Ambient Techno

Ambient Techno
Stylistic origins	Techno Ambient House Ambient New Age Chill-Out Dub Acid House Electro
Cultural origins	Late 1980s to early 1990s Tokyo (Japan) Detroit (United States) United Kingdom
Other topics
Intelligent Dance Music Industrial Techno

Ambient Techno is a subgenre of Techno and Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) that combines the atmospheric textures of ambient music with the rhythms and production of techno. The genre originated from Tokyo (Japan), Detroit (United States) and the United Kingdom during the late 1980s to early 1990s.

History

Tokyo

Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) was a Japanese electronic music group consisting of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Active in Tokyo from 1978 to 1992, YMO are frequently cited as pioneers of ambient electronica. The YMO trio were the first to use the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines along with heavy use of ambient samples and reverb effects in the early 1980s, laying the foundations for ambient techno.

Examples of Tokyo ambient techno in the early 1980s:

• Yukihiro Takahashi productions
  • Susan's "Screamer" (1980) and "I Only Come Out At Night" (1981)
  • "Ark Diamant" (1981) by The Beatniks (Yukihiro Takahashi and Keiichi Suzuki)
• Akira Sakata's "Yarin'Age", "Meuniere" and "Panco" (1980)
• Ryuichi Sakamoto
  • "Riot in Lagos" and "E-3A" (1980)
  • "Front Line" (1981), "Happy End" (1981) and "Bamboo Houses" (1982)
• Yellow Magic Orchestra
  • "Riot in Lagos" from Live at Budokan 1980
  • "Ballet" and "Camouflage" from BGM (1981)
  • "Seoul Music" and "Epilogue" from Technodelic (1981)
  • "Light in Darkness" and "Ballet" from Winter Live 1981
• Haruomi Hosono productions
  • Sandii's "Zoot Kook" (1980)
  • Haruomi Hosono's "Sangokushi Main Theme" (1982)
  • Testpattern's "Ring Dance" (1982)
  • Interior's "Technobose" (1982)
  • Chiemi Manabe's "Untotōku" (1982) co-produced by Nobuyuki Shimizu and Kenji Ohmura
• Colored Music's "Heartbeat" and "Ei Sei Raku" (1981) produced by Atsuo Fujimoto and Ichiko Hashimoto
• Noriko Miyamoto's "After You've Gone" and "Arrows & Eyes" (1981) produced by Kazuhiko Katō
• Magical Power Mako's "Fresh Vegetable" and "Little Darling" (1981)
• Yuji Ohno's "Living Satelite Of "IO" Of Jupiter" and "Landing On The Surface Of Venus" (1981)
• Logic System (Hideki Matsutake)
  • "Intro", "XY", "Prophet" and "Automatic Collect, Automatic Correct" (1981)
  • "Orient Express" (1982)
• Ippu-Do tracks produced by Masami Tsuchiya (1981–1983)
  • "Radio Cosmos", "Yomotolo-Waiya", "Dubling Radio" and "Listen To Me" from Radio Fantasy (1981)
  • "Sorrow", "Lonely Sealion", "Dream of the Gypsies" and "Sail On" from Night Mirage (1983)
• Ryo Kawasaki's "Marilyn" and "Hawaiian Caravan" (1982)
• Naomi Akimoto (1982)
  • "Bye Bye Blackbird" and "Singin' In The Rain" produced by Yasuaki Shimizu
  • "Chicago" and "Somebody Loves Me" produced by Yasuaki Shimizu
  • "Tennessee Waltz" produced by Masanori Sasaji and Daikō Nagato
• Sakata Sextet's "Tra" and "Uma" (1982)

Examples of Tokyo ambient techno in the mid-1980s:

• Ryo Kawasaki's "Lucky Lady" (1983), "Long Time Before You Were Born" and "Caravan" (1983)
• Yellow Magic Orchestra's "The Madmen" and "Shadows on the Ground" (1983)
• Mariah's "Shinzo No Tobira" (1983)
• Naomi Akimoto's 4 Seasons (1983) produced by Masaki Iwamoto
  • "He's So Trendy", "Bad Imagination", "Honey Bee" and "Jinx"
• Masao Hiruma productions
  • Testpattern's "Ryugu" (1983) and "Watashi no Shōnen wa Nihonjin" (1984)
  • Apogee & Perigee's "Hope" (1984)
• Ryuichi Sakamoto productions
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Ao Penki no Naka no Boku no Namida" (1983)
  • Mari Iijima's "Odeko ni Kiss" (1983)
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Tibetan Dance (Version)" and "Tabi no Kyokuhoku" (1984)
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Robot" and "Steppin' Into Asia" (1985)
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto's "A Wongga Dance Song" and "Adelic Penguins" (1985)
• Hiroshi Sato's "Funky Multi" (1984)
• Haruomi Hosono's "Non-Standard Mixture" (1984) and "Sayokoskatti" (1985)
• Jun Fukamachi's "Treasure Hunter" (1985)

Examples of Tokyo ambient techno in the late 1980s:

• Chika Asamoto's "Self Control" (1988)
• Haruomi Hosono's "Pleocine" and "Orgone Box" (1989)
• Seigen Ono's "Something to Hold on To" (1989)

Examples of Tokyo ambient techno in the early 1990s:

• Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Rap The World" and "Borom Gal" (1991)
• "Multiplies" (Remix) and "Light In Darkness" (Remix) by Yellow Magic Orchestra (1992)
• Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Be A Superman" and "Hi-Tech Hippies" (1993)
• Haruomi Hosono's "Laughter Meditation" and "Medicine Mix" (1993)
• Tetsu Inoue's "Did You Ever Retire A Human..." (1993) and "Holy Dance" (1994)

Video games

Examples of ambient techno in Japanese game soundtracks during the mid-1980s to early 1990s:

• Rolling Blaster (1985), MSX laserdisc game developed by Techno Quest
• "K&V" and "Prayers" in Mirrors (1990) composed by Haruhiko Sōno and Masaharu Takeda
• "Ocean Field" and "Reminiscences" in Solvalou (1991) composed by Hiroyuki Kawada (Namco)
• "Collision Chaos 'G' Mix" and "Special Stage" in Sonic the Hedgehog CD (1993) by Masafumi Ogata (Sega)
• "Metallic Madness 'G' Mix" in Sonic the Hedgehog CD (1993) composed by Naofumi Hataya (Sega)

Detroit

Examples of Detroit ambient techno during the late 1980s to early 1990s:

• Rhythim Is Rhythim's "Daymares, It Is What It Is" (1988) produced by Derrick May
• Psyche's "Elements" (1989) produced by Carl Craig
• Psyche's "Crackdown" (1990) produced by Carl Craig

United Kingdom

Examples of UK ambient techno during the late 1980s to early 1990s:

• 808 State's "Pacific" (1989)
• Aphex Twin's "Analogue Bubblebath" (1991)
• "Multiplies" (Altern 8 Mix) and "Light In Darkness" (808 State Mix) by Yellow Magic Orchestra (1992)
• Aphex Twin's "Xtal" and "Tha" (1992)
• Orbital's "Halcyon" (1992) and "Halcyon + On + On" (1993)