I’ve been on a bit of an Eno kick of late and was pleasantly surprised to find mention of our Telepathic Fish ambient parties in David Toop‘s essay for the Eno Box I booklet. Lamenting the fact that the definition of ambient seems to have got a bit confused with the new generation of artists practising and playing music under this banner, David highlights some of the people and parties of the early 90s who had caused such a resurgence of interest in the music.
In our defence, we were just kids in our early twenties, still learning about this music along with all the other exciting things that were happening at the time too (techno, rave, grunge, dub, hip hop and it’s offshoots into white rock in the US and the aftermath of the baggy/madchester filtering into the UK indie scene). The early 90s were one of the most musically-fertile times I can remember with new styles and cross breeds emerging constantly. It was the dawn of the internet but still a few years away from email and a decade from Napster’s free-for-all tidal wave, arriving in London we had soaked up information as fast as possible from every available source. The weekly music papers provided a running soap opera of indie comings and goings with a smattering of dance music thrown in, record shops held an unaffordable stock to be cherry-picked with our student grants and older DJs like Mixmaster Morris, Matt Black and Rockit Ron were treasure troves of information, which they thankfully shared with us new jacks.

Every generation will reinterpret what’s gone before in its own way, influenced by the goings on around them which weren’t present in the previous incarnation, location or time frame. Hip hop and rock today sound nothing like they did even a decade ago, being twisted to suit the current age by people fresh to the scene who want it to reflect their times. It’s testament to a genre’s longevity that it still has something to say and give after several decades and ambient music’s third resurgence in recent years proves that there’s still plenty of life in the genre. Eno continues to intrigue and produce interesting music, music, apps and thoughts, even if he is producing some questionable acts now and then, something he’s always done in hindsight.