The Oak Ridge Boys - American Harmony

Heartland Music: 1986

Ah, hmm, seems I've lost contact with my future-self correspondence regarding these Oak Ridge Boys reviews. I'm not sure how that's possible. Like, wasn't I dealing with multi-verse versions of myself, thus his/my future remains in existence no matter what happens in my present? Or maybe I can only access certain timelines depending on how close to my own existence it lies, whether my current path will lead to such an outcome at all anymore. The 2073 Sykonee that we've come to know can no longer exist from where I'm currently sat if my future no longer leads to such a possibility. Absolutely it's ridiculous I could or would travel to a future Earth where I don't exist at all, potentially snuffing my being out of any reality, but then isn't all this time-travel stuff one big paradox anyway? Perhaps I should rephase the tachyon emitter array into a sixth-level quantum filament, then set the neutrino juicer to puree for a little extra flava-flav (yeah, bwoy!).

Well, maybe it's time that I step in and talk about Oak Ridge Boys from my own perspective, even offer some insight into how I've come to have so many of their albums and compilations. Actually, no, let's not do that; 'tis a silly story. Let's do this a bit more honestly, a bit more properly.

American Harmony is a double-LP gathering of the Oakies' biggest hits following the decade of their transition into pure country music. Yes, they were that darn popular throughout the early Reagan years, especially within certain American Heartland demographics. For this was their rebel music, a gospel group abandoning the stodgy confines of churches and pulpits for the glitz and glamour of honky-tonks and Vegas lights. Holy cow, you should see some of the outfits these guys wore in the late '70s! You'd think they were leads in a white-bread funk group.

Their success lay in singing songs that reached a broader audience that most Americans could relate to. Young teenage lust over Elvira. Heading out on the open road as in Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight. Reminiscing over loves lost and found (just about every song, really). Bemoaning the fact all their cool cutting-edge gadgets were foreign, but at least their women were still American Made. Yeah, they couldn't help themselves with a little ol' flag-wavin' after seeing how the Soviets were living following a tour through Russia (!!), but whatever, nationalist paranoia was all the rage in the early '80s.

Speaking of the '80s, I find it hilarious that even a gospel-turned-country quartet of singers couldn't escape the '80s-ification of their music production. Some of these tracks sound so digitalized and tinny, they fit right at home an electronic music critic blog. Little Things in particular, already coming off like an '80s Beach Boys jingle (aka: not good), features one of the synthiest keyboard solos I've ever heard out of this everlasting group. Surely nothing in their catalogue can top this slice of ludicrous music.

Tiga - American Gigolo (Original TC Review)

Turbo Recordings: 2001

(2019 Update:
Sometimes I wonder if I oversell this CD. For sure my enjoyment of it still hasn't diminished in the slightest but perhaps I was a tad too overzealous in proclaiming it to be "the Tranceport of electroclash". Come to think of it, does anyone really even remember Oakenfold's mix CD anymore? For sure none of the new trance cats care about it, though if you wanted to give someone a primer on this particular music, Tiga's set still does the trick. And I have anecdotal proof!

One time I played this at work, and a co-worker inquired about it, as my co-workers are wont to do when they hear dope music emanating from my bluetooth speaker. I told him and he promptly downloaded a copy (from wherever, I dunno'). Later that week, he tells me that he played it at home while doing housework with some friends, and they liked it so much that they requested he replay it over and over. Hot damn, if this CD has that kind of power fifteen years after its release, then it's a dope CD indeed, my friends!)


IN BRIEF: Then, a revelation. Now, not so much.

With so many former ‘electroclash’ stars releasing albums this year (Tiga, DJ Hell, Vitalic, Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Felix da Housecat, Fischerspooner), it can be difficult to fathom many of them were veritable unknowns at the beginning of the decade. Sure, some had been in the game for a while and garnered a few respectable plaudits along the way, but in no way were they stars. Remember, this was at the time of superstar trance DJs and epic progressive sets from Global Underground and Renaissance mainstays, not to mention ample amounts of funky disco house filling the store racks. In the year 2000, the very notion of gritty electro, punky techno, and sleazy EBM grabbing the spotlight by the balls was absurd. Yet the underground buzz started to catch and as folks-in-the-know grew tired of expensive superclubs, a tidal-wave of momentum surged the electro-revival into the mainstream.

