All the albums below are good front-to-back.
That means no real stinkers to skip past, no tracks hidden after minutes of silence, no long dialogue sessions or skits.
Just music.
A few weeks back I was starting the day with downtempo and trip hop.
This week I gave ambient a try.
Environment Five by The Future Sound of London
Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube
My initial exposure to FSOL was back in '96 with Landmass on the WipEout 2097 soundtrack on the original PlayStation:
I've been intrigued ever since. When I eventually tracked down a copy of their album Lifeforms (this was pre-file sharing) it was an import and incredibly expensive.
But Landmass is such a cool track that I wanted to hear more from the band.
Lifeforms wasn't what I was expecting.
It was my first ambient album and had I not paid what I did I doubt I'd have taken the time to appreciate it.
Instead it was on rotation in the background while I was gaming, and eventually it clicked.
I approached Environment Five the same way.
I found it listed in an old note of albums I'd listened to front to back with a mention that I liked it, which probably meant I had been doing something while listening—working on the computer, on a rooftop somewhere or most likely, in the truck.
I was reminded of what an FSOL album feels like—compositions of ambient nature sounds, psychedelic layering, unusual instrumentation and song structure interspersed with IDM themes.
The opening track is very much in the style the band is known for, and the rest of the album alternates between the electronica foundation and ambient themes. It was never boring, and I was a little bummed when I'd have a break in windshield time (you know, because I was at an account and had actual work to do) and had to pick it up after that.
I really liked this.
Afterimage of Autumn by Zuriaake
Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube
I stumbled across this album after looking for something unrelated and it was returned as an erroneous search result; Chinese + black metal sounded intriguing so I stuck it on the hit list and gave it it a listen.
This grew on me as it went along, but I’m not going to pretend I understand WTF is going on here—I don't listen to a lot of black metal... in fact, the only band in the genre that comes to mind is Ghost Bath (who I'm quite fond of.)
The samples of birdsongs was unexpected, (not so much the sound of rain), but also some unusual instrumentation, and it made me curious about the band.
I asked Grok about them and they’re Chinese, first on the map from their country doing this style of metal, incorporate traditional instruments into their music, and they're mostly anonymous.
This is one to go back to.
There's a mood or atmosphere with this music similar to Environment Five above, even though the two are completely unrelated musically. I'm going to try more black metal at the start of the day.
DJ-Kicks (DJ Mix): Tiga
Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube
This is one of DJ-Kicks masterpieces—if you were going to send music into space for alien cultures and only had a single spot for what DJs do, this would be it.
Transitions between tracks are so smooth I was completely missing them, and there was several moments where I reached for the dash to start seeking so I could figure out how and where the switch occurred, but was so into what I was hearing in the moment that I put my hand back on the wheel and kept driving.
This has notable covers of Felix Da Housecat's Madame Hollywood and Nelly's Hot In Here, as well as original compositions by Tiga all held together with his expertise in electroclash.
Los Angeles by X
Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube
I'm 44 years late to the party, but I finally gave this a proper front to back listen, and it's as good as everyone says.
Having two lead vocalists in a band usually doesn't turn out so well IMHO, but John Doe and Exene Cervenka's styles complement one another like any other instrument in a good band, and their lyrics are strong and coherent.
The guitar is creative with a lot of rockabilly style and I was even onboard with the organ (played by Ray Mazarek)
One to go back to.
Los Angeles by Flying Lotus
Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube
One of the wife's buddies put me onto Flying Lotus; he runs a very popular underground nightclub, is a music snob and one of the people I trust for recommendations.
The eponymous Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) grew up in a musical family; his great-uncle was John Coltrane and his aunt is Alice Coltrane and that level of musicianship runs in the family.
Los Angeles blends hip-hop and jazz with IDM as well as natural and electronic ambient (stuff like the hiss of a record players) into an album best appreciated at a lower volume while doing something else (like driving, or writing this post), with enough time to listen to the thing front-to-back.
It's highly regarded and something I've always thought was an exceptionally good album, but I may have overrated it.
The vinyl artefact effects across several tracks are loud, forward in the mix and not cutting into the music like they would be listening on an actual worn out or dirty record and give an unexpected noise vibe to some of the tracks—this isn't a criticism, just something I only picked up on with this last listen.
I went back to a few tracks in the couple of weeks since making this note, and while it continues to intrigue me, it's mostly a cerebral thing, and also because of the gulf between what people tell me about this album and my experience with it.