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<title>Top Ambient Artists on Rhapsody Online</title>
<dateCreated>Sun Dec 27 01:39:32 PST 2009</dateCreated>
<dateModified>Sun Dec 27 01:39:32 PST 2009</dateModified>
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<outline type="include" text="Moby" description="A revered, recognizable figure on the dance music scene since the early '90s, the enigmatic producer/DJ Moby was catapulted into mainstream stardom with the 1999 release of &lt;I&gt;Play&lt;/I&gt;. A surprise hit, &lt;I&gt;Play&lt;/I&gt; delved into highly personal areas in a downtempo vein never before explored in any of his previous releases. A master of such styles as techno, house, trance, ambient and breakbeat to name just a few, Moby is blessed with the ability to strike a sincere, emotive chord with a wide range of dance music devotees.
- Melissa Piazza" category="Electronica/Dance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/moby/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Thievery Corporation" description="Thievery Corporation hearken back to the suave musical era of the 1950s and '60s, when swizzle sticks and long cigarette holders were in vogue, and relaxing meant having a strong cocktail in very plush surroundings. While inherently down-tempo, Thievery Corporation (Rob Garza and Eric Hilton) toss in elements of nearly every musical genre, including Dub, Reggae, hip-hop, Cocktail/Lounge, jazz, and Funk, creating a highly relaxing world in which your ears will thank you. Predominantly instrumental, the pair occasionally draft the talents of evocative, breathy-vocaled women -- some of whom sing in French! They are also the founders of the Eighteenth Street Lounge nightclub in D.C. (as well as the label of the same name), concentrating on generating a calm and peaceful world in which languid beats, exotic instrumentation, and international influences are omnipresent. While definitely designed for the headnodders, Thievery Corporation continue to gain popularity among a wide variety of people for their sophisticated, stylish, and delicate musical charm.
- Tim Pratt" category="Ambient Dub" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/thievery-corporation/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Air" description="Originally gaining recognition for their down-tempo cocktail funk of &quot;Modular Mix&quot; and &quot;Casanova 70&quot; on the French SourceLab compilations of 1997, Air released their full-length debut the following year. An incredibly ambitious and successful melange of Serge Gainsbourg by way of Vangelis, &lt;i&gt;Moon Safari&lt;/i&gt; is awash in strings, vocoders, analog synths, fluttering electro pulses and soulful backbeats. Everything from the rare groove of &quot;La Femme D'Argent&quot; to the Euro-pop of &quot;Kelly, Watch the Stars!&quot; is vaguely familiar, but never so successfully arranged until this point. Live, they are prone to wearing white jumpsuits while strategically placed fans blow wind through their hair, and there is no shortage of body-popping electro-funk. In the end, you are left with perfect road trip music -- assuming you're driving to the moon.
- Jon Pruett" category="Downtempo" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/air/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Aphex Twin" description="Aphex Twin follows Newton's Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Describing his music becomes a web of contradictions. For every violent and vitriolic &quot;Come to Daddy,&quot; there is an absurd children's song such as &quot;Milkman.&quot; For every acid anthem (&quot;Digeridoo&quot;), there is a frazzled complex of rhythms (&quot;INKEY$&quot;). For every surging, grinning dance track such as &quot;Donkey Rhubarb,&quot; there is the near stillness of &quot;Weathered Stone&quot; or &quot;Parallel Stripes.&quot; A track-by-track breakdown may not equate a balance of yin and yang, but throughout his career as Aphex Twin, AFX, Caustic Window, Polygon Window, the Dice Man and countless other pseudonyms, Richard D. James has created what is perhaps the widest spectrum of electronic sound by a single artist.
- Marc Kate" category="Leftfield/IDM" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/aphex-twin/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Brian Eno" description="A brilliant conceptualist, a founding member of Roxy Music, and a self-described &quot;nonmusician,&quot; the appallingly prolific Brian Eno is probably best known as a producer &amp;#8212; he was behind the boards for some of the best albums made by David Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo, and U2 &amp;#8212; and for having coined the phrase &quot;ambient music.&quot; A pity, that; Eno has also made wonderful music of his own, recording entrancing tunes with ingenious countermelodies that should have been hits, but weren't.
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Pop content is just one component in the Eno catalogue and melody doesn't seem to interest him half as much as sound itself. Consequently, trawling through the Eno catalogue can be as frustrating as it is rewarding, especially as his later albums tend more toward music that seems airy, empty, and maddeningly diffuse.
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In that sense, perhaps the best way to approach the Eno oeuvre is by forgetting chronology and diving in with the box sets. &lt;I&gt;I: Instrumentals&lt;/I&gt; is a delightful omnibus of sound sketches, studio experiments, and sonic art. Some of it is from collaborations with Bowie, avant-pop trumpeter Jon Hassell, minimalist composer Harold Budd, King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, or the German electro group Cluster; some is from solo work using his own keyboards or session musicians. Invariably, Eno finds a certain idiosyncratic element in the sounds produced, and tickles them out. When his teasing tends toward atmospheric stasis, the results are generally dubbed &quot;ambient&quot; &amp;#8212; sort of like New Age gets an MFA. But not everything there falls into that category; some tracks, such as &quot;Energy Fools the Magician&quot; or &quot;Chemin de Fer,&quot; are as catchy and well-crafted as any pop single.