Here in good ol’ Northern Americana, you can point to a single compilation that got the ball rolling: Tiga’s American Gigolo. It was conceived when the Montreal native, upon recognizing just how cutting edge the International Deejay Gigolo sound was at the time, figured it would do the American scene some good to properly introduce this brash style of techno to a stagnating continent. DJ Hell, already having garnered a large cult following in Europe with his label, seemed to agree it was time to take the U.S.A. and Canada.

Tiga’s label itself, Turbo Recordings, had been gaining similar momentum on this continent with a run of classy, varied DJ mixes, though mostly sticking with tried and tested house and techno. When this one dropped, however, it not only marked the beginning of electro’s resurge but also Turbo’s re-imaging. All in all, a perfect marriage.

Your requisite track-list glance reveals a number of bona-fide classics. Sunglasses At Night, Porno Actress, Frank Sinatra, I’m A Disco Dancer, Poney Part 1, Emerge… I could go on. If you didn’t know better, you’d almost swear this was some kind of ‘Electroclash Anthems’ from Ministry Of Sound. Yet, it’s simply a label showcase: twenty-five tracks across twenty-four singles (out of the first eighty) from one label. It’s that realization that makes this mix all the more remarkable, that just one freakin’ label was responsible for so many classics and for exposing so many future stars.

“But,” you say, “so what? How is this unique now?” Good point, my unseen questioner. While this may have been the first major exposure for guys like Vitalic, Fischerspooner, and even Tiga as a proper singer, the huge bandwagon jumping that ensued from major labels in the following two years flooded the market with similar compilations, many of which were far more comprehensive of this sound than American Gigolo. In many ways, it’s similar to what happened with Paul Oakenfold’s original Tranceport - sure, it exposed a large number people to a relatively fresh sound with several strong, memorable singles for the first time, but its quality was easily been eclipsed in later years (of course, part of the handicap here is the fact the music’s from only one label; not sure what Oakenfold’s excuse is).

Heck, even Tiga, usually a capable DJ, doesn’t bring his A-game here. While he pulls out some brilliantly daft blends and mash-ups - throwing the over-emoting Marc Almond chorus from Soul On Soul into the great synth chords in Vitalic’s You Prefer Cocaine is hilariously awesome - he also forces some ugly transitions too. The mix from DJ Naughty’s Boing Bum Tschag into his own Sunglasses At Night is brutal, and seemingly only done as an inside joke - Boing Bum Tschag being Gigolo’s first release, while Sunglasses At Night was (at the time) the label’s latest.

On the other hand, some of Tiga’s rough transitions only added to this compilation’s allure. After so many years of pristine polished progressive trance sets (often done in a studio), to hear a ‘balls to the walls’ mix coupled with such punky attitude in the music, you really did believe this could be the next big thing. The minimalist nihilism of the opening stretch, forays into strong house and tech in the middle… solid enough. Then Vitalic comes in, and the mix basically bludgeons you with energy; more importantly, it suggests wonderful possibilities for this sound’s future. For a brief moment, it even makes then-trance’s poster boy Ferry Corsten seem like a perfect fit (thanks in large part to The Hacker; also it certainly can’t be a coincidence that Corsten came out with Punk shortly after Gigolo did their remixes for Soul On Soul). By the time Emerge has wrapped up, you can’t help but wonder, nearly a decade later, why this music didn’t have the strong future it hinted at.

Well, there were many reasons for it, some of which already touched upon in this review. Here’s not the place to delve deeply into it though. Rather, the only remaining question I’ll discuss is whether American Gigolo is still worth your time and pennies. Frankly, you can’t fault the music, and even if the mixing isn’t the greatest, it’s still fine enough to not be too distracting. If you’re looking for a more complete electroclash compilation, there are better options out there, even as tribute mixes available for free on DJ websites. In the end, though, this little mix from Tiga is fun enough to throw on, as very little on here has dated. Easily a worthy pick-up if you find it on the cheap.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. © All rights reserved.

Various - Ambient Rituals - Exercise One: Music For Soul Braiding

Hypnotic: 1995

I believe this was Hypnotic's first ambient compilation, though I use the genre lightly regarding the music on here. Dark ambient, yeah, plus weird dronescapes too, though nothing so occult as you might think from “Rituals” in the title. Then again, I had no clue of what to expect from a Hypnotic ambient release. All I'd ever heard from them was German trance, and while I knew some of those acts had downtempo material under their belt (ie: Komakino as Ynos), I'd never seen it appear on Hypnotic CDs before.

