Do we still get excited for this annual? Did we ever? Over time it's become one of those compilation series' that generally doesn't offer me much, but am nevertheless still very much glad continues to exist. This year includes the usual cast of characters, and as always, a handful of names I'm unfamiliar with.

'Brenda' and 'Alles Bleibt Anders' are my standouts, this time around.

http://classic.beatport.com/release...nt-2020/2731223

BTW, anyone know why this series is titled *Pop* Ambient? Maybe the word means something else to the Germans, but there's absolutely nothing 'pop' about that much drone.

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He traded sands for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand. Afari, Tales

quote:

Originally posted by Paradox Lost BTW, anyone know why this series is titled *Pop* Ambient? Maybe the word means something else to the Germans, but there's absolutely nothing 'pop' about that much drone.

Probably because Wolfgang Voigt's last Gas album was called Pop, so a year later, the name was still on their minds.

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Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!
(~)

Finger as firmly on the pulse of 2007 as ever, eh?

There is an old issue of Muzik Mag from 2001 or 2002 where they examined the explosion of "chill out" compilations in that era, and Michael Mayer gets a segment explaining the concept of Pop Ambient. Sadly for all reading this thread, I've forgotten exactly what he had to say on the subject.

For all that I love ambient, I've never much cared for the kind of forgettable laptop time stretching fare pioneered in this series. My girlfriend bought me one for Christmas once, and it is now shelved lovingly somewhere in the house, never to be played again.

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Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

I spent a small portion of my lunch hour digging out that Mayer quote for your edification. Aren't I nice?

quote:

“Over the years there’s been a shift towards more ‘intelligent’ beats. We always hated that term. Listening music nowadays is more cold and scientific than warm and free-floating like the early ambient stuff. That’s the gap we want to close, using samples to remind you of something that you’re really familiar with but you don’t really understand why – you just know that it makes you feel good.”

___________________
Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

Yeah, when I saw that you had replied again I thought 'maybe he scanned through this edition and suddenly had a dramatic reversal of opinion?' I appreciate you spending valuable sandwich time dredging that up.

As for chillout compilations in general, I recall in the early oughts, at least here in the States, that the 'electronica' section in record stores were overflowing with double disc Sofa Beach Bar Silk Lounge (Del Mar) compilations, but Pop Ambient certainly stood apart from all those bikini covers in that it made no attempt to sound like the lobby at the Maui Marriot. I'm not sure if those are the soulless, computer beats he's referring to, but I'd be hard pressed to even classify PA as chillout, at least back then, when the word was largely linked with the above description.

The series in general definitely isn't and really hasn't been for everyone. It's barely even for me at this point, and this isn't my first Pop Ambient thread. I recall some of the earlier editions included material with some discernible structure to all that haze (Frieden and Deutz Air come to mind), but these days for me, combing through an annual Pop Ambient release is basically just swimming in an ocean of drone until I come across some in a key that I like (I usually average two per year).

I don't know who, if anyone, gets particularly excited about these releases, or if it's anticipated by even the hardcore ambient enthusiasts, but like I said, I'm glad it's something that continues to happen. I'm only speculating, but I imagine it's something they could have easily stopped years ago without much disappointment, and maybe Fehlmann and Guentner and crew all just do it as part an annual tradition, but I appreciate how it continues to be one.

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He traded sands for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand. Afari, Tales

Last edited by Paradox Lost on Dec-07-2019 at 00:49

quote:

Originally posted by Paradox Lost I'm not sure if those are the soulless, computer beats he's referring to, but I'd be hard pressed to even classify PA as chillout, at least back then, when the word was largely linked with the above description.

I think he's more likely to be referring to IDM and also the glitchy stuff that was coming out of Germany around the turn of the millennium.

Also, his quote alludes to the fact that a lot of these tracks are just extremely timestretched samples of pop songs. There's a track on the one I have that's just a snatch of Fleetwood Mac slowed down and bathed in drones, for example.

Kompakt has always had that cheeky pop sensibility to its releases - don't forget The Field's first album was just a bunch of samples from The Temptations and Lionel Ritchie chopped and locked into hypnotic grooves. Mayer himself is still unafraid of ending a main stage set with Love Is In The Air, or dropping an '80s hi-NRG tune in between acid cuts, and these days the label roster is chocked full of songwriter-y names like Weval. The Pop Ambient series is simply the most distant stoned-into-oblivion end of that continuum.

___________________
Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]