After selling a bunch of '80s new age promo LP's for a substantial wad of cash, it became apparent to this writer that hipsters have now firmly entered that area of current pop culture known as "comedy relief".
So eager to embrace any aspect of the '80s that hasn't already been rehashed to death, these bearded coffee-swilling fedora fetchers will even soak in the tepid awfulness of '80s new age just to prove that they're cooler than you.
Admittedly, I, too, was once swayed by the wonderfully futuristic Ray Lynch, Tomita and Vangelis album covers that once beckoned to me from yonder record bins. After all, with "new age" being close enough to "new wave", how could I resist? It didn't take long to hit "play"and realize that I'd been sold a slab of wax that offered only the most glacial version of music imaginable.
Based on the cover alone, never in my life have I wanted to like any album more than Vangelis's See You Later.
Also, based solely on cover art, Private Music (a label started by Tangerine Dream's Peter Baumann) got me to buy a good dozen or so albums that should have been put out by NyQuil for their magical powers to render the listener unconscious.
It is for that reason that I have always contended that new age albums deserve advisory stickers of their own:
CAUTION: DO NOT OPERATE HEAVY MACHINERY WHILE LISTENING TO THIS ALBUM.
It might be hard to believe now, but back in the mid-80s, numerous music retailers gave key floor space to their massive selections of new age titles.
Hell, the regional chain that I worked for went so far as to place their new age section at the very front of the store so that these titles were the first thing you saw upon entering the store. Back then, Windham Hill was to the new age market what Sub Pop was to grunge, cornering the new age market with a steady stream of easily identifiable titles by artists such as Shadowfax, William Ackerman, Liz Story and Michael Hedges, to name but a few.
The most recognizable aspect of the Windham Hill experience wasn't the music, but, rather, the clean, minimalist feel of the cover artwork by Anne Robinson, which always hinted at music so much more alluring than it really was.
Although a handful of artists such as Yanni, Jean-Michel Jarre and the aforementioned Vangelis continued to thrive, it was for this reason alone that the new age movement quickly petered out and retailers soon relegated the genre to the back of the store, near the cut-out bins, where it belonged.
Over the past few years, however, retailers such as Amoeba Records have been experiencing difficulty keeping vintage new age vinyl and cassettes in stock while re-issue labels begin unearthing rare and out-of-print new age works. For example, Chicago's own Numero Uno recently released Celestial Soul Portrait, a career retrospective by Iasos.
Of course, since ambient music has its origins in the new age movement, its only a matter of time before the line gets blurred beyond recognition and new artists influenced as much by Andreas Vollenweider as by Aphex Twin begin to breathe new life into the new age genre.
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the new age of new age