Well, none of that mattered, because Hypnotic didn't bother reaching into their Music Research trough for this compilation. Instead, they tapped an obscure Toronto print called DOVentertainment Inc., which briefly housed such famed industrial names like Zoviet France (and by extension, Rapoon), Digital Poodle, Dead Voices On Air, and La Floa Maldita. Okay, 'housed' is stretching it a bit; handled Canadian distribution, more like. Somehow, Cleopatra got the distribution rights to their material, and since they'd established Hypnotic as their one-stop outlet/dumping ground of all things 'raverish', handed it off there as an ambient collection, never mind the music here most definitely unplayable in traditional chill rooms. Technical stuff sometimes makes my head hurt, or maybe it's this inner-ear infection I'm dealing with.

Track one comes care of Kinder Atom, a quartet of producers that includes Heiki Sillaste. Their track of Scanus is a weird, spacey minimalist techno-dub, sounding rather empty yet soothing as subtle blips and beeps sing and breathe along a steady rhythm pulsing along. Ambient techno for sure, but with a striking ominous tone befit of an industrial outlet. Mr. Sillaste returns in track number two, Autorhythm Two from A.S.A., the second time I've come across this alias, meaning I now own half of this ridiculously obscure Canadian project. And what a strange track it is too, layers of bloopy sounds creating a percolating dripping sound as a lone beep echoes every so often. Interesting, if you dig your experimental techno. Heiki appears a third time later, under his most famed handle of Digital Poodle, though Weapon is but a transitional track, showing off angry robot noises before playing a forlorn ode to a post-war industrial wasteland. Surprisingly captivating, for the short time it plays. Rapoon's here too, with a super-long ultra-repetitive track that's also very meditative, in that old-school Rapoony sort of way.

Really, the two big takeaways I got from Ambient Rituals are a pair of tracks that couldn't be further apart if they tried. The first is Hemisphere from Synaesthesia, whom you may know as good ol' Leeb and Fulber merging their EBM and world beat senses into a big, bruising downtempo jam. The other is Vuls from Dead Voices On Air, a desolate composition of distant sounds and drones. Imagine being bound inside an asylum, the hum of ventilation ducts and a security camera your lone companions, words from your overseers intermittently oozing through the cold concrete walls. Delectable paranoia for the mindspace.

Various - Ambient Ibiza

EMI Music Canada: 1996

I'd found a new genre to love, and even lucked out scoring a few early gems showcasing the stuff, but only on my twice-or-thrice a year trips to Vancouver. The rest of my time remained in the ends of Canadian earth, and good luck finding any music shop having something with “ambient” in its title. Fortunately, I'd started working at such a music shop, and had access to our supplier's catalogue. Promising my boss that I'd buy whatever came in, I eagerly flipped through the compilation selection and put in requests for anything that had “ambient” in its title. Some of those items ended up being compilations from Hypnotic (who knew!), but also included was this particular CD, Ambient Ibiza. And hoo, seeing that cover art when it first arrived, did I ever wonder if I'd made a mistake in such blind enthusiasm. Surely I would never make such a mistake in the future, ha-ha, ha!

So this looked rather corny, and when I threw it on for a listen, the opening track, care of CD compiler Sergio himself, with a saccharine pad tone and woman intoning “Tell me... what you dream”, and I feared I'd ended right back in the domain of Pure Moods, a domain I'd emphatically left behind. Couldn't deny though, it sold the Ibizan vibe nicely, feeling like I'm chilling on a Mediterranean patio with a cocktail in hand. Then Bindu's Light At Heart came on, with a surprisingly melancholy pad, heartbeat pulse, and lonely acoustic guitar. And gosh, though it still sounds very Pure Moodsy, something about it stirs the heart/soul/spleen. Like, I recognize it's sap, but a good kind of sap, the kind that can be turned into delicious maple syrup.

