Today is a special occasional here at the PsyAmb blog as it marks the 50th mix in the PsyAmb psychedelic ambient music series. So with that in mind I decided to do an especially long ( over 2 hours ) mix full of psychedelic chillout gems. Before I begin giving you the details of this mix I would like to thank all you listeners, downloaders, sharers, likers and hikers who have given great feedback and spread the tunes in this series worldwide for all to enjoy. Long may it be so !
So this week we kick of with "Aligning Minds" ( Daniel Merrill and Michael Folk ) with the track "Satsand Orchard". This can be found through the "Adapted Records" bandcamp website ( and Soundcloud ) were I picked it up as a free download as part of the compilation "Acquiring Influence Volume 1". This is fantastic tune with lots of great new sounds on offer from a group that is getting better and better with every track they produce. Their tunes have a spicy mix of genres like dubstep, breakbeat, downtempo, idm/glitch, and techno. Check out their 2011 release "Universal Automation" for a real enjoyable psychedelic music experience. The guys have a number of upcoming gigs which U.S listeners might be interested in. On November 10th you can catch them at Dosha Bar Club in Savannha, Georgia and then at Pour House Music Hall in Raleigh, North Carolina on November 30th.
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| Trollwood |
Up next is the little known "Trollwood" ( Denis Bogachev ), a solo artist from Russia. Denis is known on the Russian trance circuit where he can please a crowd with his warm and spacious progressive trance tunes. However he is yet to crack it internationally but I have no doubt he will get there soon. This is one of his first downtempo oriented tunes and it sure is a beauty. Hope we can hear more of his chillout tunes in the near future.This comes from the compilation "The Martian Chronicles". Denis has an 2 track EP as well titled "Tears Of An Angel" which was released on Trimurti records last year.
"Vonoom" ( Michael Sundo ) has impressed of late with his stylish psychill production techniques and a number of excellent psybient tunes. He has featured on some of the best chillout compilation albums of the past few years and has recently started collaborating with Lague and Baba Gnohm on a number of tracks. What I really love about Vonoom's sound is it's close association with psytrance. You can hear the influence that producing psytrance in his early years has had on his current music which is full of squelcy and trippy psy synths and gated effects along with warm and funky basslines. Excellent stuff.
Another outstanding tune that you can pick up as a free download is the track "Follow The Shaman" by U.S producers "Digital Folk". From the Bay Area of the West Coast, Digital Folk ( Dan Alvidrez and Daniel Lesser ) are long time friends who have worked on separate solo projects and together to create some of the best bass driven sounds to emerge from the Bay Area's respected dubstep and glichhop breeding ground. Some of you may be familiar with Alivdrez's solo project known as "Builder". As Builder he has done some top notch work including a number of superb remixes - most notably a dubstepish remix of Shpongle's "Star Shpongled Banner".
"All Species" is another downtempo duo, this time hailing from Athens, Greece. The track in this mix is called "Jaipur Drive" which was released earlier last year as part of a 5 track EP "Magic Roundabout". The EP was touted as being reflective of mid-90's early chillout sounds. I'm not quite sure what they would mean by that as chillout music in the mid 90s was pretty diverse and hard to pin down and besides I think this tune sounds just as fresh as anything released in the last 12 months so why not celebrate the present. You can make your own mind up if you like by checking out more of their work at the Kraak Records website.
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| Swen Stroop |
Someone who is definitely not able to be put under any label or genre of music is our next artist - the delightfully inventive "Swen (Dzoncy) Stroop". I think I got the name right ? Swen's music is wildly psychedelic and unlike anything you are likely to have heard before. If you enjoy your music a bit further out on the edge then his album "Forest In Peace" might be just what you are looking for. More Swen !
