Nothing is new in music or so the saying goes. When it comes to modern day psychedelic electronic music such as we find in the psytrance and psybient scene, is it possible to trace their roots ? Quite possibly. I find that the music that is played out on the dance floors of the international trance circuit has elements of music and feeling from the late sixties and early seventies. The music of that time often displayed long repeating bass-lines under floating, shimmering guitars that took the listeners on a journey much as modern day psychedelic electronic music does.
I was wondering how many listeners here might enjoy listening to some of the more obscure and hard to get tracks from that era so here I'd like to share with you a great little site called "Sonic Daydream" run my the mysterious Tom D. I've been listening to this site for many years now and I'm glad to see that Tom is back on the air after a bit of a slow period. This site is an absolute gem for music from around 1965-1975 - a golden area for freaked out psychedelic rock and pop. So take a break from the usual and add a bit of spice to your psychedelic listening with some absolute storming tunes from the psychedelic 60s and 70s all expertly mixed by a self proclaimed psychedelic music snob. Brilliant stuff.
Click below image to visit now, tune in and drop out :
This is the third of the Nokorimono chill out music series. A collection of chill out mixes / ambient mixes comprising of tracks that don't quite fit into the regular PsyAmb mix genres of dub,ambient or psybient music. Nonetheless these are all excellent chill music tunes that carry a very chilled out vibe and are well worth listening to and following up on.
Track / Artist
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01. Reminisce - Altair
02. The Forge of Vulcan - Hawkwind
03. Delta Phase - Evan Marc / Steve Hillage
04. Immerse - Chaos by Design
05. Cried - Toshinori Kondo, Eraldo Bernocchi & Bill Laswell
06. Moonchild - King Crimson [ Capsula Remix ]
07. The Operatic Meow Prelude - Al-Pha-X
08. 6 Minute Festival - Pan Electric & Ishq
09. Yes? Or No? - Hesius Dome & Hideyo Blackmoon
10. Jilted - Stickleback
11. Million Wishes - Son Kite
12. Parabolic - Desert Dwellers
13. How Does It Feel To Be Real - Abakus
14. We Three - Digitonal
15. Almost Home - Black Seeds [ Jet Jaguar remi ]
16. Polychrome Petroglyph - Bluetech / KiloWatts
17. Gran Canyon - Azure Taint
18. The Hand Of Contraband - Up, Bustle & Out
19. Chinese Letter - The High Violets
20. Fortune - Little Dragon [ World Of Apples' Cosmic Edit ]
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Welcome back to PsyAmb. This is the second volume in a series of mixes I like to call Nokorimono ( "leftovers"/"remainders" in Japanese ) . The idea here is to present some of my favorite best chillout and ambient tunes that perhaps don't fit so well into the genres I usually present here on the PsyAmb site ( dub, psychill, space ) but are nonetheless worth listening to in their own right. I'm in the middle of moving house at the moment so forgive me for not presenting a full run down of all the tracks this week. I'll get around to it eventually but for now please enjoy some vibes from other sides with this chill songs mix.
Welcome back to PsyAmb. This week I'd like to present to you a new chillout mix download which I'm calling Nokorimono ( "Leftovers" in Japanese).
This will be an occasional journey into tunes that don't quite fit into my other mix genres ( psybient/dub/space ). Nonetheless these are great chillout tunes and deserve to be heard here on PsyAmb. Don't worry , I'm not talking cheesy MOS chillout ( Ministry Of Sound ) stuff ! If you like this mix rest assured there will be more Nokorimono mixes in the future. Probably around once every 6 weeks or so I suspect. Not sure yet.
Today we kick off with "A mountain of ice" by "Helios". A beautiful tune from a truly amazing album , "Caesura" . Check out the Type Records website for more info. A great tune to chillout with first. Highly recommended release.
Next up is an old favorite of mine "Sno Pa Hisingen - CBL remix" by "El LCD". This is a remix by Carbon Based Lifeforms and is quite a chill out classic I think. The intro always reminds me of that Chris Isaak song - Wicked Game. This is the only tune EL LCD actually released as far as I know which is a shame. Really soothing ambiance that never grows old.
Flowing on from EL LCD is "Lights" by "Leif Hatfield". This is taken from the "Iboga Records""New Entry" CD of 2002. You can hear some samples of the CD at SaikoSounds. Some really solid tunes on that CD make it still well worth picking up 7 years after release.
"Taxi Drive" by Tiya. While little might be know of Tiya there is quite a lot known of Tiya member Christof Drouillet. Christof was born in Paris, France where he founded "3D Vision". Based in Ibiza since 2004, he has been involved in the music business for quite a long time, releasing his first record back in 1988. My first exposure to Christof's music was through his trance project Transwave in the mid to late 90s. A few years later Christof turned his attention to forming the 3D Vision record label through which he released some of the greatest psytrance albums of the time. He also formed his latest solo project "Absolum" which sees him producing full on night-time psytrance. This is a cool tune , one of the best ambient music tunes around and has some humorous samples which never fail to make me smile.
