I've wanted to do something like this ever since I found The Other Site back in 2007 and read Urban Hatemonger's 100 thread. I feel like I could never list my 100 favorite albums across all genres, but as my brand is on the synthy side of things, I think I can tackle this.
This list will be in order of quality, with 1 being my favorite of all time. Reviews will be off the cuff, stream of consciousness musings written as I relisten to each album. The music will vary from synthesized space ambient to acoustic new age to prog-adjacent electronic, everything my brain files into that admittedly vague box.
I hope you will enjoy coming on this interstellar journey with me!
I'm looking forward to it!
Sounds like this could be very interesting. I'll be reading.
Subscribed :) 👍
Love it. Will definitely be following!
Really looking forward to this as well! :beer:
And by the way, so glad you are posting and sharing with us after all those years. You were definitely worth the wait. ;)
Excited to see what albums u pick!
Overjoyed to see all the support and interest in this project!
I just finished outlining the list of 100 albums, all that's left is to order them and then I can get to writing. I have lots of personal life stuff going on like moving plus a new job, so the one thing I can't promise is a consistent schedule.
Good morning! Just an additional disclaimer before the review: This is a list of my favorites. It is not meant to be an objective ranking based on influence or how well-regarded the albums are. My taste goes against the grain sometimes, and I'm sure true blue spaceheads will get very angry at some of my picks. C'est la vie. I'm also doing only one album per artist in the interest of diversity. With that out of the way, here goes nothing!
(https://i.ibb.co/3FY0Pbp/Robert-Rich-Lustmord-1995.jpg)
100. Robert Rich & B. Lustmord – Stalker (1995)
Though the word ambient is in the title of this thread, there are actually comparatively few purely ambient albums on my list. Most of my other picks are too structured and have too much of those pesky things like "consistent meter" and "discernable lead melodies" to really qualify. Although I suppose this album really isn't strictly ambient either, if we are to go by Brian Eno's definition that ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting. Stalker has such a feeling of ominous dread in its atmosphere that you'd be hard pressed to ignore it.
At any rate, this album is a collaborative project between two artists who are both legends in their respective genres. Rich is a veteran ambient and space music artist best known for all-night concerts meant for the audience to sleep to, as well as putting out a couple of ridiculously long albums in the 2000s that span multiple discs and upwards of seven hours. I'm less familiar with Lustmord and his oeuvre, but I know he came from the post-industrial music scene and is an important figure in the subgenre of dark ambient.
This album is a vivid and haunting atmospheric journey, managing to create an unsettling atmosphere without relying on cliche menacing or dissonant chord progressions. At the same time it's never too atonal or noisy, making it great music for pensive moods. One thing this album isn't is boring, and yes, even Miss Ambient Space Drone gets bored by some ambient music, haha.
My favorite piece on the album is track 4, "Delusion Fields". Subtle thunks of metallic percussion echo into the distance over the calm but uneasy bed of sound before giving way to a mystical flute solo that soars over the landscape. It is a perfect encapsulation of the juxtaposition between dark post-industrial ambient and elements of classical space music beauty that makes this album work so well. Both collaborators play to their strengths yet the album is more than the sum of its parts.
I picture myself walking through the fog in the wee hours of the morning to this album, very much on edge but still appreciating the serenity and evocative atmosphere it conjures. Rich and Lustmord are masters of sound design, and manage to tell a musical story without most traditional musical elements. Far from the static wallpaper music that ambient music gets pigeonholed as being, this album is not something I'm in the mood for very often, but it really hits the sweetest of spots whenever I am.
Nice. Your descriptive prose and your ability to evoke a mood through the music you're writing about is impressive. More please.
i've listened to lots of both of their music but i don't remember this one
it's now on the list
in our punk scenester clique when i was young SPK were very popular but i was only into them peripherally
he's been at it a looooong time
i guess he deserves it considering everything but sometimes i feel like he takes up a little more space in the dark ambient scene than he should
i also feel like the genre has stagnated over the past three years
i'm less drawn to check out new releases than i used to be
I'm vaguely aware of Robert Rich and B. Lustmord, but I don't really know much about them, and I've never even heard of this album despite the fact that it sounds like something that would totally have been in my wheelhouse in 1995. Now my interest is piqued. I'm really looking forward to giving this a listen!
