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.

Pure Aggrotech (industrial mix)

I've recorded and uploaded a mix of 100% aggrotech music to Mixcloud. I've had an enormous amount of fun doing it. I'm going to do a series of "pure" mixes of specific sub-styles of industrial. I think up next will be Power Noise, because let's face it, we all need a little more power noise in our lives. At least I think we do.
Anway, you can check out the mix here: http://www.mixcloud.com/leontranter/pure-aggrotech-industrial-dance-mix/
The mix starts off at about 133 BPM, and ends up at about 148.

Here are some notes I've made about what songs I've included in it and why.

Suicide Commando: Hellraiser. How could I not start off an aggrotech mix with this track? This is where it all began. It’s astonishing how strong this stands up over 10 years after it was released. A true classic.

Tactical Sekt: Not Entertained. This is the track that introduced me to this amazing band. Tactical Sekt may have only put out two albums and an EP but it is some of the best aggrotech anyone’s ever made. This track is a personal favourite of mine.

Agonoize: Chains of Love (Straight Electro version). OK so it’s a cheesy band and a cheesy song, but who cares? It’s so fun! I first heard this played at Slimelight in 2007 and I loved it then, and I still love it now.

Dawn of Ashes: Portrait of a Homicide (Nurzery Rhymes mix). OK these guys really crank it up to 11 on this track. Hell, more like up to 17. A really intense track off a pretty strong album. Dawn of Ashes have sadly now become a bad black metal band, for reasons unknown.

Tactical Sekt: Uncivil Liberties. I normally wouldn’t do two tracks by one band in a mix, but Tactical Sekt are too good not to. This isn’t your typical cheesy floor-filler; it takes a few listens, but then you realise this is leagues above most other acts in this genre. Now if only these guys would put out another album!

Distorted Memory: God's Wrath. This is a true dancefloor smasher, and one of my favourite tracks ever released in the genre. The big breakdown in the middle serves as a nice “midway” point between the slower first half of the mix and the faster second half.

Detroit Diesel: Normandy. I’ve only discovered this new band recently via this track on a compilation, and was really blown away. Solid beats, catchy lines, and some extremely good production (even as good as Hocico’s, I’d dare say). This band is definitely one to watch!

Grendel: Crucified. Sure, so their more recent albums have much better production than this earlier stuff, but so what? I don’t think they have any songs as good as this (though Soilbeed EP gives it a run for its money). I just love everything about this track!

Sin DNA: Wasted Passion. Another up and coming act to watch, I came across this track on End the DJ’s excellent Endtrovert mix CD and it made me an instant convert. More great synth lines and producton. I’m also a mad sucker for the chopper effect used on vocals, if not overdone.

Amduscia: Seal you in red. OK so they’re a pretty shameless Hocico clone band, but they have some really great tracks, including this one (which is in my opinion their best). The shift into a major key in the chorus helps make this a really catchy and uplifting song, while somehow still retaining that intense aggrotech feel.

Hocico: Born to be hated. Well this Mexican band is currently the top aggrotech band on the planet and tracks like this show why. While I feel that Wrack and Ruin is actually their weakest album, this track is devastating and puts most of their imitators to shame.

Andraculoid feat. Skeletal Meltdown: Grave Danger. An obscure and highly underrated band, Andraculoid only ever did two albums but they are both great, and this collaboration track he did takes it to a whole new level. This track is a favourite of mine to end a Berserk DJ set with.

Should we all hate Amanda Palmer?

I've been loosely following some controversy that's erupted recently over Amanda Palmer. (she's the singer from the Dresden Dolls, who now does that kind of neo-cabaret or whatever you call it, but these days solo rather than with the Dresden Dolls). More specifically, over the revelation that the ad hoc musicians joining her on stage for her upcoming US tour will not be paid to play with her; they just get to do it for the yucks. Many people think: a) this is terrible, and b) this is especially terrible, given that Amanda Palmer has recently raised over $1 million via Kickstarter. There was an interesting article on it on Caustic's VampireFreak's blog that got me thinking about it.

So should we all hate Amanda Palmer? I'll go through a few points.

Firstly, I think Kickstarter is great. I recently funded the development of a super nerdy computer strategy game, Planetary Annihilation via Kickstarter. They've done enormously well out of it and more power to them. I intend to fund some more Kickstarter projects in the future. I don't necessarily think that this is entirely the way that everything should be done, but I think the world is a better place for the existence of Kickstarter and its crowdsourcing ilk.

Secondly, I don't think the argument "I gave her money on Kickstarter, how dare she go and do [blah] on this tour!" holds any water. If you gave her money on Kickstarter, that was your call. You don't own her. Also, the money was for the album (plus other album-related gimmicks if you put in more money). It wasn't a Kickstarter for "give heaps of money to my buddy musicians to play a tour". If people fronted up the cash for an album, then they should get an album, and they should complain if they don't get an album. They don't get to be tour manager.