From there, Ambient Ibiza warms you over with a variety of chill-out tunes that never lose that Balearic feel. Lucky People Center's Woman Is Like A Fruit goes a little sultry nu-jazz, D.O.P.'s Manifest Your Love could almost fit on a collection featuring early Massive Attack and Soul II Soul, and upbeat Van Basten's Perimitive (Part 1) lays the naturalist field recordings on lusciously thick – feels like I'm wandering an arboretum filled with birds of paradise.

And wouldn't you know it, there's a single tune on Ambient Ibiza that could just fit on one of those 'underground ambient dub' CDs I was so enamoured with, Dub Tractor's Overheated Livingroom. Yeah, it's got that overtly chipper Ibiza vibe to it, but works just enough dubby melodies and rhythms that give me the THC-buzz without even toking a jay. Also, that breakdown! *melt*

Other dubby tracks on here include music from The Gentle People (haha, a Rephlex tune on a compilation like this) and Mind Over Rhythm's Big Warm Glo (a collab' with Plaid, of all things). That's more than enough to convince my younger self Ambient Ibiza really ain't so bad after all. Still a little too sickly sweet for many plays, mind you, but enjoyable enough for occasional summer afternoons.

Various - Ambient Dub, Volume 3: Aqua

Beyond: 1993

Back in my teenage years, I knew Beyond's Ambient Dub series existed (Banco de Gaia showed his compilation contributions on his original website), but didn't think I'd find it. They seemed so old, the years '92-'93 ancient history from where I sat in '97. Plus, they came from all the way in the UK, so what hopes could a kid in the hinterlands of Canuckistan have? Surprisingly good chances, apparently, as on one of my trips to Vancouver, I saw Ambient Dub, Volume 3: Aqua sitting in a shop. Holy cow, who cares if it was over thirty bones (and Toby Marks felt it was weaker than the first two), I had to buy it then and there! And wouldn't you know it, that same music shop (Bassix, one of the greatest vinyl stores in the Lower Mainland ever) was able to order me a copy of The Big Chill too! Sa-weet! No luck on that Earthjuice though.

Of course, like Earthjuice, Aqua has fallen out of my regular rotation for the fact I've gathered most of the tunes on here after the fact. Heck, some of them I already had, such as Original Rockers' Mecca Of Space and Banco de Gaia's Sheesha, both not exactly tunes I highly rated compared to their other material. Then there's the lone HIA contribution of Delta, a charming bleep-hop tune in its own right, but vastly outshone by Pentatonik's rub, which I'd already heard on Ambient Auras. A Postive Life's Hypnosystem is also here, though in an earlier, simpler form compared to its album counterpart. I used to prefer this original version, but as time's gone on, it now sounds rather basic and boring to my ears; praise album-orientated updating, I guess.

The Groove Corporation finally get their chance to shine in this series, their reggae dub-house Roots Controller treading territory Leftfield made their domain. Still, having finally gotten the actual album that tune appears on, means one less reason to play this CD now. The only item from the Ambient Dub regular players that remains exclusive here is Original Rockers' The Satsuma Nightmare rub on Banco de Gaia's Desert Wind. Even that isn't much to get fussed about though, essentially a dubby stripping of the original which is good for a little shoulder shuffle, but not much else.

Still, three tracks do save Aqua from complete listening neglect. Another Fine Day makes his Ambient Dub debut with the exclusive Wild Spirit Of Song, showing off Mr. Green's playful use of unique instruments and sample manipulation. Digital Jesus ups the tempo some into a brisk, almost tribal-trance outing in Menali Encounter, and Insanity Sect show off their ear for the low-ridin' potential of ambient dub. Oh, and Groove Corporation do a Balearic house thing in Your Heart, which sounds nothing like regular G.Corp, or anything else in this series for that matter. A very odd addition, though what was G.Corp to do, wait a few years for Ambient Ibiza to release it?

Various - Ambient Dub, Volume 2: Earthjuice

Beyond: 1993

I wish I had this CD, make my Ambient Dub collection closer to proper completion. Okay, I technically do, as I wouldn't be reviewing it otherwise, but it's a burned copy. And no, I didn't nab it off a peer-to-peer service – I surprisingly couldn't find it, at least back in the AudioGalaxy days. I wouldn't even know what tracks to look for anyway, so few details available to me beyond its mere existence.

