HOME
*





Ambient House
Ambient house is a downtempo subgenre of house music that first emerged in the late 1980s, combining elements of acid house and ambient music. The genre developed in chill-out rooms and specialist clubs as part of the UK's dance music scene. It was most prominently pioneered by the Orb and the KLF, along with artists such as Global Communication, Irresistible Force, Youth, and 808 State. The term was used vaguely, and eventually fell out of favor as more specific subgenres were recognized. Genre AllMusic describes "ambient house" as an "early categorical marker" for music "appropriating certain primary elements of acid house music -- midtempo, four-on-the-floor beats; synth pads and strings; soaring vocal samples -- used in a dreamier, more atmospheric fashion". ''Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World'' noted common elements: repeated synthesizer arpeggios that are gradually modulated; reverbed snippets of dialogue from film, radio, or relaxation tapes; and samp ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Ambient Music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual",Prendergast, M. ''The Ambient Century''. 2001. Bloomsbury, USA or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer. The genre originated in the 1960s and 1970s, when new musical instruments were being introduced to a wider market, such as the synthesizer. It was presaged by Erik Satie's furniture music and styles such as musique concrète, minimal music, and German electronic music, but was prominently named and popularized by British mu ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


The KLF
The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing hip hop-inspired and sample-heavy records as the JAMs. As the Timelords, they recorded the British number-one single "Doctorin' the Tardis", and documented the process of making a hit record in a book '' The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)''. As the KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered stadium house (rave music with a pop-rock production and sampled crowd noise) and, with their 1990 LP ''Chill Out'', the ambient house genre. The KLF released a series of international hits on their own KLF Communications record label and became the biggest selling singles act in the world in 1991. From the outset, the KLF adopted the philosophy espoused by esoteric novels ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'', making anarchic situationist manifestatio ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mixmag
''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printed on 1 February 1983 as a 16-page black-and-white magazine published by Disco Mix Club, a DJ mailout service. The first cover featured American music group Shalamar. When house music began in the 1980s, editor and DJ Dave Seaman turned the magazine from a newsletter for DJs into a magazine covering all dance music and club culture. ''Mixmag'', in association with its original publishing company, DMC Publishing, released a series of CDs under the "Mixmag Live" heading. The magazine, which reached a circulation of up to 70,000 copies, was later sold to EMAP Ltd. in the mid-1990s. In 1996, an American version titled ''Mixmag USA'' was launched. It was renamed Mixer after the UK edition of Mixmag was sold to EMAP. It ceased publication alto ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Heaven (nightclub)
Heaven is a superclub in Charing Cross, London, England. It has a long association with London's LGBT scene and is home to long-running gay night G-A-Y. The club is known for Paul Oakenfold's acid house events in the 1980s, the underground nightclub festival Megatripolis, and for being the birthplace of ambient house. Soundshaft also hosted Future, a regular night on Thursdays run by Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley. At the end of the night, both crowds would come together when the doors connecting Heaven & Future opened for the last couple of songs. History Beginnings Heaven was opened in December 1979 by Jeremy Norman in a former night club called Global Village, which was housed in the arches beneath Charing Cross railway station, once part of Adelphi Arches, a large wine-cellar for the hotel above. Norman was also chairman of Burke's Peerage, the publishers. The original hi-tech interior was designed by his partner, Derek Frost. Norman, an entrepreneur, had started an e ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Jimmy Cauty
James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million. He is married to artist and musician Alannah Currie, a former member of Thompson Twins. Early life and career Cauty was born on the Wirral Peninsula. As a 17-year-old artist, he drew a popular ''The Lord of the Rings'' poster (and later, a counterpart based on ''The Hobbit'') for British retailer Athena. In 1981–82 Cauty was guitarist in a band called Angels 1–5, who recorded a Peel session on 1 July 1981. Lead vocalist was Cressida Bowyer, whom Cauty later married. He then joined the band Brilliant with which he remained until its break-up in 1986. Cauty was also an original member of Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, in 1985. Artistic partnership with Bill Drummond Cauty joined with Bill Drummond to form The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), a coll ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Alex Paterson
