Psychedelic Ambient Trance Psychill

Winter Garden - Budd,Bernocchi,Guthrie - Review

2012-01-16T16:59:00.000+09:00

Artist : Budd, Bernocchi, Guthrie
Title : Winter Garden
Label : RareNoiseRecords
Release : 28 Nov 2011
Genre : Ethereal / Ambient
Rating :

Winter Garden - Budd, Bernocchi, Guthrie

01 Don't Go Where I Can't Find You
02 Losing My Breath
03 Winter Garden
04 Entangled
05 Harmony And The Play Of Light
06 Heavy Heart Some More
07 White Ceramic
08 Stay With Me
09 South Of Heaven
10 Dream On

Reverb is a not a dirty word. Reverb is an effect often used in ambient and dub music production to simulate those components of sound which are produced from reflections off walls or objects in the surrounding environment. When done well it can transport the listener into an other world of the producers making and evoke feelings of warmth, isolation or comfort. When it is done as well as it is on "Winter Garden" , a collaboration between Harold Budd,Eraldo Bernocchi and Robin Guthrie it takes you way beyond the other world and into a deep introspective look at your relationship with sound, space and atmosphere.

American Harold Budd has gained popularity over the years with his minimalistic piano work and collaborations with Brian Eno. Although he has hinted at retiring now and then over the past decade or more he is still producing beautiful soundscapes well into to his 70's and will appear as a featured composer at this year's Other Minds festival in March. On this release he teams up renowned Italian musician and producer Eraldo Bernocchi and Scottish producer/guitarist Robin Guthrie, founder of Cocteau Twins and Violet Indiana.

L to R : Robin Guthrie, Harold Budd, Eraldo Bernocchi.

This is epic moody and melodic music that, much like like the title itself hints at, is at once barren and desolate while remaining eerily beautiful. On first listen one might get the impression that each song song sounds too familiar and alike. However with a careful ear you begin to spot the winter fruits hidden in the garden and you are soon wrapped up in its inescapable artistry.

Previous collaboration between Budd and Guthrie have been a little hit and miss for me. Heavy handed muscular guitar drones by Guthrie sometimes outshone Budd's piano work. However on this occasion there are no such problems. Both Guthrie's guitar and Budd's distant, brooding piano work sit comfortably next to each other and are enhanced further by Bernochii's pulsing bass and electronic production.

One can't help but feel this recording requires the best setting for the optimal listening experience. I found most enjoyment from this album while listening with a good pair of headphones while lying down with the lights switched off and nothing to distract me. I discovered an icy melancholy that was beautiful and weightless, a boat made of clouds drifting out to sea. This is required listening for any fans of minimal ambient music and will no doubt find cross over appeal with fans of soundscapes and film scores.

The CD is available online now through Bernocchi's RareNoiseRecords label.

30 Classic and Modern Art Skateboards

2011-12-31T01:03:00.000+09:00

Like skateboards ? Like classic and modern art ? I know I do, so here is a little bit of a fun game I made. I spent the afternoon playing around with some photoshop skateboard templates and overlayed them with some of world's most popular paintings. You can move your mouse over each image to reveal the artist and painting. Why not try see how many you recognize before you move the mouse though. Enjoy dudes !

> You might also like this psychedelic pictures post

3d Fractal Art Animation

2011-12-08T11:18:00.003+09:00

If you like 3d fractal animations then get ready for a real treat. This is a wonderfully animated 3D fractal movie created by Jérémie Brunet ( aka bib993 ) titled "Like in a dream II". The video was originally created to accompany one of the popular TEDx talks presented by Bryan Alvarez about the Human Atlas project. The project is aiming to create the first ever 3D interactive atlas of the human body that scales from organs to atoms, and depicts the dynamic living processes of the human body.

"The mission of this project is to celebrate the beauty of living systems. Imagine exploring a version of Google Earth where you could see all of Earth's animals roaming the planet, oceans and weather moving in real time, and travel deep into the Earth's center. If you can imagine this for the human body, you can begin to imagine the Human Atlas Project." - Human Atlas Project

Jérémie also has a rather excellent deviant art page with lots of 3d fractal images he has been creating over the last few years.

DJmix : Peter Fanai ( Basicnoise )

2011-11-30T09:47:00.005+09:00

I don't often post other dj mixes on this blog but this one is so freakin good I just had to share it. This is an amazing mix from Germany's Basicnoise ( Peter Fanai ). At the age of five Peter started with classical piano lessons at the conservatorium. Aged just 13, he got his first synthesizer (Korg M1), resulting in an affection to electronic music. Around 1995 he got a groundbreaking mixtape with tracks from Sähkö, Basic Channel and Peacefrog.

Already in love with electronic music, these minimalistic and dubby tunes changed everything and he started to create his own tracks. After some releases with different styles as Peter Fanai, he came up with Basicnoise for pure minimalistic dub techno.

Basicnoise - U.F.O. (Ambient Collage) by basicnoise

Tracklist :

00:00 Intro
02:26 Art of Noise – Opus 4 1990
03:08 Klaus Schulze – Floating 1976
04:00 Planetary Assault System – Long lost 1997
04:41 Sample from PQM – You are sleeping 2002
07:16 Markus Güentner – chrom 2002
08:09 Sample from PQM – you are sleeping (PQM’s dj tools) 2002
10:37 Swirl People – Earth tones 1999
12:11 Sample from “Absolute giganten” 1998
12:21 Sophia – Reprise 1998
12:50 Sample from “Absolute Giganten” (floyd) 1998
13:30 Area – Deeper Level 2009
16:59 Sample from “Blade Runner” (Videogame) 1997
17:04 Vangelis – Blade Runner Blues 1982
19:50 Solar Eclipse – A new world 1994
21:53 Sample from “Plan 9 from outter space” 1959
26:14 Sample from “Twin peaks” 1990
26:54 Angelo Badalamenti – Laura palmers theme / tp theme 1992
27:30 Vainqueur – Solanus 1996
27:45 Sample from “Twin peaks” (cooper) 1990
32:19 Sample from “Half-life 2” (g-man) 2004
33:00 Raz Ohara and the Odd Orchestra – Love for Mrs. Rhodes 2008
37:25 Jürgen Paape – So Weit Wie Noch Nie (Dettinger remix) 2002
42:25 Rivo – Dirty old shoes 2008
42:56 Thomas Edison – About electricity (sample) 1908
45:02 Steve Rachmad – Legacy of the lost world 2003
49:16 Tomas Dvorak – By the wall (machinarium) 2009
53:08 Ian Novak – Reflection on the water 2008
53:31 Samples from “Half-life 2” (cityvoice) 2004
56:59 Markus Güntner – Express Yourself 2003
62:30 Rhythm & Sound – Distance 2001
63:32 Tomas Dvorak – The Beginning / the bridge (machinarium) 2009
67:40 All – Alltag 2001
69:45 Vainqueur – Elevation 2 1997
75:29 Wolfgang Voigt – Gas 2008
81:04 Neil Armstrong – Moon landing (sample) 1969
81:33 Brian Eno – An ending (ascent) 1983
85:13 Sample from “Half-life 2” (g-man) 2004

Here is a cool video of Peter playing out some dub tech sounds live with the help of a couple of machines :

Psychill Radio - Psionic Geometries Vol 17

2011-11-22T08:42:00.005+09:00

Here is the DIFM PsyChill radio mix for November 2011.

There are a number of great new psychill CDs out at the moment including the excellent new "Ultimae Records" release "Ambrosia" which features a number of new artists and reflects a bit of a departure from the usual Ultimae sound of Aes Dana, Solar Field, CBL etc. Another release I'm really enjoying is "Ethnoscapes", the debut release from "Atmospheric Records". I don't know much about this new psychill label and their homepage is pretty sparse but this release is a pretty solid ( mastered by Aes Dana ) debut so let's hope they can continue their strong start.

Another great compilation to check out is "Nutek Reocrds" new release "Mira" which has some real gems on it from Abakus, Bohemian ( in this mix ), J.P Illusion and more. Nutek is best known for their psytrance catlaogue with a number of big psytrance producers on their roster including CPU, Painkiller and Azax Syndrome. This is a welcome departure and hopefully not their last. It reminds me of those psychill compilations 3D vision put out all those years ago "Module01" and "Module02" .

One more top compilation released recently is "Origins" by Lisbon's "Woorpz Records". This also marks a debut as Woorpz first psychill compilation and like the two compilations mentioned previously is a solid slice of psychedelic chillout music. If you like Origins I also recommend giving the "Around The Universe" EP by "Timescape" a listen.

Tracklisting:

Track / Artist

01 Adou - Balance
02 Generation Of Hippies - J.P. Illusion
03 Igmatik (Tripswitch remix) - Abakus
04 Flying Carpet - Elea and Bahramji
05 Entrando A La Via Organica (Intro) - Heterogenesis
06 Solar Prayers - Desert Dwellers
07 17 Grand Way - Bob Tracker
08 Thoughts of space traveller - Lunar Vegetarian
09 Bangus Sangus - Ashnaia
10 Buddhism Turbocharged - Bohemian
11 Beautiful Way - Costa Sea
12 Memories Maze - Astral Waves
13 Shouty One - Orchid-Star
14 Espresso - Super Special
15 Kaleidoscope Eyes - Overdream
16 Form of Life - Chilled C'Quence
17 Dream Of The Moai Part 2 - Astropilot

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Fractalic Design - Fractal Psychedelic T-shirts

2011-11-02T14:43:00.008+09:00

I was recently contacted by Itay , a founding member of Fractalic Design with news about their new online fractal tshirt venture. If you are looking for some high quality fractal designs do check out their site sometime. They run a quality setup and the fractals themselves cover the entire tshirt rather than a simple design in the middle as you might find on Zazzle or CafePress.

The tshirts are not black light reactive, which is a nice change to be honest. Personally I've see too many of the black light tshirts over the years and they have become a bit too cliche. These shirts are something more unique and modern. It's great to see people putting their artistic hearts and minds into an operation like this. I hope they can continue to grow the business over the years to come.

Ambient Music Mix Download - PsyAmb 43

2011-10-28T12:00:00.009+09:00

Today's mix is the third in the minimal ambient mix downloads. This one kicks of with ISHQ's track "El Morya" which you can find on Celestial Dragon Recordings "Portals Of Perceptions" release from 2005. An excellent compilation overall. This was the closing track and plays out over are rather delightful 12 minutes ! I haven't included the entire 12 minutes in this mix so check out the track at CDRs if you want to enjoy some more listening time. ISHQ is brilliant so definitely check out their work if you have yet to do so - I don't think I've ever heard a bad tune from them.

Next we have "Sound of Silence" by "Pallers" from their recent debut album "The Sea Of Memories". The release took three years to compile as members Johan Angergård and Henrik Mårtensson traveled the globe finding inspiration where they went. The result is a real gem of a release that deserves all the high praise is will garner over the years to come.

Both members come from the same small town in the south of Sweden, Åhus, and have known each other half their lives. One member has a love for ambient, trip hop and electronica while the other is deeply involved in the world of pop. Pallers combine these seemingly tricky components with such ease it almost seems effortless – turning it into something new - something of their very own. A must buy for any fans of of textural soundscapes and evolving melodies.

The third tune in this mix comes from "Lemongrass" ( Roland Voss ) via his 2011 release "Sirius", a mix of ambient, downtempo, chillout and future jazz styles. Roland has been making music for about three decades now. He made his start in the 1970s as a drummer in various bands and has continued making music ever since, becoming one of Germany's most prolific electronic music recording artists. With his brother, Roland manages record label "Lemongrass Music" which they established in 2005 as a way of releasing their own music and that of other artists they both enjoy. They label certainly has been busy with close to 20 releases this year and growing ! Here is a good interview with Roland from back in 2004.

"Maps and Diagrams" is the brainchild of Tim Martin, a highly esteemed ambient music producer who has released on a number of leading labels such as Handstitched ( his own label ), Expanding, Static Caravan and more.This track, "Fragments Of a Former Moon" comes from the Fluid Audio release "Cubiculo" of 2010. This was an exclusive mini release for Fluid Audio comprising of four tracks if I remember rightly. It is a tasty little release as it succinctly highlights what the Maps and Diagrams sounds is all about - wonderfully beautiful looping dreamscapes with infinite possibilities.

After Tim is a track from an artists I just recently discovered - Hummingbird. The album "Our Fearful Symmetry" from which this track comes is best described in the words of one reviewer as "an album of incredible poise, precision and elegance". Personally I found the album to be tinged with melancholia which makes for great listening on those bleak wintry days. You might struggle to find a copy these days as the album was limited to just 100 copies but you could try a used copy from Discogs but be prepared - it won't be cheap as I well discovered !

Next up is Sattyananda, a.k.a Nikhel Kumar Mahajan, with a lovely bit of ambient Indian music from his 2006 release "Internal Activities" of 2006 on DadA music. In 2005 Nikhel conceptualized an album Vande Mataram - which showcased Indian Electronica at its best. The CD was launched by Music Today. Following which he put all his energy into forming India's first electronic label, DadA Music. He went into the studio in the winter of 2005-06 and composed, produced and arranged 'Internal Activities'. He has skillfully incorporated traditional Indian Classical Instruments in the compositions whereby creating a timeless journey into the inner-self. I feel this album was overlooked somewhat by the psychill/psybient crowd who I think would get a real kick out of it. The DadA music website seems to be down these days so you might have to check out places like Psyshop or SaikoSounds if you want to pick up a copy.

Not to be confused with the Jaia of goatrance fame, Jaja ( not the second j ) is the work of German artist Jana Rockstroth. this track comes from the free to download album "OUM". This was released through Cyan Music, the German label, not the Australian Cyan Music that is an offshoot of Psy-Harmonics ! Pretty cool release if you ask me. Grab it now over at Cyan netlabel.

Next we have a couple of big names in the ambient and electronic music scenes - Carbon Based Lifeforms, Thomas Fehlmann, Brian Eno, Aes Dana and Vibrasphere,.These are all artists that get a fair amount of track time here at PsyAmb so for the sake of keeping this post short and not boring you all I suggest checking them all out if you have yet to do so. Quite frankly they are all essential listening and defined the past present and future of ambient and psychill music in their own ways.

So let's fast forward through the mix to "Cipher" . This tunes comes from the CD "No Ordinary Man" released in 2003 on "Hidden Art". Cipher - originally formed in 1996 to compose a soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock's silent classic 'The Lodger' - is the combination of the two well established artists, Theo Travis and Dave Sturt. Theo is well known for his work with the likes of Porcupine Tree and Gong ( awesome group !) , Dave is a long time producer and member of Jade Warrior. These two guys have done so much work over the years across so many projects that it's impossible to list it all here. For a quick run down try the Cipher website. This album I can't recommend enough. I listened to it for hours on end back in the day when it was released. Absolutely sublime music.

If you like your ambient music with a bit of a moody feel that wraps you up in a warm aural blanket then look no further. "Stars Of The Lid" with their track "A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process" and the "Hammock" tune "Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow" must be two of the most amazing pieces of ambient music ever produced You can listen to both tracks on YouTube so check them out and see what I mean. The albums that both the tracks come from are absolute classics in the genre and should not be missed.

We wrap up to do with the short and sweet "Neil's Theme" from Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd. This comes from the soundtrack to the movie "Mysterious Skin" in which a teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth. A worthwhile film with some excellent performances by Brady Corbet and Joseph Gorden.

Well that's it for this mix. I hope you enjoy listening to it. I've been listening to it while writing this post actually and I'm enjoying it more each time. This is just the third mix in the ambient music downloads series so if you haven't caught the other ones check the links below or go to the mp3 mix downloads archive from the link on the right page. See you all next time and have a relaxing, ghostly halloween weekend.

Track / Artist

01. El Morya - Ishq
02. Sound Of Silence - Pallers
03. Nibiru - Lemongrass
04. Fragments of a Former Moon - Maps and Diagrams
05. Defining Space - Hummingbird
06. Space Fields - Sattyananda
07. Oxygen - Jaja
08. System - Carbon Based Lifeforms
09. In The Wind - Thomas Fehlmann
10. Complex Heaven - Brian Eno
11. Currents - Aes Dana
12. Aguas Calientes - Vibrasphere
13. Dusk - Cipher
14. A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaningless Process - Stars of the Lid
15. Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow - Hammock
16. Neil's Theme - Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd

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Top 10 most relaxing songs

2011-10-19T10:11:00.011+09:00

What are the the best relaxing songs ? Neuroscience research group "MindLab International" are in the business of finding out why we react the way we do to certain stimuli. A recent research project of theirs was the compilation of the world's top 10 most relaxing songs. The study was commissioned by a British manufacturer of spa and relaxation products so there was a big commercial intent aiming at the viral video market behind all this.

Anyway, what is most pleasing about the findings is that topping the list is one of my favorite bands - Manchester's Marconi Union with the most relaxing song ever.

Carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms and bass lines help to slow the heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Marconi Union worked with sound therapists to create the best of the relaxing song, which also slows breathing and reduces brain activity. Researchers played the song to 40 women and found it to be more effective at helping them relax than songs by Enya, Mozart and Coldplay . I never found those three that relaxing anyway. If anything, listening to Coldplay usually induced stress ! Studies found Marconi Union's tune "Weightless" was approximately 11% more relaxing than any other song and even made many of the women "drowsy" in the lab.

Dr David Lewis-Hodgson, from Mindlab International, said: "The results clearly show that the track induced the greatest relaxation - higher than any of the other music tested.

"Brain imaging studies have shown that music works at a very deep level within the brain, stimulating not only those regions responsible for processing sound but also ones associated with emotions.

"In fact, Weightless was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous."

Richard Talbot, from Marconi Union, said: "It was fascinating working with a therapist to learn how and why certain sounds affect people's mood.

"I always knew the power of music but we have previously written using gut feeling."

Here are the top ten most relaxing songs that came about as a result of the research conducted by Mindlab. Click on the track to follow a YouTube link to each song. There are some decidedly pop flavored tunes here. It would be interesting to know what the team's exact listening pool was in the first place but I guess we'll never know. Now keep in mind this a list made by scientists, not necessarily lovers of modern electronic chill music ( they include the most relaxing classical music in the list ) so keep an open mind here.

1. Marconi Union - Weightless

2. Airstream - Electra

3. DJ Shah - Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix)

4. Enya - Watermark

5. Coldplay - Strawberry Swing

6. Barcelona - Please Don't Go

7. All Saints - Pure Shores 8

8. Adele - Someone Like You

9. Mozart - Canzonetta Sull'aria

10. Cafe Del Mar - We Can Fly

> You might also like this best ambient music post

3D Psychedelic Art

2011-10-14T10:58:00.009+09:00

Continuing with our psychedelic art series, today I have another interesting psychedelically inspired artist that recently caught my eye. Based in Miami, mixed media artist Jen Stark has created a series of wonderful, swirling, psychedelic art sculptures using colored paper. This is some cool visionary art. These creations must take forever to create. They would make for great 3D psychedelic wall art I think. Apart from creating these incredible sculptures Jen is also a talented drawer and video producer. To see more of her work and other psychedelic pictures visit her website.

> You might also like this psychedelic pictures post

What is ambient music ?

2011-10-10T19:43:00.007+09:00

What is ambient music ? A friend of mind asked me this question the other day and it struck me as odd that I couldn't find a definition that I found satisfactory for my own mind. In other words, I wasn't happy because I found myself saying "it's this ...but it's also this...it's not this nor this but then again it could be if ... ". So I've decided to open this question up to all psyamb listeners ... what is your own definition of ambient music ?

Is it , as one of the most recognized of ambient artists Brian Eno said, music that can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener", and that exists on the "cusp between melody and texture" ? I kind of like this definition myself. That line "cusp between melody and texture" evokes an ambient music feel.

With so many sub-genres of ambient music these days including dark ambient, illbient, ambient techno, ambient house, isolational, nature ambient and organic soundscapes is it even possible to come up with an overall answer for what is ambient music ? Drop a comment below and let me know what you think.

