Greetings. It's that sticky, hot time of year here in Osaka which has forced me to hibernate in air-conditioned comfort 24/7. I've taken the time to get a long mix done too ! After previously saying I was going to concentrate on shorter mixes for a while, somehow I found the time in-between drawing and changing diapers ( the baby's, not mine ! ) to get a two hours plus psychill mix down.
This one is full of some of my favorite spacey psychill tracks from 2014/2015 and should please any fans of the Altar Records/Ultimae records spacey psychill styles. It kicks off with a track "Existence" by Ascendant from their excellent album "Athereal Code". If you like that classic Aes Dana sound then you will love that album. Actually Aes Dana follows up next with a track from his colloboration EP "Cut" that he produced with fellow Ultimae artist Miktek. It is a fantastic EP too - really progressive and pushing the psychill sound further into new territories.
Our third tune comes from Unknown Reality ( Ralph Knobloch ) from his EP "Moments". Ralph has been around the scene for ages, not always in a psychill sense though. Some of you might be familiar with his old psytrance act Rastaliens. He can certainly lay down a great bit of psychedelic downtempo as this track wonderfully demonstrates.
After Ralph we have the ever productive Germind before the mix starts to mover into slightly more hypnotic beats via Russian producer Astronaut Ape (
Oleg Belousov ). Oleg has been one of the most consistent of the new breed of Russian psychill producers and has always sought to evolve his sound in terms of production and mastering. The beauty in his tracks shine through so brightly. Check out the album "Silhouette Depth" for a wealth of quality psychill listening.
Oleg Belousov ). Oleg has been one of the most consistent of the new breed of Russian psychill producers and has always sought to evolve his sound in terms of production and mastering. The beauty in his tracks shine through so brightly. Check out the album "Silhouette Depth" for a wealth of quality psychill listening.
A new artists to my ears, One Arc Degree, provide our next tune from the four track EP "Under A Trillion Suns". Finding a home on Microcosmos records, this Greek duo of Vasilis Kesalidis and Ioannis Konstantios have released two further EPs since Under A Trillion Suns. I really dig their sound so I hope they can get a full album together someday.
Up next is Lab's Cloud ( Raúl Jordán ) from Spain who has produced a ripper of a track with his tune "Found The Way". It's a cruisey progressive downtempo trance gem that incorporates the use of Charlie Chaplin's famous speech from "The Great Dictator". That sample seemed to pop up everywhere over last few years. Probably the result of social media and people sharing the YouTube video I guess. Raul handles it very way and uses the sample as inspiration for his track name too. You can find this track on his album "Imminent Awakening", one of the many brilliant releases in 2014 from Altar Records.
I've been listening to a lot of E-Mantra of late. I find his combination of classic goa sounds and modern psychill effects to be just the thing while drawing away in my sketch books. In this mix I've gone for his track "Snow Began To Fall" from the album "Echoes From The Void" which is also another Altar Records hot release from last year. A very emotive track with epic layers of reverb to make you drift away into deep space.
A little while back I reviewed the Karuna EP from which or next track comes. The EP contains a number of remixes of the track Karuna by artists Terra Nine and Squazoid. For this mix, I've chose the remix produced by Suduaya. I wont go into this track too much here as you can read all about it in the review in depth. Suffice to say its a superb tune that wont dissapoint.
After that we have a collaboration between Dense and Fourth Dimension from the Mindcycles Vol.1 EP. A really brooding track and one of the better things I've heard Dense do. We then get into a cool track called "Planets Around Other Stars" by Siebzehn (Christian Mueller). You can find it on Goa Beach Volume 22. I tend to avoid those Goa Beach releases but occasionally a top tune does crop up so it's always worth checking them out from time to time to see whats happening. Siebzehn is always good value for money - cinematic, modern soundscapes that never fail to please the ears.
After that we have a collaboration between Dense and Fourth Dimension from the Mindcycles Vol.1 EP. A really brooding track and one of the better things I've heard Dense do. We then get into a cool track called "Planets Around Other Stars" by Siebzehn (Christian Mueller). You can find it on Goa Beach Volume 22. I tend to avoid those Goa Beach releases but occasionally a top tune does crop up so it's always worth checking them out from time to time to see whats happening. Siebzehn is always good value for money - cinematic, modern soundscapes that never fail to please the ears.
