Comments on: 1 part story, 3 parts atmosphere

Question: 1 part story, 3 parts atmosphere

jammy — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:30:51 -0800

MusicFilter: I'm looking for ambient music that features short &/or fragmentary bits of monologue or narrative.

Tell me your favorite ambient musical pieces that have used bits & pieces of spoken word to create a dream-like narrative space. Here's some examples of what I'm looking for:

Day 42 - Mind Soup

Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb

Scilly Automatic - Ott

Jack And Jill (Selffish Remix) - Benfay

Long Road - Funki Porcini

Space Walk - Lemon Jelly

couple other considerations:

- for the purposes of this question ambient = electronica, dub, downtempo, chillout, folk &/or jazz instrumentals

- not really looking for complete spoken word or performance pieces

Thanks, hivemind! I know I'll appreciate whatever you can distill...

bonus subquestion! there's a piece I remember from awhile ago, but I don't know the title or the artist - it features a vocal sample that goes: "Who needs physics when we've got chemistry... chemistry, chemistry" - ring a bell, anyone?

By: oulipian

oulipian — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:54:39 -0800

The Books are fantastic. Start with The Lemon of Pink.

By: donabean

donabean — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:55:16 -0800

the third track on global communications 76:14 is one of my favorites-also a big fan of the first track on biospheres patashnik(sp?) -lots of early biosphere has excellent spoken word with top notch ambient music

By: canoehead

canoehead — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:57:23 -0800

also by the Orb: "the land of green ginger".
Chris Coco: "What do you do when the dancing stops?"

By: rhizome

rhizome — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:02:33 -0800

Celia Green
Dreamfish

By: Utilitaritron

Utilitaritron — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:05:19 -0800

Max Richter (Songs from Before and The Blue Notebooks in particular.)

By: Schlimmbesserung

Schlimmbesserung — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:06:16 -0800

Voyage 34 by Porcupine Tree.

By: shamble

shamble — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:13:59 -0800

I second The Books; one of my all time favorite bands.

By: Neon

Neon — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:55:57 -0800

Mr. Scruff - Fish
Boards of Canada - Aquarius

It seems that if you haven't already heard it, Blue Jam would provide 17.5 hours of the kind of thing you want.

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:10:32 -0800

Seconding Voyage 34 - such a good album, though more Pink Floyd than electronic.

Seconding tracks 4 and 6 on Global Commmunication's 76:14 as well as a song by Biosphere called "Kobresia" on the Substrata album featuring the recording of a Russian telepath describing an object he couldn't see or feel.

Harold Budd has some simple, unobtrusive poems woven into the tracks on his album By The Dawn's Early Light as well as a collaboration with Andy Partridge called Through the Hill.

If you can find the "Vesper" bootleg edition of the Blade Runner soundtrack, I think that features dialogue samples from the movie woven into the Vangelis score.

Secede's song "Ballroom Arcade" from Bye Bye Gridlock Traffic features some absolutely unexpected and terribly sad dialogue dubbed in at about the 1:30 mark.

Tribes of Neurot has a song called "The Road to Sovereignty" on an album called Grace (meant to be played concurrently with the Neurosis song of the same name) that features a short monologue at the end.

Karl Sanders' album Saurian Meditation has a lot of vocals and some spoken word but it's too jarring in parts to really be ambient.

By: mykescipark

mykescipark — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:00:36 -0800

Wings of Desire soundtrack

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

The Tape-beatles - Music with Sound

And a blatant self-link. (Sorry, but I use this technique more than anyone I can think of...)

By: thenuts

thenuts — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:02:34 -0800

dj shadow - private press

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:16:22 -0800

Biosphere - Substrata

By: ktrey

ktrey — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:16:24 -0800

I will also recommend The Books. In fact, it was the first group to spring to mind when I read your question.

By: galaksit

galaksit — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:18:06 -0800

Other Channels, or Mind How You Go by The Advisory Circle.

The Focus Group, also on Ghost Box.

The MySpace examples' MP3s don't fully illustrate the spoken parts, unfortunately. (At least at the time of this posting.)

By: galaksit

galaksit — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:21:45 -0800

V/Vm's "There Was A Fish In The Percolator" would also be a good example of something to track down, but was super limited.

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:21:57 -0800

Here's the specific Biosphere track I was thinking of.

By: antitext

antitext — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:43:17 -0800

Slug Dub - The Orb
Cycles - Terre Thaemlitz
Red Bruise - Scanner

The story doesn't start in the Terre Thaemlitz track until 10 minutes in but it's so powerful it's worth the wait.

By: shothotbot

shothotbot — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:45:58 -0800

There is a lot of found noise in Godspeed You Black Emperor's Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven. You don't - for my money - get more dream like than GYBE.

By: softlord

softlord — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:42:42 -0800

The KLF - Chill Out

By: coffeefilter

coffeefilter — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:45:34 -0800

Sensations of Tone (GOL)

By: vernondalhart

vernondalhart — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:06:14 -0800

Squaremeter - the bitter end. Fantastic album. Seems to have samples from a reading of the Lord of the Rings, or the Hobbit.

By: paradoxflow

paradoxflow — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:29:46 -0800

Ebb & Flow by Baby Mammoth, The Light of Jesus by Fila Brazilia.

By: nicolin

nicolin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:28:33 -0800

Lumpy Gravy.

By: tallus

tallus — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:08:09 -0800

You would probably like some of the Seelenluft stuff.

By: chocolatepeanutbuttercup

chocolatepeanutbuttercup — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:24:19 -0800

Sara Ayers, especially A Million Stories.

By: chocolatepeanutbuttercup

chocolatepeanutbuttercup — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:25:39 -0800

Whoops, bad link. Try this.

By: diogenes

diogenes — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:33:52 -0800

I don't have any specific songs to recommend, but you could listen to Groove Salad or Space Station Soma at somafm.com. Many of the songs they play use bits and pieces of spoken word.

By: Dr.Pill

Dr.Pill — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:27:24 -0800

Holger Czukay : Movies

By: vytae

vytae — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:15:20 -0800

Sunworshipper by Mylo

By: jammy

jammy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:14:30 -0800

I ask a question, I go to sleep, I wake up & shazam! a veritable smorgasbord!
it's like magic, the way that works - thanks much, MeFolks

I'm home sick with the head crud so this will all help make the time pass more pleasantly... I'll give these all a listen (what ones that I can) & check in later to mark best answers