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Strange Cargo III
William Orbit
1993
Wikipedia
Reviews
Like a review? Give it a thumb up to help us display relevant reviews!I often wonder whether albums like this are made for people to actually enjoy....or whether they're made for hi-fi nerds to boast about how great the plinky-plonks sound through their speakers (they sounded awesome through mine)
So then, mood music. Not often my thing, especially this version, which dumbly apes what they think 'peaceful' sounds like without realising that isn't enough to make people feel at peace. Broad brush approaches only creates greater distance from the listener. As with lyrics, specificity is what allows them to grab hold of the song, clamber in and find their own way to those feelings. These sounds are so washed out with generalisations that there's no chance of that.
It was a trip listen to it with my eyes closed on my way home back from work. Great tracks overall
Das pendelt erstmal so rum zwischen ganz interessant (hätte ich damals noch besser gefunden als z.B. Orbital) und zeitlos schlimmer Esoterik. Findet sich dann, nachdem man sich hörbar deutlich bei Andrew Weatherall und The Orb bedient hat aber letztlich in so Ralf Hildenbeutel/Sven Väthschem Ibizasphärengedudel, das damals sicher nicht weh tat, anschließend aber auch nicht gut gealtert ist. Und dann hört man auch schon raus, was er 6 Jahre später auf z.B. Madonnas Ray of Light perfektioniert hat. Naja. So wegweisend finde ich dieses Album jedenfalls nicht. 2,7 reichen völlig aus.
Perfectly decent, spacey 90s electronica with dance, dub, trip-hop, world and new-age influences. Its sound and mood is such that it still holds up quite well almost 30 years after it was released. This one really grew on me.
awesome psychedelic record with liquid rhythms, expressive synths, and groovy bass lines. love hearing the predecessors to some of my favorite modern psychedelic artists.
Not my usual kind of music, but I really enjoyed it. Also very good for concentrating at work.
Great electronic stuff here. Bonus points for the vocals. Favorites: Water From A Vine Leaf, Harry Flowers, The Story Of Light
Pretty good listening, some of the tracks definitely would've been better without vocals tho. Favorite track is probably A Touch of the Night.
Ugh, this album isn’t on Apple Music. Damn them for not having obscure, non-charted electronic music. They have a bunch of his other albums…wtf? So I have to listen on YouTube, which is painful. First world problems. I like the bass heavy beats throughout the album. This is the first album that got my house rattling with the surround sound system I got a couple months back. The accompanying videos on YouTube are a trip. There are a lot of nature scenes. Also quite a bit of shaky camera work. I can’t tell if the videos add or detract from the music. I’m not a fan of the Nine-Inch-Nails-esque electronic drum on Into the Paradise and A Hazy Shade of Random, but that’s not going to bring this album down. There’s a lot of good shit here. An interesting find for sure. I’m starting to conclude that I’m into ambient music. Not all of it, no way (looking at you Brian Eno). But there is a subset that gets me going.
Not bad. Held my attention. Can only give it 3.5 because it's not something I really see myself going back to.
cool instrumental electronic music. some songs are vibey and some have techno or grungey sounds. i like Water From a Vine Leaf
Seems like there would’ve been no stranger cog turning in the early 90s music machine. Pretty cool background music
Die Sounds kommen zwar leicht datiert durch die Geräte, aber der Kern eines dubbigen Rave/Waves bleibt dennoch klar transportiert. Bisweilen etwas kitschig in seiner Anmutung von Arzt-Serien Score. Macht aber mehr richtig als falsch und bleibt doch etwas schwach auf der Brust. Irgendwie gute 2.8
I think is not my type of beat but is quiet relaxing the first 4 tracks. Would be a good album after smoking a joint.
Electronic music is definitely not my wheelhouse, but I like this album. William Orbit constructs his songs as experiences and tones that portray the context of the titles, and it feels like you are creating scenes in your head as you listen. It's not generic bass drops or fuzzy dubbings that overwhelm you in static sounds. That said, I don't really find myself intensely listening to every song and just leave it on as background music. But it's good. Favorite Song: The Story of the Light Least Favorite: Harry Flowers
Zweverig album, met wat samples die wel overeenkomen met de albumhoes. Was goed voor op de achtergrond maar weinig speciaal
its an ambient album, which barely any vocals but somehow it manages to keep your attention
Cannot lie - really got into it - great instrumentalist, but by the end was desperate for it to finish
Pretty enjoyable album. I'm not super into electronic music but I liked the melodies here. Reminded me of Spyro the Dragon.
I don't know how this counts as one of the 1001 albums I need to hear before I die. It's pleasant enough but entirely unmemorable. I don't even know if it's one of the best 1001 ambient albums ever produced. Inoffensive and worthy of playing in the background when you have work to do but it'll never feel groundbreaking.