Continuing on we have Sysyphe who is arguably one of the most underrated artists in the scene. I think his music is bloody brilliant so I'm puzzled as to why he doesn't garner a bigger following. It could simply be the length of time between releases. 2010 saw him release his awesome debut "Running Up The Hill" with the follow up "The Cities Of Silver Trees" coming five years later. Both releases can be found on Hadra Records. I noticed he has changed mastering though. The debut was mastered by none other than Aes Dana while the new release was handled by another French producer, Clement Bastiat of Storm Mastering.
One of the better progtrance/psybient releases of this year is by Serbian producer Merlin. Also released through Altar records, Merlin's album "Magic Potion" is full of well crafted psychedelic goodies. Merlin cut his teeth producing psytrance,progressive trance and progressive house tracks. On this album he slows down the tempo resulting in some dowtempo trance groovers that will please both psytrance and psybient fans alike. Altar records can do no wrong in 2015 !
Up next is a rather unique tune I feel. Portugal's Kala Hari ( Hélder José Martins ) provides us with a tune of refreshing new constructs and melodic changes polished of with a euphoric summit. You can find this track "Into A New Dawn" on the 3 track EP of the same name released through his Bandcamp page.
If you have been following psychill music over the past few years one name you'll be familiar with is J.P Illusion ( John Panagoulias ) from Greece. John has releases on a number of popular labels including Nutek, Maia Brasil, Mystic Sound and CosmicLeaf to name a few. Today's track "Look Above" comes from the compilation "Blue Moon" which was expertly curated by DJ Johnny Blue - one of my favorite psychedelic downtempo DJs. Oh, also keep a look out for Nutek's next chill compilation "Resistance" to be released in September. It features J.P Illusion and and many other illustrious producers.
One of 2014's best new artists, Crystal Vibe (Alexander Radchenko), follows on next with his track "Inside" from the album "Change Is The Only Constant". This tune is massive - from the overall structure and superb production to the epic, escalating, crescendo of a heady peak. Lets hope 2014 wasn't just a flash in the pan and that Alexander will be around for many years to come. Great stuff.
Speaking of epic builds - our penultimate track comes from those bearded vibe merchants Carbon Based Lifeforms with a remaster of the track Polyrytmi from the album Interloper. The remastered version of Interloper is a pleasure to listen to and they recently also announced that their classic "Hydroponic Garden" album will be re-released as both a delux vinyl edition and remastered CD. Happy days !
We wrap up this mix with some shimmering ambient sounds from the legendary psychill artist Astropilot. He recently worked on a collaboration with Astral Waves aka DJ Zen. I'm dying to hear how that turned out !
Thanks for tuning in as always everyone. I hope you enjoy this mix. Its a good one for just kicking back with a pair of quality headphones and drifting away. I've been playing it on repeat myself a fair bit too. Till next time ...
Cheers ...
Track / Artist
- 01. Existence - Ascendant
- 02. 6am - Aes Dana & Miktek
- 03. Dream - Unknown Reality
- 04. Mermaid Dreaming - Germind
- 05. Sakura - Astronaut Ape & Sunselity
- 06. For The Love Of Despair - One Arc Degree
- 07. Found The Way - Lab's Cloud
- 08. Snow Began to Fall - E-Mantra
- 09. Karuna - Terra Nine & Squazoid ( Suduaya Remix )
- 10. Equilibrium - Dense & Fourth Dimension
- 11. Planets Around Other Stars - Siebzehn
- 12. Body and Mind - Sysyphe
- 13. Immortality - Merlin
- 14. Into A New Dawn - Kala Hari
- 15. Look Above - J.P. Illusion
- 16. Inside - Crystal Vibe
- 17. Polyrytmi - Carbon Based Lifeforms
- 18. Distant Worlds - Astropilot
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Love that Polyrytmi track by CBL!
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