Then lo', a saviour did descend from the heavens, a Lord That Knows All emerging from the darkness, curating all manner of knowledge regarding any and all electronic music releases (especially after I helped contribute to its vast tome of discographical information). And hey, would you look at that, there's that Ambient Dub, Volume 2: Earthjuice CD I always wondered about. I wonder if anyone might be willing to sell it. What's this, fine sir, you're willing to trade it to me for a burned copy of L.S.G.'s Best Of? Sweet deal, yeah I'll do that trade! Oh, you mean for a burned copy of Earthjuice as well. Eh, sure, why not. It's not like an actual Marketplace with official vendors selling items will ever crop up on Discogs.

And you know, I'm not sure I really need this compilation for completion anyway. There's G.O.L.'s Soma Holiday, A Positive Life's The Calling, The Underwater World Of Jah Cousteau from The Groove Corporation (or remixed from Original Rockers' Push Push), plus an original, inferior version of Banco de Gaia's Shanti (so limp sounding compared to the Black Mountain Mix). That's half this CD I already have elsewhere, so how important is it to get the rest of these tune? Very important, I says!

For instance, there's an exclusive HIA track on here, the charmingly retro-pulp acid ambient techno of W.H.Y. (...why not?). APL has an exclusive too, in Universal Message, a rather standard upbeat slice of bleepy techno and isn't as interesting as most of his other stuff, but hey, it's there! And why not, Original Rockers also gets in on that exclusivity action, with their Afro dub-thump of DeMat DubRim. And this Deeply Sirius Mix of Banco de Gaia's Lai Lah, I think that's exclusive, though save an extended dancier section (is this a live mix?), isn't much different from the album version. That ethereal G.O.L. cover of No Bounds though, that ain't exclusive, also appearing on their own album.

Yeah, Earthjuice shares similarities with The Big Chill, not only in featured acts but also showcasing a pair of tracks from each (HIA's second is Speedlearn, also rather retro-pulpy compared to its album counterpart). The only odd-man out in this is newcomer Insanity Sect, who closes the CD with their lone Psychik Warriors Ov Gaia leaning, minimalist techno dub cut Subliminal Air. As this track's over sixteen-minutes long though, I say that counts as two.

Eh, what happened to 21st Century Aura and Mimoid from the first compilation? Never heard from again. It's a... misssss-tory!

Divination - Ambient Dub, Volume II: Dead Slow

Subharmonic: 1993

A second volume of ambient dub under the Divination guise? Heck, there might even exist a Volume III, but not with this alias. Divination did extend beyond this album though, a couple LPs and a double-LP marking the project's total story. And that's just what Laswell did with this one! When you consider his stuff as Sacred System, Praxis, Axiom Records, both projects with Pete Namlook (not to mention his tag-in with Pete and Klause Schulz), and a zillion more items I'd run out of self-imposed word count before detailing them all (just... so many...), is it any wonder covering this man's work is a neigh impossible task? I mean, just look at Divination! I doubt most folks (if any) reading this blog even knew it existed before I name-dropped it in that Alien Ambient Galaxy compilation, and here I'm tellin' you not only it existed, but includes six CDs worth of music; yet it's barely a side-side project in Laswell's career. Dude's got Merzbow levels of productivity, and probably about as much musical consistency.

If there's any consistency in Divination, it's that there's never the same bundle of musicians joining Laswell for a jam with each album. The first had Nicky Skopelitis, Liu Sola, Buckethead (!), and Robert Musso in the studio with the Laswellian one. This outing, however, has Mick Harris, Jeff Bova, and fellow bassist Jah Wobble. He'd pair up with these guys on several more projects outside this one too, and is that ever a list and a half, I tell you wh'ut.

Having the right crew in for a jam makes a heck of a difference between these two Ambient Dub albums. Volume 1 had dudes with more of an industrial and acid rock background, chaps who prefer doing noisy assaults than ambient spliff music, and didn't really mesh with the whole 'ambient dub' idea. The peoples on Volume II, however, have no problem exploring the deeper end of bass 'n dub, which makes Dead Slow an overall stronger showing of what Laswell's take on 'ambient dub' is all about. Also, the mixdown is better balanced, no shocking leaps in voluminous muddy bass drowning things out. Or weird vocal chants, for that matter.

