William Orbit - Strange Cargo (1987)

I seem to give glowing reviews of everything I cover here, so I thought I'd reach into my CD collection and pull out something I can't say I'm a huge fan of. William Orbit is his name, and the first in the Strange Cargo series is the unfortunate CD.

Strange Cargo is just so... dated. Sure, it was made in 1987, but that is not an excuse, when Ambient 1 sounds like it could be made today. The album does get off to a bright start, with Via Caliente's catchy spanish guitaring, but it's followed by the abomination of Fire and Mercy, with it's hideously awful drumming, keyboarding and electric guitaring. The start of Silent Signals regains some credibility and reveals Orbit is able to make passable ambient, but it too disintegrates into cliches. The rest of the songs just parade the same ideas out, except Out of the Ice, which amusingly steals the bassline from Blondie's Rapture, before doing absolutely nothing with it.

Strange Cargo is not a good album, in any way shape or form. The second in the series is barely any better either. Mr Orbit seems to be alright at making ambient, and good at producing, he should probably stick with those.

Here's a link to Via Caliente:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMW5cH3oOr8

Tor Lundvall - Ice (1999)

Out of all of the different EDM genres, the one I think I've been listening to the most in the last few months is ambient. I enjoyed ambient before then, but recently I've developed a deeper understanding and passion for the genre as a whole. It really is one of the more immersive and profound genres of music, once you can appreciate the lack of readily accessable melodies and the free-flowing nature.

Tor Lundvall is apparently a painter that that only recently has entered the world of making music, and will hopefully continue to do so. Ice is a majestic album, an album full of interesting ideas. At a pinch, you could say this is loosely a dark ambient album, but it is so much more. It's a diverse array of styles, ranging from the Eno-esque opener Another Evening, to a tribal Roach-esque Nghtbow, to the almost Coldwave synth/vocals of Alone. All of the songs are bound by the concept of winter (hard to tell I know, judging by the title), and best of all, Ice manages to straddle the line of being dark without disintegrating into sounding like a horror movie soundtrack, much like the excellent Biosphere has been able to do. It's also an approapriate "starter" album for new ambient listeners, due to the short song lengths (19 in 60 minutes) and abundance of variance.

If you couldn't tell, I really think you should give Ice a listen. Unfortunately, the blog where I got it from (the fantastic MUTANT SOUNDS) no longer supplies a link to the album due to a request from Lundvall himself, strange considering Ice is long out of print and unavailable elsewhere. So unless someone asks me to upload a song on youtube or the like, you basically have little chance at all of getting Ice, barring a lucky find in a second-hand CD shop, which is a shame for such a quality release.

Enigma - MCMXC a.D. (1990)

Enigma's MCMXC a.D. was a huge hit worldwide, and along with Enya brought New Age into the mainstream. Is it worthy of the title King (or Queen) of New Age?

First, some of the negatives out of the way. It sounds dated. Very dated. Especially when you consider the amount of similar-sounding drivel it inspired. The drums are a major part of this, being very 80's-ish and artificial sounding, which is a shame. They also re-use the same drum loops a lot, which I'll get to later.

On the positive side, MCMXC a.D. is incredibly easy to listen to. It may sound silly, but I'm really sick of EDM artists, and especially ambient/downtempo/new age artists, thinking they need to use every single second of a CD. At a scant 40 minutes, MCMXC a.D. suits me.

And of course, all the songs are good. After the hilariously cheesy The Voice of Enigma, where we are told a bunch of meditation nonsense (I do know how to relax, thank you), the big single of the album emerges; Sadeness. Sadeness is nothing short of brilliant, a mix of eroticism and religion, with intertwining parts of mesmerising flute, Gregorian chants, evocative French vocals and even a hint of panting.

The rest of MCMXC a.D. is more of the same, just done a little differently. Callas Went Away has its piano and operatic wailing, Mea Culpa it's interesting guitar solo, and Knocking on the Forbidden Door it's wild animal cries.

Back to the Rivers of Belief is the other somewhat intriuging song, but it has exactly the same drums as the earlier Sadeness. Michael Cretu, head guy behind Enigma, provides vocals for the later part, and they surprisingly fit in well, but there is a heavy sense that this Belief is just a poorer version of Sadeness.

I enjoyed MCMXC a.D. enough that when I saw it cheap, I got it, but I wouldn't pay a lot. It's still by far the best New Age album I've heard, but really, there isn't a lot of competition, at least in my opinion.

Here's a link to Sadeness:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=CEh2N5hmPVM