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Feb 03, 2023, 05:34 PMThis album is a vivid and haunting atmospheric journey, managing to create an unsettling atmosphere without relying on cliche menacing or dissonant chord progressions...
You've got me sold here, Lady! I'm familiar with Robert Rich but never heard of B. Lustmord. Definitely putting
Stalker on my listening list on the strength of your beautiful review. Well done, and thanks! :)
Thank you all for your wonderful support! <3
i made this playlist of robert rich's less beat oriented music a few years ago btw
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4wnaQh0wZiuuu8dAujt17h?si=jAW2cyrPQgCrpE9ipX5OhA
(https://i.postimg.cc/pr68nmfP/576-A6335-3-A7-C-4-F94-9-E80-872434-CDA206.jpg)
Love Stalker. Both the album and the film it's referencing.
Gonna have to pay attention to this thread.
(https://i.ibb.co/KWcTqjp/Lord-Lovidicus-2015.jpg)
99. Lord Lovidicus – Book of Lore, Vol. 1 (2015)
This is where I may lose some of you. For those unfamiliar, there exists a niche subgenre, micro-genre even, of electronic music that is referred to as dungeon synth. Influenced by medieval fantasy and RPG soundtracks, it often features low-fidelity synths and samples and can seem hokey or facile to the uninitiated. But I love it and there's gonna be a bit of it on this list, so buckle up.
This particular dungeon synth album is generally considered to be a modern classic and influential on the genre, though like most of its practitioners I know very little about the artist himself or the context of the work. My history with this album is a wonderful example of one of my favorite areas to discover new music: the YouTube recommendation sidebar.
As a writer of fiction I find myself drawn to any kind of music that evokes a fantastical atmosphere, and not just medieval stuff. Dungeon synth blends my love of fictional flights of fancy with my love of electronic music and makes a perfect soundtrack for my own writing sessions. I enjoy being whisked away into an artist's own little universe, which in turn inspires me when I weave my own worlds of wonder.
It's very video gamey, and that's in no way a turn-off for me. Though I have played a total of maybe two new video games in the last five years, I grew up on Ocarina of Time, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. If you know those games, you know stuff like this is a deeply nostalgic sound for me. But there is something uniquely hypnotic about Lord Lovidicus' music, with its consistently dark and grim tone and rigid percussion. It is unified in sound and concept yet still has its twists, such as the icy synthesized arpeggios in the latter part of "Behold the King of Elves" and the warm serenity of the synthesized string washes and wistful flute melodies in "Telperion and Laurelin".
Make no mistake, this album is full of tropes that some may find to be cliches of modern faux-medieval music, but for me the tropes are comforting. Lovidicus treads well-worn ground, leaning hard into the classical dungeon synth schtick, and ends up creating a no-frills masterpiece of the genre. I discovered this album about six years ago, and I still listen to it when I write. It's creatively stimulating music without being so out-there and mind-blowingly original that it distracts me from my writing. If nothing else, listening to this album makes me wish it had existed back in my college Dungeons and Dragons days.