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The second box, &lt;I&gt;II: Vocals&lt;/I&gt;, has far more of that, and relies heavily on Eno's early albums. Applying what he learned about pop subversion from his tenure in Roxy Music to the revisionist aesthetic of new-wave rock, songs such as &quot;Baby's On Fire,&quot; &quot;King's Lead Hat,&quot; and &quot;Here Come the Warm Jets&quot; boast all the hook-driven appeal of hit singles, yet without the heard-it-before predictability of conventional pop. Eno rarely took the conventional give-the-singer-the-melody approach, however, and on a number of tracks, the vocal &amp;#8212; which may be song, or speech, or some &quot;found&quot; bit of a movie or radio broadcast -- is just part of the overall sound, often almost incidental to the instrumental parts.
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For fans of his vocal music, the key Eno albums are &lt;I&gt;Here Come the Warm Jets&lt;/I&gt;, &lt;I&gt;Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)&lt;/I&gt;, and &lt;I&gt;Before and After Science&lt;/I&gt;. It may be easy to hear in both an anticipation of punk and an echo of Roxy Music in the arch clangor of &lt;I&gt;Here Come the Warm Jets&lt;/I&gt;, but what shines brightest is the offhand accessibility of the songs. It hardly matters whether he's playing with style (as with the doo-wop undercurrent to &quot;Cindy Tells Me&quot;) or fooling with form (the portmanteau construction of &quot;Dead Finks Don't Talk&quot;); the melodies linger on. Listening to it now, the album seems almost a blueprint for the pop experiments Bowie (with Eno producing) would conduct with &lt;I&gt;Low&lt;/I&gt;.
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&lt;I&gt;Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)&lt;/I&gt; is just as pop-friendly and eclectic, but shies away from the abrasive textures of its predecessor, swapping distortion and dissonance for blurred edges and open-ended harmonies. Not that the album is entirely without teeth, as there's an itchy aggression to the breathless &quot;Third Uncle&quot; and an ominous urgency to the latter half of &quot;The True Wheel.&quot; But Eno keeps such snarls on a tight leash; far more typical is the dry wit of &quot;Back in Judy's Jungle.&quot;
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But it's &lt;I&gt;Before and After Science&lt;/I&gt; that stands as the greatest of Eno's &quot;pop&quot; albums. A nearly perfect album, it frames Eno's melodic instincts in every imaginable way, from the chilly funk of &quot;No One Receiving&quot; to the irrepressible vigor of &quot;King's Lead Hat&quot; (an anagram for Talking Heads), to the dreamy cadences of &quot;Here He Comes.&quot;
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After sitting out the 1980s, Eno returned to the pop form in 1990 with the brittle, uneven &lt;I&gt;Wrong Way Up&lt;/I&gt;. Recorded with John Cale, it's a good attempt at recapturing the old magic, but frankly Cale's intense artiness undercuts Eno's instincts. &lt;I&gt;My Squelchy Life&lt;/I&gt; was originally intended as the follow-up, but after making advance copies available to the press, Eno withdrew the album (which is now available only on bootleg). Instead, the unexpectedly funky &lt;I&gt;Nerve Net&lt;/I&gt; became his next pop effort, and it mostly fizzles. Perhaps sensing the tenor of the times, Eno puts more effort into making good grooves than in writing memorable melodies, and while the resulting tracks are full of good energy and interesting sounds, they lack the hooky good nature of &lt;I&gt;Before and After Science&lt;/I&gt;.
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Then again, after Eno's having spent most of the previous decade releasing album after album on which texture was king, what were we to expect? Although some critics have derided his instrumental albums as being a sort of high-concept mood music, it wasn't mood he was interested in; it was atmosphere. On these discs, he took an almost functional approach to music, manipulating its sonic power in the same way a painter or interior designer might manipulate the power of light, color, and form.
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Eno began moving in that direction with &lt;I&gt;Another Green World&lt;/I&gt;. Here, he uses the studio itself as an instrument, molding directed improvisation, electronic effects, and old-fashioned songcraft into perfectly balanced aural ecosystems such as &quot;Sky Saw&quot; or &quot;St. Elmo's Fire.&quot; Initially, he referred to these quiet soundscapes as &quot;discreet&quot; music, and on &lt;I&gt;Discreet Music&lt;/I&gt; (a wry deconstruction of &quot;Pachelbel's Canon in D&quot;) demonstrates his basic tools: minimal melodies, subtle textures, and variable repetition. Around this time, he had also been collaborating with the German synth duo Cluster on a pair of moody, coloristic electronic albums, selections from which may be found on the &lt;I&gt;Begegnungen&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Begegnungen II&lt;/I&gt; compilations. But it was &lt;I&gt;Music for Airports&lt;/I&gt; that finally codified these experiments into an aesthetic, and even provided a label for the sound: ambient music.
