Essential Ambient

You got here by clicking on a mini moog - the essential 1970's icon of good music - Keith Emerson had the first one in the UK, Rick Wakeman used two next to each other (so he could play chords before the polyphonic keyboards came along), Jeddy Lee of Rush used one, Mark Kelly used one with Marillion and the Prodigy named themselves after a later version of the moog. The mini moog is also the essential keyboard used by all ambient bands.

Ambient can basically be described as instrumental music, mainly played by Germans, mainly on keyboards and largely improvised. It nearly always involves very long tracks - like 1 to a side - long hypnotic sections and bags of white noise. It is a strange musical form for me to like; the drums (if there are any at all) tend to be of the machined variety (although some of the 1970's Tangerine Dream stuff is awash with drums) and the music seem to sometimes go nowhere in particular. Who cares - it sounds good to me.

Like all good music, Ambient started in the 1960's, reached its zenith in the 1970's and became shite in the 1980's! Once again, the experimentation boom of the late 60's started it all - drugs were dropped, music was played and everyone was happy.

• Early examples of this are the late 1960's Tangerine Dream albums - the only place you could hear these was on John Peel's show on Radio 1. These were 3 Germans who just basically played around with synths until they had enough material to put on an album. Their music is characterised by long sections where not a great deal actually happens, frequent guitar solos (especially in the early stuff) and single word album titles - Cyclone, Rubycon, Tangram and (my fave) Hyperborea.
• A young Frenchman put out his own version of ambient - but this time cut the tracks into short pieces (some single length). The genius of this was proved when Jean Michelle Jarre had massive hits with Oxygene and Equinox - mainly because nobody had heard anything like it before - ambient was not new - but hearing it on the Jimmy Young Show was! JMJ can now be found playing city centres (miming - the big cheat) in front of millions of people.
• Some more Germans got together and recorded music that is also pretty far from left field - but they dressed better than JMJ (who mainly wears silk smoking jackets) and TD (who still think that suit jackets and jeans go together pretty well). Kraftwerk are a superb band - what makes them better than most is their answer to the slow pace of technology in the 1970's - whatever did not exist they built themselves! Now that is improvisation taken to extremes!

I first discovered ambient through the efforts of a friend of mine who has made it a life's goal to build up the definitive collection of ambient music - and with world domination obviously in mind recorded me a CD of the best stuff. I was hooked and went about building a collection of the same stuff. This musical sideline has thus far resulted in two trips to see these bands - JMJ was superb (this time he did not mime - venue being Nynex, Manchester) and Tangerine Dream - who were just dire (venue - Manchester Apollo).

Ambient still has quite a strong following - Synth Music Direct have a superb catalogue of stuff that you are never in any danger of hearing anywhere else but on the stage at one of their Jodrell Bank Concerts (now sadly no more) or in your stereo after a trip to the CD sale in the interval. This is the whole point of music (for those of you paying attention!) - do what the hell you want! I was most pleased to discover that SMD would be carrying on the concerts at another location in Leicester.

In April of 2003 I was fortunate enough to visit the National Space Centre in Leicester (thanks for the lift, Baz!) to catch a set (once again in the planetarium) by Radio Massacre International. Out of all of these type of bands that I had been to see these had to be the best. They had a quite sparse equipment set up - and even found time to incorporate acoustic drums into the set. The lighting effects, laid on by the planetarium staff, made the whole evening brilliant. If you look in music links then you can check out the next gigs - I very strongly recommend you should check this out! You can also pics from these gigs in the Gallery Set 03.

You can still check out this sort of stuff every year at the Hampshire Jam - a gathering of synth players, technology and beards - once again - check out SMD.

Some essential ambient cuts

Tangerine Dream - Hyporborea - Hyporborea 1983. This is one of the first ambient tracks that I really liked - it even had a pretty decent drum track going on in the background. Long, containing only two themes, and mesmerising - well worth a quick (well, long) listen.

Jean Michelle Jarre - Oxygene I - Oxygene 1976. This is the opening piece from JMJ's first mega release. Worth including for the fact that it includes a Theramin (spelt wrong no doubt) - the famous Russian synth-on-a-copper-bar and massive moog and Oberheim sounds that will leve your speakers spread across the floor.

Tangerine Dream - Rubycon I - Rubycon 1975. One of only two tracks on the album (it would have been just one but CD was still ten years away!) - long, dull, without melody or tune - this is guaranteed to annoy everyone - this is what we want! Contains perhaps the definitive ambient album cover (seen above).

Tangerine Dream - Green Desert - Green Desert 1986. This recording actually sat in the TD archives for 13 years before it was bashed about and released. Twenty minutes of vintage keyboards and a drum kit - with a fantastic understated guitar line - genius.

Tangerine Dream - Logos - Logos 1982 - Tangerine Dream were rapidly approaching the height of their powers when this was released - film soundtracks, massive concerts in exotic locations. This recording was their concert played at the Dominion Theatre, London in 1982 and is a prime example of a band heading for a very big fall in the next few years.

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