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March 27, 2008 1:41 PM

I love listening to the groaning music of Mark Morgan (the Fallout soundtracks) and Lustmord (dark, dark ambient) while I read. I've been trying to find some similar music, but last.fm insists that Mark Morgan is like all other game soundtrack composers and Lustmord is akin to gothic wailing*. So I turn to you. What other artists make music with this grinding, eerie, screetchingly dark post-apocalyptic quality? * Nothing wrong with gothic wailing, just not when I'm reading.
posted by Skyanth to media & arts (19 comments total)

Try Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and Selected Ambient Works Vol. II.
posted by jayder at 1:44 PM on March 27, 2008

You could try Gridlock -- I think they fit your description, though I'm not sure they'll be what you're looking for.
posted by vorfeed at 1:46 PM on March 27, 2008

I asked a similar question a while back, some of the responses might be of interest.
posted by Black Spring at 1:48 PM on March 27, 2008

I should add that I have Mark Morgan's other soundtracks and that the Planescape: Torment one comes close, though it's a bit too melodic and, for lack of a better word, upbeat for my purposes. (Though lovely.)

Not Aphex Twin though, that's too electronic.
posted by Skyanth at 1:50 PM on March 27, 2008

Off the top of my head (and without repeating the above-linked thread too much), you might like Zoviet:France and Dead Voices on Air (both Mark Spybey projects).

Also spinning off Spybey, Download (a collaboration with ex-Skinny Puppy member cevin key, and also mentioned in the thread Black Spring linked) kind of falls precisely between Morgan and Lustmord. I recommend The Eyes of Stanley Pain or III as their best albums. Download does get beaty at times, but in very unexpected ways.

You should also check out the netlabel (free music! Whoo!) This Plague of Dreaming; I really like Sublinear.

If you haven't listened to Mick Harris' Scorn albums, you're really missing out. He covers a lot of genres, too (metal drummer, drum n' bass with various collaborators, and drummer for John Zorn jazz freakout Painkiller).

Also in the Mick Harris vein, if you really want to freak yourself out, his and Martyn Bates' Murder Ballads is a masterpiece of creepy genius. Not eeeexactly like either Morgan or Lustmord, but utterly perfect for what it is.

I could go on for hours, but the netlabel scene should give you a ton of material to start off with. There are a lot of super-dark ambient recording artists out there that are making music just as good, if not better, than a lot of the commercially available material.
posted by Shepherd at 2:26 PM on March 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Tim Hecker's stuff, which might not be dark enough compared to those, but has similar sort of textures, works for me. I personally really like the latest, "Harmony in ultraviolet".

Nine Inch Nails Ghosts is a recent favourite for "background music", and it's free (at least some of it, I haven't investigated enough).

Oh, and +1 for Scorn.
posted by phax at 2:45 PM on March 27, 2008

Are you sure Aphex Twin is too techno? Have you heard the albums I recommend? They are completely unlike the other Aphex Twin stuff, which I find harsh. Selected Ambient Works Vol. II is especially mellow.

I think Paul Schutze would fit your desires, but his discs are very hard to find.
posted by jayder at 3:07 PM on March 27, 2008

another vote for Scorn, also look for Hydra Calm, by Main.
posted by nomisxid at 3:51 PM on March 27, 2008

Some other things that might fit in this category are Lull, Thomas Koner, some Robert Rich, some Steve Roach, and some Biosphere (e.g. the soundtrack for the original version of Insomnia). I agree with Scorn, Zoviet:France, DVOA. I like gridlock a lot, but the album that I have (trace) is mostly not at all ambient. I also like SAW, but I can definitely see it being too electronic compared to dark/deep ambient stuff. If you don't object to some beats, you might check out things like Yagya (or maybe try the free Sutemos flow.ers compilation).
posted by advil at 4:07 PM on March 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Steve Roach.
posted by qvtqht at 4:23 PM on March 27, 2008

I used to like Brighter Death Now and Nocturnal Emissions a lot. Also some of the black metal artists who have more ambient albums, like Abruptum or Mortiis might appeal.

You might try searching Aquarius Records' website for "ambient" or "dark ambient" or typing in Lustmord and seeing what else comes up. They have 1-3 minute sound samples for most of the albums that they sell, as well as pretty lengthy descriptions of the music.

I'm enjoying an artist called Nordvargr quite a lot lately, you might check out his samples on the site above if you go there.
posted by medeine at 4:30 PM on March 27, 2008

Dark Ambient is a genre... AMG will help on this front.

