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[Caspian]

So basically I'm a huge fan of these genres. Obviously all the drone doom and whatnot is really where it's at, but I love a great deal of this genre in general. Tim Hecker's probably my favourite ambient guy, I thought Harmony in Ultraviolet was freakin' excellent (Blood Rainbow and Radio Spiricom being two pretty good summaries of what is so damn good about ambient), admittedly his older stuff isn't quite as good but it's all rather solid. Eluvium are up there too, their newest one wasn't quite as mindblowing as Talk Amongst The Trees but sure had it's moments, particularly that rather excellent song Ostinato. There's plenty of excellent bands out there, Stars of The Lid, Aidan Baker, Ancestor, Natural Snow Buildings (<-- their stuff is painfully limited but unbelievably awesome, most blissed out sound EVER), Procyon-X and so on and so forth.

I'm pretty much into the more 'upbeat' side of ambient, I guess, I listen to a bit of Lustmord and some of Stijn Van Cauter's stuff (doom/drone/ambient guy, has like 20 projects, most of which are somewhere between drone doom and ambient), but being a bit of a cheery dude I can't say I'll listen to it often. Another remarkable guy is Alan Lamb, who does these field recordings of telegraph wires resonating. Fantastic stuff, I guess it's kind of natural really that the best drone instrument would be some long telegraph wire. Jonathan Coleclough did a rather excellent remix of one of his "tunes" on Halant/Heat/Beech, and it's some of the best drone I've ever heard, a bit of a patience tester but the overtones, the deep low tones and what not generated in that is truly fantastic. Coleclough in general is an excellent drone guy that more people should check out.

Newayz, ambient and drone is pretty damn good, and seems to be getting better as time goes on. Discuss your favourite bands, recommend bands, talk about how boring you find this genre, and hopefully something coherent will come out this thread.

[rynne]

An ambient/drone thread without mention of Eno in the first post?  Blasphemy!  And someone's gonna mention Aphex Twin’s SAW II, so it might as well be me.

Honestly, I’m not as up on these genres at I’d like to be.  I quite like Main's Hz for uneasy ambient.  Just started getting into Christoph Heeman via Current 93.  Actually, Current 93’s text-accompaniment ambient pieces are excellent: In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land and especially Faust.  I plan to pick up NWW's Soliloquy for Lilith in the near future, which I've heard is, like, the BEST DRONE ALBUM EVAR or something.  Techno Animal's Re-Entry is great isolationist dub.  Um... Controlled Bleeding's ambient side?  I put Inanition on every once in a while. 

I know I should be checking out Final, Lustmord (I sadly have only heard his Tool remixes), maybe Aube (I enjoy Pages from the Book, but that’s all I have).

I'll probably think of more later.

[Jackie Blue]

LISTEN TO WINDY & CARL, YOU CUNTS

[valley_parade]

I'm happy with OO))) Void, thanks Jackie.

That said, that one album, Boris' "Absolutego" and Earth 2 are the biggest drone influences on my music.

[rynne]

LISTEN TO WINDY & CARL, YOU CUNTS

Some of my friends opened for them in Philly a bunch of years back.  I only stayed for half their set since I had a 2-hour drive back home.  They were okay, if I recall correctly.

[Jackie Blue]

Oh, I see, this thread is more about loud recent-style drone and not really about post-dreampop ambient like Windy & Carl or Bowery Electric (see Mediafire thread).

Carry on, then.

[valley_parade]

I didn't even know there was such a thing as "post-dreampop ambient".

I'll have to look into it!

[Broken_Drum]

Oh, I see, this thread is more about loud recent-style drone and not really about post-dreampop ambient like Windy & Carl or Bowery Electric (see mediaf!re thread).

Carry on, then.

No, no. I like a bit of Windy & Carl, also Stars Of Lid.

[Gridgm]

though not on the drone side of things copia by eluvium last year was excellent

[Jackie Blue]

Stars of the Lid are great.  Look into Loscil and Amp.

Also, obviously, Labradford and Pan American.  Too bad Labradford went out on such a mediocre album after three perfect ones in a row, perhaps they will return someday.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Stars of the Lid, Eluvium and Tarentel are the only three bands you need to listen to in this genre. Ever.
I'm kidding (sort of) but this actually is probably my favorite genre of music and the more I think about it the more I conclude that those three bands are the best out there. The newest SotL was easily the best new album of 2007 with Eluvium's new release close behind and Tarentel's 4xLP 'Ghetto Beats...' coming in at 3-6 but in reality these were all pretty much tied in my book. Each of these musical projects does something innovative and incredible and continue to astonish me the more I listen to them and the more they release music. They also all put on absolutely captivating live shows. Seriously, download everything they've all done and listen to it all. If anyone wants anything that's particularly hard to find by any of these three, including live material, let me know and I can upload it since I've spent hours tracking down pretty much all releases/tracks.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

Boris and Bongripper are the closest things to drone/ambient/whatever that i actually enjoy. and even some tracks by them leave me saying "what the fuck was the point of that?"

this is one of those "genres" of "music" that i don't think i'll ever understand.

