Friday, April 25, 2008

The Sabres Of Paradise - Sabresonic
























Label: Warp
Year: 1993
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM

Review: (Allmusic.com)

The Sabres' techno-oriented debut album includes crucial singles like "Smokebelch," "Wilmott," and previously unavailable items like "Still Fighting" and "Ano Electro." Also tacks on In the Nursery's beatless remix of "Smokebelch II."
-Sean Cooper (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/110224986/The_Sabres_Of_Paradise_-_Sabresonic.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/110225816/The_Sabres_Of_Paradise_-_Sabresonic.part2.rar

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Slag Boom Van Loon - Slag Boom Van Loon
























Label: Planet µ
Year: 1998
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Combining the bed-sit beats of Mu-Ziq and the musical disobedience of Speedy J, for intelligent dance music observers this side project of the two experimentalists must read on paper much like a historical Beatles and Rolling Stones crossover. Hey, if equally mythological team-ups can happen in comic books, why not here? Even when you can point out each musician's superpowers on each track (accurately or not), Slag Boom Van Loon have gone and constructed an hour's worth of meticulously absurd electronic fizz. "Light of India" builds up a wall of sitars and Aziz-like transglobal percussion while other pieces like "Broccoli" sound like a Bjork instrumental forced to subsist on underground fungi for a month. Effortless and interesting, this is a collaboration that shows just how screwed in the head dance musicians can be when they get around to it.
- Dean Carlson (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/110205646/Slag_Boom_Van_Loon_-_Slag_Boom_Van_Loon.rar

Placid Angles - The Cry























Label: Peacefrog
Year: 1997
Styles: Ambient Techno, Techno, Ambient Dub

Review: (Allmusic.com)

For his first album as Placid Angles, Beltran retained bits of his original Detroit techno inspiration but tempered the whole with a growing stock of ambient (and even new age) textures. Tracks like "Ocean," "Fate" and the beatless "Everything Under the Sun" recall early-'90s Artificial Intelligence maestros like Black Dog and B12 material and shades of original Detroit.
- John Bush (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/110170662/Placid_Angles_-_The_Cry.rar

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

John Beltran - Ten Days Of Blue























Label: Peacefrog
Year: 1996
Styles: Ambient Techno, Techno

Review: (Allmusic.com)

John Beltran's first album for Peacefrog tweaks the blueprint of Detroit techno with a collection of fragile melodies and synthesizer textures worthy of a Derrick May classic, but with more finely wrought percussion. The melancholy beauty of such tracks as "Collage of Dreams" make Ten Days of Blue an LP supremely chilled and ready to serve.
- John Bush (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/109924745/John_Beltran_-_Ten_Days_Of_Blue.rar

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Robert Leiner - Visions Of The Past























Label: Apollo
Year: 1994
Styles: Ambient Techno, Ambient

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Arguably the most underrated electronic album of 1994, Visions of the Past alternates between songs of uptempo trance beauty and slower ambient cuts so sinister that the flesh crawls. The best example of the former is "Aqua Viva," a 12-minute dolphin epic with dolphin sounds; of the eerie tracks, "Northern Dark," "Dream or Reality" and the title track are the most paranoid.
- John Bush (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/142462003/Robert_Leiner_-_Visions_Of_The_Past.rar

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Funkstörung - Additional Productions






















Label: K7
Year: 1999
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM

Review: (Allmusic.com)

This eight-track remix compilation features indie-techno heroes Funkstörung reworking tracks by an array of artists from Björk to Wu-Tang Clan to Finitribe to East Flatbush Project to Various Artists and Visit Venus. The duo's trademarked style (trademarked by Autechre, that is) is in full effect and though remix compilations usually aren't a good source for original productions, Additional Productions fills the bill quite nicely.
- John Bush (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/109400924/Funkstoerung__-_Additional_Productions.rar

