HW: Technoey-trancey-ambientey sort of stuff

[Max Wilcox]

Hi all

        After buying a new CD by Kraftwelt, I'm in "that" sort of mood, and am
of the mind to make a few comments and questions.
        What do people think of all of the Cleopatra HW related things to come
out recently? I realy like Anubian Lights and I LOVE Spiral Realms. I've
never had even the vaguest liking for all of that sort of ambient sort
of stuff previous to getting a hold on the albums from these people and
have been, at least partialy, converted to some of this  kind of stuff.
Admittedly, there's a lot of absolute shite out there, but, as I've
recently discovered, there's some worthwhile things going on.
        I thing I've noticed is that it seems that much of the realy good
stuffseems to be coming from people who are established in the music
industry, but previusly would not be classified as ambient. A good
example of this  is Psychic TV's Trip Reset.
        I suspect that this kind of music is actually decended from
psychedelia, anyway. Giong back to Del's improvisation in Space Ritual,
one sees some fair similarities.
        There seems to be a very good amount of SF/space related ambient out
there, too. Which seems to further validate the space rock/ambient
connection. Of course there's other influences, a very important one
occurs to me, though I'm not sure how many people have picked up on
this, is the influence of Vangelis on this style. To me, he is a pioneer
of electronic music.
        Off topic, related to the CD I've just bought, does anyone know is
Kraftwelt are releted to (or the same as) Kraftwork? I love the
Kraftwork song on Space Daze, and am thinking of obtaining some more of
their stuff.
        Anyway, I'm glaad I got this off my chest. I don't think I could have
survived the day if I hadn't gotten rid of it.

-Max Wilcox