Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume 2

Richard D James was a real marvel during the 90s when he first made his mark as the "rave age Mozart". His simple and unique style was predominantly dance-based techno becoming increasingly glitchy and edgy but at it's best, creating grooves and textures we'd never quite heard before. Sometimes he would be mellow and melodic and at other times harsh and industrial.

When I heard Digeridoo played as the intro music to a Curve gig in London, it changed my life.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 was probably the album which put Aphex Twin firmly on the map and at the forefront of electronic music at that time. It is a beautiful collection of works which for some of us have become classics. Beat driven, analogue synth, squelchy, sometimes dissonant....I'll save this one for another time.

Selected Ambient Works 2, however, was a surprise. An uncompromising stride into the world of pure ambient, non-dance oriented experimental sonic meanderings, usually brief, based around tone and atmosphere. Mesmerising and sometimes harsh. Sounds with unique qualities. A little earlier than this album there had been a genre called "isolationist" music which was a bit vague and undefined. This album seemed to fit that category and it creates a quiet environment for introspection and gentle thought. The album artwork suggests the uncovering of something ancient and there were no track titles on the original, only a photo for each track - the tracks were later known as "cliffs" or "radiator" or "shiny metal rods" giving the whole album a certain arthouse feel.

My only reservation is that the tracks could be longer, more immersive, but I only think that now having got used to longform works by other artists.  This is a beautiful and unique album.

Brian Eno - Ambient 3: Day of Radiance

This is the third in Brian Eno's ambient series and features the zither playing of Laraaji. The first three tracks of titled dance and feature rhythmic hammered dulcimer style zither which is reminiscent of Indonesian gamelan and produces an uplifting, hypnotic tone. Although these are both beautiful tracks I'm not sure I categorise them as ambient, rather than simply instrumental but that's not something I would quibble about.

The second set of two pieces (which used to be on side two of the vinyl release) are entitled Meditations #1 and #2. They are performed very differently by stroking strings of the zither to create swirling, beatless waves of hypnotic music which roll around. It wasn't entirely clear what Eno's contribution to these recordings actually was but it appears to have been processing the sound and applying effects and layering of recordings, and the result is a unique contribution to the ambient world truly hypnotic and as it's title suggests very good for meditation. Highly recommended.

Sylvian and Czukay - Plight and Premonition

This album was released in 1988. I'd been a big fan of Japan and when they split up I followed David Sylvian's work with real interest. When this album appeared it was unexpected but for me it opened up the area of ambient music which was developing from the work of Eno and others.

This album was originally on vinyl - Plight on one side and Premonition on the other. It is low-key, hypnotic and mesmeriszing and I found it a good focus for meditative introspection.

There was talk of how this was created using long tape loops and the casual repetition of elements gives these pieces a gentle familiarity.  It also includes moments of radio drifting by into ethereal space like a message from the beyond.

Wicked Messenger - The River Disappeared Sidewards

It is such a pleasure to be able to tell you about Wicked Messenger -one of my favourite musical discoveries of all time. I recall listening to a Dutch ambient music station which was where I first heard the track "Dealing with Ghosts" from the album. This track was unlike anything I've ever heard before. It was a fragile, crackling ice-cold sound which expanded into the layers of distortion like mist blowing across the streets of a deserted town. It was completely bleak yet at the same time quite beautiful and it gave me goosebumps. I had to find out more.

I found the album which have been released on Plague Recordings, a small independent label from Belgium. The album was also a revelation - the discovery of an entire new genre which Wicked Messenger calls "grand ambient". There was something entirely different about this music - an approach to pure noise which was quite visionary. Wicked Messenger is not so much music as it is pure atmosphere with an understanding of noise, dissonance and distortion which is unprecedented in any other music I've ever listened to.

Wicked Messenger is the work of one Martin Kranzell from Germany who I once had the pleasure of exchanging messages with via MySpace ( showing my age now).

It's as if he opens up the gates of hell and points a microphone in to record the sounds that emanate from there. Even more impressive is the fact but the main sound sources used are guitars which are heavily processed and cast  into enormous chasms of reverb which is right up my street. On this album check out the track "Transition" which grows and builds upon layers of circling noise to a point where you think your sound system is going to explode. I guarantee you have never heard anything like this before. It's unsettling, disturbing and challenging to the listener.

Is it ambient? To be honest I'm not sure but I certainly think so. If anything it is an extreme form of dark ambient which has never been created before and as far as I know no one else has gone anywhere near this area of sonic exploration but I may well be wrong. There were numerous other releases from Wicked Messenger each one developing within this newly discovered genre and I'm certain I will mention others in due course.