Sunday, December 23, 2007

Ambient vs. Elevator

a general musing... I'm snowboarding in New Hampshire yesterday, friends and I break for lunch and in the lodge they're playing pretty general ambient music. It could best be described as elevator music, just generic lounge sounds playing over and over and over. I think chill out/ambient is always in danger of being called elevator music because it takes such a subtle, but unique sound to stand out and catch people's attention, while being interesting enough that you enjoy, but not forgettably generic. So off the top of my head, here are some artists I believe DO differntiate from the pack:

- Nightmares on Wax (probably my favorite for ambient)
- Alex Cortiz
- Divasonic (new one for me - just reviewed at ProperlyChilled)
- AIR (earlier albums)
- Alif Tree
- Jazzanova (a bit more, uh, jazzy)
- Caural
- Lemongrass
- Boards of Canada
- Gotan Project

This is a short list, I know i left off artists that do belong - which ones would you add?

ADDED by Chris at Slackline Radio:
-- Global Communication (Tom Middleton project)
-- Bullitnuts (maybe too far over the edge of Ambient, but damn good nonetheless)
-- Jens Buchert (A definite YEAH!)

Even if "over the edge," I'll trust "damn good"!! Gotta check these additions out. Thanks Chris!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Global Communication (Tom Middleton project)
Bullitnuts (maybe too far over the edge of Ambient, but damn good nonetheless)
Jens Buchert (A definite YEAH!)

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