Substrata
by Biosphere

Substrata by Biosphere
Year: 1997
Release date: 1997-06-00
Overall rank: 3,076th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 95 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1997 (48th)
Award Top albums of of the 1990s (517th)
Award Best albums of all time (3,076th)

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Biosphere bestography

Substrata is ranked as the best album by Biosphere.

Biosphere album bestography « Higher ranked
-
This album (3,076th)
Substrata
Lower ranked (12,244th) »
Microgravity

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Substrata rankings

Substrata rankings summary
Overall rank: 3,076th | 1990s rank: 517th | 1997 rank: 48th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)

Substrata collection

Substrata ratings

Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 95 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 95 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !
05/27/2026 22:49 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,37670/100
 
75/100
 !
01/11/2026 23:25 JoaoMoreira  Ratings distribution  49674/100
 
45/100
 !
12/29/2025 18:23 mutant  Ratings distribution  1,67156/100
 
80/100
 !
12/08/2025 01:35 juanr1096  Ratings distribution  6,20378/100
 
15/100
 !
03/16/2025 17:24 Proto  Ratings distribution  4,23733/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 6% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.7/100, a mean average of 75.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.2.


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Substrata favourites

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Substrata comments

Showing all 4 comments |
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Rating:  
65/100
An album that I wanted to enjoy, and really can't say that I did. It is very dark, very chilling. But overall not that musically interesting. I love generally the incorporation of field recordings into music, but they were a little lackluster in this instance. I just felt like I could guess what was going to happen next the whole time. snippet of a field recording/sample of someone talking, some repetitive uninteresting musical thing for 4 minutes, new sample, etc.

I will try and come back to this album. There are very few critically acclaimed albums that I have gone back to multiple times that have not finally clicked in some form. But also, this album feels like there's not a whole lot to click. I didn't enjoy the atmosphere, and thats about all there is.

65/100 (Below Average)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
This is one of those few albums that I need to hear a couple more times before I give my final rating. As of now it is really pleasant album that give this vibe of being cold and beautiful. However, the album somewhat keeps me hanging wanting more from it. It might be due to loving an album like Pop where there is multiple details for days or the deceptive nature of Pop. While Substrata doesn't go that far. Maybe this is one point in time where ambient as well as ambient techno got more impressive now then back in 97. So we will see if this holds up on a few more listens.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 11/05/2015 14:16 | #152536
Chilling, and that's not just because it's Arctic Ambient.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
One of the greatest ambient albums, deserves a much higher ranking.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (5 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

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