Odds are you’ll delete most of this ambient noise, but put this on hungover and relax with Bempology 2005 – Chill Shit. Early in college saw me getting really into Sigur Rós, first with ‘Ágætis Byrjun’ and ‘()’ and culminating with 2005′s ‘Takk’. which donates two tracks to this playlist. ‘Hoppipolla’ is an ethereal tornado of keys and strings, while ‘Sé Lest’ quietly percolates and murmurs, building to a stunning entrance from a marching band that is both a) out of left field and b) genius. Also, it’s really hard writing about Sigur Rós without using ‘ethereal’, synonyms be damned. The Avalanches drop by with ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’, implementing some of the most innovative, hypnotic, and god damn creepy samples into a song that resembles a closet full of skeletons and dark memories (the term mash-up has garnered some downright ghastly connotations, but long before others The Avalanches were pioneering the method while also composing sample-based wonders like ‘Frontier Psychiatrist). Also, don’t miss Four Tet ‘Slow Jam’, a song that builds i, managing to be heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, emotionally arresting in its redundancy. Like the best and fastest kind of dance music, the slowest form of ambient electronica applies a lot of similar principles and requires the same kind of approach from listeners. Hooks, harmonies, and beats can’t just swoop into your life like a tightly crafted, aerodynamic 4 minute pop number. These songs are puddles of water after a deluge of rain, slowly evaporating as the sun breaks through in the late afternoon. Whether it be ambient electronica of Eluvium or the melodic classical impulses of a band like Sigur Ros, in these instances I enjoy seeing the track ‘time’ eclipsing 5 minutes and not looking back.
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