Myotas Online Art Generator

2011-10-03T12:03:00.005+09:00

Another recent psychedelic art discovery of mine has been the fractal art generating software of Myoats. Now I know there are number of high quality fractal generators available these days but what makes this one different is that it can all be done online. Strictly speaking these are not true fractals, perhaps mandalas would be a better word to use. However the software is open ended enough for you to create any kind of artwork imaginable.

What is cool about it is that it allows anyone out there to create mandala like art without any need for artistic skills whatsoever. Just click and drag your mouse around the screen and the application will instantly create reflections for you resulting in a nice symmetrical slice of trippy art work. Pretty cool huh !

> You might also like this psychedelic pictures post

Psychedelic Scientists

2011-10-03T11:26:00.008+09:00

Australian resident and graphic designer Simon Bent has produced a series of psychedelic pictures that celebrate famous scientists of years gone by. The work displays a decidedly 1960's psychedelic art feel reminiscent of old 60's psychedelic bill posters or the colorful world of Peter Max.

It's impressive how Simon has managed to take those facial features which are instantly accessible in our memories and fill those features with minimalistic yet hypnotic splashes of color and psychedelic whimsy. Two visionary thumbs up sir for your psychedelic scientists ! For more trippy art in his 60's psychedelic art .vs. scientists gallery visit Simon's website over at v2a.

> You might also like this psychedelic pictures post

Ambient Dub Mix - PsyAmb 42

2011-09-27T11:13:00.011+09:00

A long overdue ambient dub mix today. This mix contains some classic dubs and a few modern psydub tracks as well. I tried to mix a nice cruisy feel overall so this a good one to kick back with and enjoy a nice cold beer on a sunny afternoon or whatever you like to indulge in while listening to bass heavy dubs.

This mix is notable for some very tasty tunes that are available as free downloads such as Harmonic Frequency ( free download at Ektoplazm ), Brujo's Bowl ( free download at Ektoplazm ), Dubsalon ( free download at at ideology.de ), Massive Exode ( free download at Ektoplazm ) and Manudub ( free download at LibreCommeLair ).

All of the above mentioned websites are a veritable treasure trove of free electronic music so if you are on a tight budget do check them. out. Of course, don't forget to mail them and tell them what a great job they are doing - I'm sure they would love to feel the love.

I hope you all enjoy this ambient dub mix. Up next will be a an a minimal ambient mix of some more free tunes mixed in with some ambient heavy hitters.

Oh, by the way, if you like listening to ambient dub then I recommend watching "Dub Echoes" - a documentary about the roots of dub and how it has transformed into it's current guise. You can read more info about it at the Dub Echoes website.

Track / Artist

01. Eostrae - Harmonic Frequency
02. Realization Dub - Brujo's Bowl
03. Awka - Dubsalon
04. Maitre Soda - Massive Exode
05. Veil Of Forgetfulness - Liquid Stranger
06. Osaka dub mission - Manudub
07. Submerged - Deep Fried Dub
08. Mtoto In Dub - Kadubra Meets Raggattack
09. Dub Of Purpose - Another Sound System Experience
10. Untitled - Al-Haca Soundsystem
11. Saucer - All India Radio
12. Twin Decks - Deathhprod

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The Orb - Alex Paterson Interview : 1995

2011-09-14T23:55:00.005+09:00

Here is a nice little video featuring an interview with Alex Patterson from UK electronic ambient music legends "The Orb". This clip comes from the BBC2’s excellent history of rock & roll series ‘Dancing in the Street’. Alex seems to be pretty busy of late with a number of projects on the go including a album with Lee Scratch Perry that sounds very tasty indeed.

The Art Of Isaac Abrams

2011-09-07T11:14:00.009+09:00

Another recent art find has been the work of Isaac Abrams. I was very pleased to run across Isaac's website as I find his flowing, bubbly psychedelic artwork to be somewhat similar to my own work at times. Mind you, Isaac is a far better painter than I could hope to be at the moment 8)

Isaac was born and raised in the New York area. He is a self-taught artist with an academic background in literature, history, science and psychology. He founded the first gallery of Psychedelic Art in the world in 1965.

He began working as a self-taught painter in the beginning of 1966 and then worked as a sculptor in the 1970's. During the 1980s he also began extensive work as an animation artist.

Abrams was the former owner of Coda Gallery. The Coda Gallery was noted for its introduction of Psychedelic Art into the mainstream of American media consciousness. He studied in Austria under the tutelage of Ernst Fuchs whose school and method of painting runs in an unbroken line of students and teachers from Albrecht Durer to the present.

He begins his work with a series of loosely conceived juxtapositions and then discovers in those juxtapositions the metaphysical and cosmic concepts which are so often expressed in his art. Right on !

Check out more of Issac work at the Isaac Abrams website.

Hapshash Takes a Trip: The sixties work of Nigel Waymouth

2011-09-07T09:50:00.010+09:00

Anyone here with an eye for the psychedelic art of the 1960/70s might by interested to know that London based arts and culture promotion company Idea Generation is presenting an exhibition by Nigel Waymouth of legendary art group Hapshash and the Coloured Coat.

Nigel, along with partner Michael English, was responsible for some of the 60s psychedelic generation's most famous images. Aside from the pair's more popular creations, fans will be treated to a series of images from Nigel's own collection , many of which have never been presented before or have not had a showing in over 20 years .

The Nigel Waymouth exhibition will run from September 9th to October 2nd 2011 at the Idea Generation Gallery, London.

More details can be found at the Idea Generation website.

Here is some of Nigel's work to wet your appetite :

Psychill Radio - Psionic Geometries Vol 16

2011-08-23T10:53:00.004+09:00

Here is the DIFM PsyChill radio mix for August 2011. For endless psychill online listening visit the DIFM psychill station through the link below. The have a great roster of psychill and psybient DJs uploading excellent mixes every week.

DIFM Psychill Link : Listen Now

Tracklisting:

Track / Artist

01. Euclidean Subspace - Cygna
02. Genetic Guitars - Seamoon
03. Mystic Kerala - Ashnaia
04. Iron Sand - Taff
05. Magic Species - Astral Waves
06. Sanctuary - Magman
07. Solar Wind - Frost-RAVEN
08. Elephant Parade - Radioactive Sandwich
09. From The Future - Expedizion
10. C - Happy - Globular
11. Orchid-Ska - Orchid-Star
12. A Way Out - LogArythm
13. Headfoam Jack - Yggdrasil
14. But Your Dreams May Not - Kuba
15. Triplets - Easily Embarrassed
16. Moon People - Easily Embarrassed
17. Sundown - The New Law

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Buy Psychedelic Money Art

2011-08-10T09:12:00.015+09:00

With world economies falling over every other day it is refreshing to see a new economy on the rise - the psychedelic one. Amsterdam artist Dadara has been thinking long and hard about how to get people thinking about money in a more responsible and enlightening way. The answer - psychocash ! Over at The Exchanghibition Bank, Dadara is offering a number of psychedelic banknotes which can be exchanged ( at reasonable rates ) for Euros.

The notes themselves are beautiful works of art which you can invest in. Funds raised through the exchange of Exhanghibition money will go towards supporting Dadara's dream of creating a huge swimming pool full of a million bank notes that people can swim around in at this year's Burning Man Festival.

Here are few samples of the psychedelic money art banknotes.

Exchange Rate Zero : € 5.00
Exchange Rate Million : € 2.50
Exchange Rate Infinite : € 7.50

It's kind of interesting that the exchange rate for the 'zero' bill is higher than that of '1 million'. It could be part of standard psychedelic monetary policy I guess. All sounds very interesting don't you think.

One thing is for sure - the economy of psychedelic money is one that won't be requiring any government handouts.

Magic Trip - Ken Kesey documentary

2011-08-06T13:28:00.008+09:00

Ken Kesey , author of "one Flew Over The Cuckoo's" nest and 60's psychedelic pioneer is the muse behind Alex Gibney's latest documentary "Magic Trip". Alex's previous work was the excellent documentary about the life and times of another psychedelic lover, Hunter S Thompson.

While working at the mental hospital that inspired his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey became one of the first Americans to take LSD. Thanks to Alex's new film we can now relive this historical moment.

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Top 100 Best Psychedelic Songs

2011-08-05T10:31:00.009+09:00

Rick Varner has been maintaining a list of his top 100 psychedelic songs over at digitaldreamdoor.com. This would have to be one the best lists I've seen regarding psychedelic music from the 60s/70s. There are some mighty fine songs on this list. Not surprisings, the psychedelic songs of the Beatles feature a number of times.

There is no denying that all these bands had a major impact on the psychedelic music scene and that their influence on the electronic psychedelic music genre is unmistakable. If you have any other recommendation or feel Rick has left out something in the greatest 100 psychedelic here, why not add a comment to the bottom of the post and spread the love.

Top 100 psychedelic songs

01. Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles
02. The American Metaphysical Circus - The United States of America
03. Grace - Country Joe & The Fish
04. Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd
05. Are You Experienced - Jimi Hendrix Experience
06. At The Mountains of Madness - H.P. Lovecraft
07. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
08. Dark Star - Grateful Dead
09. Bass Strings - Country Joe & The Fish
10. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - The Beatles
11. Spare Chaynge - Jefferson Airplane
12. Strange Days - The Doors
13. Other Side of The Sky - Gong
14. My White Bicycle - Tomorrow
15. Translucent Carriages - Pearls Before Swine
16. White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
17. Beacon From Mars - Kaleidoscope
18. Season of The Witch - Donovan
19. Venus In Furs - The Velvet Underground
20. Magoo - Country Joe & The Fish
21. Comin' Back To Me - Jefferson Airplane
22. Astronomy Domine - Pink Floyd
23. Feel Flows - The Beach Boys
24. The Parable of Arable Land - The Red Crayola
25. I Am The Walrus - The Beatles
26. Shifting Sands - West Coast Pop Art Experiemental Band
27. Horse Latitudes - The Doors
28. Bracelets of Fingers - The Pretty Things
29. The Red Telephone - Love
30. Electrallentando - H.P. Lovecraft
31. Castle In The Clouds - Gong
32. Zig Zag Wanderer - Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
33. The Child Bride - Earth Opera
34. Section 43 - Country Joe & The Fish
35. Eight Miles High - The Byrds
36. I've Got Levitation - 13th Floor Elevators
37. Hallucinations - Tim Buckley
38. Still I'm Sad - The Yardbirds
39. Maiden of The Cancer Moon - Quicksilver Messenger Service
40. Dear Mr Fantasy - Traffic
41. 1906 - West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
42. The Ballad of Freddie & Harry - Clear Light
43. Itchycoo Park - Small Faces
44. Nightfall - The Incredible String Band
45. Keep Your Mind Open - Kaleidoscope
46. Hurdy Gurdy Glissando - Steve Hillage
47. Cloud Song - The United States of America
48. Sky Pilot - Eric Burdon & The Animals
49. Mind Gardens - The Byrds
50. Oxo - Bruce Palmer
51. Mechanical World - Spirit
52. Dancing Madly Backwards - Captain Beyond
53. Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun - Pink Floyd
54. Heaven Is In Your Mind - Traffic
55. And The Gods Made Love - Jimi Hendrix Experience
56. Orange & Red Beams - Eric Burdon & The Animals
57. Ether Ships - Steve Hillage
58. Leiyla - West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
59. Creation - The Incredible String Band
60. Rack My Mind - The Yardbirds
61. White Bird - It's a Beautiful Day
62. In My First Mind - Steve Miller Band
63. Splash, Now I'm Home - 13th Floor Elevators
64. Two Weeks Last Summer - Dave Cousins
65. See Emily Play - Pink Floyd
66. A Child's Smile - Clear Light
67. And I Wish I Were Stoned - Caravan
68. The Beauty of Time Is That It's Snowing - Steve Miller Band
69. Yoo Doo Right - Can
70. Now Your Time Has Come - Tomorrow
71. Joy of a Toy - Soft Machine
72. Images of April - Pearls Before Swine
73. Paper Sun - Traffic
74. Rosemary - Grateful Dead
75. I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time - Third Bardo
76. Ritual #1 - West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
77. Just The Thought - Eric Burdon & The Animals
78. Paranoia #2 - Hawkwind
79. Flashback - Moving Sidewalks
80. Death By Fire - Earth Opera
81. Magic Man - Caravan
82. Pat's Song - Country Joe & The Fish
83. Lather - Jefferson Airplane
84. You're Gonna Miss Me - 13th Floor Elevators
85. Walking Thru My Dreams - The Pretty Things
86. Medication - The Chocolate Watch Band
87. Roller Coaster - 13th Floor Elevators
88. Time Has Come Today - The Chambers Brothers
89. The Lake - Moby Grape
90. Green of My Pants - The Red Crayola
91. Chusingra - Jefferson Airplane
92. A Question of Temperature - The Balloon Farm
93. She Comes In Colors - Love
94. Iron Butterfly Theme - Iron Butterfly
95. Alice In Blunderland - Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
96. Piece For Piano & Electric Bass Guitar - The Red Crayola
97. 10,000 Words In a Cardboard Box - Aquarian Age
98. Upside Down - Hawkwind
99. Madman Running Through The Fields - Dantalian's Chariot
100. Barbie Doll's Hysterectomy - Hoodoo Meat Bucket

If you havn't heard much of the music on this top 100 best psychedelic songs list copy and paste them into Youtube and see what you have been missing out on.

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Electronic Awakening Movie Trailer

2011-07-27T10:27:00.004+09:00

Director Andrew Johner has created Electronic Awakening - an interesting look at the relationship between music and religion from the viewpoint of electronic dance music and it's creators and fans. The trailer looks impressive. Let's face it, something like this could have produced a cheesy block of hippy clap trap but this looks really well produced and involves a number of respected orators and luminaries from the scene. Looking forward to the full release which has been made easier by the generous donations of many people through a kickstarter project. For more information visit the electronic awakening website.

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Top Psychedelic Movies Of All Time

2011-07-06T23:53:00.036+09:00

Here is a run down of my favorite top psychedelic movies. I've tried to keep this list to the best trippy movies that are purely psychedelic or include psychedelic scenes and motifs. I have not included films of a more surreal nature as I feel that would deserve its own list outright. If you have any other recommendations for best psychedelic movies please comment here and let me know what else is worth seeing or any opinions you have on the psychedelic films listed here. Let's begin...

01. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing has one of the best trip scenes of any drug involved movie I have seen. Actually it is pretty much one long drug fueled crazy adventure. Who can forget the drugged out hotel check-in and reptile zoo bar ! The film has become a true cult smash and is sampled over and over again in popular culture from music, to art to just about anywhere psychedelic drugs are involved. Great acting and Terry Gilliam behind the controls. Awesome movie. This is bat country. A fine example of psychedelic movie making. One of the all time top movies to watch.

02. Fritz the Cat / 9 Lives Of Fritz the Cat

Fritz the Cat is a 1972 American animated comedy film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi as his feature film debut. Based on the comic strip of the same name by Robert Crumb, the film was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States. It focuses on Fritz (voiced by Skip Hinnant), an anthropomorphic feline in mid-1960s New York City who explores the ideals of hedonism and sociopolitical consciousness. The film is a satire focusing on American college life of the era, race relations, the free love movement, and left- and right-wing politics. Fritz the Cat is the most successful independent animated feature of all time, grossing over $100 million worldwide.

03. The Trip

Director Roger Corman had just had a big hit with his biker film The Wild Angels (1966) and The Trip was an attempt to further exploit the youth counter-culture market he had stumbled onto. Roger Corman was not the originator of the LSD film but The Trip was the most high profile in the brief fad for LSD films during the late 1960s. In this drama, Paul Groves (Peter Fonda) takes his first dose of LSD while experiencing the heartbreak and ambivalence of divorce from his beautiful but adulterous wife, played by Susan Strasberg. He starts his trip with a "guide," John (Bruce Dern), but runs away and abandons out of fear. As Paul experiences his trip, he wanders around the Sunset Strip, into nightclubs, and the homes of strangers and acquaintances. He considers the roles played by commercialism, sex, the role of women in his life. Jack Nicholson wrote the original screenplay. Corman encouraged Nicholson's experimental writing style and gives between 80 and 90 percent credit to Nicholson for the final shot script in the director's commentary appearing on the DVD of this film. Corman only slightly modified the story to stay within budget. Acid movies 101.

04. Pink Floyd : The Wall

Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 British live-action/animated musical film directed by Alan Parker based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The film is highly metaphorical and is rich in symbolic imagery and sound. It features very little dialogue and is mainly driven by Pink Floyd's music. The film contains fifteen minutes of elaborate animation sequences by the political cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe, part of which depict a nightmarish vision of the German bombing campaign over the United Kingdom during World War II set to the song "Goodbye Blue Sky". The film depicts the construction and ultimate demolition of a metaphorical wall, alienation. One of the best trippy movies ever.

05. Yellow Submarine

Another music based film, Yellow Submarine is a 1968 British animated feature film based on the music of The Beatles. It is also the title for the soundtrack album to the feature film, released as part of The Beatles' music catalog. The film was directed by animation producer George Dunning, and produced. The real Beatles participated only in the closing scene of the film, with the fictional counterparts of The Beatles voiced by other actors. The film received a widely positive reception from critics and audiences alike. It is also credited with bringing more interest in animation as a serious art form. Time commented that it "turned into a smash hit, delighting adolescents and esthetes alike". The animation of Yellow Submarine has sometimes falsely been attributed to the famous psychedelic pop art artist of the era, Peter Max; but the film's art director was Heinz Edelmann. Edelmann, along with his contemporary Milton Glaser, pioneered the psychedelic style for which Max would later become famous, but according to Edelmann and producer Al Brodax, as quoted in the book Inside the Yellow Submarine by Hieronimus and Cortner, Max had nothing to do with the production of Yellow Submarine. As far as classic animation goes its one of the best movies ever.

06. The Holy Mountain

Sit back.. Relax and get ready to roll. A film that screams "product of its time," The Holy Mountain was Alejandro Jodorowsky's dizzying elegy to the sex, drugs and spiritual awakening of the late 1960s and early 1970s -- a suitably bizarre follow-up to his El Topo (1971). Fascinating although it only fitfully makes sense, The Holy Mountain is beautifully shot and designed, and it suggests what might have resulted if Luis Buñuel, Michelangelo Antonioni, and George Romero had all dropped acid and made a movie together. A Christ-like vagrant and thief wanders through a perverse and unfriendly land until he encounters an enlightened one, who gathers the thief and six of the world's most powerful individuals for a spiritual pilgrimage. If that description sounds a bit sketchy, well, narrative isn't this film's strongest suit. But if you want to see the conquest of Mexico re-enacted by reptiles, soldiers shoot innocent people as birds fly from their wounds, and a wizard turn feces into gold, this is the movie for you.The central members of the cast were said to have spent three months doing various spiritual exercises guided by Oscar Ichazo of the Arica Institute. The Arica training features Zen, Sufi and yoga exercises along with eclectic concepts drawn from the Kabbalah, the I Ching and the teachings of Gurdjieff. After the training, the group lived for one month communally in Jodorowsky's home before shooting began. Jodorowsky was also instructed by Ichazo to take LSD for the purpose of spiritual exploration. He also administered psilocybin mushrooms to his actors during the shooting of the death-rebirth scene. The Beatles member George Harrison was intended to play the main character but he withdrew when he read in the script he had to wash his anus in front of the camera ! As far as trippy movies go - this takes the cake !

07. Fantastic Planet

FP is an animated sci-psych-fi film directed by René Laloux in 1973. The story is based on the novel Oms en série, by the French writer Stefan Wul. The film depicts a future in which human beings, known as "Oms" (a word play on the French-language word hommes, meaning men), are creatures on the Draags' home planet, where they are seen as pests and sometimes kept as pets (with collars). The Draags are an alien race which is humanoid in shape but a hundred times larger than humans, with blue skin, fan-like earlobes and huge, protruding red eyes. The Draags also live much longer than human beings – one Draag week equals a human year. Some Oms are domesticated as pets, but others run wild, and are periodically exterminated. The Draags' treatment of the Oms is ironically contrasted with their high level of technological and spiritual development. The film is chiefly noted for its surreal imagery, the work of French writer and artist Roland Topor. The landscape of the Draag planet is full of strange creatures, including a cackling predator which traps small fluttering animals in its cage-like nose, shakes them to death and hurls them to the ground. The Draag practice of meditation, whereby they commune psychically with each other and with different species, is shown in transformations of their shape and colour.