Thirdly, Amanda and Caustic are kinda right, insofar as music is a shitty, awful business to be in. You work hard and make almost nothing. I've certainly made nothing out of it, after many years of DJing, releasing music, putting on clubs, and bringing out bands. If you want to be rich, go be a drug dealer or a lawyer. Now that doesn't mean of course that everybody is entitled to rip you off at every step of the way because "you're just doing it for the love, man". People want to make money out of it; it's just very hard to do. But another way of looking at it: if it's a shitty broke business for Amanda Palmer who's just got one mill from Kickstarter, it is probably really shitty for the (essentially session) musicians helping her out.

So what do I think? On the one hand, I definitely don't think people have earned a right to tell her how to do run her damn tour, just because they fronted up $10 or whatever on some website, for an album they haven't heard yet. However, on the other hand, and this is where I disagree with the Caustics and Amanda Palmers of the world, I think the people going to see the shows have an expectation, and a reasonable expectation, that some small amount of their ticket price is going to go to all the people who make the concert happen. This has NOTHING to do with Kickstarter. Many of the people at the shows may not have donated to this album or even heard of Kickstarter. But if I go see a show, with a band (almost an orchestra) and pay $30 or whatever, I will be expecting that some of the money I've paid is going to be distributed, in some fashion, to the people who make the concert happen. The singer, the manager, the venue, the roadies, THE BAND, the sound guy, etc. If I found out that some people that helped make the show happen didn't get anything, I would be disappointed.

Does it happen? All the damn time! I've lost count of the number of times I've DJ'ed or played in a band and been paid nothing. Most of the time, it's been because the event has broken even or lost money. Somebody's  getting something; usually the venue. People most of the time don't have even visibility, let alone control, of this distribution of money. Amanda Palmer was foolish enough to let the cat out of the bag. Could she manage the finances of the tour such that these people get paid? I'd like to think so; it's hard to say without being part of her business, which I am obviously not. So I don't think what is happening with this tour is great, but I don't think she's deceiving or ripping off her Kickstarter supporters. Music is a shitty, shitty game (financially). Somebody almost always loses out. This time it just became publicly obvious who this was. But I guess the musicians have said they're happy doing it for the yucks, so it's really their call.

Tubehopping!

I've come up with a fun game, called Tubehopping. Here's how it works. Go to Youtube, and think of a song, any song in the whole world. Search for it and listen to it. When it's finished, check the Recommended Videos on the right, and pick one by a different band than the one you just listened to (there should be at least one or two). Try and choose one by a band you've never heard of. Listen to that song. Repeat. It's fun!

So yesterday I felt like listening to S.P.O.C.K.'s "Last Man on Earth", the last song on their 1993 debut album "Five Year Mission" (for those unfortunate enough not to know S.P.O.C.K., they are a Swedish synthpop band who do songs based around Star Trek characters and stories; yes it is as awesome as it sounds). So listened to that, then jumped to a semi-decent Culture Kultur song (don't know much about them). Then decided I finally needed to listen to Frozen Plasma (dear God, they're as bad as I'd heard). Then I spotted a VNV remix of a Lights of Euphoria song I don't mind (I have grown to completely hate VNV Nation, but Lights of Euphoria haven't made my shitlist yet). Then I spotted... what the hell? A VNV Nation remix of a Within Temptation song? I'm happy to stand up and say that I really like Within Temptation. But what the hell are they doing prostituting themselves by collaborating with VNVengaBoys? Anyway, it was as awful as you would imagine (I submit for the prosecution Exhibit A, below).

Having landed at Within Temptation, I then proceeded to take a merry tour of a whole bunch of odd Scandinavian and German folk-metal / goth-metal bands on Nuclear Blast, most of them moderately terrible, including a very odd group who mainly sing in Gaulish (a thoroughly extinct European language which nobody has spoken for around a millenia and a half), and somehow ended up with the hilarious film clip for "Superheroes" by German cock-rock band Edguy (which I somehow stumbled upon a couple of years ago). Rock on! Anyway, to play us out, take it away Edguy!

PS: Tubehopping is fun, give it a try.

Always be ready for anything!

Well a few days ago it turned I was called upon to perform a very impromptu DJ set at a club called Foundry at the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville. One of the DJs was facing technical issues that made his set an impossibility, so I ran home, grabbed my giant CD bag of doom, ran back, and put together a set on the fly! Goes to show you need to be prepared, anything can happen. Played some big, loud, stomping industrial club hits, and it went down well. I started a bit late so didn't have a whole lot of time. This is what I played.

Reaper: Urnensand

Noisuf-X: Tinnitus (remixed by Implant)

Implant: Violence (Mizuh remix)

Modulate: Electronic Battle Weapon

Soman: Mask

Uberbyte: Industrial Bitch

Combichrist: Lying sack of sh1t

Rosewater: NME

I'd forgotten how good the Implant remix of Tinnitus is... go have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpLZJQGc86k