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Bandulu - Guidance
























Label: Infonet
Year: 1993
Styles: Ambient Techno

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Bandulu's first album is their closest to British listening techno acts like Black Dog and B12. Highlights "Messenger," "Earth 6," and "Pacekeeper" push an aggressive rhythmic tone, though the melodies are quite fragile. One track, "Better Nation," features a Carl Craig remix.
- John Bush (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/106470629/Bandulu_-_Guidance.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/106473858/Bandulu_-_Guidance.part2.rar

David Shea - Satyricon























Label: Sub Rosa
Year: 1997
Styles: Ambient Techno, Electro-Acoustic

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Like past Shea releases, his 1997 Sub Rosa release Satyricon takes its creative impetus from literature (this time from ancient Roman author Petronius' work of the same name). Unlike past Shea releases, however, there are next to no samples in this nearly hour-long work, Shea instead assembling the remote contributions of nearly two dozen musicians (Sim Cain, Anthony Coleman, Zeena Parkins, Sebastian Steinberg, Fabio Accurso, and Erik Friedlander, among others) into abstract instrumental ambient and electro-acoustic pieces incorporating the sparse tropics of techno and jungle as often as Western classical and Eastern traditional musics. Since Shea mostly limits his source material to discrete performances, Satyricon is a far more minimal affair compared with earlier releases such as Tower of Mirrors or Hsi-Yu Chi, but since those works tended at times toward the over-dense, the imposition is advantageous, resulting in an overall more approachable album.
- Sean Cooper (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/109323150/David_Shea_-_Satyricon.rar

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

David Morley - Tilted
























Label: Apollo
Year: 1998
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM

Review:

One of the better electronic albums of 1998, David Morleys "Tilted" is notable for it's focus on percussive elements, as well as it's impressive range of sounds. During the course of it's nine tracks, elements of jungle, breakbeat, trip-hop and ambient can be heard, and yet the album still manages to work as a whole. Recommended.

(Please consider supporting David Morley by visiting his website and purchasing some of his music, at http://homepage.mac.com/dlmorley/davidmorley.htm)

Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/109380338/David_Morley_-_Tilted.rar

Legion Of Green Men - Floating In Shallow Water
























Label: Swim
Year: 1999
Styles: Ambient Techno, Techno

Review:

"Floating In Shallow Water" finds Legion Of Green Men employing a unique mix of jazz, break-beat, trip hop, ambient and worldbeat stylings, with many vocal samples throughout. Jazzy horns or keyboards underscore nearly every track.


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/108005677/Legion_Of_Green_Men_-_Floating_In_Shallow_Water.rar

Two Lone Swordsmen - The Fifth Mission (Return To The Flightpath Estate)























Label: Emissions Audio Output
Year:1996
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Andrew Weatherall's first post-Sabres outing (together with Keith Tenniswood) is a truly beguiling cachet of alternately moody and unexpectedly funky down- and mid-tempo electro. Miles more complex and integrated than such future-funk wibblers as the Clear Records stable, Fifth Mission is often as tear-jerkingly emotional as it is goofball lino material; machine music imbued with more than a bit of humanity. Uniformly excellent.
- Sean Cooper (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/106759933/Two_Lone_Swordsmen_-_The_Fifth_Mission__Return_To_The_Flightpath_Estate_.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/106764797/Two_Lone_Swordsmen_-_The_Fifth_Mission__Return_To_The_Flightpath_Estate_.part2.rar
Part Three: http://rapidshare.com/files/106768059/Two_Lone_Swordsmen_-_The_Fifth_Mission__Return_To_The_Flightpath_Estate_.part3.rar

