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What is Ambient?

You know, sometimes in-your-face electronica is a bit too much. The beats eventually result in a headache and the synths steal too much focus. Perhaps all you need is something in the background... something that's not asking for your full attention.

Welcome to Ambient.

What’s it all about?

Ambient is an offshoot of electronica that decided that music wasn't solely for dancing to. Relaxation benefits from chilled tunes and sometimes all you need to set the atmosphere is a bit of... well... ambience.

It's a genre of music that doesn't mind being ignored. It's meant to be in the background. It won't get offended if you just carry on about your routine without acknowledging its existence - all it wants is to set the scene.

When did it start?

While people had been experimenting with background music for years, conventional ambient electronica was initially popularised by Brian Eno, a ground breaking and well educated musician who was initially in the band Roxy Music, but after tiring of the ego of the lead singer (we've all been there), decided to create his own form of experimental music in the early 70s.

From this point, he and a few other innovators (Pink Floyd, Yes and Kraftwerk to name a few bigger names) pushed the boundries of beats back and concentrated on textures and slow melodies instead. As usually happens when a new genre is born, it sewed seeds in other musicians...

How did it start to get popular?

While it's never reached mainstream popularity, it has grown in renown. More artists that work with ambient more intensively or combine the floaty textures with other genres of music have popped up, including Aphex Twin and The Orb, who while never getting a number 1, still managed to appear on Top of the Pops and play a game of Chess while their single played in the background. Maybe that's where the offshoot of "Intelligent Dance Music" originated.

More recent artists such as Burial have taken Dubstep and spliced it with ambient to create more underground success stories, with hardcore fans not capable of singing enough praises for the works of their favourite Ambient producers.

Why is Ambient so awesomely atmospheric?

As the Ambient grandpappy Eno himself said; "it must be as ignorable as it is interesting." It's because you can ignore it that makes it stand out from other genres - if you're willing to listen. When you're in the mood for it, soak it in and sink into the ambience. If you aren't, simply tune it out. You can't exactly say the same for pounding 4-on-the-floor genres!

Where can I get samples?

If you're looking for methods of making your own Ambient pieces, the popular opinion generally involves manipulating samples. Grab some awesome starting points with the Ambient Fractals or Ambient Illusions sample packs from Prime Loops. Don't be afraid to grab some less obvious sample packs though - some up-tempo packs like Da sound of Bounce could be slowed, filtered, cut, spliced and mangled into a gorgeous soundscape. Therein lies the beauty of Electro-Ambient music. Playing with sound. Have fun, make some sounds and most importantly - relax!

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Did You Know?

In 1955 an unsuccessful bid to change copyright laws that would prohibit white artists from singing R&B cover tunes was proposed to U.S. Congress by singer, LaVern Baker. Crazy!