08. Altered States

Ever had one of those "I've heard that sampled before !" moments ? Hallucinogen found a real treasure trove in this cult movie for his debut self titled goa-trance albumn. The movie is a 1980 American science fiction-film adaptation of a novel by the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. It was the only novel that Chayefsky ever wrote, as well as his final film. Both the novel and the film are based on John C. Lilly's sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks under the influence of psychoactive drugs like ketamine and LSD. William Hurt plays Eddie Jessup, a scientist obsessed with discovering mankind's true role in the universe. To this end, he submits himself to a series of mind-expanding experiments. Quite a dazzling film for its time.

09. Barbarella

A voluptuous outer space agent sex-kitten travels to another galaxy in search of a missing inventor in this science fiction send-up. Barbarella (Jane Fonda), an interstellar representative of the united Earth government in the 41st century, is dispatched to locate scientist Durand Durand, whose positronic ray, if not recovered, could signal the end of humanity. Outfitted in an array of stunning Star Trek/Bond girl outfits and cruising around in a plush, psychedelic spaceship, Barbarella travels to the Tau Seti system and promptly crash-lands. She then spends the rest of the film discovering the joys of interstellar sex with a keeper of feral children (Ugo Tognazzi), a blind, beatific angel (John Phillip Law), and an inept revolutionary named Dildano (David Hemmings). Briliant psychedelic set designs, spaceships and sexy tight sex kitten cat suits ! Great stuff ! A remake was planned some year ago to be directed by Sin City's Robert Rodriguez. Last I heard these plans had fallen through due to the production costs.

10. Easy Rider

Classic stoner films don't get much more classic than this. The grand-daddy of all drug addled reflections on the 1960s counter culture. Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. The protagonists are two freewheeling hippies: Wyatt, nicknamed "Captain America" (Fonda), and Billy (Hopper). Fonda and Hopper said that these characters' names refer to Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather, while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bushman hat. The former is appreciative of help and of others, while the latter is often hostile and paranoid of outsiders. The movie's groundbreaking soundtrack featured The Band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Steppenwolf. Editor Donn Cambern used various music from his own record collection to make watching hours of bike footage more interesting during editing.. Most of Cambern's music was used, with licensing costs of $1 million, more than the budget of the film !

11. The Doors

In my experience people either love or hate The Doors, both band and movie. I give both band and movie two thumps up. It's not a great film but it certainly could have been a lot worse right ? Oliver Stone's homage to 60's rock group The Doors also doubles as a biography of the group's late singer, the "Electric Poet" Jim Morrison. The movie follows Morrison from his days as a film student in Los Angeles to his death in Paris in 1971, at the age of 27. Some people hate on the film because it only depicts the monstrous side of Jim's character. Director Oliver Stone said it best...."when you have to condense a person's life, a legend at that, into two measly hours you must take the highlights". Val Kilmer does an amazing acting job in this film. Should have been nominated for an Oscar if you ask me.

12. The Fountain

The Fountain is a 2006 American romantic drama film, which blends elements of fantasy and science fiction, written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. The film comprises three storylines where Jackman and Weisz play different sets of characters: a modern-day scientist and his cancer-stricken wife, a conquistador and his queen, and a space traveler in the future who hallucinates his lost love. The storylines—interwoven with use of match cuts and recurring visual motifs—reflect the themes of love and mortality. Visually stunning, outstadning effects with a sublime soundtrack by Clint Mansell—the composer for Aronofsky's previous films Pi and Requiem for a Dream. Sadly the film was a box office flop. But then again, it was released at a time when the world was obsessed with the superficially of Paris Hilton. If you have a choice of spending your dollars on a Paris Hilton DVD box set or reflecting on that fact that everyone you love will die, most people will opt for the sugar.

13. Koyaanisqatsi

An art-house circuit sensation, this feature-length documentary is visually arresting and possesses a clear, pro-environmental political agenda. Without a story, dialogue, or characters, Koyaanisqatsi (1983) (the film's title is a Hopi word roughly translated into English as "life out of balance") is composed of nature imagery, manipulated in slow motion, double exposure or time lapse, juxtaposed with footage of humans' devastating environmental impact on the planet. Forget trying to convince your friends how good this film is. Everyone seems to have a different take on it. What I can suggest is getting in the right "setting" . Turn off the lights, turn up the soundtrack , relax and prepare for a pure artistic experience. Mesmerizing trance like film-making.

14. Renegade ( a.k.a Blueberry )

Psychedelic westerns are few and far between. I wish there were more, I love spaghetti westerns and anything psychedelic so combining the two is just pure win-win. s Renegade is a French movie adaptation of the popular Franco-Belgian comic book series Blueberry, illustrated by Jean Giraud (better known as Moebius) and scripted by Jean-Michel Charlier. The film starred the French star Vincent Cassel as the title character along with Michael Madsen and Juliette Lewis. Although the film is a French production, the language of the film is in English because the story is set in America's Wild West in the 1870s. Since the character of Blueberry remains obscure in the States, the film was released on DVD in America in November 2004 under the title Renegade and marketed very much as a conventional Western. The film is best remembered for its animated sequence of a entheogenic trip. The movie features several elaborate psychedelic 3D computer graphics sequences as a means of portraying the main characters' shamanic experiences from his point of view. Jan Kounen, the director of the film, drew upon his extensive first hand knowledge of ayahuasca rituals in order to design the visuals for these sequences, Kounen having undergone the ceremony at least a hundred times with Shipibo language speakers in Peru. The 3D animated sequence in this is one of the best trip portrayals in psychedelic movies you are likely to see.

15. 2001 A Space Odyssey

Now , while more psy-fi than psych-fi , 2001 does include one of the most memorable trippy scenes to ever hit the cinema screens. Considering it was made with 1968 technology , that is some impressive stuff don't you think ? As the film climaxes, the main character takes a trip through deep space that involves the innovative use of slit-scan photography to create the visual effects and disturbing sequences of him noticeably stunned at what he's experiencing.. The colored lights in the Star Gate sequence were accomplished by slit-scan photography of thousands of high-contrast images on film, including op-art paintings, architectural drawings, moire patterns, printed circuits, and crystal structures. Known to staff as "Manhattan Project", the shots of various nebula-like phenomena, including the expanding star field, were colored paints and chemicals swirling in a pool-like device known as a cloud tank, shot in slow-motion in a dark room. The first time I saw this film I was, how you say, enjoying some of nature's bounty and this scene just about turned my head inside-out.

16. Enter the Void

Enter the Void is a 2009 French film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, labeled by Noé as a "psychedelic melodrama". It stars Nathaniel Brown in his debut role, Paz de la Huerta, and Cyril Roy, also in his first role on film. The story is set in Tokyo and focuses on Oscar, a young American drug dealer who gets shot by the police, but continues to watch over his sister Linda and the events which follow during an out-of-body experience, floating above Tokyo's streets. Noé had tried various hallucinogens in his youth and used those experiences as inspiration for the visual style. One particular drug experience came later, when the director already was planning the film, and traveled to the Peruvian jungle to try Ayahuasca where it is legal. The experience was very intense and Noé regarded it "almost like professional research." Since few in the design team ever had taken a hallucinogen, it became necessary for Noé to collect and provide visual references in the forms of paintings, photographs, music videos and excerpts from films. This is purely a visual experience, don't expect a great film per se - just trip out on the global neon candy scapes.

17. Fantasia

1940. 71 years ago. And still one of the top , perhaps the top, psychedelic animated films ever made. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. One can only speculate on the true psychedelic intent, if any, behind the movie. However, many a teenage stoner will tell you that Fantasia and mind enhancing drugs go together like peanut butter and jelly. Hmmm... munchies. These days it is quite popular to discover what music synchs with Fantasia. Much like people do with Pink Floyds's music synched to the Wizard Of Oz. Disney, never one to miss out on a quick buck or two, jumped on the 60s hippy cashcow and re-imaged the movie in the late 60s with a very different promotional poster including magic mushrooms and "blow your mind" catchphrases.

18. Dog Star Man

Avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage has labelled his 1963 film Dog Star Man his "cosmological epic." This virtually indescribable film was released in a prelude and four parts. These were not titled but dated instead: Prelude, 1962; Part One, 1963; Part Two 1964 and so forth. While toiling on this project, Brakhage also managed to finish The Art of Vision, derived from Dog Star Man leftovers, and wrote the script for Metaphors of Vision. If you're looking for a plot, you've come to the wrong filmmaker. If you're looking for a fascinating mosaic of images combined to "interpret" the creation of the universe, then Dog Star Man will be right up your alley. A creation myth realized in light, patterns, images superimposed, rapid cutting, and silence. A black screen, then streaks of light, then an explosion of color and squiggles and happenstance. Next, images of small circles emerge then of the Sun. Images of our Earth appear, woods, a part of a body, a nude woman perhaps giving birth. Imagery evokes movement across time. This avant-garde approach to film-making certainly isn't popular, even among cineastes who take film seriously. However, it's still an effective film, even if neither hide nor hair could truly be reaped from it.

There we have it ! All of these films are available on DVD lists now I believe so hit up your favorite DVD store for some real trippy treats. Youtube and IMDB are also worth investigating for some previews, samples etc.

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Psy-Vision Classic Animated Psychedelic Video

2011-06-28T12:35:00.007+09:00

Some time in the later half of the 90's I picked up a VHS tape ( no jokes please ) of an animated psychedelic music video called "Psy-Vision" by Australian record label Psy-Harmonics. This was absolutely mind-blowing stuff back then and I still pull it out of it's well worn plastic cover to give it a viewing now and then. The producer of the video, award winning media artist Troy Innocent, is currently Senior Lecturer, Department of Multimedia & Digital Arts at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The Youtube videos from the tape are not the highest of quality so i highly recommend getting a hold of the original tape if you can.

> Visit The Psy-Harmonics Youtube channel
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Psybient Mix Download - PsyAmb41

2011-06-27T08:23:00.026+09:00

This week I have a longer two hour psybient mix ready to go for all you fans of longer psychedelic chillout music. This mix kicks off with the brilliant Kuba ( aka Laurence Harvey ) and his track Chiquita from the CD Light Aromas on German label Chillcode Music. Laurence has released four incredible albums over the past 10 years so check him out if you have never heard of him before. Some of you might also remember that stupendous track he did on LSD records Mana Medicine compilation under the name of Grey Beard.

Overdream, a psytrance duo from the Ukraine deliver our next tune from the Mosaic Dream compilation released by Polish label GoaTrance.pl. These guys make some of the best psychill music I've heard in recent times and their psytrance work is also top notch. Their hard work has been rewarded recently with their digital e.p SoundPrints reaching the number one spot on the Ektoplazm.com download charts.

Next up is a group that is a recent discovery to me - Radioactive Sandwich. These two guys have been around for a quite a while as it turns out so I'm not sure why I had not heard of them before as their songs are insane. They have a load of albums to get your teeth into. Highly recommended ! This track comes from my favorite album of the month titled A World Of Earthly Delights. Visit the Radioactive Sandwich website to download it all for free !

Maiia ( aka Alla Vagner ) is a Russian based musician who has been in and around the psychedelic ambient music scene of Moscow for quite some time now. Her early work as a chillout DJ in clubs and festivals has now evolved into an impressive band that features a roster of musicians that contribute their skills towards Alla's musical creations. This tune is from Alla's debut full-length record Sacred Knowledge Of Ancient Civilizations on Altar Records earlier this year.

Another Russian artist that has been impressing everyone of late is the duo Koan. It's no coincidence that these guys feature quite a bit here on the psyamb site. Their tunes have quality written all over them and their latest full length release, The Fables Of Belovodye, is no exception. You can find this track, Flying Cities, and more exquisite Koan music as the Blue Tune Records website.

Following some tracks from Illuminus and Tor.Ma ( from the excellent new Ease Division 4 comp ) we come to a tune of real note. Final Cat by the oddly named Swen (Dzoncy) strOOp, is an absolute psychedelic circus ! I hope and pray this guy comes up with a full length album some time as everything I have heard from him so far has been refreshing new and crazy. Keep it up Swen !! You can find this one also on the Mosaic Dream digital free download compilation. Swen is also a gifted photographer - check out his work here.

After Swen you can hear some tracks from Aedem and another track from Ott's recent heavy hitting release "Mir". Then we get to another tune I'm really diggin' of late, the dubstep inspired work of Phutureprimative's tune Cryogenic Dreams. Actually, the whole alumb from which this is taken has a very dubstep feel to it. Phuturprimative made a name for himself with his debut release SubConscious back in 2004. That albumn was firmly set in the psybient and psydub mold. Some people are sure to be upset by the new Phutureprmitive direction but not I. Sure, there is a lot of dodgy dubstep music around as its popularity exploded but when it is done well and mixed with a enough psychedelic elements it can sound truly epic and that what his new album is. Would love to hear this one live !

Next is a track from the new Entheogenic albumn ( yes they are still around ! ) Gaia Sophia. The album is more of an e.p in a way with just the five tracks. However one track is 27 minutes long ! Remember the days when that wasn't so uncommon ? I really respect Entheogenic for what they have produced here. This is an album where they have gone back to their psychedelic roots and cast of all the disturbing jazzy stuff they tried to do on their last few releases. This is where they do their best work - psychedelic, swirling riffs over stuttering basslines and ethnic percussion. It's not the greatest Entheogenic album, that must be said. It does sound a bit cobbled together . But it seems a step in the right direction.

This mix rounds off with a number of excellent older tunes from the likes of Zero Cult, Warp Technique, Polyploid and Random Robot before we get to another tune from those wacky pranksters Radioactive Sandwich once again. Yes, so nice I played them twice ! You gotta check out their album - and why not at $0 the price is more than right !

Track / Artist

01. Chiquitta - Kuba
02. An Ancient Temple In The Center Of The Universe - Overdream
03. Chongo - Radioactive Sandwich
04. Deep In The Forest - Maiia
05. Flying Cities - Koan
06. Purrts Of Navarone - Illuminus
07. Fly By - Tor.Ma
08. Final Cat - Swen (Dzoncy) strOOp
09. Convolution - Aedem
10. Mouse Eating Cheese - Ott
11. Cryogenic Dreams - Phutureprimitive
12. Love Letters To The Soul - Entheogenic
13. Crystal Sun - Taff
14. Inside The Urban Ocean - Zero Cult
15. History of Dreams - Warp Technique
16. Nought Ark - Polyploid
17. Select Function - Random Robot
18. Elephant Parade - Radioactive Sandwich

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Psychill Radio - Psionic Geometries Vol 15

2011-06-19T17:05:00.004+09:00

Here is the DIFM PsyChill radio mix for May 2011. For endless online psychill listening, visit the DIFM psychill station through the link below. The have a great roster of psychill and psybient DJs uploading excellent mixes every week.

DIFM Psychill Link : Listen Now

Tracklisting:

Artist / Track

01. Kalpataru Tree - Creation Matrix
02. Puff Dragon - Skin as Soft (Soft as Silk Remix )
03. Soft Note and Mikael Kovsh - Tunguska Electronic Music Society
05. Rip 'n' Eiji - Arigataya
06. Ambientium - The Balance
07. Rano Raraku - Becoming Intense
08. Polyploid - Just Pray
09. Ooze - Snowflower
10. 5000 Fingers of Doctor T - Mind Stretch
11. Pan Electric & Alexander Daf - So Long As There Is Faith
12. Solar Fields - Embraced
13. Echosystem - Sleep Patterns
14. Amorphous Androgynous - In Mind
15. Kick Bong - Dream Again
16. Chronos - Planetarium (Taff Rmx)
17. GMO vs Dense - Morning
18. Senzar - Before The Morning Sun (Irukanji Remix)
19. Shulman - Another Paradigm
20. Tripswitch -Tesselation
21. Mooma - Hello Dawn Horizon
22. Ott - The Aubergine Of The Sun
23. Younger Brother - Delina Did It

Play Now :

Direct Download. Right click then select 'Save link as ... '

> You might also like this psychill radio mix

Brian Eno Ambient Video

2011-06-11T22:53:00.005+09:00

It's probably no surprise to your guys that I'm quite a fan of Brian Eno. While playing around on YouTube today I stumbled across this video to "And Then So Clear" which seemed to perfectly fit my mood today. I enjoy his vocal tracks and this one is so relaxing. This is from Brian's 2005 album "Another Day On Earth".

For something a little more up to date - check out this page over at NPR Music where Brian hosted an episode of All Songs Considered earlier this month. There you can here Brian DJing some of his favorite tunes from other artists and also chatting about his next release "Drums Between The Bells".

> You might also like this ambient mix

Simon Posford Interview Facebook

2011-06-10T11:32:00.011+09:00

Simon Posford has been a busy man this year with a full US tour of Shponlge plus the release of the latest Younger Brother album. Yesterday he took time out to have a bit of a chat with his fans on his Facebook group. What a nice chap !

Simon Posford (SP): “Disorientated and a little bored, waking up at 1am in my hotel room… let’s do a Q&A…. ask me anything, right now, and i will answer in this thread….

Misha Baker: What is your favorite Shpongle song??

SP: And the Day turned to Night or Invisible Man in a Fluorescent suit

Rain Sguigna: Do you feel yourself as a bringer of new consciousness,

SP: No, merely an expression of one that exists in us all…

Bahar McIntyre: What do you love?

SP: Life, Consciousness, and Love

Sierra Oliveri: What’s your favorite instrument to play?

SP: If i’m feeling sad, the piano.
If i’m inspired or lazy, the guitar.
If i want fun, the drums… but my kit isn’t always set up.

Raja Ram: What’s the worst smell ever???

SP: As you well know, Raj, the worst smell is the smell of your headphones after a 2 hour DJ set!!!

Andy VanDruff: Couldn’t stay away, is the smell of the headphones worse than your tour bus?

SP: DEFINITELY! A scented candle or two can help a tour bus… but only an incinerator can fix those headphones!

Sierra Oliveri: Hey psy, did you start your musical career with psytrance or did you play any other type of music first

SP: I was in a Dub band for a while.

Alex Everett: What was your biggest barrier when you started out producing?

SP: My own mind. At the time i thought it was equipment. Or not being able to get it to the right people. But the truth is, it was my own mind…. once i gave my entire being and every hour of my life to it, then everything became easy.

Simon G : Best and worst trip?

SP: Worst trip – i took a bus through Europe with my dad to go skiing. We shared a bed and both farted all night. In the day i got so sunburned that my whole face peeled off.
Best trip – I took DMT, lay on my couch and went to another Universe where i had a stream of revelations and teachings about everything from Time to The Source of Everything. Again, my face face peeled off….
….But only metaphorically this time.

Samantha Gregorc Would you consider yourself a shaman?

SP: Absolutely not. I make no claims to be able to heal people.

Rita Chen: Do you think psychedelics are essential for psytrance production?

SP: Judging by the psytrance i hear these days, nothing is essential, except a computer and a limb that can click a mouse. Or did you mean “good” psy-trance?

Heather Neufeld: Do you find cheese tastes better when you eat it while wearing a hat?

SP: No, but it does taste better eaten off a girl’s thigh. (rethinks it) although it depends what kind of cheese it is…ewww…

Kevin Woods: Craziest thing you’ve seen on tour?

SP: In Japan i took a wee in a bottle for a fan…

Adam Stiles: Where’d you get that sweet hat that makes all the girls swoon?

SP: My ex made it

Genevieve Yates: (concerning 2012 and the apocalypse)

SP: for Genevieve Yates… i direct you firstly to my answer to : John Briffa do you know of any scientific evidence to support the whole fundamentalist hippie, galactic alignment, 12 strand dna activation, mayan baktun 2012 ascension twaddle?
If by “scientific evidence”, you mean peer-reviewed evidence from respected scientists who have published in accredited journals, then the answer is “No, not a shred.”
Personally i think nothing will happen. It is just a date in the Gregorian calendar we choose to follow. Consciousness will continue to evolve. The planet will continue to exist. Wars will come and go as long as we let these morons that we choose to rule our nations fight over land and resources. Mankind won’t die out. December 22nd will be just like any other day in the last 10 years.
I agree with Professor Brian Cox: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zBqRLK_ESs
I think if we are worrying about Dec 21st 2012, then we have far too much time on our hands and live in an affluent unsympathetic society that should be concerned with the very real problems that face the rest of the world right now. I could go on, if you want me to be more specific.

