Whales, Solar Energy and Ambient Music

1994. That's a landmark year for the "modern" ambient genre. Even the nerds over at hyperreal.org saw fit to make a separate listserv for the genre, apart from the IDM and Detroit lists.

Setting aside Eno and all the earlier pre-cursors, one could argue that ambient music of the 90's was an answer/response to the harder edged techno, hardcore, and acid sounds of the decade. When you attended a party back then, the main floor was all techno, acid in the main room, and when you tired of the hours of 4/4, you needed a place to chill and let your ears and mind recover. Music from The Orb, DJs like Mixmaster Morris and labels like Apollo fed the sound and it flourished. There was also the drug aspect - kids who were tweaked out of their minds needed to come down in a more relaxed environment.


Solar Quest's "Save the Whale" is one of the more beautiful and more obscure songs of the genre. George "BenKei" Saunders released the song in 1994 on his "Orgship" album. CD only. Such a crime.

Mitzvah #8:
Solar Quest - Save the Whale

Lili Marlene Premilovich

Good things come from Detroit. Lili Marlene Premilovich was born in Motown in 1950, the offspring of a Yugoslavian father and British mother. Lene Lovich as she came to be known, had a unique voice and visual style - part folk, part babushka. She was part of a generation of British punk and post-punk female singers that hit hard in the early 80's. Nina Hagen, Siouxsie, and Lovich were all mining similar territory - I guess you could call the fashion non-conformist conformism?

"It's You, Only You" is standard early 80's fare, but the dub version of the record has that certain raw synthesizer fatness that is so in demand these days. Imminently dance-able and with thick basslines.

Mitzvah #7:
Lene Lovich - It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz) Version

Underappreciated Prince of Techno #2

In Hebrew, Uriel means the "flame of god". It was one of the many aliases Scott Edward Hodgson used for releasing his records. His releases as Lexx, Majic 12, Uriel were all interesting in a sometimes minimal, sometimes electronic noodling kind of manner.


His "Dreaming of Delta City" release on Out of Orbit records in 1993 is a reflection of the sounds of the IDM days of glory. Rhythm patterns that move at double speed underneath lovely synth pads. Machine squelches that swing with 808 tom toms. Somewhere between Black Dog and Aphex Twin's early work.

It wasn't that well known at the time of it's release and based on the current discogs prices still has not been discovered. Lovely.

Mitzvah #6:
Scott Edward - Integrated Injection

My Love Affair with Hercules & Love Affair

Two releases in and the duo of Andrew Butler and Antony make our cold Ukraine nights more bearable. The quivering passion in Antony's vocals reminds me of Marc Almond in his early days - yearning, sexy invitations to romp in a musical bed of old Chicago TRAX. The version in this video is a bit more straightforward, but the 12" is more of what you would expect after Roar!

How to interpret video? A reference to early days of Disco, when gay bathhouses were a large part of the NY gay scene? There is strong bathhouse tradition in Kharkov too, called "Banya" but no funny business here.

Mitzvah #5:
Hercules & Love Affair - Blind

Underappreciated Prince of Techno #1

My fellow Kharkovites think of 2 Unlimited whenever I talk techno. They think boobies and party, boom boom boom boom. But I remember time in Detroit listening to Derrick May and Juan Atkins. Over in Western Europe, Derrick May, Juan and Carl Craig have received the recognition that they deserve, but there are a few Detroit artists whose musical promise and passion have yet to be acknowledged and discovered.


So I present to you Anthony Shakir, aka "Shake". You can hear echoes of funk, blues, the melancholy of the detroit cityscape and futuristic techno in his music. Shake's tracks do not shout, but have a strong rhythmic presence all their own. "Fact Of The Matter" was released in 1998 on his "Tracks For My Father" EP. Songs like this make me nostalgic for those moments of musical discovery on Nine Mile.

Mitzvah #4:
Anthony Shakir - Tracks For My Father

Don't Hold Eurovision Against Him

As the uberkoolisch nerds of Brooklyn flee what is left of the burning embers of electroclash and latch onto other musical forms that can be considered authentic, hip and cool, they do what they do best - drive up the cost of living for the rest of us. Thank goodness the Kharkov winters are so cold that truck hats and ironic tshirts would make our city inhospitable to these musical locusts.



You can't find Plastic Bertrand's "Stop Ou Encore" 1982 original record for less than $100 anymore. A shame as it's one of Plastic Bertrand's best moments. Did you know he was born of a French father and Ukrainian mother? I remember the Eurovision contest he was on. Music, not so good. I hear "Stop Ou Encore" was repressed on a bootleg label, so you may be lucky to find it for less.

Mitzvah #3:
Plastic Bertrand - Stop Ou Encore"

In The Memory of Judy Hodge

The "Techno" scene of the early 90's spawned a number of artists that were heavily influenced by the First and Second Detroit waves. Some made wonderful and straightforward Detroit techno records; a little beat of beats, a little bit of Motown soul, some funky rhythims and wala, you have Kenny Larkin with some dancefloor-compelling material that would soon leave your crates for a journey to the local used record store a year or two later.


Jamie Hodge, under the guise of "Born Under a Rhyming Planet", took the opposite direction and fused Detroit's techno soul to whatever was passing through the cerebellum at that moment of teenage creation. Maybe it was Tolstoy? While Plus 8 was a "detroit" label, this was not a record that fit into the standard mold. The record label says it was "Recorded on the South Side of Chicago In the Memory of Judy Hodge". The result was a 1993 piece that stands the test of time.

A friend over in the United States told me that Jamie has created new musical works, but looks back on these early records with some disdain, since they were poorly produced. One listen to the delicate electronic shimmers and sparkles on Analogue Heaven and you are in love.

Mitzvah #2:
Born Under a Rhyming Planet "Analog: Heaven (Dreaming Of 82)"

From Russia With Love

You had Giorgio Moroder. We had Zodiac. You have George Bush. We have Chernobyl. You can also hear Zodiac song "Pacific"on Morgan Geist Unclassics 12". This one was overlooked somehow, but is a beautiful cosmic space jam from 1980.

Mitzvah #1:
Zodiac "Zodiac"