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As much as Eno understands about psycho-acoustics and the relationship between what is heard and what is merely sensed, the largely functional (and mostly tuneless) nature of the music limits the listening pleasure of subsequent ambient releases, such as &lt;I&gt;On Land&lt;/I&gt;, &lt;I&gt;Apollo&lt;/I&gt;, and &lt;I&gt;Thursday Afternoon&lt;/I&gt;. (Eno also produced albums by other artists for his ambient series: both Harold Budd's rich, moody &lt;I&gt;Plateaux of Mirror&lt;/I&gt; and Laraaji's shimmering &lt;I&gt;Day of Radiance&lt;/I&gt; are slightly more energetic and engaging than Eno's own efforts.)
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There were, of course, releases that didn't carry the ambient tag but seemed part of the same musical subspecies. The three volumes of &lt;I&gt;Music for Film&lt;/I&gt; work very much on the same principle as the ambient albums, and feature some of the same collaborators. Likewise, there's an extreme emphasis on atmosphere in the spacey &lt;I&gt;Shutov Assembly&lt;/I&gt;, the contemplative &lt;I&gt;Neroli&lt;/I&gt;, and the delicately textured &lt;i&gt;Drop&lt;/i&gt;.
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Meanwhile, Eno continued to collaborate with others. &lt;I&gt;My Life in the Bush of Ghosts&lt;/I&gt;, which takes its title from Amos Tutuola's novel, was recorded with Talking Headman David Byrne, and offers some insight into the cut-and-paste approach to groove the two applied while making Talking Heads' &lt;I&gt;Remain in Light&lt;/I&gt;. Its &quot;found art&quot; approach to vocals (however scrupulously footnoted) is an acquired taste, but in hindsight it sounds like a true forerunner of hip-hop sampling. &lt;I&gt;Spinner&lt;/I&gt;, recorded with former Public Image Ltd. bassist Jah Wobble, boasts gently insistent grooves and strongly Middle Eastern flavors, elements Eno had flirted with on the earlier &lt;I&gt;Ali Click&lt;/I&gt;.
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Eno also worked with the German DJ Jan Peter Schwalm. Their first collaboration, the Japanese-only &lt;I&gt;Music for Onmyoji&lt;/I&gt; (literally, &quot;Music for the Fortune-teller&quot;), is a double album combining one disc of conventional, deftly crafted synth-scapes with a disc of manipulated and collaged recordings based on gagaku, the ancient traditional music of the Japanese Imperial Court. &lt;I&gt;Drawn From Life&lt;/I&gt; is rather less exotic, relying on Western instrumentation and household sounds to generate a rich, surprisingly evocative sonic tapestry celebrating the rhythm of day-to-day life (hence the title).
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There's a third stream to Eno's catalogue that isn't represented by a box, and that's his &quot;installations.&quot; These are sound sculptures created for specific environments; usually instrumental, they are not compositions in the traditional sense, with a beginning, middle, and end, but are open-ended constructions designed to go on indefinitely without looping or intentionally repeating the material. (Opal is Eno's own label, and these discs are available online from www.enoshop.co.uk.) Some, such as &lt;I&gt;Kite Stories&lt;/I&gt; or &lt;I&gt;Compact Forest Proposal&lt;/I&gt;, for instance, come from environmental pieces in which multiple CD players, loaded with multiple discs, provide layers of music from varied locations. Obviously, the CD experience can only approximate the installation. Others, such as &lt;I&gt;Lightness&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;I Dormienti&lt;/I&gt;, are more conventional ambient pieces. Perhaps the most interesting is &lt;I&gt;January 07003: Bell Studies for the Clock of Long Now&lt;/I&gt;, which treats, toys with, and manipulates the sound of bells, a wonderfully transformative piece that provides new insight into everyday chiming.
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&lt;I&gt;More Blank Than Frank&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Desert Island Selection&lt;/I&gt; are best-of albums emphasizing material from &lt;I&gt;Warm Jets&lt;/I&gt; through &lt;I&gt;Science&lt;/I&gt;. And &lt;I&gt;Curiosities, Vol. 1&lt;/I&gt; is essentially a collection of leftovers, tracks deemed by Eno too interesting to discard, but too singular to be included elsewhere. Completists only.
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By the 1990s, Eno was an established voice in a range of contemporary music. In &lt;I&gt;Low Symphony&lt;/I&gt;, composer Philip Glass spun off themes and variations of Bowie's &lt;I&gt;Low&lt;/I&gt;, a work indelibly marked by Eno's stamp; ambient techno bands like the Orb and Irresistible Force owed an obvious debt to Eno. He has also long been interested in other media, his video installations having been exhibited at the Venice Biennale and the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and his 1996 autobiography, &lt;I&gt;A Year (With Swollen Appendices)&lt;/I&gt; having provided an index of his omnivorous interests. Eno continued to expand the vocabulary of music into the new millennium, composing for video games and producing albums by artists ranging from veteran Paul Simon to newcomer Coldplay.
