A History of Ambient House & Ambient Techno - 1: 1989-1990 - The Orb, The KLF, Sun Electric & Origo

Attempting to document the huge range of music from the intensely creative period at the peak of ambient house, ambient techno and chill-out music in the first half of the '90s.
Releases covered in this video:
The Orb - A Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld
The KLF - Chill Out
Space - Space
The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
Sun Electric - O'Locco
Erik Wollo - Images of Light
Enigma - MCMXCaD
Enigma - Sadeness
Enigma - Mea Culpa

[@russellschaeffler]

I worked in an all night club in the mid nineties and spent many nights in the chill out room listening to DJs mixing FAX records... What a wonderful mind expanding time it was.

[@ChrisSmout]

I spent a lot of my pre-teens in the early 90s listening to old tapes that my dad used to listen to on his work commutes to London: The Orb, The Grid, System 7, KLF, Banco de Gaia, FSOL and others. Incredibly influential period, especially some of the computer-generated music videos from those times. Looking forward to further entries in this series.

[@captainblood9616]

Fun fact The Orb record referring to Ultraworld and a giant pulsating brain is a reference to an episode of the old English Sci Fi show Blake's 7 which has exactly those things in it

[@russellschaeffler]

Storm of Drones I had the 3 CD set but lost track of it and would love to find the music again.

[@InsideBilderberg]

Enjoyed that, thanks.

[@garglebard]

Top stuff again... thanks ✌️

[@gianfrancotrucchi6524]

Great video, I was lucky enough to come of age going to Oscillate club in Birmingham etc. there does seem to be a resurgence at the moment as HIA etc seem to be getting their props thanks to Richard Sen's 'Richard Sen presents Dream The Dream (UK techno, breakbeat and house 1990-1994)' and the recent reissues on Music From Memory. Also worth checking out is David Toop's amazing book 'ocean of sound' and associated compilations that are scattered across KZbin etc being essential companions to the book when they were originally issued on CD (remember them?) in a pre streaming ages. Keep up the good work!

[@gianfrancotrucchi6524]

Darko Audio also made a few videos that cover his experience of getting into electronic music, which cover a similar era , well worth a watch if anyone needs a starting point for albums to listen to. kzbin.info/aero/PLt6FSN4PoPuQo1NXb8nvKokKaPWin76yH&si=MQD38_wfGFZp5w3O

[@absentwithconcept]

Yeah, Music from Memory and re:discovery have been putting out some great stuff from the era... that said, it feels like there's been a resurgence 'just about to happen' for about 15 years now haha - here's hoping the interest keeps growing. I'll have to check out those Darko Audio videos, good to see someone else covering this kind of music, cheers!

[@Theaphextwin972]

I'm also really intresested in this era of music I'm trying to find some more ambient house and techno albums what do you recommend?

[@absentwithconcept]

Some faves outside of the really big names (FSOL/Orb/Biosphere/Global Communication/Namlook): Syzygy - Morphic Resonance James Bernard - Atmospherics Heavenly Music Corporation - Lunar Phase Trans-4M - Sublunar Oracles Steve Be Zet - Archaic Modulation The Primitive Painter - The Primitive Painter There's tons more that I'll be exploring as I go through this series, I'm still working through everything but I reckon I'll be covering around 250 albums from the era in total.

[@Theaphextwin972]

Thank you. Iv also listened to some of ultramarines album every man and women Is a star it'd an ambient house and a really early example of folktronica, I recommend the track Stella from the album

[@quentinr5]

The Irresistable Force - Flying High Higher Intelligence Agency (incl his collabs with Namlook) Air Liquide - Liquide Air MLO - Io Manna - s/t Robert Leiner - Visions of the Past Solar Quest - Orgship vol 1&2 Apollo Records Recycle or Die Records Skylab - #1 Reload - Collection of Short Stories Sun Electric - Aaah! / Present LFO - Advance

[@absentwithconcept]

@@quentinr5 Excellent list! Pretty much everything here will be covered by me... eventually. Some of my all-time faves in there.

[@motorboy23]

Some of my favourite albums of the era as an ambient room DJ back then (some already noted in the video): Silence - Pete Namlook & Dr Atmo Selected Ambient Works 85-92 - Aphex Twin Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics - Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia Lifeforms - The Future Sound Of London Lovely Thunder - Harold Budd & 62 Eulengasse ‎- 62 Eulengasse (Pete Namlook & Tetsu Inoue) Blood Music: Pentamerous Metamorphosis - Chapterhouse Retranslated by Global Communication Chill Out - The KLF Music For Ballet - Namlook Wandering Soul - Peter Kuhlmann Tango N' Vectif - µ-Ziq Constellation - Oliver Lieb Music To Films ‎- Music To Films (Dr. Atmo and Oliver Lieb) Dominic Woosey ‎- Straylight Flying High - The Irresistible Force The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld - Orb Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks - Brian Eno Subharmonic Mixtures - Oskar Sala Seasons Greetings: Autumn - Namlook Space - Space Electro-Soma - B12 F.U.S.E. - Dimension Intrusion Reload - A Collection Of Short Stories Sad World II - Dr Atmo and Ramin 76:14 - Global Communication Seasons Greetings: Spring - Namlook Air - Namlook Jet Chamber ‎- Jet Chamber Chill Out Planet Earth - Dr Motte's Euphorhythm Tales Of Ephidrina - Amorphous Androgynous Tripomatic Fairytales 2002 - Jam & Spoon 2350 Broadway ‎- 2350 Broadway Alien Community ‎- Alien Community Various ‎- Give Peace A Dance, Volume 2: The Ambient Collection