The new wave of new age

Major British newspaper Guardian has a fascinating article about the Ohio based band Emeralds, which are one of:

a new crop of musicians harking back to new age’s more elemental beginnings. Leading the pack are Emeralds, an Ohio trio built around twin synths and droning, raga-like guitar, that take frosty new age sounds and deliver them with hurricane force. Their 2009 album, What Happened, and their more minimal 2008 offering, Solar Bridge, are both worthy of investigation.

You can sample Emeralds’ music on Amazon. It sounds a bit like early Tangerine Dream to me.

But why is this sound becoming more popular?

perhaps it’s because of renewed interest in analogue synthesisers, long outmoded by their contemporary “soft” computer equivalents but now valued for their “authentic” sound.

The article also has a usual comment about the late 80s new age music stereotype:

as new age became a genre, the music’s worst qualities became more apparent. Padded out with blandly exotic world-music influences and Gregorian chants, compilations with titles like The Most Relaxing New Age Music In The Universe were stocked alongside the energy crystals and Wiccan paraphernalia in your local health food shop.

The Most Relaxing New Age Music In The Universe is, by the way, a lot more Asian influenced neo classical than new age. Read our article about it here. I just had to say it

A good Guardian article though.