You will like stuff on Projekt like Love Spirals Downward. You will also love "Stalker" the collaboration between Lustmord and Robert Rich.
posted by softlord at 5:00 PM on March 27, 2008

Labradford might fit the bill, although I wouldn't call them post-apocalyptic or funereal. Sombre, droning, extremely minimal. Some albums are entirely instrumental, but some, e.g. A Stable Reference, have mostly inaudible whispered vocals. Some of the best music to work to I know.
posted by snarfois at 5:15 PM on March 27, 2008

Grails. Recommending Black Tar Prophecies Vols 1,2 & 3
posted by freya_lamb at 5:37 PM on March 27, 2008

This is by far one of my favorite genres.

I agree with the recommendations for Robert Rich, and Dead Voices on Air.

Boyd Rice and Non, specifically the album Children of the Black Sun, would be good. He also has a retrospective of just his ambient material. Coil, if you haven't heard them, are also amazing, but a lot of their stuff would be distracting to read to, due to the use of a lot of voices (both sung and sampled). The same goes for Controlled Bleeding, although some of their later albums might fit what you're looking for.

Also, most of the stuff on Cold Meat Industry would do you well, with my highest recommendations going to In Slaughter Natives, Desiderii Marginis, and Raison d'Etre. Ordo Rosario Equilibrio and Beyond Sensory Experience are also quite nice. I love Megaptera, too, but they get a little more grating and abrasive.

As Softlord recommends, some of the stuff on the Projekt label is quite good (actually, most of it is quite good, but some of it really doesn't fit the bill). Love Spirals Downwards is nice, adding a touch of Cocteau Twins-styled dreamy female vocals to things. Lycia is also really good, especially the album A Day in the Stark Corner (some of their other stuff is a little more on the gothic wailing side of things, but that album is very bleak, somber, and mostly instrumental, with just some whispered vocals). Some of Attrition's stuff is good, though not all of it is in the dark ambient vein. I've reviewed a lot of it, and I think you'd like their most recent album, All Mine Enemys Whispers, which is a concept album about a female Victorian serial killer (self-link). Forrest Fang, Steve Roach, and Vidna Obmana (as well as his new project, Fear Falls Burning, which focuses on vintage guitar effects) would also fit the bill. Oh, and label founder Sam Rosenthal has a project called As Lonely as Dave Bowman that's pretty perfect for what you're looking for, though less morbid and more "outer space" in terms of theme.

That covers the more commonly known stuff, but there are some really great independent releases coming out. One of my absolute favorite new acts in the sort of dark soundscape scene is Formication, out of the UK. I discovered them when I reviewed their Icons for a New Religion album (another self-link), which is I think exactly what you're looking for. For a taste of their stuff, they have a free EP that you can download called Agnosia.

Also doing some great stuff is a U.S. artist, Life Toward Twilight, who is also offering most of his stuff as free downloads. I highly recommend Blood, an EP of horror-inspired soundscapes, and We Waited for a Subtle Dawn, which is more apocalyptic and grandiose.

Finally, a few smaller labels very much worth checking out are Onyxia out of Finland (especially the artist No Xivic), and Cyclic Law Records out of Canada. Some of the stuff on Silber Records might also be up your alley, especially MWVM and Vlor (they're also reissuing some of the Lycia albums I mentioned above).

Hopefully this'll get you going.
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:58 PM on March 27, 2008

The suggestions above (Scorn, Download, Gridlock, Dead Voices On Air) are all excellent acts, but probably not quite what you're looking for. NIN's Ghosts is pretty good, though. (You can download a good chunk of it for free at the NIN site.)

If you want big, evil, dark ambient, try Squaremeter (also known as m²). It's probably right up your alley. I'd also recommend Iszoloscope, although he's a bit more rhythmically oriented.
posted by neckro23 at 9:25 PM on March 27, 2008

Oh, Iszoloscope is a good choice! Especially Les Gorges des Limbes.
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:30 PM on March 27, 2008

The soundtrack for Portal sounds a lot like what you're looking for. Here's a sample:

Stop What You Are Doing
Android Hell
Procedural Jiggle Bone
Self Esteem Fund
Taste of Blood
Party Escort

Download the full soundtrack here (at the bottom; click a title, scroll down on the next page, click again).
posted by Rhaomi at 12:13 AM on March 28, 2008

Wow guys, what a wealth of information. I'll have a listen soon and mark my best answers then, because right now I'm so filled with love for everyone that I'd just mark everything. Thanks!
posted by Skyanth at 12:52 AM on March 28, 2008