Greg Horowitz: night before the end of the world…one last set to play…Shpongle, Shpongle live, or hallucinogen?

SP: Shpongle Live, with my homies, no computer, all jamming together!

Rakesh Prabal Kumar: How many groupies do you have sitting on your lap at this moment ?? Don’t Fucking lie to us Simon ! ;)

SP: NONE! Sometimes life just isn’t fair, you know?

Robert Shaw: What phase of the moon do your best shows happen?

SP: Full Moon… Lunacy is a real phenomenon.

Alex Everett: Let’s say Kanye West invites you to his mansion to hot box his studio. While both of you are on the cloud nine, Kanye asks you if he could sample The stamen of the shaman for his new album. He claims that it will be the most amazing song he ever with deep and thoughtful lyrics, but you cannot hear it until the album is out (he would of course pay royalties) nor will you be allowed to have any creative input aside from clearing the sample. Would you let him do it?

SP: “Kanye, thanks for the smoke and all… but Fuck Off mate…”

Peter Rogen: …don’t you hate it when there is nothing else around…so you smoke DMT out of your best weed pipe…then the taste never comes out?

SP: Yes. Also when you have run out of hash, but you have some DMT lying around, and it looks a bit like hash, so maybe it might do the same thing… and then oops, i wasn’t ready to enter another dimension….

Samantha Gregorc: solution- isopropal alcohol, iodized salt, a pipe cleaner and a dash of lemon juice :)

SP: Is that for the haemmorhoids? Sounds painful….

Jillae Langman: how are you doing..? sinseraly [sic]

SP: Thanks for the question. I am deranged, i am spun out, i have a huge haemmorhoid [sic] sticking out my butthole (can i get any more honest than that?) I split up with my girlfriend of 4 years, i just woke up at 1am after sleeping most of the day. Touring isn’t great for me. I’m Slightly obsessive compulsive, don’t really like shaking hands; don’t like change too much, so i am confused, derailed and On Tour! I miss my bed. I miss my garden. I miss my studio and my friends and family. I am not really me right now, so all these answers are irrelevant anyway…..

Samantha Gregorc: Shpongleland: have you ever been there?

SP: Samantha, i LIVE there!

Source: https://www.facebook.com/shpongle

>You might also like this Simon Posford interview

Simon Posford Interview 2011

2011-05-21T19:49:00.009+09:00

Brooke Kettering has produced a very informative interview with Simon Posford of Shpongle and Younger Brother over at the Roving Festival Writer website. Simon has been busy touring the US this year doing a number of huge festivals with the Shpongletron Experience show.

Read on here for some insider Shpongly tid-bits and Simon's opinion of dub-step, genres and DMT.

B: How are you doing?

S: I’m good, a little tired, but umm feeling good. Excited for tonight’s show.

B: Have you been touring like crazy?

S: Yea, I’m on an eternal tour. We’ve done, I don’t know, ten days or something like that. We’ve only just started I guess, and it’s fifty shows in total.

B: So you’re touring as Shpongle right now, correct?

S: The Shpongletron, ya, exactly.

B: Right, how was Coachella?

S: Coachella was amazing. A lot of people, and fantastic production. So everything just conspired for a great show.

B: When you go to festivals like that, do you ever get time to enjoy yourself?

S: We did. Um, commercially I suppose Coachella isn’t really my type of festival but um, the only people we really wanted to see were Trentemoller but because all the people and stuff we got stuck by Duran Duran for some reason.

B: So you got to hang out for a few days or were you back on the road right away?

S: We stayed for two days, we saw Duran Duran and Kanye and a few other people. But pretty much had to go straight out.

B: So, I’m more of a conversationalist than a journalist, but, hopefully we can just have a nice conversation and I’ll able get some interesting stuff out of it.

S: Ya, I mean ask me anything you like and if you want me to expand further I always can.

B: Something that I found interesting…have you heard of CouchSurfing, the website?

S: Couchsurfing?…yes.

B: So I’ve been doing that for a while…just hosting not traveling myself…

S: Really? How is it?

B: It’s been awesome! I’ve had all great experiences. I hosted this one guy from Israel and, I always try to find a common ground in music, and in saying that I listen to some electronic music, he said he listens to Shpongle. And then I was in this remote part of Mexico (Mahahual), where I became friends with these Mayan dancer dudes, and in talking about electronic music, Shpongle was our common musical ground. You obviously tour all over the place…why do you think Shpongle is soo…can appeal to anyone?

S: Um I think, you know, Shongle is very universal. The other guy in the band, Raja Ram, is 70 years old. I’m obviously a bit younger than that, so you know, it seems to attract everyone from kids to grandparents. I know that he has plenty of people his age who like it. I have a letter from somebody who works with autistic children, doing music therapy, and they play Shpongle for them as well.

B: Really! Do you know how they use it?

S: I don’t know what sort of music therapy involves, sort of playing the music and getting them to engage with it in some way I guess. And one of the kids, he didn’t talk to anyone, he didn’t talk at all, he sort of learned the Shpongle music, he really digged it and the first words that he said in the class were, “Shpongle! Shpongle!” So that’s nice…I don’t know why it has that universal appeal…I mean the music…I guess, there’s something there for everyone. I mean there’s certainly something in there to piss off everyone, we use so many different influences from Indian to Moroccan, to jazz to classical, dub, psychedelic, but you know there’s gonna be something in there for someone not to like, but you know also something for someone to like, maybe.

B: It seems like dubstep is becoming huge, becoming more mainstream. Do you see the music you’re producing incorporating dubstep more?

S: I’m not particularly into dubstep myself, so I’m not going to suddenly start producing dubstep just ‘cause it’s trendy. I mean I’ve never done that with any sort of music. I incorporate what influences me and what I listen to, so I guess if I start listening to a lot of dubstep then it might creep into the music but as of now I haven’t. I think dubstep seems like any musical fad, I think it will probably die out. Or not die out, but you know these things always diversify, they incorporate other genres. So rather than me incorporate dubstep it’s much more likely that dubstep will incorporate other styles of music and splinter into different versions of itself and different genres within the genre.

B: Younger Brother seems pretty different from what you’ve done in the past. Do you enjoy doing that because you like working with the people or because you actually like that music more?

S: Ya, I just really wanted to do something with the band. Younger Brother was the first project we performed with a band, taking electronic stuff and performing it with a band and enjoyed it so much that we then sort of got the people we were performing with, involved in the studio when we were recording. Again, it’s a reflection, it’s another aspect of music I listen to, and another of my tastes. You know, I like rock music, I like Radiohead, and Pink Floyd and those sorts of things. And then we have Ru singing which naturally lends itself to more of a band sound, with a song structure. It’s just another aspect of what I like to do…If I stick to any one thing for too long I get bored. Even doing Shpongle, as much as the sort of multi-colored , hyper-dimensional that shpongle is, I still get bored and want to do something different after I’ve done too much. And so Younger Brother was sort of like that. And although people say it used to be psytrance, it never really used to be psytrance. My project Hallucinogen is what I would call psytrance.

B:So then what would you call Shpongle?

S: Shpongle…is sort of genre-defiant. I always say, you know trying to describe music, there aren’t really the right number of keys on the typewriter, you can’t translate music into language. It’s like describing physics through the medium of dance, or mime. Music itself is a translation of emotion and feeling, and possibly something spiritual. I understand for journalists and marketing people and record labels, to describe it to people who haven’t heard it you need to sort of convert it to language, but I don’t really know how you do that for Shpongle.

B: Speaking music and spirituality, do you ever use sacred frequencies or anything like that

S: I’ve messed around a little bit with that ya, the golden ratio and with whatever it is, 7 Hz. I don’t think it really makes much difference. Generally I don’t worry about that kind of stuff. I just do what I want to hear. The basic rule of all the music I make really, is I make something I wanna hear.

B: How is the energy of the crowds different across the world? Or is it the same?

S: I mean the crowds, I guess they’re different. I only really see unity, of people that love music, and want to have a good time and be able to party and lose themselves in music and dance. That’s something very primal and shamanistic that has existed for hundreds of thousands of years, probably. How are the crowds different? I don’t know they speak different languages, they come from different countries, but I see more of the commonality between us all.

B: Back to how you produce music…are you kind of obsessive about making something sound the way you might envision it or is it more organic? How is that process for you?

S: The process in the studio has to be very flexible and you can’t, it’s a strong tide, to give a bizarre river analogy…to swim upstream is always going to be very difficult so you have to go with the flow wherever it takes you. But yes, I am very obsessive so I’ll get stuck in whirlpools and headies with a particular sound, I’ll obsess about the detail of a tiny sound that might be, in the final mix, might be so small and such a minor part of the greater landscape, it might’ve just been sort of one little rock pool of the giant river, but ya I get a bit obsessive of every sound I work on.

B: I saw a video of you guys in the studio recording sounds like a coin being stirred around a wine glass…have you found some sound that you especially enjoy creating?

S: I would say nothing in the studio is off limits. My studio is a big combination of digital and analog. Analog can be anything that works from a chip packet to rubber bands to coins in a glass. And then you know I’ll also use the latest high tech plugin. Whatever makes a sound is gonna be useful. Nothing’s off limits. I’ve gone through the trash and whatever’s lying on the floor, scrumpled it up or torn it and record it. Record a bowl of water, cups of teas…the state of computer technology now is such that you can crumple a crisp packet and make it into a giant cascade of falling trees in an enchanted forest. You can take a single coin and turn it into a liquid drop of nectar.

B: Ooo nice analogies. Do you ever get the chance to be an audience member.

S: Uh, ya sometimes. Not at my own shows obviously, I’d love to see a shpongle show.

B: What is the shpongletron experience anyway?

S: Oh it’s just a marketing name really but to try and describe what it is…it really has to be seen. It’s sort of a giant structure, visually it’s a bit like a pyramid, all the lighting is done with projectors and projections and 3-D mapping so it literally throbs and breathes with life. It’s super psychedelic. And things move around.

B: Cool! Have you read DMT: The Spirit Molecule?

S: Is that the Terrence McKenna one? I think Terrence McKenna is the best person at eloquating, is that a word? At articulating the psychedelic experience, at translating, again, something that doesn’t really translate to language. He’s got the closest. I don’t know if you’ve heard any of his lectures about DMT and the psychedelic experience.

B: Ya, he is. You can choose not to answer this, but do you often perform shows on some type of psychedelic?

S: No, I can’t perform under anything, even drunk. I might smoke a cigarette. Now I don’t even really smoke a joint cuz I sort of need to be clear..I get so nervous before I play, as well. I don’t want anything to enhance my nervousness.

B: Even after all these years you still get nervous?

S: Ya, I guess it’s a good thing. It’s better to be nervous than complacent. Sometimes it’s a bit of a pain, when you can’t really relax before a show.

B: Ya, but then you get that release when it’s over.

S: Ya exactly. You get the high of it being immediately over, but then the inevitable depression a few hours later, when the endorphins run out.

B: When it comes to DMT and that whole experience, do you feel like it’s a good short cut and advantageous for people to experience something so spiritual like that, or do you think there’s something detrimental to experiencing something so sacred from something synthesized from chemicals?

S: No, I always take the short cut myself. Why take the long route? Sure you could do thirty years of yoga or meditation and serious study and probably get somewhere close to that experience. But, amazing, why not take a hit on a pipe and you can get there in a minute? Nah, I think it’s amazing.

B: Do you think you would be doing what you do if it wasn’t for those kinds of experiences?

S: Probably not, no.

B: You think you’d be a mechanic or something?

S: I can’t really do a lot else, to be honest so, I don’t know what the hell I’d be doing. I’d like to be a racing driver, that looks kind of fun. I’d like to be a writer as well. But I’d hate to be an unsuccessful writer.

The rest is off-the-record, small talk. J All in all, Simon Posford seems to be a super down to earth, open, spiritual artiste. Google 3-D mapping, and then go experience the Shpongletron and Younger Brother!

> You might also like this Simon Posford mix

Psychedelic 60s 70s music

2011-05-20T09:49:00.006+09:00

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 :

> You might also like this psychedelic art image

Psychedelic Pictures

2011-05-11T14:02:00.013+09:00

Psychedelic pictures and images from around the web. Here I'd like to present to you a list of my favorite psychedelic picture resources. Apart from mixing psychill and psybient music, psychedelic art is another passion that consumes a fair chunk of my time. If I'm not drawing it I'm usually reading about it's history, the artists backgrounds and their inspirations for the psychedelic pictures they come up with.

To begin with, one of the best psychedelic art repositories you can visit these days is psychedelicart.com. This site is contains a massive collection of old retro psychedelic bill posters from the 60s and 70s. Each of the psychedelic posters can be viewed in detail along with information relating to it such as the artists name, bands promoted, venue and production date. An excellent site for inspiration for you next psychedelic picture.

Next you might want to check out the visionary artists vault over at Erowid.com. This is a commercial free site that includes an enormous amount of artwork from psychedelic artists around the world. You can spend hours here browsing through the directories ! Both amateur and professional psychedelic artist works can be found here. For a quick overview select the curator's picks link for a fine selection of free psychedelic pictures.

Some eight years ago I signed up at a little website called DeviantArt.Com. I joined the then newly formed psychedelic art forum and started uploading art. It's amazing to look back now and see just how far the site has come. From it's humble beginnings into a fully fledged internet star. DeviantArt has been helping to promote artists of kinds for many years now and psychedelic artists are well represented there ( if you can ignore all the dodgy anime stuff ! ) . What I like about it is the supportive communities that form there where you can swap ideas and drawing/painting techniques and materials. I've have learned so much from the other psychedelic artists there and continue to do so each week. Have a look today - there is a lot of great trippy art to be found in their galleries.

Another visionary art archive with a number of psychedelic pictures is the Society for Art of Imagination website. This is a excellent storehouse of imaginative and sacred art that is of the highest quality.

Speaking of sacred art, one site that actively encourages its members to share their spiritual creations is Lila.com. This is an excellent portal that can keep you up to date on the latest news in the visionary and psychedelic art worlds. There you can find lots of articles, artist interviews, and extensive online gallery of psychedelic pics and exhibition schedules.

Another huge surreal gallery with a good number of psychedelic pictures is the Surreal Art Collective at beinArt.org. This is a very well supported sight with active forums that allow you to get in contact with fellow artists to share ideas. One of the central aims of beinArt.org is to show the work of internationally renowned artists like HR Giger, Ron English, Ernst Fuchs, Robert Williams, Mark Ryden, Lori Earley, Paul Booth, Laurie Lipton, Michael Hussar, Chet Zar, Chris Mars, Liz Mcgrath and Alex Grey with the work of lesser known, though extraordinary artists.

Well those are a few of the sights that I can remember off hand. There is plenty of inspiration to be found among their pages so I hope you find something worthwhile there. If you happen to know of any other similar sites with psychedelic pictures or psychedelic images, let me know and I'll add them to the list. Cheers.

> You might also like this psychedelic art image

Ableton Tutorial - Advanced Gated Patterns

2011-05-06T09:35:00.004+09:00

If you have ever wondered how the likes of Shpongle, Ott or Shulman get those atmospheric gated patterns you hear so often in their tracks then wonder no more. DJ Story from the Intuitive Beats website has produced a very easy to follow video on how to make gated patterns using sidechaining in Ableton music production studio.

> You might also like this Dub Chords tutorial

Psychill Radio Download - Psionic Geometries Vol 14

2011-04-29T13:24:00.003+09:00

Here is the DIFM PsyChill radio mix for March 2011. For endless psychill online listening visit the DIFM psychill station through the link below. The have a great roster of psychill and psybient DJs uploading excellent mixes every week.

In this psychill mix we have a number of excellent psychedelic ambient tunes. Of special interest are a number of new tunes available from the likes of Ott, Chronos and Iaachus. If you like Shpongle I suggest checking out Iaachus. His tunes have a certain Shpongle feel to them. You can find his CD "Together As One" at the Timewave records website. Ott's new album "Mir" is an absolute stormer as is everything he has released to date. For more info about "Mir" and his 2011 tour dates visit the Ott Sonic website.

DIFM Psychill Link : Listen Now

Tracklisting:

Track / Artist

01. Quod Erat Demonstrandum - Erot
02. Vishnu (Doktor J Mix) - Anahata
03. Unfold The Secret - Naturelement
04. According To 2012 - Naturelement
05. To Hear And Listen - Agalactia
06. Towards the Light House - Chronos
07. Angel - Goatika Creative Lab
08. Chill Spice - SeaMoon
09. After The Guiding Venus - Koan
10. Spirit molecule - Iacchus
11. Zygomata - Zymosis
12. Synchro - Terra Nine
13. On The Edge - Gaudi and Tripswitch
14. Adrift In Hilbert Space - Ott
15. The 4 Winds - Mental Extensions
16. Metaforia - Cosmosophy
17. Ghosts Laid To Rest - Pan Electric & Alexander Daf

Play Now :

Direct Download. Right click then select 'Save link as ... '

> You might also like this psychill radio mix

New Psychedelic Art Drawing

2011-04-26T01:09:00.021+09:00

Here is a new psychedelic art drawing ( left ) I recently completed titled "balance and decay". Click the image to see a full size detailed version.

I'm a big fan of psychedelic art, especially the works of late 60s and early 70s psychedelic artists that were designing concert posters for psychedelic rock bands at that time. Some of my favorite artists include Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley and Martin Sharp. If you are a fan of psychedelic art and would like to promote some work get in touch with me and I'll be more than happy to share them here on the psyamb site.

These guys made use of art nouveau styles and mixed them with psychedelic colors and flowing, morphing text to create some amazing trippy art masterpieces. The effect was both brilliantly psychedelic and informative with their well though out design elements. The original psychedelic posters now sell for hundreds and hundreds of dollars ! Even some of the reprints can fetch a tidy sum ! A great book to check out if you are into this style of psychedelic art is "High Art" by Ted Owen. I picked this up at a bookstore here is Osaka a number of years ago and it has become a real treasure in my psychedelic art book collection.

Ambient World Music Download - PsyAmb 40

2011-04-18T18:45:00.026+09:00

This week I have a new world music download ready to go. We kick things off with the beautiful Narayani by Suns of Arqa. Suns of Arqa have been making music based on Indian ragas for the past 30 years and have been very active on world music festivals circuit. They blend classical Indian raga stlyings with more modern dub bassline and percussion. The result is a world music fusion that sends the listener on a journey through an etheral other world. This tune is from the CD "Know Thyself ?" which was released last year on Interchill Records. After the success of the last SOA Interchill albumn , "Cosmic Jugalbandi" I was pleased to see the group back on Interchill again - a label that has continously released quality music for over a decade.

After Suns Of Arqa we have a tune from Nimba's [Ariane MacAvoy] new CD "Motherland". I really loved Ariane's tune "Ornongo" on the compilation "The Riddle Of Isla De Pascua" on Avatar records a few years back. So news of a new album was much appreciated and on first listen did not dissapoint. Her ability to manipulate natural drumming elements with synth programming is quite phenomenal. An incredible trance inducing psychedelic world music masterpeice.

Next is Fedayi Pacha with the track "Eastern Cult Of Dub". Fedayi Pacha has been creating his unique blend of dub and oriental mystical sound since around 2003 when he became a member of the French dub ground Bangarang. Using traditional world intruments, sound samples, studio guests and more Fedayi 's music reflects the sounds and landscapes of native communities worldwide. This tunes can be found on his second album, "99 Nomads of Dub" released in 2007 on French dub label Hammerbass records - an awesome label full of many dub treasures.