Lo-fi electronic album, this was some solid background music to listen to while I worked. The album playlists on Youtube were all either incomplete or way out of order, so I had to search each song individually to listen to it which was frustrating but that has nothing to do with the music itself. Enjoyed it for what it was, not my usual thing but wouldn't complain if someone put this on.
so-so. Very much of its time. (cf. Fascinating Rhythm, which is much more adventurous.)
Cargo cults may seem strange to us modern first-worlders, but in understanding their culture we can understand much of our obsession with advancement and progression. A cargo cult is "an indigenist millenarian belief system in which adherents perform rituals which they believe will cause a more technologically advanced society to deliver goods." Such groups have been found in Pacific island nations that had fleeting contact with Allied soldiers and air drops of supplies during WWII. After the war ended, the cults arose to try to mimic the behavior and culture they encountered and lure back these peoples and their advanced technology. The indigenous people encountered strange cargo from a civilization they didn't understand, and then longed to replicate it or bring it back. Maybe William Orbit brought us strange cargo of his own, at the leading edge of the electronic music revolution in the 80s and 90s. He never left, but we've been trying to copy and mimic his seemingly futuristic and advanced aural aesthetic ever since. Unlike the cargo cults, who's benefactors and inspirations seemingly disappeared for a time, Orbit continued to be an active part of the cultural exchange, evolving with those he influenced. And at some point during that journey, he air dropped a third load of "Strange Cargo." However, I found myself not mythologizing, venerating, or deifying Orbit, but rather being thankful that his influence fueled a continuous evolution through artists whose work I find better.
If you google 'Strange Cargo' it takes you pages of results for a movie staring Clark Gable from 1940. This alone may give you some insight into how awesome this album is. Despite that, this was far better than I thought it would be, and much better than the album art is. It's important to note that there are at least three Strange Cargo albums, the second I started listening to by mistake and it was a mistake. I should've eaten a sprig of Parsley after listening to SC2, or at least dusted my ears with it. I honestly didn't mind spending time with this. Though since 1993, the robots have taken over the world and today, this music is ubiquitous. It's absolutely something my daughter would splice into her YouTube videos. I blame the machines. At one point SC3 was avant garde and exciting, but time moves on...
Lol. Trip hop/ambient nonsense.. idk I’m in a crappy mood because I’ve been sitting at the dealership all morning. Also straight up skipped the Motörhead live album from yesterday.
I wasn't sure whether to rate this 2 or 3 stars. It wasn't too bad to listen to but I gave it 2 stars in the end because I know it is music that I will not return to.
Random hodgepodge of electronica. Some decent stuff but too noodley. Makes The Orb sound structured
not my style, an album that I think you need to be in a specific mode to enjoy, most of the music was relaxing and good to work with but the last couple of songs were scary.
Definitely can sense the influence on vaporwave and minimal electronic music. Some songs reminded me of dvd main menu music for a sci Fi flick
Come on 1001 album random generator, give me something GOOD! This album suffers a little bit from being the latest in a line of albums that range from terrible to just meh. There is just nothing to get excited about here.
El tipo que compuso los discos modernos de Madonna… Ya con eso. Y luego también de Blur, U2, Britney y hasta No Doubt. Difícil imaginar para donde va su estilo. Pero este disco en particular me sonó como a epítome de los 90, con algo de pretensión de música mundial, pero con mame de cafetería y beats. No me funciona. El disco se pasó rápido. Tres veces. De eso que no notas que hay música sonando porque igual se va tan al fondo que quizá mi cabeza estaba cantando otra cosa.
2.5 | No tengo mucho que decir sobre este álbum aparte de que es agradable. En realidad, es una música agradable con la que trabajar sin ser brillante. Creo que también he tenido esa experiencia con otra música ambiental en la lista lo cual comienza a quitarle puntos por el desgaste. La mitad de los discos instrumentales en la lista siento proponen cosas interesantes y la otra mitad son como este... "agradables". Quizá el único punto donde este es diferente es que los ritmos son un poco más estimulantes, poquito menos repetitivos y con cierta fluidez en cambios que otra música ambiental. Mi cabeza me dice que es un disco que no tiene que hacer en la lista aunque pudiera quizá ver la influencia que tendría en la música electrónica a medida que avanzaban los 90. No estoy seguro de que tanta influencia tuvo realmente pero posiblemente eso lo justificaría.
I'm not sure why this album is on this listen. This album mixed a lot of different sounds together.
Sinceramente, no me ha interesado nada. Música electrónica cercana a la pista de baile pero que al final no es ni una cosa ni la otra. Ha envejecido mal para mi gusto totalmente prescindible.
Ho he intentat però no he aconseguit entrar-hi. Aquest rollo ambient-electrònic no em fa el pes.
Ah shit