Various – Ambient House (The Compilation By DFC)

As a fan and aspiring DJ, I was quite taken with the "Ambient House" or "New Age House" genre in the early '90s, but in hindsight it was barely a genre at all. I would say it was just two things: (a.) a catch-all name for what DJs played in the cushy "chillout" side areas at raves & clubs—i.e., a dreamy, eclectic mix of obscure psychedelic and dubby downtempo music, with and without beats, from past and present—and (b.) the mellowest cuts from the UK & Europe's acid house, deep house, and Italo house scenes of 1988–1991.

Most of the examples that you will ever find on compilations are, rather ironically, the most dance-oriented, melodic, and radio-friendly earworms from that mellow wave of house music. Much of it either was, or just slightly predates, what would come to be known as progressive house. It's not terrible, and surely some of it was heard by ravers in the chillout zones, but compilation albums really overrepresent its presence and importance in the Ambient House/chillout scene.

This DFC compilation, containing mostly tracks just from 1989, is squarely in that category, but manages to go a little deeper into the scene by including a somewhat experimental cut from the Irdial-Discs label (another reviewer says it "sucks balls", but I disagree), as well as The KLF's original ambient, anthemic version of "Last Train to Trancentral", excerpts of which form part of the climax of their iconic album Chill Out. I recommend it on the strength of those two tracks alone.

Another seminal release with no comment??
The shame of it.

I bought this album the same day i bought The Klf's "Chill out",
so that weekend back in 1990 was one of pretty heady proportions.

One (or is that 2) of my standout favorites on this album are the tracks by Morenas, namly "Hazme sonar" and "Somnambulism".

Via the power of discogs, very recently i managed to source myself an original copy of the DFC 020 release that these tracks were taken from.

Proper lovely loud pressing compared to the album (which is always the case) but it seems that the version of "Hazme sonar" that appeasr on the album is a mix or edit of "The vocal remix" and "The Dream Version".

Like they have taken the front half os one version and the back end of the other and glued them together to create the version that appeasr on here.

And to think i was listening to that cut for all these years and i hadnt even heard it properly until now. Bloody awesome :)

Incidentally, ALL tracks bar one on here are a great way of explaining 1st gen ambient house, but that lux track really sucks balls.

Just had to get that off my chest.