listening to it now - i never thought to research the pioneers of the genre so thank you for that - if i may be so bold i have three in mind i'd like to chime in and recognize
a) Infinite Winter
by Tears ov Blood
https://gondolinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-winter
b) Level One Mage
by Erik Gundel
https://erikgundel.bandcamp.com/album/level-one-mage
c) Sorcerous Steel
by Sequestered Keep
https://sequesteredkeep.bandcamp.com/album/sorcerous-steel-2
Quotemodern faux-medieval
heck, i'm blown away by how well these artists pull it off - i'm not an expert or anything but early western music has been in my musical rotations since high school - from gregorian chant to the developments in the renaissance and i think it's fantastic and amazing these people create what i think of as neo-early renaissance music on their computers at home - my hat is off to them - dungeon synth is a really fun and frankly reliably good genre - it's a great bandcamp tag for finding something to listen to -
Quote from: TheNonSexual OccultHawk on Feb 05, 2023, 02:13 PMheck, i'm blown away by how well these artists pull it off - i'm not an expert or anything but early western music has been in my musical rotations since high school - from gregorian chant to the developments in the renaissance and i think it's fantastic and amazing these people create what i think of as neo-early renaissance music on their computers at home - my hat is off to them - dungeon synth is a really fun and frankly reliably good genre - it's a great bandcamp tag for finding something to listen to -
I'm absolutely clueless as to actual medieval and Renaissance music, haha. Anything before, like, the 30s is a huge musical blind spot for me. But I agree, there's a huge amount of great dungeon synth releases on the net. I'm partial to the mid-90s artists that inspired the modern genre, and there will be several more dungeon synth entries to come. Thank you for reading, and I will check out the recommendations! I'm familiar with Sequestered Keep but not that particular album, and the others will be fresh for me.
QuoteAnything before, like, the 30s is a huge musical blind spot for me
The 1430's?
Nah, the 3030s.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/Deltron_3030_%28album_cover%29.jpg)
But if you're asking honestly I meant the 1930s. Curse our colloquialisms!
Not familiar with the artist or the genre of dungeon synth.
I'll check it out, may want to write in my fantasy series to it.
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Feb 03, 2023, 05:34 PMGood morning! Just an additional disclaimer before the review: This is a list of my favorites. It is not meant to be an objective ranking based on influence or how well-regarded the albums are. My taste goes against the grain sometimes, and I'm sure true blue spaceheads will get very angry at some of my picks. C'est la vie. I'm also doing only one album per artist in the interest of diversity. With that out of the way, here goes nothing!
(https://i.ibb.co/3FY0Pbp/Robert-Rich-Lustmord-1995.jpg)
100. Robert Rich & B. Lustmord – Stalker (1995)
Though the word ambient is in the title of this thread, there are actually comparatively few purely ambient albums on my list. Most of my other picks are too structured and have too much of those pesky things like "consistent meter" and "discernable lead melodies" to really qualify. Although I suppose this album really isn't strictly ambient either, if we are to go by Brian Eno's definition that ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting. Stalker has such a feeling of ominous dread in its atmosphere that you'd be hard pressed to ignore it.
At any rate, this album is a collaborative project between two artists who are both legends in their respective genres. Rich is a veteran ambient and space music artist best known for all-night concerts meant for the audience to sleep to, as well as putting out a couple of ridiculously long albums in the 2000s that span multiple discs and upwards of seven hours. I'm less familiar with Lustmord and his oeuvre, but I know he came from the post-industrial music scene and is an important figure in the subgenre of dark ambient.
This album is a vivid and haunting atmospheric journey, managing to create an unsettling atmosphere without relying on cliche menacing or dissonant chord progressions. At the same time it's never too atonal or noisy, making it great music for pensive moods. One thing this album isn't is boring, and yes, even Miss Ambient Space Drone gets bored by some ambient music, haha.
My favorite piece on the album is track 4, "Delusion Fields". Subtle thunks of metallic percussion echo into the distance over the calm but uneasy bed of sound before giving way to a mystical flute solo that soars over the landscape. It is a perfect encapsulation of the juxtaposition between dark post-industrial ambient and elements of classical space music beauty that makes this album work so well. Both collaborators play to their strengths yet the album is more than the sum of its parts.