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In 2004 he teamed up with old friend Fripp for another ambient collection, and in 2006 he celebrated the 25th anniversary of &lt;I&gt;My Life in the Bush of Ghosts&lt;/I&gt; with Byrne. The latter project had feet in both the past and future, as the marketing plan included a Website wherein fans of the classic work could legally download multi-tracks of two songs, remix them and then repost them for others to hear. That same year, Eno released the visual work &lt;I&gt;77 Million Paintings&lt;/I&gt;, a DVD/software package offering computer screens a constantly evolving painting with an ambient-music background. In 2008, after nearly 30 years, Eno and Byrne again reconnected for &lt;I&gt;Everything That Will Happen Will Happen Today&lt;/I&gt;, a follow up of sorts to &lt;I&gt;My Life in the Bush of Ghosts&lt;/I&gt;.
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As a composer, producer, keyboardist, singer and multi-media visual artist, Eno is responsible less for a new sound and look in pop than for an entirely new way of thinking about music &amp;#8212; as an atmosphere, rather than a statement, an experiment in sound, rather than a virtuosic expression. Combining the cerebral qualities of European high culture with the technological outlook of a futurist, he also has been responsible for an aesthetic movement that incorporates both Western and Third World sounds.
" category="Art &amp; Progressive Rock" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/brian-eno/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Delerium" description="Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber, formerly of such Industrial dance acts as Frontline Assembly, Noise Unit, Intermix and Synaesthesia, take a stylistic leap into more accessible dance tracks under the guise of Delerium. Originally included on a variety of electronic remix albums such as Emd/Nettwerk's &lt;I&gt;Plastic Compilation&lt;/I&gt;, Delerium's ambient-pop mixes shed all industrial elements in favor of radio-friendly club rhythms laced with dark, esoteric flavors. The silky vocal stylings of such female guest artists as Sarah McLachlan, Camille Henderson, Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance, Kristy Thirsk of the Rose Chronicles and Single Gun Theory's Jacqui Hunt lift up Delerium's mysterious blend of haunting melodies and tribal percussion.
- Eric Shea" category="New Age Electronic" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/delerium/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Harold Budd" description="Along with Brian Eno, with whom he has collaborated on several projects including &lt;I&gt;Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirrors&lt;/I&gt;, Harold Budd stands as one of the definitive composers of the ambient style. A giant of the Southern California avant-garde, his expansive works explore silence with as much poignancy as the notes themselves, painting reverberating desert landscapes with sparse, meditative piano and keyboards. His impressive body of work has garnered him a broad fan base made up of New Age yuppies, hard-lined experimentalists and an increasing number of Indie types, due in part from his work with the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie.
- Doug Russell" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/harold-budd/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Orb" description="The Orb is perhaps the best-known name in mainstream Ambient music, and for all the right reasons. Since the end of the 1980s, Alex Paterson and a changing list of collaborators have produced chilled-out, ecstatic grooves and fluffy, flowing remixes for dancers greeting the dawn. Their output is every bit as brilliant and stunning as the rising sun after a long night of physical flow and endless four/four pounding. Multicolored synth lines run like a watercolor palette in the rain. They layer blissful selections from Pink Floyd, Minnie Riperton, Ennio Morricone and Rickie Lee Jones to create a harmonious pastiche of original music, seamless samples and astute dialog. As the Orb's pulsating harmonies weave self-contained ecosystems of sound, delirious beats climb up the mix like vines, heavy with sweet fruit, ready for plucking.
- Marc Kate" category="Ambient House" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-orb/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Robert Miles" description="Born in Switzerland and raised in Italy, this DJ-turned-producer made his mark on the dance music community in 1996 with the hit single and classic club anthem &quot;Children.&quot; An emotive, piano-laden track with a frosty feel, this single proved popular all over Europe and spawned a new genre originally known as &quot;Dream House.&quot; Shortly after the mainstream success of &quot;Children,&quot; Miles released his second single, &quot;Fable,&quot; a crowd-pleaser layered with sleepy female vocals, sweeping synths, tension-building effects and anthemic piano riffs. The father of dance music's Progressive movement, Robert Miles is inspiration for such Trance and House producers as Chicane and BT.
- Melissa Piazza" category="Ambient House" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/robert-miles/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ulrich Schnauss" description="German indie producer Ulrich Schnauss mixes lush instrumentation and thick-layered synthesizers for a sound that lies somewhere between '80s dream pop and modern shoegazer. Hailing from the small German town of Kiel, Schnauss began making music and sending demos anonymously to famed German label CCO. These songs would eventually make up his debut album, &lt;i&gt;Far Away Trains Passing By&lt;/i&gt;. Schnauss' meticulous song construction is born out of a love for such indie artists as My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins.
- Jamie Sanchez" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ulrich-schnauss/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Album Leaf" description="The solo project of Tristeza's Jimmy LaValle, Album Leaf proceeds cautiously enough to warrant the Post-Rock tag. With an organic rather than digital aesthetic, AL collage acoustic instruments, field recordings, and keyboards into picturesquely beautiful songs. Buzzing acoustic notes step carefully through beds of recorded conversations and street noise -- the sonic characteristics of both set a cinematic tone. The only instrumental indulgence seems to come in the form of a delayed-out, weeping viola, which contrasted against the narcissistic beauty and delicate precision of the guitar creates a seemingly sad conversation. In fact, it sounds like one lover pleading to another who's given up on trying.
