001 Woob - On Earth
Chillout Ambient on the classic Em:t label from 1994
A long time favorite of mine. I bought the cd from someone selling a handful of Em:t albums in the later 90s. On Earth is a lengthy 32 minutes and evolves slowly through several sections. I especially love the big long middle section with the bass holding it down. The percussion and rhythmic samples propel it forward in a relaxing way.
It definitely has a mid 1990s feel. The crunchy samples. The classic digital synth sounds. I can easily imagine this playing in the chill tent at raves / festivals back then.
Listen to On Earth below on Woob’s Bandcamp. I normally listen via Spotify, but this title is unavailable to me right now. Albums tend to go on and off due to licensing issues. 1194 will likely be back up on streaming soon.
I found a nice interview with Paul Frankland (Woob) and Mat Jarvis (who released a lovely album on Em:t under the name Gas - not to be confused with the Wolfgang Voigt Gas). Here are some snippets:
Mat Jarvis: Most of the tracks are ten minutes or longer, was this a conscious decision to make lengthy tracks, or did they just happen?
Paul Frankland: The way I wrote the tracks back then, was like a live performance and so I never heard the track complete or knew the length till it was over, but yes it was a conscious decision, although 25 minutes into mixing ‘On Earth’ there was a heart pounding moment when I improvised a synth section. It’s probably my favorite bit of the whole album now though.
What was the process for writing the album?
I had an Atari ST running Sequencer One plus, an Akai s950, Gem s2, a boss delay pedal, home made reverb, tape deck, ghetto-blaster, video recorder and a DAT machine. I made rough sets of each track, then took everything with me into the studio and finished off the tracks using the extra equipment available. Every track was mixed and performed live, none were edited down.
What was the thinking behind choosing penguins for the cover?
The label managers (Chris & Dave) said to me that they would really like to use Penguins for the cover and what did I think. I’d just written the track Emperor and was going to suggest the same. It was a very strange coincidence
Full interview at: Archive.org Wayback Machine
The artwork is lovely:
