Today’s mix:
Ambient Lounge 1 by DJ Stephane de Lucia
2000
Downtempo / Trip Hop / Future Jazz / Lounge / Deep House
Here's the excellent first installment in German label Globe's long-running series, Ambient Lounge, that seems to present a mishmash of all things lounge and chill, from the deepest of trip hop grooves to fantastic, foot-tapping, future jazzy bossa nova, and with a spotlight shone especially upon a bunch of the German acts who were responsible for forging some of these supremely good and highly underheard turn-of-the-millennium vibes 🤩.
Now, if you want a well-made chillout DJ mix, look elsewhere, because the transitions on this double-disc are downright weak, lazy, and sloppy afterthoughts. But if you can bring yourself to ignore those shortcomings, the overall selection here is still pretty damn immaculate.
And one thing that seems to unite most of these songs, despite them spanning a wide range of different chillout and lounge flavors, is that they come armed with super thick and dubby basslines. So, if you've got the right kind of soundsystem for it, you could probably do some serious ground-rattling with this pair of CDs 😤.
Anyway, maybe when you think of German music, you naturally assume some things. And probably because of Kraftwerk and krautrock and techno, you imagine stuff that sounds cold, mechanical, repetitious, and robotic. But acts like Jazzanova, A Forest Mighty Black, De-Phazz, The Sushi Club, Moodorama, Lemongrass, even techno legend Sven Väth, and so many others are here to disabuse you of your very own wrongly held preconceived notions with this release. All of these tracks are smooth, blissful, and relaxing. Clearly and obviously, there's far, far, far more to German music than sounding like an automaton, but maybe you never really thought about it all that much 🤷♂️.
However, you should also be forewarned that, although the series is called Ambient Lounge, none of the music in this particular set of tunes is actually ambient itself. It's mostly downtempo, trip hop, and future jazz, with pinches of deep house and even a deep techno track from the great St. Germain, whose "Prélusion" both appears on this mix as well as a number of my own 90s techno playlists.
So, if you don't mind the fact that it's poorly mixed, this is a great place to get a sweet dose of some of that overlooked German chilliness from the turn of the millennium, when that whole underground chillout compilation craze was really pumping. There's other non-German acts on here too, like Groove Armada, Nightmares on Wax, and Thievery Corporation, but the overall focus on German acts makes this one stand out among an endless array of other chillout comps.
Now, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a place to stream either of these discs, and it doesn't appear that anyone's uploaded any of the tracks that specifically come off of this mix to YouTube either, but if you really wanna hear this thing, feel free to just reach out and I'll be more than happy to hook you up 😊.
Highlights:
CD1:
Groove Armada - "Chicago"
St. Germain - "Prélusion"
A Forest Mighty Black - "Rebirth"
The Sushi Club - "Niku-jaga"
Moodorama - "Uncertainty"
Lemongrass - "Comme Toujours"
Llorca - "End (Hepop Original)"
Nightmares on Wax - "Ethnic Majority"
CD2:
Sven van Hees - "Serrano Anthem"
Nitin Sawhney - "The Pilgrim"
Beanfield - "The Season (Swag's vocal mix)"
Thievery Corporation - "The Glass Bead Game"
Czech - "Aggression (Moodorama mix)"
Jazzanova - "Fedime's Flight"
Muki - "Esc."
Smoke City - "With You (LP version)"
Yulara - "Rain on Fire"
De-Phazz - "No Jive (new radio mix)"
Sven Väth - "Sensual Enjoyments"
24 notes
·
View notes
Alligator Bogaloo/Lou Donaldson
ビバップ・サキソフォンプレイヤーのルードナルドソン。
ドナルソンは米国ジャズ界の最高栄誉とされるNEAジャズ・マスターを2013年受賞。
シンプルでブルージーなフレーズとロニー・スミスによる歯切れのいいオルガンサウンドが心地良い。
(日曜の明るい時間に、カフェで流すラウンジミュージックとしてもいい感じ)
ジャケット写真は、60年代スウィンギング・ロンドンを牽引したヘアスタイリストのヴィダル・サスーン氏の協力によるもの。
31 notes
·
View notes