Top 10 Dark Ambient albums of all time

Since I love so much dark ambient music, this was a very difficult list for me to choose. On another day, the order could swap around a bit (with the exception of the number 1 album, which I really think is just the best).

10. Inade: The Incarnation of the Solar Architects (Loki Foundation, 2009). This is a recent-ish release by German legends Inade, and its a monster. Not the darkest of ambients, but just massive; it brings to mind colossal alien constructs floating through space. The production quality on this album is jawdropping (some of the best I've ever heard in any genre of music), and if it had a bit more darkness and depth, it would be even higher on this list.
9. Camanecroszcope II: Echoes of a Beckoning Arcanum (Spectre, 2006). This project is a wonderful collaboration between power noise legend Iszoloscope and cult Tribal / experimental artist Ah Cama Sotz. Together they make a formidable combination that has so far released two incredibly good dark ambient albums. This is the second and I think the best. It has a very cold and alien atmosphere, that invokes images of exploring tombs of long-lost civilizations on Mars. Best listened to at night.
8. Lustmord: Zoetrope (Nextera, 2002). Lustmord pretty much invented dark ambient with his 1990 album Heresy, but has since put out many works since then, and better works. This 2002 album is a soundtrack to some experimental movie; I don't know much about that, but I do know that this album is just stunning, and a great introduction to the darker end of dark ambient. Truly creepy stuff and one of the best albums from the legendary artist.
7. RAAN: The Nacrasti (Malignant Antibody, 2001). This is a criminally underrated album, put out by the odd Malignant Records sub-label, Malignant Antibody. RAAN sadly only ever did this one album, and it is a masterpiece of the genre. It has many moments that equal the power and presence of the best drone artists such as Terra Sancta, but has so much more variation, including some beautiful meditative moments and some almost tribal passages. This is one you have to listen to from beginning to end in one go. Essential and sadly overlooked.
6. Inade: The Crackling of the Anonymous (Loki Foundation, 2001). German act Inade are up there with Lustmord and Raison D'etre as the most respected artists in this genre. While many immediately think of Alderebran as the definitive Inade album, it's this one for me. Classic dark, creepy space ambient, as only Inade can do it. Possibly the darkest album on this list.
5. Lustmord: The place where the black stars hang (Side Effects, 1994). This is an older album of Lustmord's from the 90s, and is just amazing. This CD includes the longest track in my entire music collection, clocking in at over 70 minutes long (don't worry, it's nowhere near the longest track ever made; Robert Rich has that record sewn up, its over 7 hours long). The greatest strength of this album is its subtlety; it's an immensely slow journey through hypnotic yet barely noticeable sounds, culminating in an encounter in very darkest, deepest space.
4. Raison D'etre: The Empty Hollow Unfolds (Cold Meat Industry, 2000). Swedish solo act Raison D'etre is probably the biggest name in dark ambient and has put out many albums, some amazing and some not so. I think this is certainly his best. The first half is probably the most pure and perfect example of the classic Swedish style that Cold Meat Industry is known for, and what I would point someone to who asked me "what does dark ambient sound like?". The later parts of the album are where Peter Andersson pushes the boundaries and breaks the usual Raison D'etre formula, with excellent results. Top Shelf, and one of Cold Meat's proudest moments.

3. Yen Pox: New Dark Age (Malignant Records, 2000). This is pure, pure dark drone ambient, at its very best. Music that hisses and flows out of your speakers and surrounds you in a suffocating fog of nightmares and despair. This album made me really sit up and pay attention to this genre of music. The artwork and mastering are simply perfect. Malignant Records = quality.

2. Desiderii Marginis: Deadbeat (Cold Meat Industry, 2001). One of my very favourite albums of all time; one of those albums which you know you'll listen to in 10 or even 20 years, and still enjoy as much as you do today. Desiderii Marginis' second album, and best album (his later ones are perfectly good but not anywhere near this). Saying this album is classic Swedish dark ambient is the most banal of understatements. The last two tracks take me away to places very far away.
1. Yen Pox and Troum: Mnemonic Induction (Malignant Records, 2002). I don't even know what to say about this album. You take the ultra dark drone ambient of Yen Pox, mix it with the experimental ambient soundscapes of Troum, and you get this block of madness, beauty and utter brilliance. Trying to describe it is futile. Listen to it on good headphones or very good speakers and be amazed.