Kreidler - Appearance And The Park























Label: Mute
Year: 1998
Styles: Ambient Techno, Indie Electronic

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Though in many ways Appearance and the Park is merely a continuation and slight development of earlier Kreidler motifs and approaches, there are also enough tweaks and explorations here and there on the overall approach which help make the album more than just a pleasant listen. The slight but noticeable rhythm time shift on opener "Tuesday" is in many ways a seismic one, in that it gives a sense that Kreidler are willing to play around a bit and see what happens. There's also more of a sense of a scope of inspiration beyond early '70s days in Europe and the Caribbean, with hints of the chilled experimental post-punk of England and Germany seeping into many compositions. Arrangements are often (though not always — check "Necessity Now" for an example otherwise) fuller, and perhaps even more playful than before, though not necessarily in a conventionally pretty sense. "Good Morning City," in particular, suggests some of the quirky Japanese influence hinted at in the liner notes, a bit like if Yellow Magic Orchestra and late-'90s Momus teamed up, though without vocals. The increased use of just-on-the-edge-of-hearing frequencies — quirky synth swirls and tones in particular — suggest that there's even more to the songs than might be apparent on first blush. Keyboards are more actively used, at points not merely as shading or counterpoint melody, but with a more upfront role, as the brief "Plus" and the lovely "Coldness" demonstrate. The tense "Il Sogno di Una Casa" almost suggests Joy Division in ways — not entirely, to be sure, but there's still something there — while "Au-Pair" could almost be a smooth Roxy Music ballad in ways (though the rhythm section is still definitely rooted in steady motorik chug, with some especially fine bass from Stefan Schneider).
- Ned Raggett (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/109048558/Kreidler_-_Appearance_And_The_Park.rar

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Monolake - Hongkong



















Label: Chain Reaction
Year: 1997
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM, Minimal Techno

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Hongkong compiles Monolake's early releases on Chain Reaction circa 1996-1997. There may not be any purer example of this influential German duo's early sound than the opening track, the mammoth "Cyan." Hongkong ends with two tracks from Monolake's release on the Din label, and also the previously unreleased "Mass Transit Railway." Not nearly as epic or as cinematic as the other tracks, these final three still incorporate strange samples, such as waves crashing on the side of a boat and a montage of Asian voices.
- Jason Birchmeier (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/107284735/Monolake_-_Hongkong.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/107288733/Monolake_-_Hongkong.part2.rar

Kim Cascone - Blue Cube




















Label: Noton
Year: 1999
Styles: Ambient, IDM, Glitch, Dark Ambient, Minimalism

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Kim Cascone's first release following the dissolution of his popular Heavenly Music Corporation project is also a revisiting of some of the sonic territories of his earlier work as PGR. The album began as a single track to accompany Cascone's contribution to a book of essays about computer music development platform Csound, edited by Richard Boulanger, and expanded into a full-length CD at the behest of Boulanger and others who figured he was onto something. An exploration of themes combining bleeding edge digital technology with rootings about in computer music's prehistory — Cascone used Csound to create acoustical models of early electronic instrument specs — blueCube is a musical expostulation on the "alchemical space" specific to composing with machines, and is some of his most enthralling work to date.
- Sean Cooper (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/108250801/Kim_Cascone_-_Blue_Cube.rar

Monday, April 7, 2008

Loop Guru - The Fountains Of Paradise






















Label: Cleopatra
Year: 1999
Styles: Ambient Techno, Ambient Dub, Ambient

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Through the 1990s, Loop Guru recorded three installments in a series of ambient projects they called Catalogue of Desires. The first two were cassettes sold only at the group's concerts, while the third volume was officially released in 1996. Fountains of Desire plucks portions of the material from the initial two volumes, remixing and reworking it into an updated single-disc collection that in places actually improves on the originals, even if there are still some dull, overly repetitive passages that don't quite achieve the desired hypnotic effect. However, there are some interesting worldbeat-flavored touches sprinkled throughout that help make up for it, at least for more dedicated fans.
- Steve Huey (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/107295799/Loop_Guru_-_The_Fountains_Of_Paradise.rar

Seefeel - Quique (Redux Edition)






















Label: Too Pure
Year: 1993 (Redux Edition Released in 2007)
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM, Dream Pop

Review: (Allmusic.com)

