The Deep Ark

June 9, 2024 1:48 PM

The Deep Ark is an eight hour plus mix of 1990's Warp Records "Electronic Listening Music" and related beats.

There's an interview with the Arkiteket and book of photos and poetry for sale. The site includes a download link, or you can listen to the entire mix on YouTube. Via blissblog.

posted by The Ardship of Cambry (14 comments total)

Reading through the track listing makes me sad.

RIP Mark Bell (LFO), Andrew Weatherall (Sabres of Paradise, 2LS), Peter Kuhlmann (Pete Namlook, FAX records), Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic), and Richard H Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire, solo)
posted by aubilenon at 2:05 PM on June 9 [9 favorites]

Thanks OP! this was just what I needed but I didn't yet know it.
posted by Faintdreams at 2:13 PM on June 9 [1 favorite]

The interview is fascinating and tells me this's already something I'm going to be very into. Now to dig into the set.

I'm curious what other sets the Arkiteket has done; the interview suggests they've been at it for a while & their philosophy sounds like it aligns to me well.
posted by CrystalDave at 3:15 PM on June 9

Also I never have listened to hardly any Bochum Welt, but dang he sure is all over this mix.

I'm a little surprised to see not a single track from Ninja Tune on here. I assume one very significant factor for this kind of mix is licensing, so maybe that was a snag there?
posted by aubilenon at 4:39 PM on June 9 [1 favorite]

Thank You
posted by coolxcool=rad at 6:14 PM on June 9

Wonderful post; thanks very much! Roadtrip music for me...
posted by cybrcamper at 9:56 PM on June 9

Excellent find. Thank you, Ardship!
posted by angelplasma at 2:39 PM on June 10

In my twelve years on MetaFilter this has been the most useful post to me. I've now got something epic to listen to, and pick apart, and rebuild, and read around, for the next two years, which also dovetails into my love and essential and fundamental need for this specific genre.

Thank you a thousand times, The Ardship of Cambry.
posted by Wordshore at 12:47 AM on June 11 [1 favorite]

Mod note: [Greetings, Voyagers! This is just to say this post has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 1:40 AM on June 11 [3 favorites]

I'm a little surprised to see not a single track from Ninja Tune on here. I assume one very significant factor for this kind of mix is licensing, so maybe that was a snag there?

I was going to say that it's basically a mix from an entirely different label? But then there's a big chunk of Blue Room after the 7 hour mark, and the Orb was never directly on Warp, I don't think, so *shrug*. I mean it looks like it's like 70% Aphex Twin projects by weight, anyway.

Aaaanyway, lemme tick the "remember playback position" and "skip when shuffling" boxes in iTunes, otherwise I'll never actually get all the way through it and stub my toes on it like 3 times a week.
posted by Kyol at 7:40 AM on June 11 [1 favorite]

Thank you!
posted by elmono at 3:48 PM on June 11

There's a bunch of labels and they're all listed in the credits and descriptions! Of course tons of Warp, but also Skam, Leaf, loads of Rephlex, FAX [phone], R&S, etc. And maybe The Orb wasn't properly on Warp ever but Alex Paterson did have a track on Warp's early compilation Artificial Intelligence.
posted by aubilenon at 8:55 PM on June 11

Listening through this, it gives me the same sort of feel that there's maybe a chunk of old techno / electronic / edm / etc that is hard to properly appreciate in 2024, separated from the DJ mixed performances back in the day at raves and shows and whatnot. Like I hunted up some of the individual tracks from Chrissy Murderbot's happy hardcore tape and they're ... they're fine, individually, there's nothing wrong with them, but when a DJ is spinning two or three of them against one another and mixing it up and performing them, it goes to a whole other level.
posted by Kyol at 8:03 AM on June 12

There's an expanded 30th anniversary edition of Selected Ambient Works Volume II coming out in October (extra-fancy version available, though the 2-cassette limited set is already sold out), which if you're reading this comment might be something you'd be interested in.
posted by box at 7:31 AM on June 18 [1 favorite]