Mike Kandel of Tranquility Bass ranked among the pioneering figures of the ambient and trip-hop scenes. He stayed largely out of view for most of the 1990s before delivering his first album in 1997. Raised in Chicago, Kandel relocated to Los Angeles during the early portion of that decade. Drawing from his hometown’s acid-house principles, he launched the Exist Dance label with Tom Chasteen in 1991 and created enduring ambient-house singles including “They Came in Peace,” included on Mo’Wax’s original Headz compilation, and “Cantamilla,” taken from the first volume of the Excursions in Ambience series. Once Chasteen departed Exist Dance in 1993, Kandel issued the label compilation Transmitting from Heaven and afterward withdrew to a remote island off the British Columbian coast to begin his debut album. Two years later, after trip-hop’s reach had expanded widely, he returned from seclusion with Let the Freak Flag Fly, a record that merged his electronic visions with elements of psychedelia, funk, and blues. Its excessive trippiness, however, prevented the album from matching the reception given to Kandel’s earlier work.
