Rising High 1994. RSNLP23
By 1994 I was getting a bit bored of indiepop and had moved on to experimental electronica. There’s not been much of that here because by then I’d almost stopped buying vinyl after a traumatic washing machine flood damaged quite a bit of my stash (now resurrected thanks to a fancy record cleaning machine). For some reason though, this did get bought on vinyl.
It’s an overlooked ambient classic, following on from the KLF’s liberation of the genre from the highbrow (Eno) and the crusties (Tangerine Dream). It makes more than a passing nod to those pioneers, but it is also very much of its time – in a good way. I’ve always been quite label-centric, and this partly caught my eye because of that; Rising High produced some of the most interesting electronic releases back then.
This doesn’t seem at all experimental listening to it almost 20 years after its release. It’s accessible and melodic, albeit with some very long tracks. It worked well as I read the paper with the rain hammering down outside.