And just for clarification, my definition of dark ambient here does *not* include neo-classical / folk / ethereal stuff like Arcana (who would be all over this list like a rash, if it did), or death industrial stuff like Brighter Death Now or Megaptera (again, like a rash, a big red rash), or whatever it is you call In Slaughter Natives (again with the rash), you get the idea. Just dark ambient. Also, quick rundown on albums that almost but didn't quite make the list: Deutsch Nepal's "Benevolence", Combative Alignment's "Ritez of Higher Communication", Raison D'etre's "In Sadness, Silence and Solitude".

Power Noise mix

OK I've uploaded a mix of Power Noise / Rhythmic Noise at Mixcloud, as the next in my series of "pure" mixes of industrial styles. I had a lot of fun and I think it really works as a mix. If you haven't heard it yet, check it out:
http://www.mixcloud.com/leontranter/pure-power-noise-industrial-dance-mix/
Here are some notes about what tracks I chose and why.

Synapscape: Thirsteater. Synapscape are a great band with many good releases under their belt (and they're still going strong after many years in the business). This is off an older album of theirs, Positive Pop, and it's a killer.
ESA: Absolute Fury (in its very fabric). I'm really impressed by ESA and the variety of sounds he produces. This is a solid track with some nice vocals (which you don't often get in power noise) off the Sea and the Silence album, released on the always excellent Tympanik Audio.
Manufactura: Killing You. This is a really nice, strong, aggressive track from controversial artist Manufactura. It's packed full of great samples from the movie "Pi", has crazy heavy beats, and just kicks the crap out of anything. Freaky trivia: this track is from the first Manufactura album Regression, which was released by Auricle Media, a label started by Scott Sturgis aka Converter!
PAL: Bang your box. PAL is one of the legends of the Ant-Zen power noise movement and is hard not to include, even if I find a lot of his albums to be inconsistent in quality. This is a classic track however, with a great rolling momentum.
Asche: Distorted DJ Part 2. I love the album this track comes from (Distorted DJ), but it was hard to pick a track from it, because the whole thing flows together, from beginning to end. This is probably the best track though, and it fits pretty well here in the mix.
Scrap.edx: Bleeder Current. Scrap.Edx are great and their first album, Non-Linear Interfacing (released on the sadly defunct DTA Records), is one of the most underrated noise albums ever. This track is one of many wonderful tracks on that album (more recent works are solid but not quite as good).
Punch Inc: You My God. This is a bad-arse rhythmic noise track from bad-arse German rhythmic noise band Punch Inc, from their first album, Rush Hour. Great stuff. Bonus points to anyone who knows where the sample ("You think you can fight god") is from and can tell me!
5F-X: i=i1+i2+i3+i4+...iN. This track is just mental, and that's fitting since it is from the completely crazy German band 5F-X (a split-off from the even crazier German band 5F_55, whose track names are in hexadecimal code). One of my all time favourites.
Xotox: Degeneration. This track doesn't have a huge amount of depth or complexity to it, but it has a really nice sense of anticipation and momentum that I really like. I feel it works well as a build-up to the next three tracks, which is where things really go nuts. These final three artists are the greatest in all of power noise.
Iszoloscope: Le Demoninateur Common. Iszoloscope is the best power noise artist currently active, for my money. All of his music is amazing, but this track is from his best album, the 2003 masterpiece Au Seuil du Neant. Just amazing.
Imminent Starvation: Tentack one. Probably the best power noise track ever made; this is a musical juggernaut that destroys everything in its path. Listening this track changed my life.
Converter: Stand Beside Him (power). Converter is really the god of this genre; he's quit making music under this name sadly, and many of my favourite tracks of his are actually the more ambient or down-tempo ones. But this is a good noisy stompy example of Scott Sturgis' genius.

