnabulation (Special Low Frequency Version) (1987)
219 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/qR1M805.jpg

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

ha! Irv Teibel has now been retroactively credited as the author. His name never appears anywhere in the packaging, but Syntonic Research Inc. was essentially a one man operation. I've had some conversations with the guy who's recently inherited the library / organization; they're looking for a good label to handle a complete box reissue. For a series that sold in the millions and that was so ridiculously influential, it is a little silly how under the radar they all fly now

I have the CD issue of 'Tintinabulation'; they mastered it at the 16.666 rpm speed, lasts an hour, good move. 'Intonation' also sounds good slow. I have a set of the vinyl but I don't have some of the later cassettes, man do I want to hear 'Alpine Blizzard', what in hell does that even sound like

― Milton Parker, Tuesday, August 25, 2015 11:43 PM

In the absence of peer review, there’s always the theater of public opinion. As the series took off, Environments came packaged with customer feedback surveys, inquiring into everything from demographics and occupation to the make of one’s stereo system and speaker placement in their house. People responded at length, often appending typewritten commentary to the forms, digressing into their lives, their worries, their ailments and their solace—a patchwork of anxious, disconnected souls strung together with form stationery.

A blind man in Chicago wrote to say he played Teibel’s “Alpine Blizzard” at Christmastime. A lonely housewife in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, would retreat into Environments when her son and husband abandoned her for TV. A migraine sufferer says his doctor introduced him to Environments to miraculous effect, though he, like Teibel’s schnauzer Max, found the alligators of the Okefenokee Swamp unnerving. A Dairy Queen employee in Laurel, Delaware liked getting stoned and listening to “Dusk at New Hope” but wished the crickets weren’t so loud, while ABC News anchor Hugh Downs worried the recordings were making him too sane, “rendering me unfit for my profession.” One fan professedly into “alternate life styles” suggests that Teibel receive a Nobel Prize.
Cara Giaimo: "The Man Who Recorded, Tamed, and Then Sold Nature Sounds to America"

I love the long, detailed descriptions in the sleeve notes of that album on how to listen to it and what sort of beneficial uses and effects it can have. Especially this bit:

https://i.imgur.com/RdS5cbj.jpg

Whoops, sorry, the second quote in the entry was credited, it's from this article by Mike Powell:

https://pitchfork.com/features/cover-story/reader/natural-selection

The link below the quote leads to another article about Irv Teibel, they're both well worth reading.

several of my votes made it today, nice! although i now feel very guilty about not voting for Tired Sounds of SotL, i'm very glad that my Ballasted Orchestra vote helped boost it into the top 100. it's a beautiful album, but probably the most static/droney of their catalog, and not one i'd recommend to SotL newcomers. still - it has knocked me out cold at night more times than i can remember.

i am very enthusiastic about one of the two sides of Environments 2, enough to throw it some points even though i rarely flip it over.

Which side?

Thanks for linking to that Atlas Obscura article, Tuomas, that was a great read.

Hmm, I think you're talking about a different version of "Environments 2"... The original is an LP from 1970 that has two different tracks on each sides, "Tintinnabulation" being one of them. But for this 1987 release that track was slowed down 100 %, so it only has one 60 minute track with the bells.

(xpost)

I’ll have to check when I get home! I remembered one side having about 25 minute of bells softly clanging in the wind. But I also have a terrible memory, so

but probably the most static/droney of their catalog, and not one i'd recommend to SotL newcomers

What if you like drone? I've dipped my toes into SOTL waters before (Refinement, Tired Sounds) and was kind of underwhelmed.

Was there ever an 'I Kill Everything I Fuck (800% Slower)'?

― pomenitul, Monday, June 24, 2019 11:28 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

On it.

― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre)

*applause*

Several of my votes made it today, Henry Flynt and Skelton being the most important to me, personally. Both of those records are just ungodly good, and I've been returning to them for years.

Hmm, I think you're talking about a different version of "Environments 2"... The original is an LP from 1970 that has two different tracks on each sides, "Tintinnabulation" being one of them. But for this 1987 release that track was slowed down 100 %, so it only has one 60 minute track with the bells.

oops, you're exactly right! yeah, i was thinking this one:

https://www.discogs.com/No-Artist-Environments-New-Concepts-in-Stereo-Sound-Disc-2/release/176729

oh well. now i really want to hear the 1987 version!

80. David Behrman: On the Other Ocean (1978)
223 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/W6QKU7F.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3nG9BbzH3I

I listen to my tape of the radio station's copy of On the Other Ocean all the time in my car, very soothing.

― Trip Maker, 23. heinäkuuta 2011 4:26

on the other ocean is a favorite of mine, a very warm lovely record

― brimstead, 10. maaliskuuta 2014 20:01

I used to switch between eno's "discreet music" and David Behrman - "on another ocean"

― neutral sequence for flute (blank), 13. huhtikuuta 2012 21:43

wow, perfect sound forever rules, just when I think i've finally covered their archives I find another top interview...

http://www.furious.com/perfect/behrman.html

"Even though 'minimalist' composers/musicians such as Terry Riley, LaMonte Young and Steve Reich are pretty well-known outside of their own musical style, David Behrman has not been as heralded. This is CRIMINALLY WRONG."