After Fedayi we have a tune produced by the joint efforts of Kasbah Rockers and world music and dub heavyweight Bill Laswell. This can be found on the CD "Kasbah Rockers With Bill Laswell" funnily enough. Kasbah Rockers is the latest project of Pat Jabbar and different guests from the Barraka label. Bill Laswell who is playing the bass on 11 tracks, grooves along with eclectic artists such as Youssef El Mejjad from Amira Saqati (Marrakech-Morocco, who co-composed and co-wrote on eight songs), Abdelaziz Lamari and Abdelkader Belkacem from Maghrebika (Oran & Skikda-Algeria) or Kadir & Erdem from the Swiss-Turkish Hip Hop crew Makale. Their distinctive musical identities are all fully integrated in a dense and compact soundscape. A great CD to have in your collection if you are into world music sounds with a dub vibe.

Next up is a curious tune from the equally curiously named group Wombatmusic. Wombatmusic is the work of Denmark's Kris Andersen, a veteran in the international electronic music scene. He has many releases on legendary labels such as R&S Records sub label Labyrinth (1994-1995) and as Elysium on Nova Zembla (1995-1998).

Kris started out as a professional DJ in London, UK in 1990 in the Acid House Scene and when he returned to Copenhagen it was the beginning of a long international music career. A career that once again took him back to London where he lived from 1996-98 while playing all over the world and producing and remixing at the legendary Butterfly Studio in London. After a break from 2002 - 2005 Kris Andersen turned back to the House scene and is busy with his house outlets under his personal name, his techno project Rymdfunk and Deep House/Tech project Andersen & Borelli with longtime friend and producer Jean Borelli. His Wombatmusic project is more of an experimental sideline. This tune is from the debut Wombatmusic CD "Shameful Silence" released in 2007 on Chill Tribe Records.

Samarost is Nico Guevara, electronic music magician and producer based in Costa Rica. Nico has been making music since 1996. He started with simple tracker software in Ms-DOS ( remember those ? ) before moving onwards and upwards to where he is now - head of Eleventy Studio. This tune, "Lokotomy" is from the Samorost CD "Entropy" released in 2007 on Noisnois Records.

Following on from Samarost is Entheogenic Sound Explorers [ESE]. ESE is the work of Italian duo Stefano Contini & Piero Marchesi. ESE started collaborating in 1999, coming from different musical experiences. They joined through a common interest in "ethnological & ethnobotanical studies" and merged into a musical ambient-electro project. They have two CDs to date. Both CDs represent a mystical world music journey through ancient spaces filled with psychedelic paramaters coming at you from all directions. Their sound is kind of what I would call psychedelic outsider music. A new CD titled Magic Garden is due for release soon. I'll keep a look out for it and hopefully get a review done on release.

Next is the tune Grace from Bahramji featuring Mashti off the CD Sufi Safir. I really love this CD and it has been a constant companion on my mp3 player. I featured these guys before back in the last world music mix so be sure to check back on that one to find out more about them.

Finally today is a real treat - a 17 minute long classical Indian raga given a bit of a modern technological polish by Saatvik Sequencers. Saatvik Sequencers is a conceptual music project by Nikhel Kumar Mahajan and Hari Singh. Both guys have an extensive background in electronic music. Nikhel has released 2 critically acclaimed albums under his alternate avatars of Sattyananda (Ambient) & Kalyug (Progressive) and has performed at festivals all around the globe while Hari has a sound engineer degree from SAE Chennai & a diploma degree in music production from Manchester Midi School in the UK. I highly recommend this release for something a little a different in your ambient world music collection.

Track / Artist

01. Narayani - Suns Of Arqa
02. KakiLambe - Nimba
03. Eastern Cult Of Dub - Fedayi Pacha
04. Hellou Al Biban - Kasbah Rockers with Bill Laswell
05. World Travelling Eclipse Chasers - Wombatmusic
06. Lokotomy - Samorost with Rapha le Fortie
07. Hongos - Entheogenic Sound Explorers
08. Grace - Bahramji with Mashti
09. Raga Bhimpalasi - Saatvik Sequencers

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

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> You might also like this Ambient World Music Download

> You might also like this Ambient Mix

Younger Brother Interview

2011-04-14T08:54:00.010+09:00

Welcome back to the psychedelic ambient music portal. This week I'ld like to present an interview between Alexander Beiner, host of the Visionary Artists Podcast, and Benji Vaughan of the band Younger Brother where they discuss all things Younger Brother related including the first two albums and the latest album, Vaccine.

Alexander is a tireless presenter in his regular podcast show where he talks about various topics surrounding the psychedelic landscape. His podcast is growing from strength to strength and I'm really looking forward to an upcoming episode where he will be interviewing leading psychedelic artist Robert Venosa - an artist who has been an influence on my own drawing style.

You can find out more about Alexander and his podcast including his new book "Beyond The Basin" at the Beyond The Basin website.

Interview :

Press play to listen now or right click then select 'Save link as ... ' to download.

Younger Brother have also released a new official video to accompany the tune Tetris from the new album :

> You might also like this Younger Brother Vaccine Album Video post

Renegade / Blueberry DMT animation

2011-03-28T17:15:00.007+09:00

Here is a little clip from Jan Kounen's film Renegade ( a.k.a Blueberry) 2004. The movie itself is not bad - I enjoyed it despite it's poor reception by the media on release. Anyway this little scene is mind bogglingly brilliant. The author of this video has labeled it as a DMT / Ayahuasca trip but I'm not so sure on that - seems like a mixed brew of various psychedelics. It's nice to play along with a bit of your own favorite psychedelic ambient music in the background.

> You might also like book about the DMT experience

Free Relaxing Sounds Online

2011-03-23T09:53:00.031+09:00

Living in a big city such as I do here in Osaka I am always faced with the possibility of some form of construction going on not too far away from my apartment. I don't possess any sound cancelling headphones so for some time now I've taken advantage of a few websites which offer free relaxing sounds online to block out the noise from my immediate environment. All of these sites offer sounds which are so relaxing.

These include sites that generate relaxing sounds relating to sleep sounds, sounds of the ocean and relaxing beaches, thunderstorm sounds online, sounds of nature, soothing sounds, rain forest sounds and sounds to do with sleep and relaxation.

I especially like white and brown noise generators when I'm reading and the neighbors are being a little too noisy or a building across the street is being knocked down. You can also record these sounds and put them on an mp3 player so you have relaxing sound effect with you for when you travel. So I thought it might be nice to group some of my favorite ones and share them here on the psyamb site.

1. Sound Sleeping
Sound sleeping is a cool little generator that allows you to create a kind of trance inducing tribal rhythm with sounds including drums, crickets, thunder, wind chimes, ocean sounds, birds and so on. One of my favorite free relaxing sounds sites.
Listen now.

2. Simply Noise
Simply Noise is the best noise generator I've come across so far. The user interface is clean and simple. The site provides white noise, brown noise and pick noise creation tools to help you block out noise in your environment. When a mate put me onto this site I was quite surprised at how well it was able to block out the sound of the construction going on a few doors down from me. When it comes to online relaxing sounds this is one of the best. Highly recommended for those of you who are having trouble sleeping.
Listen now.

3. White Noise 24/7
This site has a number of great relaxing sounds to listen to including rivers, sounds of the ocean and rain sounds. It also has a number of mechanical sounds which are also surprisingly soothing including washing machines, ventilators a dishwasher and a shower ! Great stuff. A good thing about this site is that a number of the sounds can be downloaded for play later on.
Listen now.

4. Rainy Mood
This is a great site that simply has one huge button that continuously plays the sound of a thunderstorm. Simple and brilliant. Possibly my all time favorite online relaxing sounds site.
Listen now.

5. My Dream Cloud
This one is a work in progress so keep an eye on this one. I really like the interface - very slick and cool. With a few more sound options this should be a big hit. One thing it does have over the other sound sites is the ability to program an alarm - very handy in-case the soothing sounds send you off to sleep. Has excellent relaxing water sounds.
Listen Now.

6. Nature Sounds
Just found this one recently. Its really well presented with a mixture of four tracks that you can select from. Each track can comprise of natures sounds such as rivers,oceans and rain sounds or you can choose from various animal sounds. That's not all however as you can also select things like traditional Tibetan instruments and even the sound of Darth Vader's breath ! Although last time I tried to use Darth Vader's breath it didn't load. Maybe Mr Lucas and Co. didn't like the idea the idea of relaxing Vader and came down hard on the site ?
Listen Now

7. Ambient Mixer
Here is a new relaxing sounds one I found in December 2011. Now this one is really cool - you can choose a theme ( eg grassland, summer forest, small creek and much more) and mix in other sounds to create a unique mood just for you. Personally I love the sounds of being on a ship in the ocean one. The themes are all user driven by a dedicated group of users and fans. Once you load a theme you can adjust sound levels or add new sounds and save the setting for the next time you visit. Fantastic !
Listen Now

Well that's about all I can remember at the moment. If anyone out there has some other good links for online nature sounds, relaxation sounds , sleep sounds etc drop me an email or comment here on online soothing sounds and I'll add them to the list above. Happy sleeping.

> If you are interested in some relaxing music then try this ambient music download

> This relaxing pictures blog is also another way to get a quick relaxation fix

Psychill Radio - Psionic Geometries Vol 13

2011-03-20T17:42:00.011+09:00

Here is the DIFM PsyChill radio mix for February 2011. For endless psychill online listening visit the DIFM psychill station through the link below. The have a great roster of psychill and psybient DJs uploading excellent mixes every week.

DIFM Psychill Link : Listen Now

Tracklisting:

Track / Artist

01. 23 Towers - Kaya Project [ Interpulse Rmx ]
02. Toward The Light - Flooting Grooves
03. Free Your Mind - Tentura
04. Triste Gaite - Electrypnose
05. Aeration - Aedem
06. Morning High - Patti Smith/Lizzy Mercier Descloux/Nick Skopelitis
07. Vacuum - Tarsis
08. Ashlandi Bol - Ozric Tentacles
09. Pink Elephants - SeaMoon
10. Xylem - Aes Dana
11. Format - GMO vs Dense
12. Aranyanyara - Entheogenic
13. Night Sorceress - Androcell
14. Slowpoke Pinoke - Beat Bizarre
15. The Sun in Here - CaveDave
16. Lost Abyss - Entheogenic Sound Explorers

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> You might also like this psychill radio mix

Russian Psychedelic Ambient Trance - PsyAmb 39

2011-03-08T16:53:00.010+09:00

Здравствуйте

It's time for a little психоделическое расслабление [ psychedelic relaxation, Russian style ! ]. Well, when I say Russian what I actually mean is Russian and Ukrainian ;>

The Russian trance and psychill scene has seen huge growth over the last 10 years. In the psychill side of things, Russian and neighboring region artists have sprung up out of nowhere bringing a fresh take on psybient music. The number of artists gaining releases on compilations and major labels is quite impressive. In the mix I hope to introduce the Russian sound to those people who might not have had a chance to listen to it before.

We start today with a track from Shpingida [ Igor Orlovskiy & Yulia Levchenko ]. Shpingida hail from Kiev in Ukraine. Igor also goes by the name of Irukanji through which he released the Z Lisu album in 2009 on Sentimony Records. Sentimony is a big supporter of psychill music from around Russia and the Ukraine so if you do happen to enjoy this mix head over to the Sentimony site and check out their other great artists and releases. Yulia herself has gone her own way as a solo artist under the same of NeiRula.

Next is Alexandar Daf [ Alexander Ivanov ] with his tune from the Dark Room Beats compilation on Aleph Zero records. Alexander is also working out of St Petersburgh as label manager of Microcosmos Records. He has worked on a number of collaboration albums in the past. Most noteable of these being a collab with Matt Coldrick [ Pan Electric / ISHQ ] in 2009 on the All around The World album and 2010's Prism album with Microcosmos partner Aedem.

Kyoto , apart from being a short train ride from my hometown in Osaka, is also the nom de plume of musician Vitaly Zenkov. Vitaly has been working as an ambient producer since 2004. It was not until 2009 with the release of the popular album Forest Trip that he became more widely known. He states his influence are Pink Flyod and Tangerine Dream. This in reflected in his complex layered and atmospheric psychill creations.

Ambient project MindGum was founded in 2008 by Sudarev Eugene from Moscow. His first experience of writing music came in 1998 using the well loved tracker software Fast Tracker. Years passed and Eugene changed sequencers and music styles. Some ten years later, Eugene discovered all the facets of psychill and ambient music. The Mindgum project was developed as way for Eugene to express how the he though his own past styles could play along with the new psychill and psybient music he was hearing. This tune comes from a collection of free promo tracks that you can find on the Jamendo website.

Next up is Chinese Pineapple by Ukrainian duo Solcast [ Konstantin Savchenko and Valeriy Kuznetsov ]. This tune skillfully blends the sounds of traditional Chinese stringed instruments with synth layers and bass to produced a somewhat unique sounding tune. Reminds me a little of Chinese Radio by Puff Dragon in that regard.

Following Solcast we have Unstable Elements [ Andrew Epifanov, Maxim Kornev ] from Moscow. The UE project was created back in 2004 with an intent to create serious psychill or psychedelic ambient music. Their tracks are filled with beautiful and positive melodies, a lot of breaks, groovy beats and psychedelic effects. Unstable Elements are a member of the Moscow psytrance promotion society called Voice Makers Group, making trance parties and open air festivals. They are also into djing and play morning fullon psytrance at such parties. This tune comes from their Technical Illusions debut album on Kagdila records in 2006.

Harax is an artist I have featured a number of times in past episodes and is one of the artists who really turned me on to the whole Russian psychill and psybient scene. Harax is solo artist Denis Botsvin. Denis along with Solcast member Valeiy Kuznetsov make up another group simply known as Sol. Through his Harax solo project Denis released the critically acclaimed album Inly in 2008 on Up Records. Since then he seems to have been fairy quite - let's hope it means his is hard at work on the next chapter in the Harax story.

Orthonorma [ Anton Rudeshko ] follows up next with a cracking tune from his 2008 debut Time 2 Wait. Anton was born at Northern Caucasus, Russia in 1990. He studied at music school in violin class for 9 years. Anton also plays piano, guitar and has some basic skills in flute. He started to compose his own music in 2003 with his computer-based studio. He discovered psychedelic trance, goa trance, chillout and ambient music recently with his friends Chronos, Zymosis and through listening to great artists featured on Ultimae Records, France. His inspiration is nature, people and everything close to his heart, like good friends, movies and his family. He's a sensitive skilled musician so stay tuned for his next releases. Great album this one - highly recommended.

Astropilot [ Dimitry Red'ko ] comes from Siberia, Russia. Dimitry For the past 7 years he has been experimenting with music and sounds. His fabulous music is the direct outcome of not only his gifted talent, but also his true passion to the music and a lot of hard work in the studio. Astropilot has become one of the major players in the psychill scene in Europe. His music is a reflection, and combines the culture, sights and sounds from his homeland. Dimitry manages to generate a considerable buzz in Russia and is constantly grabbing attention from multiple directions. He enjoyed listening to The Future Sound of London and The Orb as a little boy and has been inspired by the writer Vasily Golovachev and alike.

His first album 'Fruits Of The Imagination' was released on Avatar Records in October 2007. Somewhat surprisingly he released no less than four album in 2010 on Altar records. Now that's what I call productive ! His latest release, Here And Now, is an attempt at reflecting the current global social climate through psychedelic chillout sounds. It's a mighty find album and one which I also highly recommend for any ambient trance fans.

Chronos is a project begun in 2001 by Nikita Klimenko from Moscow. Since then Nik has been quite busy - making 35 tracks for compilation and album releases. In 2007 Nik released his first solo Chronos album - Steps To The Great Knowledge on Canadian label Sunline Records. In 2008 he teamed up with CJ. Catalizer [ Dimitriy Neschadim ] to release the modern psychill classic Quid Est Veritas?. Nik is also involved in loads of music production for various soft synth makers, media production companies and is also member of a live band setup. His new album Inspiration Power was released late last month on Beats and Pieces records. I can't wait to get a chance to hear it as I'm sure it will be as golden as everything else he touches.

A few past episodes have featured tracks from our next act, Koan [ Daniel Roeth & Vladimir Sedov ]. Koan reached a level of fame back in 2005 with the release of their debut album Talking Stones. Since then their sound has matured considerably and they now sit at top with the world's leading psychill artists with a sophisticated sound that many find hard to match. Be sure to check out their latest CD When Silence Is Speaking on Blue Tune Records. Also keep an eye on the guys as it looks like they are going to have many tasty releases for us in 2011.

Zymosis [ Dmitriy Lihachov and Grigoriy Sobinov ] is a psychedelic music project which has brought a bright light to the psy culture over the past 10 years. Zymosis is composed of two people who share their minds and souls to make you fly into the depth of trance. Dimitro and Gree Shanti have devoted themselves to music and they continue to expand consciousnesses everywhere. It is difficult to pin down their style, mixing elements of psytrance, downbeat, and ambient. Zymosis is known not only in Ukraine, but has also featured prominently in a number of international music events. I really dig these guys - I like the way you can hear a bit psytrance riffing through their ambient tunes. All that squelchy squisshy static sometimes just sounds so nice in a bit of psychill. Nowadays Dimitro & Gree are also working on goa-trance project Alienapia, which has already been released on a number of popular compilations and is quickly becoming much in demand.

Heinali is the work of Ukrainian minimalist composer Oleg Shpudeiko. Oleg had no formal music education and is completely self taught. Starting out in 2003 he experimented with different genres and styles. His earliest releases were in the psybient and downtempo fields, later on moving to experimental dubstep and ambient. Recently he has been into post minimalist, modern classical. In 2009 he joined the Soloma art group and since then he’s composing music for art performances and installations. Today's Heinali tune comes from 2007 off the Sentimony Records Fantazma compilation.

Aquascape was created in 2004 by two Moscow musicians Andrey Kostomarov and Anton Salikov. Having years of experience in live underground music, they felt necessary to bring their inner imagination and creativity to the vast fields of intelligent electronic music.Their richly atmospheric music is often used in science and nature films and documentaries. Since the beginning of 2009 the group had three commercial releases on Sunline and Altar records. In 2008 Aquascape was joined by Valery Gorick, which brought some elements of classical melodies into the Aqua-sound. They also added the amazing vocalist Anastasia Migova from Moscow. Now Aquascape is working on their debut album and actively plays at different parties and festivals.Their live act is an incredible mix of psychedelic video installations and deeply psychedelic melodic music, live singing and playing live with synthesizers and guitars.

Following Aquascape is Konstantin Terentev under is Aedem alias. Aedem is a side project to his Medea trance project ( note the reversal of spelling in those names ! ). Konstantin was born in 1983 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. He has an education in classical music and piano as well as sound production techniques. In 2007, as Medea, he became a resident of Moon Station Records, the sub-label of Sun Station records. In 2010, on Microcosmos Records, he released the “Prism” album with Alexander Daf [ see above ].

Next up is Irukanji [ Igor Orlovskiy ]. As I said earlier in this post Igor also works in the group Shpingida. Irukanji is his solo project through which he has just the one release, Z Lisu, in 2009.

CJ Catalizer [ Dimitry Neschadim ] gives us the rather excellent 2012 from Altar Record's Earth compilation. Dimitry just released his latest CD last week titled "I'll Be There". You can find it online at the Altar Records website. Personally I don't have it yet so I can't comment on it but the samples I've heard sound amazing. Kind of points towards the Ultimae Records type of sounds like Aes Dana. Very, very nice indeed. Full on broody atmospheric head trips to space. Can't wait to pick up a copy.

Getting close to the end now and we have the mighty Spectrum Vision [ Alexander Timoshkin, Ivan Uzdyaev ] with a track from Time Loop - Beyond Borders compilation. These guys surprised everyone with their 2008 release Lost Space Device. Almost as if out of nowhere these guys appeared with a freaking amazing album that has since become a firm favorite in many a psychill fans record collection. The album was mastered by Igor Orlovskiy [ he seems to be everywhere ]. Since then the group has been pretty quite - releasing the occasional track on a compilation here and there. I hope they get around to making another album as good as the LSD release.

Finally, and I do mean finally - my fingers are worn out - we have last year's shining star, Scann-Tec [ Vladislav Isaev ]. Unlike many other artists, who are mostly influenced by other people's music, Vladislav finds inspiration in many other things. Examples of these things include the sounds around him; people, movies, books, the sound of walkie-talkie conversations, regardless of what the people are actually talking about. His favorite instrument is his digital Dictaphone.