- Kelly Bauman" category="Post-Rock" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-album-leaf/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Steve Roach" description="Perhaps more concerned with creating sonic space than filling it, Steve Roach is one of those purposeful noise innovators who set out to construct expansive, wobbling fortresses of slowly built sound -- and succeeds.
- Nick Dedina" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/steve-roach/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Orbital" description="With an ear for delicate electronic textures and earth-shattering breaks, Orbital became an unrivaled force in dance music in the 1990s. As likely to drop a crass sample as a gently caressing synthline, their elaborate tracks are orchestrated with incredible attention to minute detail but often fit into the greater whole of an album's worth of material. They move from chill room atmospheres of tickling rhythms and feather-light melodies to ripping beats that rebound against frazzled synthlines. Orbital never descend into New Age fluff or hardcore macho aggression. While their tracks are exacting demonstrations of studio mastery and performance wit, they achieve equilibrium between mindful headphone music and kinetic body inspiration. Phil and Paul Hartnoll's final release as Orbital is 2004's &lt;I&gt;Blue Album&lt;/I&gt;.
- Marc Kate" category="Techno" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/orbital/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Robert Rich" description="An innovator of Ambient music, Robert Rich became famous for his all-night &quot;sleep concerts&quot; in which he explored new directions in ambient sound through a combination of acoustic and electronic instruments. In contrast to the naive utopian bliss-music of the new age and Ambient mainstream, Rich's static, cavernous dronescapes take listeners on complex and often dark inward journeys that frequently evoke stark, windswept landscapes. Gongs ring out and reverberate over vast stretches of time, accompanied by subharmonic thuds and echoing, bird-like cries from ancient reed instruments and heavily treated guitars, as percussion clatters and clangs softly in the background. His pieces build gradually to thunderous, overwhelming climaxes. Rich's influences span the globe, from Moroccan trance music to Japanese bamboo flute. Whether being treated as a jumping-off point for meditation, or simply listened to for their innovative sound textures, the slow, measured pace of Rich's compositions offer a unique experience of time, which stands in sharp contrast to the pace of contemporary urban life.
- Noah Enelow" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/robert-rich/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Cantoma" description="" category="Downtempo" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/cantoma/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Tangerine Dream" description="In their early days, Tangerine Dream were one of the most progressive, avant-garde bands to span the distance between rock and electronic composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen. Much in line with other Krautrock artists of the early '70s, they created a drawn-out, improvised sound that brought droning electronics up against wind instruments and rock instrumentation played like a jazz ensemble. With increasing focus on the growing possibilities of synthesizers, they embarked on a new sound, arranging heavy analog drones into a then-futuristic sound of pure electronics and minimal rhythm. Throughout the '80s and into the '90s, their output became decreasingly academic and progressive, and increasingly Ambient and incidental.
- Jeff K." category="New Age Electronic" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/tangerine-dream/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Bliss" description="Close your eyes and float amongst the dreamy music that is Bliss. Since 2001, this multicultural chill-out group has released material on famed Danish label Music for Dreams and has appeared on more than 200 compilations, including the soundtrack from the hit feature film &lt;i&gt;Sex &amp; The City&lt;/i&gt;. The members of the group hail from Denmark, Sweden and West Africa, and their music reflects this diversity. Indeed, they have quickly become one of the go-to groups for shows like &lt;I&gt;CSI: Crime Scene Investigation&lt;/I&gt; and are often tapped to provide music for television ads by Mercedes and DKNY. Their music was also featured in the feature-length films &lt;i&gt;Passion of the Christ&lt;/i&gt; and Steven Spielberg's &lt;i&gt;Munich&lt;/i&gt;. Bliss' chilled compositions have been compared to those of artists including Sade, Norah Jones and Ennio Morricone. But where those artists stick to the tried-and-true pop formula, Bliss' music aims toward the New Age compositional form. Their U.S. debut album, &lt;i&gt;Quiet Letters&lt;/i&gt;, featured gentle ethnic percussion and mysterious orchestration with guest vocalist Sophie Barker from famed downtempo heroes Zero 7. Bliss take the quiet road and invite us on a journey through a lush netherworld of calming soundscapes.
- Nicholas Baker" category="Downtempo" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/bliss-3/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="the fireman" description="" category="Ambient House" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-fireman/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Future Sound of London" description="Having originally made their mark producing club-oriented dance hits like &quot;Stakker&quot; and the classic &quot;Papua New Guinea,&quot; the duo of Brian Dougans and Gary Cobain has since incorporated nearly every innovation in electronic music into their creations. Progressing from the pulsing, trance-inducing Techno of &lt;I&gt;Accelerator&lt;/I&gt; through the ambient constructions of &lt;I&gt;Lifeforms&lt;/I&gt; to the twisted breakbeats of their more recent albums, FSOL have shown an omnivorous interest in sound and the different ways it can be combined. They bring a truly experimental attitude to what is often a convention-bound form, and their records are always an adventure, breaking fresh sonic ground and then moving on to the next challenge. The music is never difficult for its own sake; in fact, what makes FSOL so successful is the way they integrate their sonic investigations into a funky, listener-friendly format. Their releases are always accessible and danceable, allowing them to present new ideas more easily -- and pushing the whole scene forward as they do so.
