Owls are by far my favorite animal so I was delighted to visit an "owl cafe" recently where I was able to get up close with a number of owl species. It was a bit sad to see these magnificent birds tied up to their posts while visitors to the cafe walked around petting them and taking photos but at the same time, knowing that I would probably never get a touch an owl without such a venue, it was still a great experience. 

It also reminded me that I have a number of psychedelic owl images taking up space on my computer so I thought I'd share them here on the psyamb blog. 

Here we have owls in different poses, atmospheres and all exhibiting a generally trippy theme. I hope you enjoy this little collection from our psychedelic feathered friends. 

Here are my favorite best psychedelic quotes and trippy anecdotes from comedians, actors, artists, writers and more. From funny, trippy, hippie quotes to psychedelic quotes about life, love, music and drugs - there are some real catchy sayings here that are well worth remembering. I've been collecting these for some time now and it's always such a pleasure to run across a new one so if you have any you would like to share feel free to add a comment below. 

The original recordings of a number of these sayings have been used by some of the artists that feature in my mixes. I've personally used a number of them over the years to mix between tracks too. 

I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has any psychedelic related quotes from comedians as I get a kick out of cool one liners with a trippy vibe.

Quotes from Movies and Television

Seems like everyone's sleep-walking through their waking state, or wake walking through their dreams. 

- From the movie Waking Life

One of the things you learn after years of dealing with drug people, is that you can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug. 

- From the movie Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas

Two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy
of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers.

- From the movie Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas

First you will see a spot. The spot will become a crack. This is the crack between the nothing, and out of this nothing will come your unborn soul.
- From the movie Altered States

I wish there was some hip way of telling you this, baby, but, ah... you're one with and part of an ever-expanding, loving, joyful, glorious, and harmonious universe.
- From the movie The Trip

Here is a straight up psybient mix that is full of deep bass and plenty of atmospheric psychedelic melodies. This mix is intended for a quicker head trip so I've kept it a bit shorter than my recent mixes. Have no fear though as there are tons of awesome sounds packed into the 70 or so minutes of psychedelic music which includes a number of classic oldies and some new lesser known artists.

Let's look at some of the highlights. We begin with a Phutureprimitive remix of a tune by American producer ZerO One ( Kevin Dooley ).  Kevin's self titled debut album was one of the first albums I purchased from Waveform records. Released around the late 90s it was one of just a handful of quality psychedelic ambient albums produced by US based artists, with most psychill and psybient albums coming out of Europe. That has all changed now of course with loads of amazing American artists releasing music every other week. Kevin's latest album "sOnar" was recently released on Waveform and you can hear full tracks from the album at his SoundCloud page.

DMT art is a form of visual psychedelic expression that is slowly gaining in numbers on the internet as the topic becomes more openly shared through social media. Psychedelic spiritual art is something I have long been into. So with that in mind I though you guys might like to get your heads around some wonderful DMT trip inspired art from a number of amazing artistic visionary explorers.

Note : Click on each item to see a larger, more detailed version of the image. 

Back in 1998 Infected Mushroom were relatively unknown outside their home country. Things were about to change rather quickly though with the release of the debut classic album "The Gathering" the following year. The success of The Gathering propelled Infected Mushroom into trance super-stardom. 

Around the the same time they also teamed up with Dj Jorg ( Jörg Kessler ) to create a song that was more than a nod to the influence of Hallucinogen's "Twisted" and Shpongle's "Are You Shpongle" albums have played on their rapid creative development.

Infected Mushroom

The song, titled "The Messenger" was an epic track twelve minutes of of psychedelic bliss that merged elements of psytrance, downtempo and classical music. The track was released in September of 1999 on the compilation album Kumharas through the Shiva Space Technology label owned and operated by Jörg.

Fast forward to 2012 and the release of Infected Mushroom's eighth album "Army Of Mushrooms" where you can find a remix of the original "The Messenger" as the last track on the album. The new remix make use of modern sounds giving the tune a total overhaul with new tires, a boosted exhaust, a v8 engine and sidewinder missiles !! Mixing in a harder edge with dubstep basslines and thumping percussive effects, the new version is a testament to just how much the Infected Mushroom sound has evolved since that original version. 

Psystep  is a term I'm not exactly comfortable with but I guess it is the easiest way to describe what is going on in today's mix. This mix is a collection of psystep, psydub, glitchhop and, generally speaking, beats and bass psychedelic downtempo. In this mix you can here sounds from a number of present day artists who are exploring new areas in bass driven sounds. It's a heady ride into the vibrations of the universes.

We start with a deeply meditative intro via the spoken words of Darpan and the spatial bass frequencies of Itom Lab. Darpan has a great album of spoken word meditations mixed with ambient soundscapes called "LoveLight" that you can hear online at this link. Itom Lab released a a wonderful EP earlier this year so if you haven't had a chance to hear it year then drop over to the Itom Lab page at bandcamp to hear some tracks from the Brahmin EP. 

After Itom we get into an artist you will hear all over this mix - Bird Of Prey. Bird Of Prey ( Torin Goodnight ) is the world's foremost psystep artist I think. His work with Tyler Gibson as the duo "Birds Of Paradise" is also making huge sonic waves at the moment since the release of their new album "Flight Patterns" - one of the best albums of 2013.

This track is a remix of the Bird Of Prey track "First Step" by another artist full of psystep and psybient whomp - Kaminanda. You can find it on the 4 track EP "Bird Of Prey - Reconfigured". The long anticipated Birds Of Paradise album Flight Patterns proved to be an instant hit climbing to number one on the Beatport Breaks charts. They have recently toured with Kalya Scintilla as part of The Divine Alignment tour so check in with their facebook page to see what they are up to and where to see them live.

Following that we have the duo Akasha ( Shane Harris and Babak Rezvani ) with their track "Out Back" from the album "Into The Web" released early this year. This is one of my favorite albums of 2013. Remarkable production with loads of psydub, glitchy tribal wobbly sounds full of deep basslines and delicate, sophisticated melodies that mix together in a sublime display of musical genius. 

Akasha will be featured as part of the psychedelic arts and music event "The Boogie Returns" in London on November 16th so you guys in the UK should check it out if you get the chance. Good news for people down-under too as the boys will be showcasing their latest tunes during an Australia tour early next year.