#90

High praise indeed! Substrata is still the ambient album for me but this and Cirque would both probably be top 10. As noted previously, this one feels weirdly slept on.

#91

Sorry struggled to find the time this week to do much dedicated listening but have had it on at work and fell asleep last night listening to it also :grinning:

I’m still not totally into it if I’m honest. I mean, it is great, and I do enjoy it as an album but I find it hard to get totally in to, and it never completely envelopes me in the same way which say Substrata and Cirque do. I’m not sure why, I think it is the more classical influence maybe. It feels a little too oppressive at times.

Still, very nice in places and would go to it over a great deal of ambient albums. Green Reflections is a delight. In fact (listening again now) the flow of that, into Bose-Einstein Condensation & Gravity Assist is pretty incredible. What a way out to see the LP. Beautiful.

#92

Surprised you’re the only person (other than me) highlighting this sequence - it’s incredible. A kind of lightness after what has come before followed by falling down a sonic abyss.

Interesting point on the classical influence - I’m not normally a fan of the classical/ambient intersection but this really works for me. Maybe because it feels oppressive at points unlike, say, Nils Frahm.

#93

Yea, its sublime the whole end passage of the album. Stopped me in my tracks (that is, typing!) and just made me sit back. I love it.

The album definitely fits into interesting use of classical influence - as often ‘modern classical’ comes across as cheesy or forced whereas this is neither of those.

#94

Hello! Worth having a listen to this for those after a post-club vibe: https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=605

Chris SSG knows his ambient/IDM stuff having spent years curating club/ambient nights in Tokyo as well as having a hand in the defunct mnmlssgs blog (also worth checking the archive of - except for the fact it looks like a dodgy page pretending to be official fm is currently blocking it)

#95

wrong thread :wink:

#96

I’ve been dipping in and out of the album since this thread started, but haven’t yet found the time to sit down and have a proper listen. It does sound up my street though, and I haven’t listened to biosphere before (despite being on my to-do list for ages after seeing positive mentions of them this board).

The relentless quanitity (and quality) of new bands to listen to means older stuff often gets shunted out of the way and I often need a new album by a band to encourage me to go backwards (eg. listened to a lot of Gas last year after Narkopop).

So this thread is good, and I’m happy to be on the roster.

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#97

Ace! Kinda jealous of someone getting to hear Biosphere’s classics for the first time. Can vividly remember listening to Substrata for the first time after getting it for my 18th along with a new sound system and Kobresia absolutely blowing my mind.

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#98

Got some work to do this evening, so planning on diving back in again to Shenzhou again at home.

Did some reading around about the bonus album as a lot of the titles appeared linked and are geographically rooted around Kent and it piqued my interest. Seems he was commissioned to write a series of works to commemorate the opening of ‘The Samphire Tower’ (great name) on the coast path just outside Dover. This looks great:

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#99

May need someone to stand in for today’s planned pick. Hit me up if you want to choose something.

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#100

All right team, my pick this week is a pulsey drone ambient album that shaped my listening habits for over a decade now.

Loscil - First Narrows

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https://open.spotify.com/album/40DIozF4oXPydyjLVqnFQj?si=b7ZBBBLtRuaNJYMsudfmEQ

Scott Morgan is one my all-time favourite musicians and his intricate and almost delicate musical composition Ms hide an urgency and darkness. Almost all feature his native Vancouver Island home, but the organic and in organic sound merged and mesh wonderfully.

I’ve picked First Narrows as it the most focused of his releases, but my favourite is either Submers, Endless Falls, or maybe Sketches from New Brighton.

Hope you all like it / like revisiting it.

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#101

:heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:

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Great selection - a real personal favourite. As with Shenzhou, looking forward to giving this some closer listens to work out why it resonates so strongly with me.

#102

Oh gosh, that shift in the pads at 1:22 in the title track is so simple but so gooood.

There’s something very nautical about the way these tracks gently ebb and flow. First Narrows does it through a similar kind of call and response between bass and melody to that in Ancient Campfire while all the other elements shimmer around them.

#103

Both of my earlier comments are about Sickbay - got confused on titles

With this era of Loscil it simultaneously feels like he’s wearing his influences firmly on his sleeves while drawing from all over the place so the end-product sounds utterly unique. To my mind you have:

  • Tracks built up from gradually increasing layers of very discrete short phrases of melody/harmony/rhythm which gives me proper feels for early Autechre
  • The rhythms are pure Mille Plateaux clicks & cuts - a clear shift away from the drum-machine era of early ambient techno
  • The harmonies hover and swirl in a way which harks back to Gas
  • The use of more organic-sounding string instruments feels like it’s picking from the sort of ambient music that was coming out of Japan in the mid-90s/early-00s

And the result is just splendid.

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#104

To me this is a great comparison and compliment. It lead to find so many other artist in a similar genre. I was actually recommended this stuff here on the DiS boards by @marckee back in the old forums. Really set everything else apart.

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#105

Great stuff - I stumbled upon last years Monument Builders and liked enough of it to want to dig deeper into Loscil but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Looking forward to hearing this.

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#106

Gah!

I was contemplating picking Plume for a future pick as it is my favourite Loscil record.

This is an excellent excuse to five FN more of my attention.

Ben

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#107

Sorry mate, my flight was late in last night and I’m pretty fucked. Thanks sheeldz for stepping in - happy to contribute going forward. Apologies for letting you down at the last minute

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#108

No problem! You ok for next week? I’ll be in the Finnish wilderness with no internet so please rope in someone else if needed :slight_smile:

#109

Edit: I’ll post it in the other thread

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