Coming up next: Dark Ambient mix! Holy crap, I better learn how to keymix, quick!!

Great industrial remixes

Industrial music is full of remixes. I think it may well be cluttered with more remixes than any other genre of music. I have no specific evidence of this, but it certainly feels that way. We had the remix wars (whatever happened to them?), there are remix competitions, remix compilations, and EPs stuffed full of remixes for when a band can't be bothered stuffing their single with some extra B-sides.

I feel a lot of them are also a waste of space. Many of them don't add anything interesting onto the original; very few of them are better than the original. Then there are the bands who put out their own "remixes" or "dance / club / special mix", which is just the original track with an extra 10 or 20 second loop added somewhere (not mentioning any names, cough, Front 242).

But there are of course some good ones, and a few very good ones. Here are some of my favourites.

Front Line Assembly: Neologic Spasm (Dislocated Mix by Die Krupps). Die Krupps are pretty terrible, so nobody was expecting much from this, especially not myself. FLA had cranked up the guitars on this album (Hard Wired) and the one before it, so the one thing Die Krupps could be expected to bring to the table (guitars) were already there on this album in spades. But they really hit this one out of the park. FLA should have opened this strong album with a stronger track, and this mix would have worked well. It's big, ballsy, stompy industrial music, and ticks all the right boxes. Have a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW59yOBiDnE

Front 242: Religion (Bass Under Siege mix by The Prodigy). How or why anyone talked The Prodigy, one of the biggest electronic acts in the world in 1993, into doing not one but a couple of remixes of Front 242 is a mystery. Sure Front 242 were the biggest industrial act in the world at the time, but still... anyway, Religion was a pretty bad song off a wildly inconsistent album, Up:Evil. And The Prodigy didn't blink at this challenge; they produced a total demon of a track. If the truth be told, it bears astonishingly little resemblance to the original (I think the only thing they kept was a sample of Jean Luc de Myer gasping "burn you down!" every now and then). But seeing as how weak the original was, that's a good thing. This track isn't just amazingly good for a Front 242 remix, it's even amazingly good for a Prodigy track (and in 1993 they were arguable at the very top of their game). This track really needs to be listened to in the dark on a good club sound system, but still, here it is, if you've never experienced it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktXFmQvt3yc

The Azoic: Conflict (Combichrist mix). I'm not really into the Azoic. They're just another decent but pretty uninteresting female fronted EBM band that sound like they belong on Alfa Matrix (though oddly they're not). And they put out an EP with a pretty bland song, Conflict, with a bunch of pretty bland remixes of it... and this snarling monster. This thing hits dancefloors like a tactical nuclear weapon. Like the Front 242 remix above, Combichrist used very little of the original song (the nice lyric "Keep my perspective straight, keep me away from hate", and that's about it), but it somehow inspired Andy to produce a track better than almost any track off any Combichrist album. Amazing stuff. Have a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTkIHB3BIyo

Spahn Ranch: Heretic's Fork (Belief mix by Birmingham 6). This is one of the best industrial remixes ever, if not the best. It's one of my favourite club tracks of all time, a track I can listen to a hundred times (I'm sure I've heard it more than that) and never get sick of it. Now the original is a perfectly good song; it's off Spahn Ranch's best album, The Coiled One, and is a pretty tight and catchy EBM track. But Birmingham 6 took it to a whole new level. Their trademark guitars and frantic snare drums add a perfect level of energy to the verses, they wisely left the chorus pretty well alone, and extended the track for another minute or so with some clever sampling. Just brilliant. I can't find it on Youtube; if you want to hear it, it can be found on Spahn Ranch's "Parts Assembled Solely" EP, or on Cleopatra's 1997 "Industrial Mix Machine" compilation, where I first encountered it (the fact that it also happens to have Die Krupps' remix of Neologic Spasm is gravy).  Total win.