The early days of Seefeel are as bright as they are mysterious. Mark Clifford, Daren Seymour, Justin Fletcher, and Sarah Peacock had unleashed a curious blend of prog rock, ambience, and minimalism — a sort of electronic hybrid that had listeners simultaneously scratching their heads while hitting the repeat button. The song's structures are based on adding and subtracting layers, keeping chord changes at a minimum. Tracks like "Climactic Phase 3" and "Polyfusion" ride glittering collages of keyboard loops, cyclical guitar feedback, and thunking drum machines, occasionally garnished by Peacock's wordless vocal phrasings. "Industrious" is an open sky of majestic ambience and vocals, with clipped drums anchoring the mix on all sides. It makes for a prog rock reminder of early Aphex Twin (a longtime supporter of Clifford), and the mutual influence shows. "Imperial" overlaps several watery layers of sequencing for another (and especially chromatic) soundscape, inducing a sort of trance that has nothing to do with the dancefloor. "Plainsong" grooves along in an up-tempo stratosphere, the album's most likely candidate for any sort of radio play. Here, Peacock's voice is equally plain in delivery — certainly unintelligible — a supporting character that follows the song rather than leads it. "Charlotte's Mouth" is yet another assembly of heavily produced guitar loops, like harmonic droplets of feedback that fall around a dry rhythm track and hums of dubby bass notes. "Through You" trickles down from the rafters with anthemic, ambient chords and a moist cave full of carbonated drum fizz (even a cheap Casio sounds good with Clifford at the mixer), and the aptly titled "Filter Dub" follows the implied style of rhythm, with saturated clouds of ghostly reverb. The album closes with "Signals," a subdued nighttime prayer that glows and shimmers in suspended animation, much like Eno and Lanois' richly explored Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks. The quartet would delve into darker waters later with sparse albums like Succour and CH-VOX, but here they stay closer to their roots as a guitar-driven outfit. In a way, this is Seefeel at their most ornate. They squint by staring into the geometric refractions of light and record the results.
- Glenn Swan (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/108262325/Seefeel_-_Quique__Redux_Edition_.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/108268813/Seefeel_-_Quique__Redux_Edition_.part2.rar
Part Three: http://rapidshare.com/files/108271150/Seefeel_-_Quique__Redux_Edition_.part3.rar

Ultramarine - Every Man And Woman Is A Star























Label: Chameleon
Year: 1992
Styles: Ambient Techno, Ambient House

Review: (Allmusic.com)

A warmly melodic LP of home-listening electronica produced just before the term was coined, Every Man and Woman Is a Star is a delightful concept album with dub-centric rhythms and a straightahead song structure whose only quibble is what sounds like a need for vocals to accompany the tracks. All in all, the LP deserves to be filed alongside the Orb's U.F.Orb, Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and Biosphere's Microgravity as an early ambient-techno classic.
- John Bush (Allmusic Guide)


Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/107459083/Ultramarine_-_Every_Man_And_Woman_Is_A_Star.rar

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Atom Heart - Aerial Service Area
























Label: Fax
Year: 1995
Styles: Ambient Techno, Experimental

Review: (Allmusic.com)

"ETI Encoding," the first track from Victor Sol and Niko Heyduck's collaborative Fax debut, consists of little more than a modulating tone paired eventually (about five minutes into it, in fact) with a similarly modulating harmonic. Somehow, this minimal setup manages to be both engaging and provocative, an uncanny effect which sets the tone for the whole of this remarkable album. Though subsequent tracks feature a wider palette of sounds, Aerial Service Area's beauty lies in its calm economy, similar to the best of Pete Namlook's or Vidna Obmana's solo works. The album also features Atom Heart's Uwe Schmidt on three tracks.
- Sean Cooper (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/109155834/Atom_Heart_-_Aerial_Service_Area.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/109280698/Atom_Heart_-_Aerial_Service_Area.part2.rar

Schlammpeitziger - Spacerokkmountainrutschquartier





















Label: A-Musik
Year: 1998
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM, Electro-Techno