[Dimmukane]

Speaking of which, they just released a new album, which I'm listening to as I type.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

you mean Bongripper? i really like their newest so far. i think i actually like it more than Hippie Killer. it actually goes places and does things, unlike Hippie Killer which was much of the same throughout.

[KickThatBathProf]

Stars of the Lid

This.

[Ishotdanieljohnston]

Eluvium are up there too, their newest one wasn't quite as mindblowing as Talk Amongst The Trees but sure had it's moments, particularly that rather excellent song Ostinato.

I saw Eluvium without realising who it was opening for Explosions in the Sky and it was quite amazing. Then like two months later I was on the phone to my gal and heard it in the background and was like who the fuck's that and she was all like you've seen em you dick. Good times.

[Caspian]

Oh, I see, this thread is more about loud recent-style drone and not really about post-dreampop ambient like Windy & Carl or Bowery Electric (see mediaf!re thread).

Carry on, then.

Not just about loud recent drone, unless if you count hecker/eluvium/sotl as "loud", which I wouldn't. Are there any other fans of Aidan Baker's solo work here? Surely a few dudes must like it, The Sea Swells A Bit was a beast of an album.

I've got Final: 3, rynne, and it's pretty solid, certainly has it's moments.

To be honest, I heard an Eno collaboration with someone (no idea what it's called) and hated it 

[Jackie Blue]

Does Spacemen 3's Dreamweapon count as drone?  I'm speaking of the 40-minute "An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music" track.

[Joseph]

To be honest, I heard an Eno collaboration with someone (no idea what it's called) and hated it 

If it was his collaboration with David Bryne, My Life In A Bush Of Ghosts, I wouldn't really say it was ambient at all.  Check out some of his earlier work maybe?

[Der Turm, der Leute frass]

everyone should listen to bass communion

[Jackie Blue]

FLYING SAUCER ATTACK YOU CUNTS

[Calaveth]

Tim Hecker is awesome. Aside of him and Boris, I'm not really up on the genre. The Boris/Merzbow cooperation is a kind of drone I just can't get into.

[RedLion]

Porcupine Tree's earlier stuff was fairly heavy on droning, atmospheric soundscapes.

[Biosludge]

I really like a lot of the stuff mentioned so far, but my favorite thing I've heard is The Dead Texan (one half of Stars of the Lid), which has a bit more focus on melody than some of the dronier stuff out there.  Any recommendations for similar artists? 

[rynne]

LISTEN TO WINDY & CARL, YOU CUNTS

FLYING SAUCER ATTACK YOU CUNTS

All caps + profanity = win the internet?

To be honest, I heard an Eno collaboration with someone (no idea what it's called) and hated it 

If it was his collaboration with David Bryne, My Life In A Bush Of Ghosts, I wouldn't really say it was ambient at all.  Check out some of his earlier work maybe?

Well, or his collaboration with Cluster or Jah Wobble or John Cale, etc., etc.  He does a lot of collaborations and they don't necessarily sound like his solo stuff at all.

[Jackie Blue]

All caps + profanity = win the internet?

It is a running gag based on the Obscure T-Shirt Design thread.

But seriously, Flying Saucer Attack.

[rynne]

I recall hearing interesting things about 'em.  Any albums you'd recommend in particular?

[TheFuriousWombat]

Further. It's a great album. Pretty shoegazey stuff and all rather good.

[Jackie Blue]

The most droney Flying Saucer Attack album is New Lands, which is my personal favorite.  The singles collections Distance and Chorus are close behind, the former being a bit more noisy at times and the latter being more ambient-droney.  The song "Sally Free and Easy" (cover of a traditional folk song) has its own EP and is probably the best thing they ever did.  It's really amazing.

The self-titled first album is the most conventional, and has some good shoegaze-rockers like their cover of Suede's "The Drowners".

Further is much more acoustic and kind of like a Nick Drake album, so I'd hesitate to recommend it in this thread.

Mirror, their last album, is solid and maintains much of the noise/static level of New Lands while being a bit more diverse and song-oriented.

[amok]

Frontline Assembly sideproject [n] of 7,000,000 "Synaesthesia" has done some awesome ambient work. Especially 'Ephemeral', but 'Desideratum' is quality too.

Also Biosphere... you cunts?

[Mr. Mojo]

DOOM

[TheFuriousWombat]

I recommend the solo work of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and the solo project of Liz Harris called Grouper. The former is very ambient, tonal noise drone and is very beautiful. Grouper feels very light but sorta creepy at the same time with Harris' vocals (heavily manipulated and echoed of course) being very prominent as another instrument (no words, that is). Both are wonderful and well worth checking out.

[Kai]

Grouper did some collaborations with Xiu Xiu, and it is about as excellent as the premise sounds.

[gardenhead_]

Inca Ore (Eva Saelens of Jackie O-Motherfucker) did a split cassette with Grouper, she is great too. It sounds a bit more eerie. I'll put it up in the mediafire thread.