- Mike Schulman" category="Beats &amp; Breaks" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/future-sound-of-london/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="William Orbit" description="Each blissed-out release from Grammy award-winning producer William Orbit is like an invitation on a journey where the ultimate destination is an intimate meeting between the listener and the universe. Although he is widely regarded as one of the most well-known purveyors of ambient-related dance styles, the elusive Orbit accepts the limelight with modest reluctance. Responsible for introducing Madonna to the future of mainstream music with her critically-acclaimed 1998 release &lt;I&gt;Ray of Light&lt;/I&gt; and introducing another facet of Brit-Pop favorite Blur's sound on &lt;I&gt;13&lt;/I&gt;, Orbit's list of production credits are as distinguished as they are long. As a solo artist, this chill-out master constructs boundless soundscapes sewn together with lavish strings and sweet moves to create a trance-inducing experience that is cosmically epic, awe-inspiring and spiritually enlightening.
- Melissa Piazza" category="Downtempo" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/william-orbit/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Avalanches" description="This collective of DJs and musicians takes the best of both downtempo and scratch DJ styles and introduces a new, celebratory sound in Trip-Hop. Behind Robbie Chater and Darrin Seltmann, the group released the &quot;El Producto&quot; EP in 1997 and, while fine-tuning their live sets, they released the eighteen-track &quot;Since I Left You&quot; in 2000 (which didn't gain popularity until late 2001). The Avalanches had a few brushes with the mainstream, such as opening for the Beastie Boys and getting permission from Madonna to sample &quot;Holiday&quot; for their tasteful &quot;Stay Another Season&quot; track." category="Cut &amp; Paste" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-avalanches/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Fila Brazillia" description="Members of the acclaimed underground label Pork Recordings, Fila Brazillia's innovative productions bring a warm, live feel to Downtempo electronic music, freely drawing from idioms of Funk, hip-hop, and jazz. Producers Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry happen to be ace instrumentalists, piecing together deceptively simple breakbeats, deep, sinuous basslines, and swirls of synths in several voices, from the watery sounds of a Fender Rhodes to the squirm of an abused oscillator. Many of their productions ooze futuristic Lounge kitsch, full of hip-wiggling bongo breaks, lush keyboards, snippets of flute, and electronically doctored horn blasts. Others are pure instrumental Funk, complete with clavinet lines straight from the Headhunters. And the occasional crunchy guitar riff reveals sympathy with the pleasure of rock 'n' roll, though always filtered through several layers of chorusing and flange effects.
- Noah Enelow" category="Trip-Hop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/fila-brazillia/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Euphoria" description="Smooth Trip Hop grooves feature whiny guitars with sensual blues vocals and layered lyrics in French and English. Intoxicating atmospheres sound like a steamy summer night in New Orleans." category="Ambient Dub" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/euphoria/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Banco de Gaia" description="Six Degrees recording artist Banco de Gaia, the exotic designation of London native Toby Marks, serves up catchy, commercially approved dance tunes that will satiate longtime fans, as well as a new fan base of globally conscious Skint followers. Applauded on the electronica scene for his unconventional Ambient Dub and Tribal House grooves that marry terrestrial and ethereal elements, Banco de Gaia makes his mark on Big Beat territory with ferocious, crowd-pleasing energy that recalls the spirit of Acid House's heyday. Strong male vocal loops, flavored with Arabic and Eastern sound samples, fly over steady Breakbeat rhythms that promote big party vibes. Feel-good grooves for international beat-seekers.
- Melissa Piazza" category="Ambient Dub" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/banco-de-gaia/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The Black Dog" description="Animating Detroit techno and electro-funk with the streamlined machinery of their native Sheffield, the Black Dog helped develop the style that would come to be known as intelligent dance music (IDM), along with Autechre and Aphex Twin. In its first incarnation, as Black Dog Productions, the group was comprised of Ken Downie, Ed Handley and Andy Turner. In the early '90s, they released several singles and LPs that challenged the coarsening U.K. rave scene with a more refined, even delicate approach. &lt;I&gt;Temple of Transparent Balls&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Parallel&lt;/I&gt; were heralded as instant classics (and for many years the out-of-print records fetched obscene prices at auction). In 1995, they joined the Warp label, recorded two albums and promptly split up, with Downie retaining control of the Black Dog name and Handley and Turner going on to found Plaid (also signed to Warp). Downie experimented with several lineups and took an extended hiatus before returning in 2005, now allied with Dust Science's Martin and Richard Dust; 2008 saw them reissuing a number of classic BDP albums via Glasgow's Soma label, as well as the &lt;I&gt;Detroit Vs. Sheffield&lt;/I&gt; EP, featuring remixes from Robert Hood.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Leftfield/IDM" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-black-dog/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Alpha" description="" category="Trip-Hop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/alpha/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The KLF" description="The Liverpool-based, Dadaist and punk-inspired career of the KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front) has been built upon a succession of industry pranks, beginning with the sample-heavy acid house movement of the late 1980s and early '90s. Essentially the duo of Bill Drummond and Jimi Cauty, the group began as the Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu (JAMS); later, a one-off stint as the Timelords resulted in a minor hit with &quot;Doctorin' the Tardis.&quot; Never ones to hide their contempt for the music industry, at the point they struck fortune in England with the soulful hits &quot;3 A.M. Eternal&quot; and &quot;What Time Is Love?,&quot; they refused to play the songs straight, instead asking grindcore favorites Extreme Noise Terror to be the backing band. In addition to spraying crowds with faux machine-gun bullets and reportedly dumping a sheep's carcass in a hotel lobby, the band has also written a manual on how to write pop songs. They have since refused to release any more music until world peace has arrived.
