The Eagles are not going to appear in anyone’s crate-digger shortlist. What makes Hell Freezes Over worth the detour is a specific footnote from the acid-house era: at Paul Oakenfold’s Land of Oz nights at Heaven in London, the DJ Dr. Alex Paterson — who would shortly become the mainman of The Orb — was providing what he called “soul-soothing succour” for the acid-frazzled, playing records by Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, War, 10cc, and Mike Oldfield in the chill-out room while the main floor ran at 130bpm.
The acid-house chill-out room is where ambient music learned to serve a function — where the idea of music as an environment became a practical necessity. The Eagles being on that playlist alongside Pink Floyd and Eno is one of the stranger pieces of music history, and it means this record has an unlikely genealogy connecting it to ambient, minimal, and electronic music.
The Eagles are not going to appear in anyone’s crate-digger shortlist. What makes Hell Freezes Over worth the detour is a specific footnote from the acid-house era: at Paul Oakenfold’s Land of Oz nights at Heaven in London, the DJ Dr. Alex Paterson — who would shortly become the mainman of The Orb — was providing what he called “soul-soothing succour” for the acid-frazzled, playing records by Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, War, 10cc, and Mike Oldfield in the chill-out room while the main floor ran at 130bpm.
The acid-house chill-out room is where ambient music learned to serve a function — where the idea of music as an environment became a practical necessity. The Eagles being on that playlist alongside Pink Floyd and Eno is one of the stranger pieces of music history, and it means this record has an unlikely genealogy connecting it to ambient, minimal, and electronic music.