He loves to record people's voices, especially the voices of unusual people. This brings another dimension and atmosphere to his music. He is also obsessed with fat basslines, atmospheric pads and psychedelic sequences that take listeners to other dimensions of sound. Another big influence is PC games. "There's so many exciting and inspirational things about them", Vladislav says. "The sounds of monsters, the ambient sounds in the game...even the images and the lonely feel of abandoned castles." In one way or another, the images from the games help him compose his music – he loves to transfer the visual atmosphere into aural. Do check out his awesome album of 2010, Facial Memories. I haven't got around to doing a 2010 album ranking yet but I suspect it will be in the top 3 by the time I do !

That's it for this week. The Russian mix. Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did creating it. There really are some super talented musicians within the psychill and trance scene in and around Russia. Check them out if you get a chance, I'm sure you wont be disappointed. До свидания! Счастливого пути!

Track / Artist

01. Over The Depth - Sphingida
02. One Point One - Alexander Daf
03. Walking On The Sky - Kyoto
04. Sunrise Breath - MindGum
05. Chinese Pineapple - Solcast
06. Artificial Sense - Unstable Elements
07. Nearby - Harax
08. Time 2 Wait - Orthonorma
09. Answers - Astropilot
10. spiral clouds (kumharas edit) - Chronos
11. The Island of Deceased Ships - Koan
12. Summer Twilight - Zymosis
13. Endless - Heinali
14. Vacuum Fields - Aquascape
15. Rain In My Head - Aedem
16. Hybrid Seven - Irukanji
17. 2012 - CJ Catalizer
18. Sympotronic - Spectrum Vision
19. Aviator - Scann-Tec

Listen Now :

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> You might also like this psychill mix

How to Make Dub Techno Chords - Video

2011-03-08T10:30:00.012+09:00

Following on a bit from last week's review of Martin Schulte's dub tech album review , here is a nice little tutorial video on how to make dub techno chords in Ableton live. I found it pretty easy to follow and was able to get about 99.9% close to what this guy is doing through Ableton.

> You might also like this Ambient Dub mix

Silent Stars - Martin Schulte - Review

2011-03-02T12:13:00.006+09:00

Artist : Martin Shulte
Title : Silent Stars
Label : RareNoiseRecords
Release : March 2011
Genre : Dub Techno / Ambient
Rating :

Martin Schulte - Silent Stars

01. 911
02. Galaxy
03. Monday
04. In My Memory
05. Evening
06. The Fog
07. Space
08. Observatory
09. Angels
10. The Butterfly

Dub techno. Dub tech. Dub electro. Electro Dub. Whatever you want to call it, there are few artists or band that get the sound just right. There are plenty of groups that might kick out an occasional tune but hesitate to call it their day job. One young man who isn't afraid to wear the dub tech hat is Russian, Martin Schulte. Martin's newest album is a dub tech diamond that gets better and better with each listen. Silent Stars is an album full of lush, deep, dub chord stabs and waterfalls of echoing feedback that resonate with your molecules and relaxes you to your very core.

Martin states that his intention on the album was to reflect the thought patterns of the stars in the sky. If stars had thoughts what would they be thinking or wanting to share with us. I tend to ignore what artists say their music is about because when it comes down to it we can only make up our own minds and react to music in our own way. That's probably why I don't do reviews like this too often ;>

The album begins with the thematic 911 - a minimal glitchy dub number interspersed with samples of 911 emergency call outs. Yeah okay that could be a cheesy disaster but not this time , here it is expertly handled and Martin produces a track of edgy brilliance.

The second tune, Galaxy, reminds me of a waking city. The early morning sun casting shortening shadows and the concrete jungle tries to soak up what available sunlight there is to recharge and start the day. A brief break for lunch and then the city reaches optimum output functionality before the sun sets and the city sleeps once more.

The next tune, Monday, hints to a bit of early Future Sound Of London with the bubbling bird like synth layers flying over a canopy of alien Amazonian creatures. It even has a bit of a tribal house feel to it or perhaps a touch of minimal techno but this is pure relaxation - not pimpin' nation.

After that we have In my Memory, perhaps the most garage like tune on the album. Possibly for that reason alone it didn't really do much for me. I've never been much a fan of open hi hats - reminds me of too many dodgy night clubs from back in the 90s. I'll give that one some time. Maybe it will grow on me.

Now, this next tune, Evening, is very interesting indeed. Here we have tune that while devoid of much atmosphere has some very cool things going on. I especially like how each element is given its own place in the sonic spectrum through the clever use of reverb and spatializing. What you end up with is an effect that is not unlike looking at an aquarium of sound. You don't so much see the whole aquarium as much as the beautiful individual fish. Excellent ambient dub that will massage the left side of your brain.

The Fog is my personal favorite on the album. This is also the most ambient of all tracks on the CD. A tune full of wonder. A sleepy cocktail of brooding bass and parallel dub chords echoing off into the distance on waves of foggy vibrations. Combine with the occasional scrapes and heartbeats of unseen entities and you have a massive ambient tune in the vein of Yagya or Biosphere.

As we emerge from the fog our tour continues to the industrial wastelands. Space is a track that sends me into the heart of a factory. But not just any factory. I'm seeing a factory that produces atmosphere. The air we breath. Perhaps Space isn't such a bad name in that respect. Awesome.

The hypnotic rhythms of the factory floor continue as we head into track 8 , Observatory. We are back into tech/house ambiance again and find ourselves sliding along at a beautiful pace. This is top down , Venture highway cruising. Red sunsets reflecting off the cosmos.

Angels. The pace doesn't let up here but we have ditched the soft top for a flying carpet. Lift off. The beats hit a little harder but never hard enough to wake you out of the hypnotic coma the album has you trapped in. A bouncy jaunt of flighty fancy.

Another favorite of mine, The Butterfly, deserves to be heard by all lovers of ambient music regardless of ambient genre. What appears to be a rather minimal tune on first listen offers up more and more on subsequent returns. This is an incredibly complex work of art. So deeply ambient it is almost subterranean. The bassline is like nothing I've heard in an ambient tune before. It's quick,almost dance floor like, but dancing is the last thing on your mind when you hear this tune. It wraps around you like a glowing blanket of solar wind. Stunning.

Martin has created something rather special in Silent Stars. This is music for gazing out of places. For looking out of the windows of moving trains. For watching the world drop beneath you from the comfort of your airplane seat. It invites you to be alone with the music in whatever environment you find yourself in. Not to be physically alone but rather alone in your thoughts. It's contemplative medicine subscribed by Dr. Stressbegone. At just 22 years of age Martin has already put out something like 7 or 8 albums. I hope he doesn't run out of ideas and see he own star become a supernova someday.

Ambient Dub Mix - PsyAmb 38

2011-02-20T14:32:00.048+09:00

Another lush ambient dub download mix this week. Quite enjoy this one. It's very smooth and laid back. Perfect for an hour's relaxation. This psydub mix begins with a tune from the group "Outernational Spacelords" off the compilation "Ambient Dub" released in 2000. Very tasty compilation it is too. Not all tracks are winners but there are a few there that really shine.

Next up is "Orbit Service" with a tunes from Waveform record's 2005 compilation "Chillicious". Orbit service is the musical project of producer/engineer Randall Frazier, currently with help from Kim Hansen (antenne), Dennis Swanson (day dissolved dream), and Kirill Nikolai (still light). They list The Cure, Pink Floyd and Syd Barret as influences which seems mighty nice to me.

Our next bit of ambient dub comes from "Experimental Sound Project" with their tune " Chacruna Dub Mama Aya's Mix". You can find this dub on the promo psytrance album "Initiate Sequence" from "Dream Creation" magazine. Dream Creation magazine is based in London and the promo CDs aim to highlight fresh psychedelic talent from the internationally mixed underground UK scene.

gus till dub shadows - ambient psydub mix downloadFollowing on we have I would have to say one of my all time top 10 dub tunes ever. This track by "Gus Till" sent shivers down my spine the first time I heard it. Get in the right "setting" for this song and you'll see what I mean. Absolute classic. "Monkey in the Black Sky" can be found on his album "Dub Shadows" released through Psy-Harmonics offshoot ambient label "Cyan".

The might Infinity Project give us the next ambient dub tune in the form of "Noises From the Darkness" off the classic album "Feeling Weird" way back in 1995 ! I have mates who still listen to this album religiously like it is some alien artifact sent to earth to teach us all how to have a good time.

Trance DJ/producer DJ Zen was born in France and has been living in Quebec since 1996. Founder of "Tribal Trance Force" with his brother Emmanuel (DJ Isocele) with whom he was resident at Cyberclub in Quebec and with whom he has organized an annual party, "Natura". DJ Zen is also an airbrush painter and 3D digital graphic designer. Since 1996, under the name "Digitalys productions"/"City of Angels", he has airbrushed live at several parties, and for private collectors, painting on huge canvases as well as T-Shirts. In 2002, he switched to 3D digital design with 3DS Max, Vue Infinite and Poser computer programs. Check out his 3D works here. His tune in this mix comes from his album "DJ Zen In Dub" on "Altar Records".

kokpelli - conscious dreamsNext "Samorost" give us the tune "You" from the compilation "Kokopelli by "Conscious Dreams". As far as I know the label only released this one CD. The CD was intended as a promotional device for the Conscious Dream "coffee" shop in Amsterdam.

"Xerxes" is an artist I'd like to hear more from. I feautured a Xerxes tune way back on the fourth PsyAmb podcast in 2009. This tune is also an excellent chilled out serving of ambient dub. It can be found on Ajana Record's massive double CD compilation "Materia Musica" released in 2008. Easily one of the top CD of that year with the likes of Capsula, Kick Bong and Khooman present.

After another tune from the "Conscious Dreams" compilation we flow into a track by "Sounds From The Ground". SFTG have been around for ages now and I've enjoyed following their path from the very beginning. Their latest CD "The Maze" is their most mature work to date and certainly the most appreciated by modern ambient dub lovers.

Finally, for a chilled out landing, we have Brian Eno mixed with Biosphere to bring us all back down to earth safe and sound.

Track / Artist

01. Cape East - Outernational Spacelords
02. Asphyxia - Orbit Service [ Dark Ambient Mix ]
03. Chacruna Dub Mama Aya's Mix - Experimental Sound Project
04. Monkey in the Black Sky - Gus Till
05. Noises From the Darkness - The Infinity Project
06. I Believe [ 2009 Remaster ] - DJ Zen
07. You - Samorost
08. One-Oh-Three [ Edit ] - Xerxes
09. Hangar - Siebzehn
10. Afterglow - Sounds from the Ground
11. The Chill Air - Brian Eno & Harold Budd
12. Visit - Biosphere

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Younger Brother - Storm Thorgerson - Video

2011-02-15T12:03:00.020+09:00

Younger Brother members Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan in the studio once again as they work on an uptempo remix of their single "Night Lead Me Astray". They also give a brief chat about what their favorite bits of equipment are.

Following that we have a video of Younger Brother's CD cover artist Storm Thorgerson.

He was a core member of the British graphic art group Hipgnosis, and came up with the designs for many of their most famous singles and album covers. Currently, he runs a design studio called StormStudios - a loose collection of very talented designers.

Storm Thorgerson's most popular designs are those for Pink Floyd. His design for "The Dark Side of the Moon" has been voted one of the greatest album covers of all time. (Designed by Thorgerson, the cover itself was the drawn by Hipgnosis designer George Hardie). Many of his creations are known for their surreal elements.

He often places objects out of their traditional settings, especially with vast spaces around them, to give them an odd appearance while highlighting their beauty. To quote Thorgerson, "I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing which is unreal. I like to mess with reality...to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not?"

A number of books have been devoted to surveying Storm Thorgerson's work which spans more than three decades. I've love what he has done for Younger Brother so far so I hope the partnership continues.

View : Psychedelic | Ambient | Trance | Chill Out | Psybient | Psychill

You may also like : Younger Brother Vaccine

Best Ambient Music Of All Time ( Top 25 )

2011-02-09T10:05:00.039+09:00

Best ambient music of all time lists are quite popular on the internet. While waiting for some mixes to render I came across this list by "Darktremor" over at "listology". Here he lists his "Top Ambient Music Of All Time." I found it closely resembles my own section of best ambient music in the minimal ambient sounds sense. So, I thought I'd share with readers here and see what you think. Read on for some tasty ambient music recommendations and great ambient music artists from Mr Darktremor but bear in mind this list was created in 2005 !

1. Biosphere - Substrata (album) [1998]

I almost unarguably call this the best ambient album of all time. It sounds at turns like floating through space, sitting on an iceberg traveling down a frozen river, wandering across an alien beach at night, walking around a tiny fog-enshrouded rocky lighthouse island, and traveling through the arctic on a dogsled.

It is truly a work of art that can be listened to (or rather, slept to) again and again: it almost never grows tiring, because it takes you to so many places. It manages to be dark without falling victim to Halloween cheesiness (Lustmord): its menace is hinted at, not told. There is no evil in Substrata: the worst you'll find is a beautiful emptiness. A true masterpiece and crowns the list of best ambient music.

2. The Orb - A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain that Rule From the Centre of the Ultraworld [1990]

I've always felt like this sounded like a world created within a song. It doesn't "microvary" as much as traditional ambient - it creates little scenes within itself through faster shifts and bizarre samples. Really interesting, but like I said, don't get any version but the complete one, at 18 minutes. The shorter one is basically a bad ambient remix of an old 80's song (which was one small part of the full version, but in the full context, it's actually excellent). One of the best ambient music trips ever.

3. Tim Hecker - Radio Amor (album) [2002]

This is a pretty experimental work, but still fantastic. Its sound is difficult to describe, but it always conjures for me the image of a deserted island on an alien world, with a small sentient transmitting device trapped in the centre, calling out it's lonely song to any who will listen, wanting nothing more than an end to it's solitude. Yet, on your discovery of the box, you are taken away, hypnotically entranced into the device's mind.

You find yourself flying above the earth's atmosphere on a sound wave, through space, underwater, to unimaginable, beautiful, and warm tropical places, before finally finding yourself away from the island, sailing home on a ghost ship, called by the transmitter. At least, that's what it conjures up for me. But still, even if you don't listen to music like that (then why are you listening to ambient? Or electronic music, for that matter?), it's a beautiful album and deserves to be on every best ambient music list.

4. Aglaia - Three Organic Experiences (album) [2003]

You're going to have trouble tracking this one down. You'll need Soulseek, and even then it'll be difficult. But it's worth it. I might post one of the 3 tracks (think: Three Organic Experiences: Three tracks. AHA!).

Reminds me of...I'm not going to go into explicit detail like I did with the previous one, but it's a very mystical atmosphere.
I think the best comparison, is all the beauty of the game "Myst", without the psychotically hard puzzles (which I actually didn't think were that bad, but all my friends complained, and I heard it gets insane by the time you play "Riven"). Exploring a lost ancient civilization and it's wondrous remains, yet...a mysterious emptiness.

Oddly though, this world changes with each listen. At first it was this Myst-like abandoned ancient civilization, now it looks like the Earth before humanity turned it into it's own personal toxic waste plant...with a touch of the ethereal and mystical. As for the sound itself, it's stuffed with real instruments: flutes, strings, unheard of wind instruments, synthesized but organic drones, ethereal choruses singing in forgotten tongues; all played underwater. At least, that's the first track.

The second features them played in the trees of a (yet unnamed) China over a bamboo-bride crossed waterfall: where those monkeys live in eccentric little treehouses, all connected by rickety, yet mostly indestructible bridges. The third features them played on a melting glacier.

5. Monolake - Hongkong

This is an excellent album: perfectly representative of the deep/ambient techno sound. I begin my journey in this musical world inside a huge biodome containing the last animal life remaining on the planet - no humans reside here, so it is overgrown with jungle to all corners.

Only the occasional gardening machine makes its way past to keep the ecosystem in check. On finding my way out (hiding with a group of robots who make their way into an airlock), I wander into a barren field populated only by strange technology, robots, and the remains of human manufacturing plants. As I wander through this world, I find myself on a gray shore, looking out to an island across a small passage.

On it is a robotic factory of some sort, automated past any need for humanity. Crickets chirp around me, but on closer inspection, I find they are tiny robots, subsisting in an ecosystem made up of only of technology. As I continue my wander through this deserted world, I find a radio tower still standing, starkly silhouetted against a barren backdrop.

On entering, I discover it still transmits - the room is filled with screens broadcasting all kinds of historical recordings. I find a door to a basement of some sort, which appears to be an abandoned subway station. This is confirmed when I hear the sound of an approaching train. I board when it arrives. As it travels through the darkness and out of the tunnel onto a bridge high above the barren world, I realize I'm not really alone here. I'm being taken back to humanity.

6. Tetsu Inoue - Ambiant Otaku

This is a beautiful album. To me, it sounds like walking through the clouds during a thunderstorm. I feel completely safe there, as I'm carrying a massive Chinese umbrella that protects me from the lightning as I hop from thunderhead to thunderhead. I'm surrounded by a faint red glow. Electrical rays shoot into the star, nebula, and galaxy-filled night sky above. Classic in the genre and is often found on best ambient music lists such as this one.

7. Future Sound of London - Lifeforms (album)

Truly beautiful, incredibly organic. It's really evocative, and all of the images it brings are very alive, very primordial. There isn't a machine to be found anywhere in the world of Lifeforms: nothing but life, evolving rapidly from humble cellular beginnings. It's an alien world, passing through the stages of it's evolution stylized and sped up for our viewing.

Entirely different organisms from those on earth develop, now no longer for our viewing, but simply because time is perceived at a different rate in this universe: our laws of physics don't apply. Then, when the end of this process comes, the lifeforms you see standing before you...are yourself. Thousands of versions of you, crowding around you. Your presence created these beings.

But...they aren't you. But they don't want you alive: they attack and destroy you, believing death to be the greatest gift any being can be given. Maybe it is (we don't know).

8. Global Communication - 76:14

If you look at any best ambient music list one CD that is always to be found is 76:14 by Global Communication. Check it out , its fabulous.

9. Mille Platueau - Clicks & Cuts 2 (collection) [2001]

This isn't ambient per se either - it's IDM/glitch/REALLY microhouse/minimal techno. However, coincidentally, combining those genres together winds up creating the exact sound of ambient, and therefore deserves a place on the list. This is also a collection of tracks (unavailable elsewhere), not an album, with pretty much the entire Mille Plateau glitch backcatalogue from that period. For those who know Mille Plateau, that's a good thing. A VERY good thing.

Same label that put out Tim Hecker, in fact (as well as classics by Oval that would probably make the list if I managed to get a hold of them anywhere, and I can't - not even Soulseek has hints of their existence, despite their fame as being all time classics). Anyway, this collection is full of glitchy textures, and scratchy, nostalgic sounds, along with tiny, pretty melodies, all ever-changing as only ambient can be.

Each track has it's own (very fascinating) imagery, but they all work together to paint a sparse, tiny, and futuristic, yet beautiful world. It can be best compared to a science-fiction short stories collection, all wrapped around a single (brilliant) theme. Being trapped inside tiny machines, Nanobots travelling through the bloodstream of an alien creature, a human mind stored in a tiny clock, an insect-like nanodevice in a life-destroying rain, unable to contact it's creators in a now-annihilated world...well, that's my take on it, anyway. Point being: it's worth getting. (It has 60 tracks too! Although CD 1 and the first few tracks of the 2nd are the real gems here).

10. The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld

The album containing "Huge Evergrowing pulsating..."
Lush ambient soundscapes, an ether of music, out of which surreal noise and samples float, bubble and intertwine. Absurdly humorous: nothing here makes real sense, but somehow you are relaxed in the nonsense anyway. Perhaps it's better described as the "Monty Python" of ambient music. Evokes all sorts of images, some blatantly obvious (Little Fluffy Clouds...da da...), others more introverted...personal.

Fast, yet slow at all at once: one moment you float through space, the next in a tropical rain-forest but never once are you jarred: Ultraworld lulls you through the universe at a relaxing yet breakneck pace. The final track is a separate but complimentary entity that can't be fairly compared to the rest: it's the crown jewel of a true classic - it stands head and shoulders above what is already a masterpiece. As as psychedelic chillout goes this is one of the best ambient music journeys you can partake of. Prepare for liftoff.