Alex Paterson (also known as Dr Alex Paterson, born Duncan Alexander Robert Paterson; 15 October 1959 in Battersea, London) is an English musician and co-founder of ambient house group The Orb, in which he has worked since its inception. Life and work Paterson attended Kingham Hill School in Oxfordshire between 1970 and 1979, at the same time as Killing Joke bassist Martin "Youth" Glover. Paterson was a roadie for Killing Joke in the 1980s and later worked in the A&R department of E.G. Records, to whom the band were signed. New York radio stations were a force driving his musical direction, especially the Chuck Chill-Out shows on 98.7 KISS FM. In the late 1970s Paterson sang for the band 'Bloodsport' while also DJing at Killing Joke gigs. In 1989, Youth and Alex Paterson started the WAU! Mr. Modo label. Their early releases of a selection of industrial techno dubs and heavy sound system dubs from artists such as Napthali, Manasseh, Bim Sherman and Jah Warrior are long del ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Orb
The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 1991 debut album ''The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld'' pioneered the UK's nascent ambient house movement, while its UK chart-topping follow-up ''U.F.Orb'' represented the genre's commercial peak. Beginning as ambient and dub DJs in London, The Orb's early performances were inspired by electronic artists of the 1970s, most notably Brian Eno, Cluster, and Kraftwerk. The Orb have maintained their signature science fiction aesthetic despite numerous personnel changes, including the departure of Cauty and members Kris Weston, Andy Falconer, Simon Phillips, Nick Burton, and Andy Hughes. Paterson has been the only permanent member, continuing to work as the Orb with Swiss-German producer Thomas Fehlmann, and later, with Martin "Youth ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Relaxation Music
New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather than trance, or to create a peaceful atmosphere in homes or other environments. It is sometimes associated with environmentalism and New Age spirituality; however, most of its artists have nothing to do with "New age spirituality", and some even reject the term. New-age music includes both acoustic forms, featuring instruments such as flutes, piano, acoustic guitar and a wide variety of non-Western acoustic instruments, and electronic forms, frequently relying on sustained synth pads or long sequencer-based runs. Vocal arrangements were initially rare in the genre, but as it has evolved, vocals have become more common, especially those featuring Native American-, Sanskrit-, or Tibetan-influenced chants, or lyrics based on mythology such as ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Arpeggios
A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played or sung in a rising or descending order. An arpeggio may also span more than one octave. Being an Italian noun, its plural is ''arpeggi''. The word ''arpeggio'' comes from the Italian word ''arpeggiare'', which means ''to play on a harp''. Even though the notes of an arpeggio are not played or sung all together at the same time, listeners hear the sequence of notes as forming a chord. When an arpeggio also contains passing tones that are not part of the chord, different music theorists may analyze the same musical excerpt differently. Arpeggios enable composers writing for monophonic instruments that play one note at a time (e.g., flute, saxophone, trumpet), to voice chords and chord progressions in musical pieces. Arpeggios and broken ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Four-on-the-floor
Four-on-the-floor (or four-to-the-floor) is a rhythm pattern used primarily in dance genres such as disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4)."The Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys and Techniques," Rick Snoman (2004) This was popularized in the disco music of the 1970s and the term ''four-on-the-floor'' was widely used in that era, since the beat was played with the pedal-operated, drum-kit bass drum. Four on the floor was common in jazz drumming until bebop styles expanded rhythmic roles beyond the basics in the 1940s. Garage rock bands of the 1960s such as the Troggs and the Seeds used four-on-the-floor on some of their hits. Earl Young is seen as the inventor of the disco style of rock drumming (in Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes's "The Love I Lost" from 1973), as he was the first to make extensive and distinctive use of the hi-hat cymbal throughout the playing time of an R&B ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




808 State
808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. They released their debut album, '' Newbuild'', in September 1988 and secured commercial success in 1989, when their song " Pacific State" was picked up by BBC Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies and charted for 11 weeks in the UK. The group's early work was a prominent influence on the UK's burgeoning acid house scene. AllMusic called them "one of the most important dance music acts of all time," and noted their influence on subsequent techno, IDM, and alternative dance artists. History Martin Price was the owner of Manchester's influential Eastern Bloc Records and was also the founder of the independent record label, Creed. Customers Graham Massey and Gerald Simpson joined with Price to form a hip hop group called Hit Squad Manchester. The group shifted to an acid house sound and reco ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]