From Graham the Happy Scum Sent Wed, Apr 29th 1998, 17:29
Continuing the old-skool ambient thread... *Puts on Ned Kelly suit* Don't own any Tangarine Dream, or Gong, or Wishbone Ash, or records with teapots on them. A few with bent exhaust pipes tho'... Mike Oldfield. Ommadawn (1975). Terrific stuff (though it could and was described as wanky hippy nonsense). Rippling guitars, dinky but infectious tunes, *real* *african* *drummers* (ie not sampled during an anthroppological field trip and looped over tacky synths ala Deep Forest/Enigma bleah.), irish influences, guitars sounding like organs and all that. And a cutesy song at the end. Amarok (1990) is pretty good too, apparently its only available on import in the US, good luck. Similar to Ommadawn, same players, except it chops and changes every 3 minutes, but with recurring themes. One track, 60 minutes. If you like Ommadawn, Hergest Ridge (1974) is alright, though not as inspired. Pastoral, I think, is the the word. Five Miles Out (1982), if you can find it cheap, is alright as well, though not "ambient". though there are still annoying bits in it. If you don't like people throtting the buggery out of their Fairlights, don't get it. Don't get Tubular Bells (1973), it was overhyped (think New Forms :-) and the bloke was only just working out how to use the gear. Most of his other stuff isn't terribly mindblowing (from an IDM point of view) either, but a fair bit of that can be blamed on Virgin squeezing him dry. You know, though, i wouldn't mind having a copy of 'oldfield vs the orb', which supposedly came out in 1992. (Oh yes, BT's remix of "Let There Be Light" in 1995 was pretty good too...) Right. Where do I line up to get shot by the punk reactionaries? -- Graham the Happy Scum KSC KotF (G H Freeman to some) xxxx@xxxx-xxxxx.xxx Give someone you love the gift of Grudnuk. http://www.mpx.com.au/~gths ... goodness gracious me, such language!