I picture myself walking through the fog in the wee hours of the morning to this album, very much on edge but still appreciating the serenity and evocative atmosphere it conjures. Rich and Lustmord are masters of sound design, and manage to tell a musical story without most traditional musical elements. Far from the static wallpaper music that ambient music gets pigeonholed as being, this album is not something I'm in the mood for very often, but it really hits the sweetest of spots whenever I am.
pretty amazing this is from 95 because this style didn't really gain a strong foothold until around 2010
just finished listening to it btw -
and get up on the next on already please
Quote from: Dreams on Feb 26, 2023, 05:57 PMpretty amazing this is from 95 because this style didn't really gain a strong foothold until around 2010
just finished listening to it btw -
and get up on the next on already please
I've been very busy lately, I am 95% done with the next entry, should be up tonight after my work shift
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Feb 26, 2023, 06:19 PMQuote from: Dreams on Feb 26, 2023, 05:57 PMpretty amazing this is from 95 because this style didn't really gain a strong foothold until around 2010
just finished listening to it btw -
and get up on the next on already please
I've been very busy lately, I am 95% done with the next entry, should be up tonight after my work shift
do you need me to call your boss?
Have you heard Lights and Motion?
and Carbon Based Lifeforms?
Quote from: Dreams on Feb 26, 2023, 06:28 PMdo you need me to call your boss?
Haha, let's just say if everything goes according to plan, I'll be spending a lot more time at home come August.
Until then updates will probably be pretty sporadic. I really appreciate your continued support!
Quote from: Trollheart on Feb 26, 2023, 08:11 PMHave you heard Lights and Motion?
and Carbon Based Lifeforms?
Not familiar with Lights and Motion but I do love Carbon Based Lifeforms and (spoilers) they are on the 100 list.
QuoteNot familiar with Lights and Motion but I do love Carbon Based Lifeforms
same
Don't call it a comeback.
(https://i.ibb.co/ysT8wyJ/Roedelius-1981.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)
98. Roedelius - Wenn Der Südwind Weht (1981)
I love progressive music. There's nothing quite like side-long suites of ebbing and flowing compositions that take you on a journey full of twists and turns. But I also appreciate the beauty in simplicity and repetition, and this album, a solo effort from one half of legendary German duo Cluster, is a masterclass in the latter.
This album's sound is like a warm hug, enveloping me with a blanket of steady percussive keyboard plonks that serve as a bed for gentle, expressive melodic synth leads. It's a beautiful sound that stands out from much of Roedelius' cosmic contemporaries. For me this album conjures up an atmosphere not unlike watching clouds drift through the sky. A good amount of the tracks follow a similar formula, but it is comforting in its familiarity. It feels like a kind of music that has been an innate part of me all my life.
When the album does throw curveballs, they are all the more impactful, such as the eight minute piece "Saumpfad" which opts for a more haunting sound. Low, buzzing synths create a sort of rhythmic drone as dissonant organ swells cascade over them. It's an eerie turn, like the drifting clouds have become dark and thunder has begun to boom in the distance.
There is little here in the way of sophisticated chord progressions or innovative compositional structures, and the album is better for it. Roedelius had a distinct vision for this album, and he accomplishes this mission with flying colors. It's a hypnotic, spellbinding and gorgeous work that always ends up being better than I remembered every time I go back to it.
(https://i.ibb.co/FsKP05t/Neptune-Towers-1994.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)
97. Neptune Towers – Caravans to Empire Algol (1994)
I'll get this out of the way before I begin this review: I have little patience for fascists in music. So I do feel a little bit icky listing this album, as it was made by a guy from a black metal band who was buddies with a different black metal guy who is a literal racist hatemonger. The first guy also said some racist stuff around the time this album was made. If I had known that before I listened to this album like a hundred times, it probably wouldn't have made the list. Let it be known that as a Jewish woman, I will never listen to music that espouses far right, fascist or racist ideology in the lyrics. I'm a bit more lenient on instrumental music, but I still listen to local files and use ad blockers on Youtube whenever possible. I can only hope you, dear reader, will respect my views on this as I respect yours.