As with Volume 1, Volume II flits between shorter, minimalist droning pieces, and lengthier jams with thumping rhythms, burbling dubby electronics, and that bass tone intermingling for fifteen minutes apiece. In the great annals of Laswell's dub discography, I'd still rate this a touch below his Sacred System stuff, but it's still enjoyable for the style of music it's setting out to be. Except maybe that lengthy sonic dub experiment as the final track, but that's easily skippable.

By the by, the album's curious sub-title comes from a traffic sign photographer Ira Harvey Cohen spotted in India. The inlay includes it, with an Indian man wearing nothing but a turban, some beads, and a loose loin cloth smoking underneath (cute). Figures Laswell would interpret it as a musical concept too.

Various - Ambient Dub, Volume 1: The Big Chill

Beyond: 1992

Finally, after many years and hundreds (thousands?) of name-drops, I've come to the grand-daddy of all chill-out compilations, Beyond's Ambient Dub, Volume 1: The Big Chill. Before this, you had The Orb, Enigma, The KLF's Chill Out, and precious little else receiving much exposure, compilations of the stuff just not dreamt of. Heck, even those artists were relegated to 'top chart hits' CDs rather than anything aimed at mentally gassed punters. And while the industry was likely primed to cash-in on this lucrative sub-scene of post-partying, Beyond got there before most, thus credited with making 'ambient dub' a thing.

What made The Big Chill so brilliant at the time was how its fully aware of what was generating buzz for home-listening options in electronic music, offering its own take on each of them. The lightly jazz-n-hop vibe acts like Massive Attack and Nightmares On Wax were doing? Here's the Original Rockers, then, serving up a slice of Sexy Selector, but way deeper in the Jamaican dub. Or maybe the playful house-dub of The Orb is more to your liking. Then 21st Century Aura will hook you up with Disorientation, including a cheeky preacher sample running throughout (“witchcraft!”).

Eh, you prefer world beat? Here's a promising up-and-comer name Banco De Gaia then, sending you on a dusty caravan through the Desert Wind. Ah, it was actually that erotic Enigma stylee you were after. I'm sure G.O.L.'s Angelica In Delirium has you covered with church bells, chants, and Antonia Reiner's seductive poetry. No, no, it's that future leaning sound you crave, more in line with bleep and ambient techno as found on the first Artificial Intelligence. Fair enough, and Alphanex's Planet Hoskins serves that up in spades (or is that hearts?).

I think that touches on all the prominent movements in downtempo and chill-out music of the time. Oh, I guess there was Real Ambient too, and wouldn't you know it, Mimoid even inches in that territory, with the two-parter track Tree Of The Sun, Tree Of The Moon. The first half has a crunchy bouncy beat, that “you make me feel so good” sample, and dripping water (my dad quipped it was Chinese Water Torture when it played out on its own), but the second-half is essentially beatless, save a little acid bassline. There's also sweeping synths, whale calls, and dubbed-out sci-fi sounds, making it sound as though you're soaring through the cosmos. Quite a brilliant bit of dub production really, a spell better than Mimoid's other offering of Strawberry, which features an insistently annoying, distracting loop of “okay, let's do it” throughout its runtime. That's the only dud track on here though.

Banco's Soufie, HIA's Ketamine Entity (d'at bass!), and the proto trip-hop of 21st Century Aura's Something Started round out the rest, and a great rounding out it is. If you ever wanted to know why ambient dub became such a trendy thing in the early '90s, The Big Chill is all the evidence you need.

Divination - Ambient Dub Volume 1

Subharmonic: 1993

Holy cow, another ambient dub collection that isn't the seminal Ambient Dub series from Beyond? Just how many ambient dub collections are there? Uh, not that many more, I'm sure. Like, after learning AudioGalaxy was a thing, I scoured the app for “ambient dub” because of course I would, and aside from a ton of Bill Laswell music, didn't find much else. Most prominent of the bassist's offerings were his 'ambient dub translations' of Bob Marley tunes, but these Divination albums came first. Just shortly after Beyond's offerings, in fact, practically concurrently. Coincidence, mayhaps?

Eh, if I'm willing to offer a theory (and I am!), Beyond released their first volume of ambient dub, and Laswell heard it. As a jazz purist though, he was unimpressed by the musicianship involved, so the O.G. jazz-dub dude took it upon himself to show these newer cats how it's done, bringing in a bunch of his pals for some sessions on what he feels is Proper Ambient Dub, none of this pseudo downtempo raver comedown nonsense. Wow, who'd have that something as micro-niche as ambient dub could have a rivalry!