11. Helios - Eingya (album) [2006]

A musical definition of the experience of relaxation, through sweeping, orchestral soundscapes. Eingya cradles you in its warmth and sublime beauty, without succumbing to new age yoga mat pandering. I've always believed that the best ambient contains a hint of darkness, but this sonic journey is challenging that perception.

12. Echospace - The Coldest Season (album) [2007]

Traversing the ocean floor in an impenetrable submarine.

13. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (album) [1993]

Just fantastic, that's all there is to it. I'm not going to go off into another long pseudo-poetic rant about imagery, I'll just tell you that this album has it. In celebration of Easter (which is today), it'll be like a little treasure hunt (only instead of finding chocolate eggs, you have to find ambient imagery).

14. Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return [album]

Steve Roach is one of the most respected and admired of all producers. At it's release, Dreamtime represented the best of Steve's work and is loved by ambient music fans worldwide, appearing on a plethora of best ambient music lists for the year.

15. Boards of Canada - Music has the Right to Children (album) [1998]

It sounds like a memory of distant childhood, but not as we're meant to remember it, the way it really is. When we remember childhood, for most of us, it often feels like remembering another life: like the memories are barely ours. And what we remember is a confusing, and often dark place, not the wonderful, carefree existence we're meant to have had.

Music has the Right to Children captures this feeling of disquieting nostalgia perfectly.

16. Chicane - Offshore (original ambient mix) [1996]

(track - make sure you get the 1996 ambient version with no lyrics and no simplification - AKA don't get the almost unrelated radio edit)

The shortest ambient track I'm posting. At only six minutes, this isn't a journey, so much as a snapshot.

However, it's image is so tranquil, so beautiful, that I still keep coming back to it, after knowing it for so many years. Nothing captures the sound of a Mediterranean Sunset on a deserted island like "Offshore." This was one of ambient musics few radio hits.

17. Sasha & Digweed - Northern Exposure volume 1, CD 1 (DJ mix) [1995]

This is, in fact, an ambient trance mix. However, that's entirely alright, when the mix is this perfect. I'm not going to bother describing it - I've done that too much already. It's just good.

18. Brian Eno - 1-1 (From "Ambient Music for Airports") (track) [1978]

This is a real classic. One of the first tracks ever to fully gain the title "ambient," (only predated by Eno's earlier "Discreet music" compilation), and for good reason. A zen garden of sound, a meditative journey to nowhere at all. The others on the album were a little disappointing, I thought - lonely without being. However, this track still remains one of my all time favorites. It still doesn't sound dated, even though it was created in the 1978. This is by far the oldest album on the list.

19. Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht

20. Biosphere - Shenzou [2002]

Another from Biosphere? Well, it's no coincidence that Biosphere is considered by many (including me) to be one of the greatest ambient artists (not technical wizard - Brian Eno wins that one) of all time. This has more of a primordial feel to it, like earth before life came into existence, or maybe as life began to form.

Biosphere's home probably has something to do with his talent - northernmost Scandinavia is a very peaceful location, atmosphere wise. Rather than trying to escape their ever-accelerating world, like most other ambient artists, Biosphere bottles the tranquility around him into a musical form, as a sort of gift to those forced to live in our maddeningly paced society. Point being: It's awesome.

21. Autechre - Amber [1994] (album)

I'll add a description later, but for now, we'll just say it's good. Very futuristic ambient. Almost IDM, but not quite.

22. Mute - The Sea Horse Limbo [2006] (album)

23. Steve Roach & Kevin Braheny & Michael Stearns - Desert Solitaire [1989]

The title explains it all. It sounds like a desert. I could go on and on about imagery, etc., but just discover it yourself. It's good and is has a deserved position here in the best ambient music list

24.Vir Unis & Saul Stokes - Thermal Transfer (album) [2002]

Another primordial journey...only this time, it's through the vast, deadly jungles of a last hidden pocket of the dinosaur age. I would go on with all the images and stories (including the footprint-shaped volcano as the centrepiece of this surreal world, slowly erupting in the end, wiping out all traces of a once beautiful land), but there are quite a few, and I've skipped a large number on all of them anyway.

Moving on, Thermal Transfer employs the Vir Unis trademark: what he calls the "fractal beat" - a truly tribal sound, more so than any other tribal beat - it's very "unsynthetic," highly organic. This is likely the primary influence on the mental world described above, it's a truly fantastic sound...

25. Nathan Fake - Peary Land (track) [2004]

What a great little tune: it's so beautiful. And oddly enough, it evokes images exactly like it's title suggests. The track conjures a view of an endless gray landscape completely covered in oddly-shaped (gray) pears as far as the eye can see: a canopy over the unseen ground (which all signs suggests is a giant gray pear).

The sky is gray, at least in the beginning, but as the track progresses, the sky opens up into a beautiful blue vista, and color comes into the gray world, envelops everything, and you drift peacefully in a sea of colors and oddly-shaped pears. It sounds nothing like any of Nathan Fake's other work: this is pure ambient here, and it's great. It's also entirely ignored. Except by you. Who will now download it. So ha!

Well lets make it one more for good measure ... a top 26 !!

26. Gas - Pop [1999]

It's hard to describe, but there is one thing I can say with absolute certainly: this is not pop music. Not that that needed to be said...

Anyways, it's a tranquil piece (it's an ambient piece...), evoking images of floating high above lush landscapes (or soundscapes, perhaps), wandering through places of ancient ruin before they were ancient ruin, wandering among darkly majestic rolling hills. There's an overwhelming feeling of peace, and perhaps mysticism; with something sinister lurking just below the surface...

So there we have it, a great little best ambient music list. Follow up these artists , all are sure to please. If you like minimal ambient music check out the ambient music download mixes at the archive page for a couple of free ambient music downloads.

> You might also like this ambient mix

Future Sound Of London - Ambient Intelligence - Video

2011-02-06T20:08:00.012+09:00

An early interview from best ambient music chart toppers Future Sound Of London, a band that blew my mind when I first heard their single Papua New Guinea. I still get a kick out it today - certainly one of the best ambient works I ever selected to buy.This video is probably from around 1994 I think. It is interesting to compare this FSOL video with say, the interview done at the MOJO awards last year where the band picked up an award for best compilation album for their work on the Monstrous Psychedelic DJ mix series.

I think its fair to say the band had had enough of defining the future when they ditched their samplers for sitars and started the psy-folk-rock group Amorphous Androgynous but they still haven't lost their groove and made a glorious comeback with their recent Environments 1-3 albums. Personally I found each one to be better than the last.

They had a big influence on me back in the early 1990's and help shaped my own sense of what psychedelic ambient or chillout music is ( for me ). Above all they were true innovators that embraced the technology they found themselves surrounded in.

EMS ( Electronic Music Studios ) Documentary - Video

2011-02-06T01:10:00.012+09:00

Excellent documentary about early electronic sound pioneers "Electronic Music Studios (London) Ltd". Formed in 1969 by Dr. Peter Zinovieff to market innovative ideas arising from his private studio ( e.g The VCS3 Synthesizer ) and interest in musical applications of computers. Over the next ten years many seminal products were released and many talented designers worked for the company.

EMS had its own peculiar brand of British eccentricity which could be both endearing and annoying, but should be viewed in the context of true pioneering. It is easy to copy and follow others, but not to think up new ideas in the first place and EMS had no shortage of originality.

The EMS influence was significant and can be traced into many contemporary products. I think anyone into psychedelic ambient, psychedelic chill out, trance ambient music will get kick out of this. I certainly did.

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

Video : Robert Rich - Dark Ambient Spaces

2011-02-03T02:03:00.015+09:00

A little look into the world of ambient music guru Robert Rich. Stalker and Somnium are perhaps his most well known works however Robert has had a lengthy career in ambient music. Download the video below to see what he has been up to recently. His tunes have had an influence on a number of psychill, and ambient chillout producers. I'll have to looki into getting more Robert Rich into some mp3 ambient mix in the future.

Although his music is often consigned to the new age bins of record stores and the bulk of his work has been released on labels more closely associated with that classification, Robert Rich's solo and collaborative recordings have proven extremely influential on a range of new school dark ambient and experimental artists. Although barely into his 30s, Rich's association with earlier space-music pioneers such as Steve Roach ( another personal favorite ), Kevin Braheny, and Michael Stearns also makes him one of the few of that generation to have interfaced creatively with the new wave of experimental electronic composers.

A California native, Rich began experimenting with electronics in the late '70s before attending Stanford University, where he completed a degree in psychology. While at Stanford, Rich's involvement in the university's prestigious Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics expanded his interest in electronic composition, as well as bringing him in contact with a wide range of non-traditional, non-Western musical ideas.

Rich's performance of several all-night "sleep concerts" during this period also helped solidify an aesthetic focus on psychoacoustics, perceptible in early recordings such as Geometry and Trances / Drones.

Rich's more mature works such as Rainforest and Propagation have sought to combine that interest with more recognizable electro-acoustical elements (Rich plays a wide range of instruments, from synths and effects racks to hand drums and flute), but the influence of digital sound manipulation has also moved increasingly to the fore.

Inspired by the more textural works of artists like SPK and Throbbing Gristle, Rich's interest in the edgier aspects of electronic music has also built him a reputation among fans of gothic, industrial, and dark ambient, made most apparent by his work in 1995 with Brian Williams of Lustmord. In addition to his more ambient-leaning works, Rich also plays in the experimental pop band Amoeba.

Robert Rich is also a scholar of Just Intonation, writing regularly on the topic and co-authoring the software program JICalc. - Discogs.com

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

Psychill Mix Download - PsyAmb 37

2011-01-31T22:17:00.027+09:00

This psychill download mix contains a number of smooth bassdriven tracks from the the likes of "Enterprise", "Astropilot" and "Androcell". There are also a few unexpected treats including a rare chill tune from Australian psytrance producer "Mr Peculiar" and new remix of the Shpongle classic "Around The World in a Tea Daze" by "Anro" ( "Anders Rosengren" of "Solid Snake Music" ).

I also recommend picking up a copy of the Kaya Project CD titled "Desert Phase Remixes". It's a very solid, quality psychill production that you can appreciate more and more with each listen. I've included two tracks from the CD in this mix. I'm sure you will agree that they are both top notch remixes.

That's about all for psychill this edition. I'll try to get some ambient dub and minimal ambient mixes uploaded over the next few weeks but for now enjoy a bit of psychill grooves.

Cheers ...

Track / Artist

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

01. When Only Sand Remains - Kaya Project (Tripswitch rmx)
02. Patchead - Enterprise
03. Moonlight Sonata - Lemonchill (Zero Cult rmx)
04. The New Magoo - Experimental Sound Project
05. Around The World In A Tea Daze - Shpongle (Anro rmx)
06. Ancient Tribes - Mr. Peculiar Feat. Athena Etana
07. Endless Wonder - Androcell
08. Answers - Astropilot
09. 23 Towers - Kaya Project (Eat Static rmx)
10. Palenque - Prosect
11. Sleep Paralysis - Sputer

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

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Younger Brother Vaccine Album - Video

2011-01-19T11:29:00.040+09:00

Younger Brother are back ! A cool video from behind the scenes with artists Simon Posford ( Shpongle ) and Benji Vaughn of the psychedelic ambient band Younger Brother ( not my younger brother ) as they chat about the past, present and future of the group. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming album Vaccine. It's going to be interesting to listen to the next step in the Younger Brother story as they move from their early electronic days into a full touring band setup. The last album "The Last Days Of Gravity" was a big success and this new album has been eagerly awaited. The Vaccine album was funded by the support of their many fans through an online pledge system. Members who pledged donations to the fund the production of the album got access to a number of special treats such as signed copies, limited edition goods and the chance to work in the studio with members of the band !

Younger Brother

Update :

The new Younger Brother album Vaccine is now available for pre order !

The brand new Younger Brother album "Vaccine' is now available for Pre Order from HMV.com, Amazon, or Play.com. Release date is 11th April.

Younger Brother 'Vaccine'
1. 'Crystalline'
2. 'Shine'
3. 'Pound A Rhythm'
4. 'Safety In Numbers'
5. 'Night Lead Me Astray'
6. 'Train'
7. 'Spinning Into Place'
8. 'System 700'
9. 'Tetris'

For updates on Vaccine and more you can join the band on Facebook. Also keep an eye on the tour section of Twisted, for Younger Brother UK and European tour dates to be announced soon.

Psy Chill Out Radio - Psionic Geometries Vol 12

2011-01-17T16:08:00.012+09:00

Here is the DIFM PsyChill radio mix for November 2010. Check out their PsyChill radio show some time - it's the best of the bunch if you ask me.

DIFM Link : Listen Now

Tracklisting:

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

Track / Artist

01. Chromosoma - IOOI
02. Glitched Desire - Nordlight
03. Space Dock - Chris Zippel
04. Kiwi - Ailo
05. Chill Or Be Chilled - Earthling
06. Therapy Pudding - Vonoom
07. Prayer of the Big Band - Krusseldorf
08. En Larmes - Lemonchill [ Chronos remix ]
09. A Thousand Colours - Sounds from the Ground
10. Soother - The Itch Incident
11. Snowflake - Lauge [ Seamoon Remix ]
12. Nowhere [ Live Rerub ] - Warp Technique
13. Chillnerd - Seamoon
14. Triste Gaite - Electrypnose
15. Missing Time - Sysyphe
16. The Gathering - 12 Tribes
17. Method of Divisions - Entheogenic Sound Explorers

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

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Psychedelic Ambient Mix Download - PsyAmb 36

2010-12-06T15:04:00.050+09:00

Here is a bit of a treat for all you old schoolers. Today's mix is made up of some classic mid to late nineties goa-ambient tunes. I quite like this mix because the artists involved are perhaps more well known for their trance tunes played out on the dance floors. These guys were pushing the boundaries back then. The whole psychedelic ambient scene surrounding the parties was full of invention, spiritual intent and a dash of tounge in cheek.

First up is a tune from the mighty "The Infinity Project". "Raja Ram", a trained jazz flautist and member of the 1960’s band Quintessence, formed The Infinity Project in 1989 along with "Graham Wood". In December of that year they organised their first party and played their first primitive tracks. Over the next few years The Infinity Project started releasing their first material on labels such as "Fabulous" and "Dragonfly Records". Then in 1994, Raja and Graham , along with "Ian St. Paul", formed the legendary Goa Trance label "TIP Records".

"Simon Posford", although not a full member of The Infinity Project has co-produced/engineered many of their tracks, and has a long-standing friendship and musical partnership with Raja Ram., most notably in their "Shpongle" project Other collaborators include "Martin Freeland" and "Nick Barber". By 1998 The Infinity Project had split-up, with Raja Ram and Graham Wood concentrating on their other projects. If you would like to read more about what Raja was up to back in the day then follow this "link" for a nice little interview with Raja conducted by "Michael Gosney".

After T.I.P is another almighty group of goa trance legends - the Italian wizards "Etnica". Max Lanfranconi, Maurizio Begotti, Carlo Paterno and Andrea Rizzo met during various parties in Italy at the end of the 1980s. Together they started to compose music in the early 90s. Max was also famous in Milan for the organization of the large all night parties, the first official parties in Italy to last until the morning lights. Andrea had a solid classical music background that combined with the melodies of Carlo and Maurizio's sense of arrangement would soon lead to the production of some of the most classic goa trance tracks ever produced.

Their first EP was published on the "Brainstorm" label in 1994. Their first album, "The Juggling Alchemists Under The Black Light", was out the same year on the German label "High Society". This helped the band build a solid reputation in the goa trance scene. Their second album, the classic "Alien Protein", was released in 1996 on "Blue Room Released".

Later Carlo had the idea of launching a more psychedelic trance oriented side project, "Pleiadians". Starting off with an EP on "Symbiosis Records" in 1995, they have thus far produced three albums. Even now Pleiadians often rank in the top 5 of all time best goa trance acts. The guys also had another side project in 1997, "Crop Circles", that was a collaboration with another Italian band, "Lotus Omega".

In 1999 the band changed their sound, intent on following the worldwide trend from goa-trance to what would become known as psy-trance. Their fourth album, "Nitrox" (2001) is the result of this evolution and worked really well on the dance-floors at the time of release. The following album, "Chrome" (2002) displayed a further development in sound production and clarity and was so successful that they released two versions, one for Europe and one for Japan. Actually , speaking to people around Japan I get a sense that Etnica are perhaps bigger here than in Europe ! Their sixth Etnica album "Sharp" (2004) was liked by old time fans too as it featured a return of melodies but still showed a crystal clear and professional production. In 2006 a seventh album was released, featuring all their best hits remixed by the most famous psytrance producers of the millennium. This one was highly acclaimed by every fan worldwide. The Pleiadians project was relaunched in 2006 with the release of a third opus, an album called "Seven Sisters", that delivered many sci-fi oriented tracks, released on "Harmonia Records". Etnica are still active in the scene and performing DJ sets and Live sets all around the world.

Next is "Optic Eye"/"Optica", one of the groups to get a start in the very early 90s on "Kinetix Records". If you weren't around back then you might know Optica's more prolific member "Jake Stephenson" from one of his many other groups/aliases. Jake was known for running the Kinetix label, but also for making music as Shamanic Tribes On Acid, Alien Mutation, Dr. Psychedelic, Mantra, Crystal Moon (together with Ishq), Bass Meditation, Mind Control, Eyetek, Whitestar and off course Optica and Optic Eye. Jake tragically died back in 2005 at the age of 42, right after he had completed the excellent "Paradise & Tranquility" album.

After Optic Eye we have another early goa heavy hitter in "Electric Universe" ( aka Boris Blenn ). The project was founded in 1991 in Hamburg, Germany. Being inspired by the first big "Voov Experience" party, some of Boris' first psytrance orientated tracks found their way to "DJ Antaro", who had just started his label "Spirit Zone". The Electric Universe "Solar Energy" maxi single was the second release on Spirit Zone. It turned out to be a big hit and set the ground for the first album "One Love" in 1994. 1997 was the year of the "Stardiver" album, with the monster "Online Information", which blew away the dance floors everywhere. In 1999 "Roland Wedig" joined Electric Universe and the result of the first cooperation was the track "Meteor" on the "Blue Planet" album. This kicking tune, with its expressive guitar lines was played at practically every party for well over a year and probably is the most often played guitar driven psytrance tune of all time. In 2004 “Cosmic Experience” was released including the "The Prayer" track, with its memorable Indian chanting vocals. After Spirit Zone Records closing in 2005 the album was the last one in more than ten years of cooperation with Antaro's label.

His chill project "Galaxy" had its first two releases on Blue Room. The third Galaxy album "Science of Ecstasy", released on "Chillcode" in 2005, got No. 1 in the Official German Chill Out Charts. A further Galaxy albumn, "Everlasting Tone", was released just last September. I'm a big fan of the Galaxy sound and recommend checking it out if you enjoy spacey ambient psychedelic music.

Okay next up is one of my favorite groups from the later half of the 90's - "Saafi Brothers". My first experience of S.B was probably back around 1996-7. I walked into a local trance music importer shop where they had this kind of glass sculpture display case full of various , err , mind expanding paraphernalia. Inside therein lay , next to some distinctly non musical related goodies , a copy of the newly minted CD "Mystic Cigarettes". One look at the cover and I just knew I had to have it. It didn't disappoint. It was, from start to finish, some of the most amazing music I had ever listened to up to that point in my life. Sadly, the same couldn't be same for what came from S.B thereafter. The follow up album "Midnight's Children" , although good ( especially the track "Wellness Farm" ) , I felt it did not quite live it up to the trip delivered from their debut. The third and fourth CD I didn't bother with at all. I think it was a case of the guys being together and in the right headspace at the right time with their first release.

Sliding in next is "Transwave", a goa trance act composed of titans Christophe Drouillet ( "Absolum" ) and Frederic Holyszewski ( "Deedrah" ). Christophe and Frederic met at a French rave party and subsequently formed the psychedelic trance act Transwave in September 1994. Three months later, the first Transwave release "Datura EP" was launched on the small French label, "Transpact". Over the following two years, Transwave released three albums - "Hypnorhythm" 1995, "Helium" 1996 and "Phototropic" 1996 and toured around the world, experiencing great success in the psychedelic trance underground and scoring an international trance hit with their track, "Land of Freedom". The group split in May 1997.