So I do admit that this album I love so much was tainted a bit when I looked up the behavior of the artist. Which is a shame as this album is an excellent example of the darker side of space music. Though originating from the black metal scene, it's a far cry from what would become known as dungeon synth, being much closer to early Tangerine Dream and other cosmic artists of the 70s. It hearkens back to the pre-sequencer drones of TD's Zeit album in particular. It channels the spirit of the early 70s German space music pioneers, with its uncompromising penchant for textured drones rather than the melodic leads and arpeggios that would define the Berlin School of the later 70s. Sputtering synth sound effects pepper the dark drones, giving just enough of the classic sci-fi sound without it sounding cheesy or like a 70s pastiche. A slight bit of echoey industrial percussion adds a nice pinch of spice toward the end of the first track.
The second track is a journey that begins with a slightly more abrasive drone, like a murky swamp dotted with tasteful zapping synth sound effects. The swamp begins to sizzle and bubble before giving way to a passage that literally sounds to me like a fleet of alien starships descending. The artist picked the cover art appropriately, this feels like the sound of the universe itself, with a massive-sounding glacial rumble that makes me wish the album was several hours longer.
It's clear that Neptune Towers had a great reverence for the early German cosmic music, and this album is one giant love letter to an anything-goes era and scene where sonic exploration was the only rule. I admit it's not one I go back to as often due to the reasons I detailed in paragraph 1, but make no mistake, I massively enjoyed myself on this revisit.
(https://i.ibb.co/PW3dX4S/Gas-2000.jpg)
96. Gas – Pop (2000)
The wave of ambient music that arose out of the 90s techno scene has many a classic album, some of which will be found further down the list. Gas is a German solo project that has put out some pretty fascinating stuff, and this album represents a move away from the constraints of four-on-the-floor techno toward lush ambient textures.
Most of this album is connected to techno by only the barest of threads; even at its most rhythmic it's something I would never imagine clubbing to in a million years. The underlying pulse of the fourth untitled track beats with a hypnotic sway to it that appropriates just enough of the techno influence to be audibly connected to that genre, but that influence is now recontextualized and assimilated into the ambient haze.
Even the beatless ambience present on the majority of these tracks has a certain sense of repetition that entrances me. Sometimes it's a calm trance, such as in track 5, a lovely piece that would not be out of place on a synthy new age record, and other times it's an uneasy trance. Track 6's washes of atmospheric noise obscure the quiet string chords, as if the melody is trying to break through the noise but can't quite do it. It's a unique sense of sound design that reminds one of the imperfections of real life. Not all ambient music need be calm and pretty.
My favorite track by far is the 14-minute finale, which features the most pronounced use of techno beats on the album. It's a really wonderful example of a well-done marriage between techno and ambient, two genres that a musical layman might think of as contradicting each other's purpose. There is a genre adjacent to this flavor of techno called "IDM" or intelligent dance music. While certainly not unintelligent, this track feels more like the kind of dance music to shut off your conscious thoughts to rather than anything super complex and cerebrally stimulating. It's a purely sensory experience, pure sound, and it's exhilarating.
gas is a band that up until pretty recently i didn't realize how far far into ambient they ventured
my interest in dance music is inversely related to the advancement of my arthritis
i used to be the craziest dancer - i know a lot of people think that but i actually was
it's on a plaque
now it's all cerebral but fortunately i have incredible brain power in all areas that aren't chess or doing anything in anyway practical
but yeah i was late to the party with this one
nice write up
(https://i.ibb.co/SdF6Z61/Kebu-2016.jpg)
95. Kebu – Perplexagon (2016)
It's always cool to be able say "I was there" from the very beginning of an artist's career, or at least solo career in this case. Kebu is a Finnish synthmeister who gained international popularity largely through his YouTube videos of all-analog synthesizer compositions in the vein of Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis, but mixed with a modern electronic dance sensibility. I discovered his early videos in 2010 while attending college, and as someone who was just then getting heavily into the vintage electronic music he was inspired by, I was hooked. I have followed his career ever since, and he has served as an inspiration to continue immersing myself in the world of analog synthesizers in the modern age.