Next is Drift's tune "Arc-en-Ciel". An awesome bit of the ambient psychedelic experience mixed with chill-out flavors. This comes from the "Liquid Sound Design" "Interior Horizons" CD from 1999. 10 years ! The label is a non-producing entity these days but it does have a great back catalog of significant psychedelic ambient and dub releases that you would be crazy to miss. Drift is a duo consisting of Adham Shaikh and Tim Floyd. They have made a few appearances on some "Interchill Records" compilations so far. If you like this tune then I recommend tracking down their 1996 awesome limited debut CD - maybe through Interchill. Or the at least the guys there might point you in the right direction. Here is a YouTube clip of a track from the album to wet your appetite :
After Drift we have "Cloud Theory" by Shen. I've featured Shen under the Sympath alias in previous mixes. Both are the work of Canadian Noah Pred. Do a quick search of this site to find other tunes by Noah if this one tickles your fancy.
Next up is movie music maestro Clint Mansel with the tune "Stay with Me" from the soundtrack to the movie "The Fountain". Excellent movie by the way. Well worth spending a few hours stuck on the sofa with. One of my all time best ambient tunes.
Pan Electric , whom I talked about back in episode 12 , chips in next with a sweet little slice of sublime downtempo goodness. Be sure to read up on Pan Electric's form in episode 12 - there is some great information in that episode about all the various guises and labels involved around the group.
Okay after that we have an odd little tune that from Karl Axel-Bisser called "Floating Castles". With a track name like that one might think a nod to Hendrix, yes ? Well ,actually this sounds more like a tune from some cosmic spaghetti western. Anyway, it's freakin cool ! Can be found on one the Chillosophy comps that Digital Structures put out around 8 years ago. They were really popular compilations so there is a good chance they are still available for purchase through PsyShop or SaikoSounds.
At the heels of Karl is the wonderful "Patchwork" with "Flughund". Jens Paulsen is the solo member of Patchwork and produced four really great CDs around the change of the decade. Those CDs and the label that released them , Spirit Zone Recordings, had quite an impact on the psychedelic ambient scene at the time. Jens would go onto to focus on working on art projects through a multicultural gallery in Hamburg. Spirit Zone Records on the other hand closed up shop in 2005 but not before releasing loads and loads of trance and chillout CDs including the popular "Global Psychedelic Chillout" series.
After that we have a new discovery for me in the shape of "Marconi Union" . The tune "Red Line 12AM" is real gem and the album it comes form ,"Tokyo", has shot right into my top 10 for 2009. There is a great little website about the group which you can access here. Not psychedelic per se but very, very impressive non the less. Quite a work of art mixed into ambient space.
If one was to continue on the themes of top tens and expand it out to top 10s of all time, then the CD the following tune derives from would certainly rank within mine. The KLF were a band from the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Beginning in 1987, The KLF released a series of international top-ten hits on their own KLF Communications record label, and became the biggest-selling singles act in the world for 1991. Not bad for a bunch of ravers ! What is less known about the band (by the Top40 purchasing public ) is that in 1990 they released the seminal ambient house album "Chill Out" to a nation of E loving youth and everyone gladly did just that.
Portraying a mythical night-time journey up the U.S. Gulf Coast from Texas into Louisiana. The album is a continuous composition, in which sampled music (including Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Acker Bilk and Tuvan throat singers), vocal samples and sound effects are overlaid with original music including synthesizers and pedal steel guitar. Sounds interesting ? It is ! Pump this through your headphones, lie down and relax and you will be transported into a totaly new world. Bloody brilliant.
The KLF then mixes into "The Beast Man" by Eat Static. Not the most brilliant of tracks but I love the Planet Of the Apes samples they use. It also gives me an excuse to extend the track further by mixing in a few minutes of an outro track I produced with further vocals from the movie.
As always thanks for listening and your warm feedback. Don't forget your can subscribe to get updates or join me on Facebook where I also post regular show updates. As a bonus I will be uploading another mix within the next day or so. This is not part of the PsyAmb series of mixes but a mix I did for DIFM's PsyChill channel. Based in New York , DIFM is the web's most popular interenet radio station for electronic music. Check them out at this link and tune into the PsyChill channel for 24 hour streaming psychedelic ambiance !
Artist - Track
01. Helios - A mountain of ice
02. El Lcd - Sno Pa Hisingen(CBL Carbonator Remix)
03. Leif Hatfield - Lights (Electric Mix)
04. Tiya - Taxi Drive
05. Drift - Arc-en-Ciel
06. Shen - Cloud Theory
07. Clint Mansell/Kronos Quartet/Mogwai - Stay With Me
08. Pan Electric - Always A Way Back Up
09. Karl-Axel Bissler - Floating Castles
10. Patchwork - Flughund
11. Marconi Union - Red Line 12am
12. KLF - Elvis on the Radio, Steel Guitar in My Soul
13. Eat Static - The Beast Man
14. Ninjin ( PsyAmb ) - Tri 14 Area
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