71 minutes, 19 seconds

Steve Roach & Vidna Obmana
Somewhere Else

Strikes me as funny that a lot of ambient CDs tend to cluster at the long end of the total-time spectrum. CDs max out at 80 minutes, and it's no stretch to say that upwards of 75% of the ambient discs I own are longer than 70 minutes. Steve Roach is a key culprit here.

And there's nothing wrong with giving people their money's worth on a CD. But if any genre might benefit from some editing, it's ambient music. I understand the sustained mood and texture they're going for, but does every album have to stretch tracks to the 10-minute mark and beyond? (In fact, several Roach CDs are one single, long-playing track, including this collaboration with fellow sound stretcher Vidna Obmana.)

Some ambient composers seem to understand this. And I don't feel like an asshole when I say that Harold Budd usually managed to communicate more in three minutes than Roach can in 20. Maybe that's unfair, considering how different their music is. But come on--70-minute CDs are OK once in a while, but all the time?

Also today:

71:18 Terence Fixmer, Muscle Collection
71:15 Dernière Volonté, Obeir et Mourir (CD 2 of 2)
71:03 Benestrophe, Auric Fires
71:03 Infekktion, Suffering Spirits
71:02 Die Form, Suspiria de Profundis
71:01 Eden, Gateway to the Mysteries
New arrival! 76:14 Displacer, Moon_Phase
New arrival! 74:00 Dither, Amek
New arrival! 73:16 Dither, Summit