Perplexagon is his second solo album, and from the structure of the thing alone, you can easily see the Jarre influence with the six untitled tracks that make up the titular suite of the album. Much of the music is reminiscent of Rendez-Vous era Jarre mixed with modern trance and what would become known as synthwave. The synthesizer arrangements are intricate and lush, with a flurry of bright, spritely melodies and twinkly arpeggios dotting the landscape. It's somewhere in between a really melodic dance album and a classical 80s synth music album, and I think it honors the traditions of both genres while providing memorable compositions.
My favorite moment on the album is the fourth part of the title suite, with its cinematic tension that hearkens back to Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack leading into a lush, brassy synth solo that just gives me all the tingles. As much as I loved Kebu's debut album To Jupiter and Back from 2012, this track feels to me like he fulfilled all the potential he showed on that album and then some.
It has its moments of kitsch (Dawn reminds me a lot more of late 90s Euro-trance than 80s synth soundtracks), and it's certainly more than a bit derivative of the well-worn ground that Vangelis, Jarre, Moroder, et al have tread since the 1970s, but as someone who is a bit disinterested in a lot of modern trendy electronic music, hearing an updated take on that classic sound is very welcome.
(https://i.ibb.co/3mm0ywG/Rei-Harakami-2006.jpg)
94. Rei Harakami – Wasuremono (2006)
A vivid and quirky slice of Japanese electronica, this album is a masterclass in compositions that may seem simple on first listen, but there's really an unbelievable amount of small moving parts that make this music very addictive and fun to return to again and again.
Harakami, who tragically passed away from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 40, was an artist who came to prominence in the late 90s during the rise of IDM and ambient techno. Like the best of those styles, his music always keeps you guessing and tends to veer into unexpected directions for the genre, even reminiscent of jazzy improvisation at times. The sound palette is fairly basic, but he does a lot with those familiar tones, particularly electric piano and organ, and what it may lack in brilliant sound design it makes up for in a big way with its intricate composition. There's way more going on in these pieces than may appear to those who are listening a bit more passively. This is not music to zone out to, it's a tapestry that unfolds and shows its true colors with closer attention.
The highlight of this album for me is the drums, there's a lot going on in each little fill and percussion roll, and they always have a pleasant tone that never intrudes on the chill atmosphere. My favorite track is "Snack" with its ebbing and flowing synthesized bass providing a cool foundation for the twinkling and warping synths. And just when you think you've got a good feel for the track, it busts out a wicked transistor organ part straight out of 1965. A lot of this stuff actually reminds me of a fractured and mangled take on 1960s lounge music, actually.
Above all, this album is an extremely fun listen, as is Harakami's catalogue in general. It's musically dense, but it's also got a lot of levity and really does bring a smile to my face every time I listen to it.
if you haven't heard it Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 199999
By DJ 光光光 [DJ Pica Pica Pica] is another fun one - for all i know it's coming up on your list though
Quote from: Toy Revolver on Apr 04, 2023, 01:31 PMif you haven't heard it Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 199999
By DJ 光光光 [DJ Pica Pica Pica] is another fun one - for all i know it's coming up on your list though
That's Eye from Boredoms, right? Never actually listened to that project. I'll note it!
Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Apr 04, 2023, 01:39 PMQuote from: Toy Revolver on Apr 04, 2023, 01:31 PMif you haven't heard it Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 199999
By DJ 光光光 [DJ Pica Pica Pica] is another fun one - for all i know it's coming up on your list though
That's Eye from Boredoms, right? Never actually listened to that project. I'll note it!
yeah - saw him perform under this moniker in nagoya btw - it was ferocious
QuoteNeptune Towers – Caravans to Empire Algol (1994)
just finished first listen
yeah that's one i should've known
enjoyed it a lot - still sounds pioneering to me
I do apologize for the lack of updates. I started this project at a time when I was relatively confident that I would regularly have more free time to write, but moving, marriage, and increased workloads in both professional and home life have really been made this a whirlwind of a year for me.
I have not abandoned this list, but my duties to my job, my husband and my own health must take precedence. I look forward to writing the rest of the list, but updates will continue to be sporadic.
Thank you for your support and understanding.
- Mrs. Waffles ♥️