Ambient, like Balearic, has become a very difficult genre to define. Just like the dreaded B word, everyone seems to tout a slightly different take. My understanding of Eno’s version is a music designed to be played at a relatively low volume, and that  unobtrusively compliments and synergises with the sounds of a given space – like, for example, music for airports. For some folks the tunes that Jose Padilla spun at sunset, at Ibiza’s Cafe del Mar, classify. Sure, there was some “ambient” in there, but Jose was far more eclectic than that. Part of my own definition demands that “ambient”, at the very least, needs to be beatless. Nothing on Jon Savage’s new Ambient 90s collection actually fits this broadest of bills. Everything on offer is shaking, strutting its stuff, to a lesser or larger degree. The opening Sandoz track, Limbo, for instance, is a cinematic Sci-Fi slice of tribal techno. Complete with sampled chant. Brilliant, but not ambient. Much, much, more funky house than flotation tank score. The other 11 tracks are trippy and trance-y. A forceful 4 / 4 underpinning most, if not quite all. Rapoon, an alias of Zoviet France’s Robin Storey, delivers a dizzying dark, dervish, datura dance of tearaway tabla. Aphex Twin’s 8 Utopia, previously released under the Soundcloud moniker user18081971, packs an unpredictable pattern of twisted metallic tones. Several “songs” are bolstered by bleeps. One has dropped acid, for sure. 

There are a couple of indie rock / dance crossovers. GOLs – short for Gods Of Luxury – are psychedelic, a tad gothic, and sound a little like Jah Wobble jamming with a female-fronted Sisters Of Mercy. William Orbit’s Montok Point is a barmy bit of “baggy” that has raucous Rickenbacker jangle surrounded by shamanic shouts, and fixed to a Native American stomp. The final three tracks are built on looped acoustic guitar. µ-Ziq’s Phiesope, from the 1993 LP, In Pine Effect, is a cosmic campfire cut. Cosey, comfy and kinda cute, in a Lemon Jelly-like way. Biosphere’s Entrance squeezes its multiple layers, and sucks a few of them backwards. Underworld’s Blueski, lifted from 1996’s Second Toughest In The Infants, is the hippie-ist tune here, and the only one without any drums or percussion. 

Savage’s selections are divided neatly, nearly 50:50, into famous acts and artists, and those that are nowhere near as well known. Ian Hartley, aka Lobe, who was signed to Malka “Minimal Compact” Spigel and Colin “Wire” Newman’s experimental imprint, Swim ~ , represents the latter, with Placebo, while React 2 Rhythm’s Intoxication was a huge UK club hit. Pilled to the gills, and boasting a boisterous break-like beat, sexy samples, and catchy keyboard riff, this was a staple at early `90s soirees such as Sean McLusky and Mark Wigan’s kinky, leather-clad, Love Ranch. Remixed by Leftfield, it’s a classic of its kind, and probably resides in many people’s “progressive house” top ten. 

I don’t think that any of this detracts from the quality of the compilation, it’s just that the “ambient” title’s a bit misleading. The collection is, instead, a cracking companion to Music From Memory’s Virtual Dreams. Nuggets nostalgic for chill out rooms, full of refreshed ravers, rather than the soundtrack to new age yoga or healing sessions. That said, the pace-y, playful ping-ponging of 2 Cabbages On A Drip’s Calm, would likely have chemically-altered chaps and chapesses flashing back, reverting to their childhoods, setting them skipping, and so is a therapy of sorts. 

Jon Savage’s Ambient 90s is available to order direct from Caroline True.