- Jon Pruett" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-klf/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jon Hassell" description="Jon Hassell is the visionary creator of a style of music he calls &quot;Fourth World&quot; -- a mysterious, unique hybrid of music both ancient and digital, composed and improvised, Eastern and Western -- and a pioneering trumpet player. He studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and has performed with Terry Riley and Brian Eno.
- Nate Cavalieri" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jon-hassell/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Cheb I Sabbah" description="Cheb i Sabbah is a legendary Algerian born, San Francisco DJ who spins what he calls an &quot;Outernational Mix,&quot; of dance music from &quot;the oasis of Arabia, Africa, Asia.&quot; He creates a seamless mix that unifies diverse sounds. His technique is hardly appropriation, for in the context of his decks, the voice of each artist truly shines. He creates a greater, extended community in the mix. His recorded music is less beat-oriented and more quietly meditative. A hybrid of Hindustani classical music and contemporary mixology, Sabbah taps into something seemingly timeless and without borders.
- Marc Kate" category="Asian Underground" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/djchebisabbah/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Penguin Cafe Orchestra" description="Noted for their precise minimalist aesthetic, this ensemble of off-kilter visionaries creates oddly delightful and often repetitive songs that are as compelling as they are unusual. Difficult to categorize, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra maintains a precarious balance between quirky and intelligent new age music.
- Melissa Piazza" category="New Classical" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/penguin-cafe-orchestra/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jean-Michel Jarre" description="" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jean-michel-jarre/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Kenneth J. Williams" description="" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/kenneth-j-williams/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Solar Fields" description="" category="Ambient" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/solar-fields/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Al Gromer Khan" description="" category="Ethnic Fusion" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/al-gromer-khan/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Bibio" description="" category="Downtempo" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/bibio-2/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Fuxa" description="Fuxa (pronounced like the color fuchsia) is made up of former members of equally adventurous Asha Vida and Windy and Carl. Armed with a four-track and a good number of ancient synthesizers, Fuxa have embodied the DIY ethic while managing to create a throwback world filled with humming organs and fluttering, hazy bass while incorporating guitar sounds that turn your insides into velvet. They have also used minimal electronics and funky conga drumming. The band also releases its records on its own Mind Expansion label from its home studio. Fuxa's dedication to appearances is apparent in a cornucopia of limited edition releases, colored vinyl, and hand-cut record sleeves that have made them into (relatively) overnight cult figures. It doesn't hurt that the music's top-notch, either.
- Jon Pruett" category="Space Rock" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/fuxa/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Oval" description="He was not the first to explore the spaces between digital sounds, the moments of error in desktop audio or worship at the shrine of the glitch, but Markus Popp and his collaborators have become the most well known orchestrators of the skipping compact disc and broken loop sample. Beyond the tape experiments of Muzique Concrete pioneers like Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, Oval brings phenomenological sound experiments to the digital realm. They have a very cohesive and immediately recognizable sound; one that creates a polarity between lush, tonal samples and minimal, raw digital distortion. Loops of sound never seem to line-up, always just slightly off center, like camera shutters clicking for out-of-focus snapshots of sound. While Oval is immersed in envelop-pushing audio technology (which they have recently made available to the public on cd-rom) and French philosophy (interviews with Markus Popp usually require at least a functioning understanding of the writings of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze), their tracks exist in a hazy, impalpable dreamspace - vague, ephemeral shadows of sound cast by the fleeting light of a strobe.
- Marc Kate" category="Leftfield/IDM" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/oval/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Afterlife" description="" category="Downtempo" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/afterlife/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Suba" description="Suba's truly unique mix of complex grooves and simple melodies utilizes synthesized and electronic treatments that sound natural. This composer, musician and (most importantly) producer studied jazz and classical music in Yugoslavia before emigrating to Sao Paulo, where he immediately began to actively absorb Brazilian music and contemporary dance culture. His sophisticated synthesis yields a user-friendly music that defies national boundaries and genres. Young female vocalist Cibelle's understated Portuguese vocals seduce you into a warm sea that swells with gently persistent percussive waves orchestrated by master percussionist Joao Parahyba.
