Intension and Objective

I know both of you out there have been waiting since the calendar flipped over to aught-eight for my list of the top ten albums from last year, and I hate to disappoint.

This time around, I went about my list making a bit differently. Instead of a hodge-podge of musical genres touching each other and potentially mixing together (can't have that!), I broke down my list into two discrete halves: ambient and...non-ambient.

Admittedly, this was done partially for the novelty of being able to do it. But there was also a pretty small pool of 2007 albums to choose from in House Beach Ghost, and considering the fact that ambient makes up a significant portion of my musical purchases, the ratio of ambient:everything else in my list is pretty indicative of my genre preferences.

In any event, here's the ambient half. It probably doesn't need to be said, but none of the albums listed below would be eligible for the hardcore seal of approval.

#10: Pete Namlook & Tetsu Inoue - 2350 Broadway 4







#9: Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls / Before the Day Breaks. Released separately, but I'm counting them as one entry since they're thematically linked. BTW, a Bronx cheer to Darla Records for not only releasing these as separate CDs, but for also stating in their marketing copy that these two albums "...are not ambient." Yeah, actually, they are.

#8: Steve Roach - Arc of Passion.








#7: Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline.







#6: Patrick O'Hearn - Glaciation.