Well, that's a fun theory, though you'd have to ask Mr. Laswell himself whether it's accurate or not. Heck, given his relentless output, I wonder if he even remembers the original inspiration for these Divination albums. Maybe he just needed some fresh material to launch his new Subharmonic label, and since 'ambient dub' was a trending tag in the early '90s, figured it would help sell his stuff better. The truth is out there, somewhere in the ether between echoing bass tones!

Speaking of aliens, yes, this is the same Divination that appeared on that Alien Ambient Galaxy compilation, with two tracks from here appearing there (among the Elsewheres): Errata and Delta. As pieces of pure minimalist ambient dub, they're neat compositions, but more as interludes in this album, most tracks surprisingly upbeat for a record billing itself as 'ambient dub' (oh no, it's happening again!).

Opener Divination One has a chill groove going for it, with Laswell's bass tones guiding us along, and suits the concept of ambient dub nicely. Follow-up twelve-minute long Seven Heavens, however, has quite the thumping techno beat, interspersed with long, synthy ambient breakdowns, and why is the low-end of the mixdown so overcranked? I know Laswell's a bassist and all, but everything sounds so muddy here. Meanwhile, the back half of the album trends closer to the domain of world beat, with ethnic wailing (some samples, but original chants from Liu Sola too), tabla drumming, and burbling sonics. Ooh, and I think I heard some of Buckethead's guitar work in there too, though as with everything else, is mostly buried under muddy bass.

There's some interesting ideas here, but if this was meant to be an opening salvo on Laswell's part in doing Proper Ambient Dub, he was still a bit off from creating something refined and long-lasting. See his Sacred System releases for such a take.

Various - Ambient Dub: Futuristic Techno Dub & Electronic Roots

Millennium Records: 2000

I first saw this advertised among a pile of promo flyers we'd get in the little music shop I worked at, and I couldn't believe my eyes that it was real. An honest-to-Jah ambient dub compilation in the year 2000, half a decade past the micro-genre's peak of prominence? For sure a couple acts were keeping that fire burning (s'up, Sounds From The Ground), but as the Kruder & Dorfmeister style had overtaken the downtempo scene, the O.G. works from Beyond had been relegated to the annals of electronic music history; this is, what, the seventeenth time I've written this blurb?

Anyhow, without knowing anything about any of the names listed on the promo spiel, I ordered a copy for myself because what else was I supposed to do? I thought ambient dub was long gone, but here was a label promising a return of the stuff, even being so bold as to include the genre in blazing big font. Never mind the cover art looked a tad dodgy and this could all be some false advertising. If there was to be a proper revival of the sound that opened my ears to all manner of wonderful sonics, you had to support any and all attempts at it, amirite? No, I ain't right, but such was my logic at the time.

So the CD comes in, and I immediately throw it on to hear what 'Year 2000 ambient dub' is all about and the first song has some Jamaican roots loops and a mild techno beat and is kinda' dub but in no way ambient. Thus, my fear had been confirmed, Ambient Dub nothing more than a tacky marketing gimmick. How could any label get away with such a blatantly misleading compilation title, promising ambient dub and providing no ambient at all? Who is the label anyway? Oh, Millennium Records, they of the UK Space Techno series. That explains that.

So I was disappointed my new Ambient Dub CD didn't have ambient dub on it. Then I actually sat down and listened to the darn thing and I realized something: there's some gosh-darned dope dub techno on this compilation! That opening track, for instance, comes care of The Rootsman, and is a chipper slice of roots techno in its own right. The next track comes care of Saafi Brothers, who I didn't know at the time, but are highly regarded within the psy-dub scene. They include Gabriel Le Mar, who appears thrice more on this CD, once under his own name (with groovy April My Dear, almost treading into prog-psy's territory), again as Dub_Connected (crunchy dub techno dopeness), plus as part of Banned X, their That's Dub a surprisingly brisk outing of trippy dub techno.

The rest of Ambient Dub (sans ambient) pretty much flits between dub techno and roots techno, and despite a couple weird moments (Outernational's Cape East predicts brostep belches a decade early!), is a solid assortment of the stuff. Clearly though, Millennium Records couldn't have called it Techno Roots-N-Dub or something more accurate.