- Robert Leaver" category="Ambient Dub" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/suba/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Atlas Sound" description="Atlas Sound is the solo project of Deerhunter's Brandon Cox. Given that Deerhunter's take on indie rock is already plenty psychedelic, you might expect Atlas Sound to be either skeletal home recordings or something &lt;I&gt;really&lt;/I&gt; freaky. Actually, it's sort of both, and neither. Based on stream-of-consciousness composition and lo-fi studio experimentation, Atlas Sound offers a strange -- if only because it works so well -- fusion of Cox's many musical loves: '60s pop, ambient loops, garage rock and even minimal techno. Atlas Sound's first album, &lt;I&gt;Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel&lt;/I&gt; appeared in 2008 on Kranky, home also to Deerhunter. In 2009, 4AD released &lt;I&gt;Logos&lt;/I&gt;, a more song-oriented effort featuring contributions from Animal Collective's Noah Lennox and Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Neo Psychedelic" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/atlas-sound/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Sounds from the Ground" description="The U.K.'s Elliot Morgan-Jones and Nick Woolfson unite their sonic trance-inducing techniques under the moniker Sounds from the Ground. &quot;Drawn to the Woman,&quot; a track from the 1996 Waveform Records release &lt;I&gt;Kin&lt;/I&gt; features dreamy melodies swirling around downbeat rhythms like fog gathering over a cityscape on fast forward. Silky female spoken word vocal samples slink in and out of the celestial mix like expensive lingerie. Inspiring lyrics and delicate bouts of giggles waft up from a pool of earthy ambient bliss. Though best utilized as a soundtrack for the steamy scenes of yet another &quot;9 1/2 Weeks,&quot; the digital, electric edge on these soft grooves maintain a chill-out appeal for intimate rooms.
- Melissa Piazza" category="Ambient Techno" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/sounds-from-the-ground/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Leila" description="" category="Leftfield/IDM" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/leila-2/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jackson and His Computer Band" description="" category="Leftfield/IDM" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jackson-and-his-computer-band/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Bill Laswell" description="If you had to label his style, it might be called Ambient-Avant-Jazz-Dub-hip-hop-free-experimental-world-Punk, but most likely Laswell would call that label too confining. As a musician, he's an adept improviser and foundation layer, choosing to work within the deep, sub-harmonic range of the bass. As a producer, he puts together amazing musicians in odd combinations that come from the funky inner depths of New York City, exotic regions of the earth, and nether realms of outer space electronica. His work in bands such as Material, Massacre, Last Exit and Praxis continually pushes the boundaries of Funk, hip-hop and Free Jazz, covering it all in an atmospheric haze. A partial list of some of the top-notch musicians with whom he has collaborated includes Herbie Hancock, John Zorn, Afrika Bambaataa, Mick Jagger, Sly Stone, Tetsu Inoue, George Clinton, Wayne Shorter, Zakir Hussain, Fela &quot;Ransome&quot; Kuti, DJ Spooky, Sly &amp; Robbie, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Public Image Limited, Motorhead -- the list goes on and on. So does his sound, which continues to be progressive, original and fiercely different.
- Jessy Terry" category="Ambient Dub" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/bill-laswell/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="B-Tribe" description="" category="Ethnic Fusion" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/b-tribe/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Buddha Sounds" description="" category="Ambient House" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/buddha-sounds/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Electric Universe" description="In the vein of early Ambient Techno artists, EU creates lush landscapes of electronic drones, beats that slowly emerge from swelling synth patterns and digital synth effects.
- Marc Kate" category="Ambient Techno" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/electric-universe/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Global Communication" description="Gracing their 1994 album &lt;I&gt;76:14&lt;/I&gt; with a photograph of an ear that rendered the organ as something approximating a lunar landscape, Global Communication found the perfect image to encapsulate their sound. Taking inspiration from the cosmic synthesizer journeys of Vangelis and Klaus Schulze, they ventured ever inward, following the trajectory of ambient electronica's most contemplative strains. The duo of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard reserved other aliasesÃ¢ÂÂJedi Knights, Link, ReloadÃ¢ÂÂfor dance music proper, variously influenced by electro-funk and acid. But Global Communication all but did away with the beats, sticking to ethereal synthesizers and washes of field recordings. They weren't afraid to let the world in -- &quot;Obselon Minos&quot; follows the pulse of a ticking clock -- but as their time-coded track titles suggest, they were most interested in exploring a field of pure sonics where known reference points melt away.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Ambient Techno" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/global-communication/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="808 State" description="For over a decade, 808 State has produced dynamic dance tracks that shake the floor with slamming beats and create warm, fuzzy, electronic atmospheres. With dense layers of synths and samples, their beautiful complexity has changed the sound of rave music." category="Acid House" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/808-state/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Eat Static" description="Eat Static's dubby Trance stylings attach aquatic textures and deep space effects to hand-crafted beats. Weightless Ambient backdrops seal off these mind-expanding soundscapes with a mark of tripped-out bliss.
- Melissa Piazza" category="Trance" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/eat-static/data.opml?rws=%2Felectronica-dance%2Fambient%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
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