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Schlammpeitziger's second album offers a significant development in the project's typical vein: smooth electronic pop structures and light beepy grooves that have as much in common with early Cluster as they do with Mouse on Mars. Spacerokkmountainruschquartier, however, has its own quite beautiful sound and atmosphere, trailing through entirely pleasant tracks that have enough movement and composition to seem like much more than simply blissed-out electronica — at the album's best points, Schlammpeitziger truly seems to be at the top of this particular electronic subgenre.
- Nitsuh Abebe (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/120343641/Schlammpeitziger_-_Spacerokkmountainrutschquartier.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/120375992/Schlammpeitziger_-_Spacerokkmountainrutschquartier.part2.rar

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Alter Ego - Decoding The Hacker Myth























Label: Harthouse/Eye Q
Year: 1996
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM

Review: (Allmusic.com)

This German collective works with what could be best described as "listening techno" — electronica designed not for dancing, but for laid-back home listening. This means that each track is organized more like a song, with enough movement to keep things from becoming repetitive; on songs like "Brom," they drop out most of the beats in favor of a sort of organized ambiance. The majority of the album is pleasant in a beepy and bubbly sort of way, and very organic-sounding — a bit like Spring Heel Jack without the breakbeats. Excellent electronica for home use.
- Nitsuh Abebe (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/105113725/Alter_Ego_-_Decoding_The_Hacker_Myth.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/105117559/Alter_Ego_-_Decoding_The_Hacker_Myth.part2.rar

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Burger/Ink - Las Vegas






















Label: Matador
Year: 1998
Styles: Ambient Techno

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Quite distanced from the legion of echo-chamber drumkick records in Mike Ink's catalogue, Las Vegas presents a series of languid trance numbers that reprise the deep-sea dub of his Studio 1 recordings but without the straightahead four-four beats. Obviously, Jörg Burger must deserve much of the credit for Las Vegas, from highlight tracks "Flesh & Bleed," "Milk & Honey" and "Elvism" to the entire Roxy Music connections inherent in just about every song title on the record. If you buy just one Mike Ink record (alternately: if you can find just one Mike Ink record...), it had better be this one.
- John Bush (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/108655580/Burger-Ink_Las_Vegas.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/108657707/Burger-Ink_Las_Vegas.part2.rar

Speedy J - Ginger























Label: Warp
Year: 1993
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM

Review: (Allmusic.com)

If any one electronic artist merits comparison to the Beatles, it would have to be Jochem Paap. Because while the Fab Four may far outpace the Dutch techno producer when it comes to global popularity, his catalog of releases easily matches the Beatles in terms of diversity, development, and absolute quality. This first album, released on Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva's Plus 8 record label, finds Paap at roughly the same point on the growth curve that the Beatles were during Rubber Soul. After establishing a fan base with energizing yet simplistic acid 12"s like "Three O'Three" and "Something for Your Mind," Paap reins in some of the manic energy of his early releases, concentrating more closely on the lush and fulfilled sound palette and thoughtful composition that would be his trademark until the rampant experimentalism of his third album, Public Energy No. 1. The chopping intro of "R2 D2" gives way to a light electro beat garnished with tickling synthesizer bleeps and grandiose waves of machine sound that are at once playful and intense. "Basic Design" introduces Paap's signature drum decay, while the bubbling-forward bassline would become a hallmark of early proto-trance recordings. Every sound is magnificently structured, in perfect pitch and timber with every other sound, making Ginger a masterpiece of techno music as audio design.As a vehicle of the times, Ginger singled a furtherance from techno's dancefloor mandate that would be followed by revered groups such as Autechre and the Black Dog. This advancement in techno's sound would advocate the first use of the Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) tag. While every track on Ginger still relies on a 4/4 beat for its composition, none possess a tempo or percussive element hefty enough to meet dancer's needs. Although remixes would turn cuts like "Pepper," with its weightless ambient sweeps, into trancing dancefloor jams, Paap's clear purpose on Ginger was to take his music out of the rave and into the home-listening environment. And not until the decade-later hard techno of Loudboxer would Paap return to his dancefloor roots, similar to the Beatles' return to rock captured in the Let It Be sessions.
- Joshua Glazer (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/106290234/Speedy_J_-_Ginger.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/106295982/Speedy_J_-_Ginger.part2.rar