2008/11/10

an isolated incident

one of, if not the best from that era of big label "chill out" compilations (actually more like "stress out" haha - in a good way). many essential pieces but a few on here are all time favorites and not available anywhere else -- that O'rang vocal less version of "Little Sister" for example... to this day defying categorization of any sort.

i remember being 19 and stealing this CD from Virgin megastore, eager to discover new sound worlds, not knowing many names on the sleeve (and not having enough funds). i was very much attracted to the packaging and concept... here was something out of the ordinary, a dark, cavernous, hallucinogenic visual and aural object, promising introspective realms of sensation. funny that it was sitting on the shelves with C&C Music Factory and REM -- in hindsight it was one of those few great isolated (no pun intended) incidences where something truly subversive and rewarding was able to be smuggled through the cracks of the machinery of commerical distribution, and find its way into the hands (and CD player) of a starving young mind. (it was probably the least successful in terms of sales in the ambient series; i seem to remember reading that it was a financial disaster)

bringing it home, at first it was impenetrable (my friends had zero patience for it), but as i listened more, the power of these tracks revealed itself, and lead the way to many exhilarating experiences in music later. in this sense it was one of the few occasions packaging worked, and more importantly delivered.



CD 1

1. KK Null & Jim Plotkin: "Lost (Held Under)"
2. Jim O'Rourke: "Flat Without A Back"
3. Ice: "The Dredger"
4. Raoul Björkenheim: "Strangers"
5. Zoviet France: "Daisy Gun"
6. Labradford: "Air Lubricated Free Axis Trainer"
7. Techno Animal: "Self Strangulation"
8. Paul Schütze: "Hallucinations (In Memory Of Reinaldo Arenas)"
9. Scorn: "Silver Rain Fell (Deep Water Mix)"
10. Disco Inferno: "Lost In Fog"
11. Total: "Six"
12. Nijiumu: "Once Again I Cast Myself Into The Flames Of Atonement"

CD 2

1. Aphex Twin: "Aphex Airlines"
2. AMM: "Vandoevre"
3. Seefeel: "Lief"
4. .O.rang: "Little Sister"
5. E.A.R.: "Hydroponic"
6. Sufi: "Desert Flower"
7. David Toop & Max Eastley: "Burial Rites (Phosphorescent Mix)"
8. Main: "Crater Scar (Adrenochrome)"
9. Final: "Hide"
10. Lull: "Thoughts"
11. Thomas Köner: "Kanon (Part One: Brohuk)"

found at friend sound. props.

14 comments:

M— said...

Cheers, dude. Share and enjoy. -- Stefan M—

zhao said...

you people not feeling this? i think a lot of classical, jazz, and "world" music types harbor prejudices against (non-academic) electronic music. i bet a lot of you have those "drum machines have no soul" stickers on your cars. PRITAY, PRITAY silly if you axe me. good music is good music, great music is great music. and there's some great stuff on this.

why do people have to draw lines?

like the dood that said the Southern Hiphop mix was "just testosterone", in a dismissive manner. and a lot of the things i post can be said to be "just estrogen". a lot of modern classical is "just intellectual". or classical indian "just meditative". the hell is your point??? isn't there a time and place for everything?????

watch I'm gonna post some black metal next.

Anonymous said...

thankyou zhao

been reading your blog for a while now, I am quite young and your blog has been integral to my discovering of stranger more global sounds. i guess you can say i come from this musical background, i really dig this stuff so it's nice to see some more "familiar" names on your blog

keep up the good work, oh, and loving the ocora stuff. amazing music

Anonymous said...

.. for further mostly ambientish, sometimes ocora infected excursions in the realms of isolations beauties and the em:t series you are invited to grab my free album on clinical archives via :

http://www.myspace.com/8m2stereo

..

hh said...

because you're so insistent, im gonna download this.


and you better post some black metal...

Howardbobjohnson said...

free cassette download |-:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/51630792bc2f12f2/

myspace: rangerzz

ancient china in mono

Enrique said...

Love your blog Zhao, best regards from Mexico, by the way, this is a terrific and yes, essential listening for all the seriously interested on electronic music, lots of legendary artists there like ex-Napalm Death's Mick & Nik doing the Scorn thing as a duo then. Thanks for the effort, been loving this blog since the Ocora posts, will def. check more and more. Saludos de México!!
Enrique

quetzlcloth said...

Beautiful. And a good argument showing the foolishness of genre prejudices in era of cross-fertilization.

But uh, I wouldn't mind hearing the black metal either.

Like said...

You stole it from Virgin Megastore? Stealing music? Whoever heard of such a thing? I'm just at the beginning of my exploration of your blog, and I'm excited 'cause it looks amazing.

kokoon said...

nice blog, just wanted to chime in for this record, my story was actually quite similar, though i didn't steal it from the store, but i "borrowed" it from my friend's mother, haha. what followed is pretty much the same you described.

cheers!

zhao said...

your friend must've had a pretty cool mother

Unknown said...

This is a brilliant compilation. I was myself heavily influenced by Isolationism, although I play guitar. I won't download this, just because I already have it. I'm glad to see other people are noticing the CD.

scztt said...

What a bizarre comp... AMM, Disco Inferno, Aphex Airlines (maybe it was the cheapest Aphex Twin track to license for the compilation)? I had a similar experiences, being jump started into electronic music by shitty bargain-bin compilations (though I don't remember any of them being as good as this).

marramua said...

I leave this CD to one friend and i loose CD and friend... thank you