― (Jon L), 6. huhtikuuta 2004 23:11

oh well. now i really want to hear the 1987 version!

You can hear it in the Youtube link I posted. :)

79. Biosphere: Cirque (2000)
224 points, 4 votes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWOM4GEO9A

https://i.imgur.com/sXIDxPE.jpg

Cirque is really lovely, almost as great as Substrata. It's more sample heavy (in a klf Chill Out sort of way), and *sigh* there are few a beats here and there. Definitely a stand-out artists among the deluge of ambient out there... His records have a spontaneity to them.. A spontaneity of which I can't quite locate the source.

― gaseous (gaseous), 15. huhtikuuta 2006 8:47

Although bearing similarities to Biosphere's early 90's output, the absorbing Cirque (2000) suggests further changes and it revels in new sounds, low-fi environmental samples and beats with oddly muted edges. Tracks range from totally abstract looping exercises like "When I Leave" and "Moistened & Dried" to atmospheric drum'n'bass with the frantic beats muted and softened to tickle you ears rather than move your feet. Cirque is based on the infamous and fatal Alaskan wilderness trek of American amateur explorer Chris McLandless and the sense of loneliness and isolation is palpable at times. The album does end on a positive note with pulsing reverse chord effects that create a lovely enveloping warmth, perhaps an acknowledgement that even the most patient listener doesn't want to be left out in the cold for too long.

Mike Watson, Ambient Music Guide

Cirque is one of my favourite Biosphere records, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for it in this poll, it feels way too groove and beat oriented to fit here.

I absolutely love Cirque, i just limited my ballot to one album per artist.

Likewise.

77. (tie) Vladislav Delay: Multila (2000)
230 points, 5 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/7heTSfB.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B35LE3_9UM8

just had oral surgery today whilst listening to Vladislav Delay -- not a bad combination; I highly recommend getting your teeth pulled next time you listen to Multila.

― Lee, 23. maaliskuuta 2002 3:00

Vladislav Delay - Multila. One of my all time favourite albums and a real maverick in terms of albums to fall asleep to. More than once Its taken me like a week to listen to it in full becuase I kept falling asleep during it.

― Thomas Mehlt (Tokyo Ghost Stories), 8. kesäkuuta 2006 17:15

Multila is desert island disc

― brimstead, 7. joulukuuta 2018 0:14

Didn't vote for it because I put no thought into my pathetic ballot but 'tis a great album indeed.

77. (tie) Ian William Craig: A Turn of Breath (2014)
230 points, 5 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/9mEXJHO.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpk8gwCJo7E

kinda one of the best things i've heard in the 21st century.

― scott seward, 23. marraskuuta 2015 8:30

This just came up on my "Spotify discover" playlist and it's probably the first time I've actually "discovered" anything via that playlist.

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), 24. joulukuuta 2015 5:42

Ik ben gek op verval, zoals bij sinds jaren verlaten bioscopen, fabrieken, pretparken… Die liefde treft ook muziek; of wat daar dan van over is… Ian William Craig heeft een klassiek geschoolde stem en een voorliefde voor drones en tape manipulatie. Het gevolg is een dwaaltocht over een kathedralenkerkhof (of het graf van William Basinsksi, dat kan ook). Gebroken glas-in-lood, engelen met uitgeregende ogen, de geur van beschimmelde duivenpoep. Het is niet onder woorden te brengen hoe diep dat me raakt.

― Sebastian (Royal Mermaid Mover), 17. syyskuuta 2014 21:58

this thread put me on Turn of Breath and for that I am forever in its debt, I keep finding new ways to enjoy this record

― grinding like a jolly elf (jamescobo), 3. tammikuuta 2016 6:52

de geur van beschimmelde duivenpoep

Fantastic record.

76. Spacemen 3: Dreamweapon (1990)
231 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/zGUlPsU.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qA0nelfNc

there is nothing lazy about this music.

A point that's often lost when talking about them. As easy as it is to dismiss them as hazy druggie fucks, the intensity to the sound is tremendous. "Dreamweapon" doesn't put me to sleep at all - it's too intense and I get caught up in it. The only other art that's induced a similar reaction is going to La Monte Young's Dream House or watching Sistiaga's experimental films.

― Elvis Telecom, 19. huhtikuuta 2013 9:04

also everybody who likes drone (as opposed to or beyond space rock) should have a copy of the "dreamweapon" reissue if only for the "ecstasy symphony"

― vahid (vahid), 3. lokakuuta 2003 23:34

Be asleep and awake at the same time with "Dreamweapon"

― p.j. (Henry), 6. lokakuuta 2003 23:28

Although I should say that "Dreamweapon" is not a variation, but it's own thing entirely. Get it later- it's fantastic, but you've got to be in the mood for *The Drone*....

― jsoulja (jsoulja), 2. elokuuta 2005 0:11