Christophe and Frederic also released an EP called "Anjuna" under the name "Kaledoid" in 1996. In 2007, with talk of reforming the group, a kind of best of compilation, "Backfire", was released on "3D Vision" ( Christophe's own label ). It would actually take until 2009 for them to release the long awaited CD full of new material. If I remember right, it wasn't actually that full of new material anyway and bit of a disappointment in that the new tracks simply sounded like a mix of their respective solo projects they created after the initial breakup.

Now this next tune is a bit of a departure from the early goa ambient sound but I put it in here as a bit of a lesson regarding the formation of the new "psytrance" sound that came about around the late 1990's. In many a pundits opinion German trance act "X-Dream" were responsible for the creation of what is now known as psytrance with the release of their album "Radio" in 1998.

I'm not sure I agree with that but that this album certainly gave goa-trance a hefty kick to the side lines. The Radio album became immensely popular rather quickly and sold out all the printed copies. It featured a totally new kind of sound which was yet unexplored in the genre. Instead of the complex melodies familiar in prior goa trance releases it featured a more industrial, darker, feel where the melody would become apparent only after several listens. Basslines were more to the fore, the sound was sculptured rather than layered and in a big wide open outdoor dancefield it blew everyone's freaking brains out ! Have a listen to the track in this mix, although it still ambient you can definitely hear the dark edginess and early makings of what was to later come from the psychedelic trance scene.

"Jaia" is the progressive house / trance / ambient project of the French producer Yannis Kamarinos. After learning musical theory for a number of years, he played piano and keyboards in some rock bands and produced his first trance tracks back in 1992. In 1995 he formed Jaia with "Jean-Michel Blanchet" and they released their first tracks on "Fairway Records". The first Jaia album “Blue Energy” was released in 1998 and re-released in 2000 as a double CD with a 6 tracks bonus CD under the name of "Blue Energy/Blue Synergy" ( "Dakini/Yellow Feather" ). Jaia released several 12 inches too , as well as numerous tracks on various compilations. Since 2000 Yannis has been working alone under the Jaia name. He released the album "Fiction" on "Digital Structures" in 2005, which fused psychedelic sounds with fat atmospheric progressive trance and house. In 2009 his 3rd album "Re:Works" came out on "Tribal Vision", containing brand new remixes of Jaia's biggest hits by such outstanding and diverse remixers as Martin Roth and Vibrasphere . However it is the debut "Blue Energy" CD for which Jaia is most loved. With tracks like "Mai Mai" and "After the Rain" it remains an emotion filled goatrance classic.

Guitars in trance music while somewhat passe now, was a relatively new thing in the late 90s and one group at the forefront of that idea was "S.U.N Project". In fact they were so successful at it that they became a bit typecast for it. I think that is not entirely fair though as apart from being rather skilled at catchy guitar hooks they were also exceptional producers and created some of the funkiest psytrance basslines going around. This tune is one of their rarer ambient outings and can be found on their debut release "Drospophila" on "Spirit Zone Recordings".

Track / Artist

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01. Another Planet - The Infinity Project
02. Be on go - Etnica 10:03
03. Wobbling In Space - Optic Eye
04. Visiting Venus - Electric Universe
05. Supervision - Saafi Brothers
06. Ulysse Voyage No 3 - Transwave
07. Out Of Your Control - X-Dream
08. Sommeil Paradoxal - Jaia
09. Going With the Flow - S.U.N. Project

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Video : Pitch Black Interview

2010-12-02T13:33:00.006+09:00

Here is a two part interview with New Zealand's dub techno ambient wizards "Pitch Black". Try to catch them live ( outdoors ) if you can - one of the best shows I've ever experienced.

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Psy Chill Out Radio - Psionic Geometries Vol 11

2010-11-29T16:21:00.008+09:00

Here is the DIFM PsyChill radio mix for October 2010.

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Tracklisting:

Track / Artist

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

01. Follow The Light - Sysyphe
02. Start Again - Flooting Grooves
03. For You - Kyoto
04. Mythical Connection - Aquafur
05. Immersing - Alexander Daf
06. Tjallberry - Magman(Phobosphere Remix)
07. Select Function - Random Robot
08. Egyptian DendroToxiDrone - GoaMech
09. Fiesta - Solea Amphibia　
10. Seraki Mire - Frost Raven
11. Walkabout - Bird Of Prey
12. Moonlight Sonata - Lemonchill (Astropilot Remix)
13. El Cornio (Second Chapter) - Electrypnose
14. Magic Species - Zymosis vs. Tentura (Kadasarva Remix)
15. Sympotronic - Spectrum Vision
16. Funk Spook and Take A Little Trip - Divine Soma Experiment (feat Cheech & Chong .v. Ol' Greg)
17. Kalewatar - Dreadlock Tales
18. Embers - Green Nuns On Ice
19. Londinium Chills - Ocelot

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Video : Youth / Alex Paterson of the Orb

2010-11-18T14:20:00.006+09:00

I thought it might be of interest to people to start up a collection of psychedelic ambient related videos featuring artist interviews and studio work etc. So to kick things of for the PsyAmb video bloggamythingy here is Youth and Alex Paterson The Orb , Killing Joke ] talking about the early years ...

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You might also like this Younger Brother Vaccine video

Ambient Dub Mix Download - PsyAmb 35

2010-11-14T17:01:00.067+09:00

Hi everyone out there, back again with another ambient dub tinged adventure. This mix isn't purely dubbed out tunes but I guess it does at least carry a heavy "head nodding" bass through most of the tracks. We kick of with "One Point One" by "Alexander Daf" [ Alexander Ivanov ] from the 2010 compilation "Dark Room Beats" on one of my favorite labels "Aleph Zero". Alexander is in esteemed company on this release which also features the likes of ambient legend "Robert Rich" and minimal tech maestros "Minilogue". Alexander has released a couple of EPs on well-known European labels. His debut full length album “A Thousands Reasons to Be” was released by major American label "System Recordings" back in 2008. His latest release is a collaboration with "Microcosmos" label friend "Aedem" titled "Prism".

Next we step into a sweet bit of dub from "Dubspeed Killa" featuing "Jazz'min" on the vocals. I'm not the biggest fan of vocals in dub to be honest but when it works as well this I have to give my thumbs up. This tune comes from the compilation "Global Dub Feeders" from the growing "Mighty Fat Records". A particulary nice little comp tunes that would appeal to a wide variety of dub fans. It features a lush variety of groovy Dub infused tracks from Australia, England, Germany, Israel, Austria and Denmark. "Dubspeedkilla" a.k.a "Erdal Tosun" is the son of turkish migrants and was raised in Cologne, Germany. Early on he was playing saxophone - live with a couple of German reggae bands [ Supa T. & The Reggae Cracks, Umoya ] and also featured on the records of some reggae artists [ Zoe, Umoya, Police In Dub ] . If anyone knows of a full release by Erdal please get in touch with me as I'd like to follow up on him.

After Erdal is "Gregory Isaacs" . Isaacs was one of the worlds most beloved and respected of reggae artists. In his teens, Isaacs became a veteran of the talent contests that regularly took place in Jamaica. In 1968, he made his recording debut with a duet with Winston Sinclair, "Another Heartache", recorded for producer "Byron Lee". The single sold poorly and Isaacs went on to team up with two other vocalists [ Penroe and Bramwell ] in the short-lived trio The Concords, recording for Rupie Edwards and Prince Buster. The trio split up in 1970 and Isaacs launched his solo career, initially self-producing recordings and also recording further for Edwards. In 1974 he began working with producer "Alvin Ranglin", and that year he had his first Jamaican number one single with "Love Is Overdue". Isaacs recorded for many of Jamaica's top producers during the 1970s, including Winston "Niney" Holness, Gussie Clarke ("My Time"), Lloyd Campbell ("Slavemaster"), Glen Brown ("One One Cocoa Fill Basket"), Harry Mudie, Roy Cousins, Sidney Crooks and Lee "Scratch" Perry ("Mr. Cop"). By the late 1970s, Isaacs was one of the biggest reggae performers in the world, regularly touring the US and the UK, and only challenged by Dennis Brown and Bob Marley. Between 1977 and 1978, Isaacs again teamed up with Alvin Ranglin, recording a string of hits including "Border" and "Number One" for Ranglin's GG's label.

International stardom seemed assured in 1978 when Isaacs signed to the Virgin Records offshoot Front Line Records, and appeared in the film "Rockers", in which he performed "Slavemaster". The Cool Ruler (which became one of his nicknames) and Soon Forward albums, however, failed to sell as well as expected, although they are now considered among his best work. He signed to Island Records and released the record that finally saw him break through to a wider audience, "Night Nurse", the title track from his first album for the label. Although "Night Nurse" was not a chart hit in either the UK or US, it was hugely popular in clubs and received heavy radio play.

Isaacs' drug addiction had a major impact on his voice, with most of his teeth falling out as a result. Isaacs said of his addiction in 2007: "Drugs are a debasing weapon. It was the greatest college ever, but the most expensive school fee ever paid ? the Cocaine High School. I learnt everything, and now I've put it on the side."

In 2008, after some 40 years as a recording artist, Isaacs released a new studio album "Brand New Me", which was nominated for the Grammy Awards for 2010. The album received positive reviews from critics, such as this review from Reggae Vibes: "Gregory is back, and how! 'Brand New Me' is a very suitable album title for the cool ruler's new album. He is back in a different style, more or less like we were used to from this great 'lovers & roots' artist". This was followed in 2009 by the album "My Kind Of Lady". In 2010, Gregory Isaacs put out the last of his albums to be released while he was still living "Isaacs Meets Isaac" with Zimbabwean reggae singer, King Isaac. After a long battle with lung cancer, Isaacs died on 25 October 2010 at his home in south London

"Telemetry Orchestra" are a Sydney-based electronic music band composed of members Steve Scott, Gavin Angus-Leppan and Charlotte Whittingham. They have released three albums to date with several singles receiving regular airplay on Australian national radio. The video clip of their 2006 single "Under the Cherry Tree", by Sydney-based digital visual effects company "Animal Logic" won an award in early 2007 in New York. This tune comes from the group's 1998 debut release "Live Better Electrically" released through Australian label "Clan Analogue". I don't think they are actuve anymore as I haven't seen anything from them in over 4 years or so since the release of the rather excellent "Empire" CD back in 2006.

Next is a tango infused dub ( yes you read that right ) that is smooth as melted chocolate velvet glass."OMFO" [ German Popov ] brings us "Utomljonneje Solntse" from the albumn "We Are The Shepherds". As an explorer German Popov loves to travel around Central Asia making live recordings of everything from the traditional songs and melodies of the steppes to the modern restaurant bands of Tashkent with their tinny keyboard sound. So welcome to electronic Walachia, where folk meets Kraftwerk and where bizarre instruments and electronic sounds combine to create a whole new musical dimension. With his ideas and his musicians he bravely goes where no human ear has dared to go before. Futurism meets folklore imaginaire: Ladies and Gentlemen, we are floating in Eastern European space. His first album on the Essay Recordings label, Trans Balkan Express, put him in the international spotlight, and none other than "Sacha Cohen" chose two tracks from the album "Money Boney" and "Magic Mamaliga" for the soundtrack of his "Borat" film.

"Kukan Dub Lagan" is the work of Israeli ambient dub producer Itay Berger. Itay spent over 3 years working as a sound engineer in one of the top sound and light companies in Israel. His decision to make music was strongly influenced by his trip to Ibiza in 1997-8 where he visited Juan's "Muses Rapt" studio. At that time he also started to dj in Israel and abroad at mostly underground parties . During his travels he also played in Cusco, Peru as well as in New York along with Total Eclipse. Itay's general musical influences are wide-ranging. His journey into chill-out djing started in 2002 in Israel. During that time he was also signed by a UK techno-house label (www.klubdj.co.uk) under the name DJ Itay for a year and flew to Japan to play at parties in Osaka and Kyoto. Returning back to Israel, he enroled in sound engineering college for one year and totally committed himself to music composition. Drawing from his djing experience, his early family musical influences as well as his own musical background he created his chill-out project Kukan Dub Lagan. It is a combination of three separate words: KUKAN, which means "space" in Japanese; DUB which represents the music style; and, LAGAN, comes from the word "ba-lagan" which in Hebrew means "chaos". The debut album of Kukan-Dub-Lagan "Life is Nice" was released by Candyflip-Records/Greece in 2004. His second album "Step ina Rasta Step" was released on his own label "MikelaBella Rec" in 2007. His last release "New Life New Vision" was released last year, again through MikelaBella.

Next up is Brazil's "Yubaba". Yubaba is the free-style lounge project of Frederico Drummond e Pedro Gomide. Their music is an evolving journey from dub into house, with a trip hop feeling and a touch of jazz.Active artists in the Brazilian chill-out and trance scenes for many years, they have appeared at several of the premiere festivals in Brazil, USA and Europe. They joined their musical skills together in this project, where they mix cultural influences and attempt to recreate the eclectic and open-minded mood of their homeland, Brazil. Their first album, "Paradiso", was released through "Cyberset Records" from California. In Paradiso, they feature singers Thailan and Nathalia Faria, the MC Blacklight, plus the trumpet player Dan Covan creating soulful melodies and rhythmic textures. With shows at Boom Festival, Symbiosis Gathering, Universo Paralello, Festival Eletronika and the latest in front of thousands of people at Savassi Festival - Jazz & Lounge, they keep amazing the listeners with their unique combinations and groovy rhythms. Great ambient dub.

"Ashtech" [Andrea Nicoletti ] is a producer, bass player and solo artist. His style combines original dub and urban electronica and it is uniquely characterized by the flavor of his heavy dubby bassline which features strongly in all of his productions. Andrea's career began as a dj where he developed a passion for experimental music. He soon became an established figure in the italian mainstream music scene collaborating with many artists both as a producer and as a composer on a total of 14 albums, 3 of which with Almamegretta (4/4, IMAGINARIA, Venite Venite) under the BMG Label. His 5 years long collaboration with Almamegretta saw him tour extensively in Italy and Europe playing to large crowds and sharing the stage with international acts such as Tricky, The Wailers, Erykah Badu, Mory Kante, Compay Segundo, Groove Armada and Asian Dub Foundation. After moving to London Ashtech released "With Me" for the compilation "The Dream Temple" , "Dub Hypnosisi" for the album "Continvvmi" on "Em:t records" and "Earth Orbit" for the dub compilation "Sub Signals" on "Interchill Records". This track is taken from "Walkin Target", Ashtech's debut CD on "Interchill Records" and features the awesome vocals of "Cheshire Cat" of "Leftfield" fame.

Next is a french act "Zenzile". After a thirteen years old career, including: seven albums, five Maxi LP's and hundreds of live concerts throughout the world, you would think you knew all about Zenzile. However, those who have following this band since their beginnings in Angers, France, know well that no one knows what will resemble a new album of Zenzile before it gets out. Instead of cloning their music precisely year after year, the quintet has always chosen to focus on their trade mark sound which is rich and various, thanks to a dazzling bass and whooping guitars and create new sounds around that foundation.

From the start, Zenzile has been having fun mixing the same influences (post punk,dub,folk,soft rock,soul jazz) with a savvy sense of measuring them all out, in order to produce a unique album every time.These days Zenzile seems to have found the right balance between staying simple while being demanding. Strings and organs are more present than ever to form melodies never dared before. Evidently freed from any past inhibitions, the band now sweats out many old legendary vinyl albums, reminiscent of their teen age years. Shadowy organs, bony guitars, ramping bass. There are also lingering feverish memories of ESG, Pink Floyd, Nick Cave or PIL but everything is digested and sublimated only to be more accomplished. As diverse as their music can be you would do well to check them out and track down their ambient dub or bass heavy tracks as there are some real gems to be found. This tune comes from their 2007 release "Living In Monochrome" on label "UWe".

"Vonoom" is the brainchild of Michael Sundo, who was first introduced to the psychedelic culture while living abroad in Tokyo, Japan and later in Vienna, Austria. He began his musical career as a DJ around 2000,. He later began to dabble with music production in 2003. Back then the main focus was psychedelic trance, but as he grew older the music slowed down and his main passion, when producing, became various downbeat and dubby experiments, but always with a healthy pinch of the psychedelic to spice things up. Vonoom has also been working together with "Lauge & Baba Gnohm" on a few projects, so expect to see more from this trio in the future. Today's track comes from the "Beyond Borders" compilation on "Sentimony Records".

Next is "U-Recken" [ Yaniv Ben-Ari ]. Yaniv got into trance music in 1998, when he was 20 years old. He was born in Haifa, Israel, and was playing in rock bands since he was 14. Soon after that he was working as a music producer and sound engineer in recording studios in Israel. Yaniv also worked as a sound engineer at theater plays in New York and Great Brittain. The long exposure to music drove him to start Dj-ing and organizing trance parties. After a while he realised that playing his own music was much more fun, so he started to write music, which was soon appreciated by "Doof Records". His musical style has developed from harsh dark banging full on trance, into a more melodical (yet still pumping) form of psytrance, which made Doof records decide to invite him into the rising "Dooflex" project. This atmospheric tune is off Yaniv's debut CD on "Dooflex" titled "Aquatic Serenade".

Following that we get back into a bit more vocal ambient dub madness from "Nagual Sounds Experiment". Original Dub Soundsystem since 1996, NSE has morphed into a full on production alias of psychedelic dance producer Cameron Leonard-Schroff aka psybreaks pioneer Mood Deluxe on Liquid Records. The NSE sound draws heavily from the dubwise ethic, fusing Jamaican style engineering, with futuristic and psychoative elements. NSE has managed to craft a style that draws heavily from roots dub and rockers reggae, the urban dubstep genre, IDM and glitch, hiphop, triphop,ambient breaks, industrial, shadowey techno and dripping psychedelic dub. I think that just about covers him ! Great tunes so check out his debut CD "Movements" which you can find here at the "Liquid Records" website.

Finally today we have an interesting remix of The Doors' "Riders On the Storm" by Ibiza resident "Lenny Ibizarre". Lenny Ibizarre emerged into the music scene in Ibiza in 1997 where he started work on his first album, the Ambient Collection, which was signed by Warner Music UK. Since 1997, Lenny has produced 12 albums and has become a multi-platinum selling artist. His Chilled Ibiza Compilations sold over 1,5 million copies in the UK. The Ambient Collection reached its 7th edition in 2007. Lenny Ibizarre is also a much respected remix artist favoring seasoned multi-platinum artists such as The Doors, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Jefferson Airplane, Nat King Cole and Henry Mancini. As a DJ, Lenny Ibizarre has held residencies at Cafe Del Mar, Pacha, Khumaras, Ku (Privilege) and Amnesia and he is a demanded international DJ. In 1997, Lenny Ibizarre also founded his record label, Ibizarre Records and co-founded the DJ Awards . This tune comes from "Riders On The Storm 2000 (The Remixes)" , a little 3 track EP Elktra records put out in 2000. For a truely better remix experience check out the project The Doors remix project Infected Mushroom made back in 2007 that featured remixes done by I.M, The Crystal Method and Adam Freeland amongst others.

That's it for this week's ambient dub mix. You can tune in to DI.FM psychill radio this Sunday to catch my next Psionic Geometries mix. Check the calendar on the DIFM website for exact times in your local area.

Cheers ...

Track / Artist

http://psy-amb.blogspot.com

01. One Point One - Alexander Daf
02. Goodbye to the City - Dubspeed Killa ft. Jazz'min
03. Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
04. Swingers International - Telemetry Orchestra
05. Utomljonneje Solnts - Omfo
06. New Life New Vision - Kukan Dub Lagan
07. Earthforce - Ashtech
08. Giant Undertow - Zenzile
09. Space Baby - Vonoom
10. Aquatic Serenade - U-Recken
11. Forward - Nagual Sound Experiment (With Ital Roots Players)
12. Riders on the Storm 2000 - Ibizarre

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