Mike G interviewed by Australian Musician Magazine
Baz Bardoe from Australian Musician Magazine approached me with a request for an interview about Ambient Music Guide. Not being a complete fool, I said yes. READ THE INTERVIEW Back to Blog home
The Ambient Music Guide blog
The Ghosts of Downton Abbey – An ambient remix by Mike G
I started playing around with samples from John Lunn’s Downton Abbey TV theme and this 7-minute piece is what came out. It was done with time-stretches, edits, loops, reverb and other manipulations. The original version is an incredibly lush and harmonically rich piece of music. I was always fascinated by its textural depth and sensed […]
How not to get a music reviewer’s attention
Over my 30 or so years of playing and reviewing other people’s music, I’ve had a lot of approaches from artists and labels to promote their stuff. I could tell you some stories. Today I’ll stick to just one, plus offer a few tips to increase your chances of getting heard. First let me say that I encourage […]
5 net radio stations that will blow your mind
Despite the rise of on-demand streaming services, the world of 24-hour net radio is still with us and the offerings for ambient and downtempo fans are awesome indeed. Here are five of the very best. Has the Spotify glow worn off? Are you sick of organising what to listen to next? And do most of those playlists […]
Mind blown: Silent Records is back!
This week I got a surprise: Silent Records – the legendary 90’s ambient electronica label – is back. In fact it relaunched earlier this year and I had no idea until now. Label founder Kim Cascone (aka Heavenly Music Corporation) explained all in an interview with Stillstream.com: “I’d been a fan of the web radio […]
How isolating earphones caused me to invade others’ personal space
I had a curious experience after I started walking daily in the city with crowds of commuters while wearing isolating earphones. In short, the space that I normally give other people around me diminished – without me even realising it. It got me thinking about what an extraordinary human sense our hearing is, and how […]
The new Marconi Union album is a thing of wonder
I’m utterly engrossed by the new Marconi Union album Ghost Stations. The UK trio has been doing their melange of rock, ambient, jazz, classical minimalism and electronica for well over a decade now and they really took their time on this one: two years, in fact. Ghost Stations contains four long, episodic tracks. What blows […]
New Ambient 2016 – three new mixes
My New Ambient 2016 mix series kicks off with three very contrasting ambient and downtempo mixes. Volume 1: Infinite Meadow Pastoral ambience and hyperreal impressionism from recent releases by Inner Travels, Hybrid Palms, Robert Rich, Sinepearl, Jim Ottaway, Erik Wøllo, Byron Metcalf, Slow World, Miyake and Omni vu Deity (Ishq). Volume 2: Sunshine Grooves Downtempo […]
Far Off Sounds presents Iasos: the Father of New Age Music
Short but sweet recent documentary about American new age music pioneer Iasos. From Jacob and Nick @ Far Off Sounds: Far Off Sounds, a webseries about obscure, unusual, and ecstatic musical experiences, presents Iasos, a mini-doc about one of the founding fathers of what is now called new age music. When Iasos performed for British […]
I’ve started playing CDs again…
Hands up who doesn’t touch their CD collection much anymore? I see plenty of hands. Until a few weeks ago, mine included. I still own a truckload of vinyl and CD’s. But neither has been getting much love from me in the past five years or so. It hardly needs saying, but I’ll say it anyway: file downloads […]
New mix: This is Tim Story
Enjoy my new mix spotlighting the deep, seductive, personal sound of American synthesist-pianist-composer Tim Story – chamber music for the 21st century. With a rich catalogue reaching back to the early 1980’s, Tim Story remains a highly distinctive voice in American ambient. The 90 minute mix spans his first album (1981) to his most recent (2014) and touches […]
Live Review: Hearts of Space’s Ambicon 2013, May 3-5
“Go as deep as you can go.” – Stephen Hill 40 years is a long time for any radio show. For a radio show that plays music not easily defined or understood by many, an unbroken 40 year run seems little short of miraculous. Yet Music From The Hearts of Space still stands, a testament […]
Live Review: Dead Can Dance, Sydney Opera House, Feb 3rd 2013
And so it came to pass, so many years after leaving our shores. Kicking off the second leg of their 2012-13 world tour, the recently reformed Dead Can Dance gave a focused, powerful performance at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday night to a rapt home crowd. Astonishingly it was the duo’s first Australian show […]
Pink Floyd – 12 Great Rick Wright Moments
Last week (Sept 15) marked three years since the untimely passing of Pink Floyd co-founder and keyboard player Richard Wright. Never did a key member of such a major rock act have such a low public profile as did this quiet, unassuming man. He was nearly always in the background, by no means a media […]