Life Before Land

"This is music I can't ever imagine not being a part of my life"
PETE LAWRENCE/BIG CHILL on another fine day. (full sleeve notes here)

"...talking of "ambient", there's some music in that genre that is so well made and easy on the ear that there's not much more to say. The excellent Life Before Land by Another Fine Day, is a case in point."
 JOHN L WATERS, in The GUARDIAN 10/7/05

No 3, "Best Ambient Albums" 
The INDEPENDENT'S chart 7/05

 Track Listing -
1. Life Before Land 2. Lazy Daisy 3. Esperanto
4. Green thought (in green shade)
5. Ammonite Spiral  6. So Blue   7.Buckets & Spades
EXTRA TRACKS 8. Strange Waves 9. Lazy Daisy (Big Chill Classics Mix)

Press release 8/04

People often use the term 'classic' and 'masterpiece' to refer to music. Most of the time the terms are used to describe music that is yet to be released and still has to prove itself to a wider audience. In the case of Life before land both terms apply. It is a classic masterpiece, of its time and within its genre. In 1994, when most people only had the vaguest idea of what 'organic ambience'' was, Tom Green was recording the kind of music that simply inspired him, in the back room of his Brixton home. He didn't think anyone would ever release it, and it really was a case of 'art for art's sake'. No one could have been more amazed, when Beyond Records said they would like to release
Life before land,than Green himself.

Since then the album has grown in stature and strength. People keep coming back to it, down-tempo DJ's love it (see Pete Lawrence's sleeve notes to give you an outside perspective on the record), film makers keep syncing tracks from it (Ammonite Spiral in particular has been used, apparently in some 'interesting' films in Scandinavia). So while being a down-tempo 'walrus of love' was never Green's intention, he does regard the journey that this album has taken with a large degree of bemused affection. Particularly as Life before land was hobbled together using the most basic equipment and sounds - a humble Atari computer for sequencing duties, a cheap sampler, and a couple of synths, the tunes mixed directly to DAT, no multi-track tape, no editing… despite all that, 11 years later, the album still sounds fresh and inspired.

One of the main territories in the work of Another Fine Day is the borderland between 'music' and the sounds of nature. Green is a keen gardener and passionate environmentalist who recently made the first ever ' ambient organic green tomato chutney' to accompany the release of his recent EP Chasing Tornados. Rob Da Bank tried to give away a jar or two on BBC Radio 1's The Blue Room… however BBC rules meant that he could not give away 'food stuffs' on air in case anyone sued the BBC for food poisoning. Nevertheless the point was made- Green got organic issues onto Radio 1… very much a case of Green by name, green by nature. Life before land is a celebration of all the sounds that he grew up with, and has it's roots in a childhood spent outside, on his parents' organic farm in Dorset.

Tom Green has worked with The Orb, Baka Beyond, Hyperborea and spent a few years touring with Abdul Tj's African Culture (hence the lasting preference for polyrhythms). In the last few years he has written and recorded an album called Music For MRI Scanners, commissioned by the Bristol Royal Children's Hospital. The music is designed to calm and distract children who are having MRI Scans, and will be released as a limited edition album under his own name on anotherfinelabel later this year. As well as completing various TV commissions for the BBC, Channel 4 and RTE (Eire), he has also set up anotherfinelabel to reissue "Life before land" and further Another Fine Day releases. The EP Chasing Tornados is already available, and Tom is currently working on an album of new material for release in 2006. (another fine day's 2000 release Salvage is still available on Six Degrees records.)

Life before land is a seminal piece of work for those of you with a high regard for down tempo music. As such it deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated for what it is. Find out for yourself why people love this music so much.