From BigKumquat Sent Mon, Jun 21st 1999, 03:38
From BigKumquat Sent Mon, Jun 21st 1999, 03:38
As KLF's "Chill Out" succeeds in framing a cohesive concept by evoking
rattling freight trains clattering across desolate American prairies, with
ghostly country music echoing on the radio and the sun coming up...
...I find that Tesu Inoue's "World Receiver" also paints entrancing ambient
imagery...the notes indicate that the music employs environmental recordings
made in japan, thailand, pakistan, germany, and the usa. When listening, you
can picture the swirling globe (depicted in the cd artwork) and imagine
zooming in to various locations around the planet: rainforests, carnivals,
pulsating goo. Nice.
Ambient music that evokes a feeling of space and locale (and associated
pleasing imagery) is very satisfying. Of course, the locale may very well be
an imaginary planet, populated by hyper-intelligent shades of the color blue.
Then there's Steve Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Musick," which conjures the
following sense of place: reclining in a silk hammock by a bubbling mountain
spring, lush tropical plants snaking around you...it starts snowing, drifts
form. The sun melts the snow, fractal amoebas swim in space. Occasionally,
a space hippy from Glastonbury noodles on a guitar...he is dressed in green
overalls.
Yeah, I know, Steve Hillage and all...but regardless of how you feel about
System 7, props must be given to "Rainbow Dome." Accoring to some histories,
a key moment in ambient history took place when Alex Paterson began spinning
this disc in chill-out rooms, backed by relaxing beats - helping shape the
aural strategy of the Orb and other mystic ambient technicians of our time.
- Fred Church
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np: suetsu and underwood, "the love album"
- *free* kumquat cd's (not ambient) still available, consult
http://www.thelocus.com/kumquat for details and mp3's -