There's a certain threshold of ambient music that most people can tolerate. It's always interesting to see where this lies with friends when I play them something new, or recommend a new album. Often the dark drones are just too intense and it's "just noise"; sometimes the light and airy pads sound too "boring", or sometimes it's just a little bit "too weird" for them. "One for the chin-strokers" is a common phrase that comes to mind...
This one falls into the latter.
From the elusive Tongues Of Light comes a unique vinyl release constructed of found sounds, from Youtube videos to be exact. I picked it up after Boomkat gave it praise and immediately held it up as one of those collectables you'll be lucky to stumble on in years to come.
Channelled Messages At The End Of History comes from Demdike Stare and Andy Votel's label Pre-Cert Home Entertainment, but the comforting familiarity stops there. From the freaky cover-art, to the words surrounding the press, there's no doubt some serious consideration and introspective thought put into the findings and samples on the record. Split into two recordings; "Healing Side" and "Awakening Side", the record takes you through interesting sounds, interspersed with improvisation, and weaved together like a black-and-white history book of paganism and any other cult beliefs that fit a weird and mysterious stereotype.
With the drones, distorted church howls and religious callings, also comes Eno-esque moments, as the "Healing Side" finishes with a gentle ethereal experience under a calming female voice. The voices continue on the "Awakening Side", and despite not knowing what language you're listening to (likely on purpose), the new-age, medieval sounding chants are long enough to actively engage with, and short enough to evolve the storytelling throughout the chapters, and keep this thing sounding great.
As best put on the Discogs page, the "Channelled glossolalic material from various multidimensional entities" are a dive into a very weird and wonderful world, but just as the KLF presented us with nothing but samples and weird noises on Chill Out, this record will no doubt have a similar juxtaposing cult appeal. At the very least, it will be seen as a modern (retro) dive into found sounds and sampling within ambient music.
Elvis, an evangelist's sermon, an intense salesman, and a detailed news report of a fatal road accident featured in KLF's masterpiece. Fast forward 26 years, and Youtube has evidently inspired a new breed of found sounds, ranging from meditation videos, chanting, lullabies and gentle multi-lingual sound poetry. It's a weird and wonderful world out there.
Listen / available on Boomkat.
(Sound samples will be posted if/when they become available).
