Psychill vs Psybient do you make difference ?

[Gagarin Project 400]

Friends,

 

it is time to talk about something "important" - Psychill vs Psybient do you make difference ?

 

this is one of my favourite question and I have been asking it to many People and artists during few last years. You can see some of the answers in the series of 5 questions interviews.

And actually the answer is not clear to me still, it still itch my head, what is bothered me the most is that different people understand - psybient / psychill differently and that's is not easy for discussion. 

 

the two questions have been a part of best of 2015 poll, and we will analyse and present results here soon. This was an optional question but many people answered it.

- Psybient = Psychill (Psychill is it the same as Psybient)

- What is difference ? (or any other comments on this subject)

 

in the poll above i propose you to answer two questions and propose to discuss them below:

- Psybient = Psychill (Psychill is it the same as Psybient)
- Do you think Psychill and Psybient can be considered are synonyms ? (in case if we agree that in most of the people confuse them already) 

- Can psy-downtempo be the umbrella term for : psy ambient, psybient / psychill, psybass, psystep , psydub ?

- Can psybient be the umbrella term for : psy ambient, psy downtempo, psybass, psystep , psydub ?

- Can psychill be the umbrella term for : psy ambient, psy downtempo, psybass, psystep , psydub ?

 

 

 

 

I will also share later my long "4 a4 pages" thoughts on the subject, but it will take some times as I don't have physical access to the file.

Let's begin 

 

p.s. this post was slightly edited since the original post. 

p.p.s. in attachment nice chart that help to understand how our "best of the year voters" understand these two terms.

[timeisart 170]

I don't distinguish between them, they are used interchangeably. Although lately I've been using psybient more, I guess since I see that word so much visiting this forum and the psybient subreddit that I frequent.

 

Although one could argue that psybient would only be for more ambient, relaxing, almost beatless music a la Ishq, while psychill is a more general, umbrella term for more beat oriented psychedelic downtempo music.

 

Maybe you could say that psybient is a sub section of psychill, so all psybient is psychill but not all psychill is psybient.

[yiannis 201]

Purely theoretically, I agree with timeisart. Personally speaking, the term psychill is related to 'chill out' in my mind, which is a term that grates me for some reason. Possibly because it is used by people who don't appreciate psychedelic music as a catch-all phrase for anything downtempo. I know it's all in my head but there you go. I tend to use psybient or psychedelic downtempo as the umbrella term. 

[arakoon 17]

I think that psybient - psychedelic ambient

 

can we call this "psybient" ?(video under the spoiler)
 

 
but i don't know what to use as an general umbrella term - psychill or psydowntempo?

[yiannis 201]

but i don't know what to use as an general umbrella term - psychill or psydowntempo?

There is no generalised answer to this I think, this is in fact what we are discussing here. It's far better to see how people view this and possibly get a clearer idea of what the majority of people use rather than arbitrarily dictate what the "universally accepted" terminology is. Bottom up rather than top down.

[Lorn 74]

For me:

 

psychill = 4x4 grooves and the sometimes used term chillgressive.

 

psybient = all other less common groove patterns such as world, ethno, dnb, beatless.

 

But I can easily see how they are used interchangeably.

[Gagarin Project 400]

i was not going to post this yesterday, it was a "draft" post that i made yesterday with a mobile phone and i was planning to finalise today from normal computer   so please re-read the opening topic post as i added some more ideas and POLL questions to answer here. 

[Gagarin Project 400]

 

i managed to get nice chart that help to understand how our "voters" understand these two terms.

added it here and in the first post.

[Mønsterhed 41]

For me it's all the same. Psychedelic downtempo in various forms and guises. Sure, artists go in different directions, but if we had to give each label their own genre (as it sometimes go these days) it would be way too much hassle.

 

I guess it comes down to what you consider psychedelic. For me it's the experimental quality to it and the emotions it awakens in me. Just because you use the tried and tested womps and squelches does not make it psychedelic to me.

 

I usually just use umbrella terms like ambient or chillout, though. Especially if I speak with people that are not as into this kind of music as many of us on this forum are.

[Tanya 25]

For me psychill is the same common name for psybient while psydowntempo is wider than psychill.

 

Meanwhile I definitely can not consider psybass as psychill. Psybass makes me nervous sometimes, not chilled

[mannybakshi 8]

They are both different genres, Try to explain in short,

Psychill is psy CHILLOUT
Psybient is psy AMBIENT

I think everyone knows difference between Chillout and Ambient.

[Gagarin Project 400]

I think everyone knows difference between Chillout and Ambient.

 

i don't think everybody knows difference so i would like to hear your explanation.  For me chillout is not a style, is more like atmopshere, a music adapted for chill cafe/bar, chill floor/stage.

 

In Chillout you have this type of genres:

- lounge

- bosa nova

- trip hop

- ambient

 

after i wrote this, i checked wikipedia and they had accurate article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chill-out_music

[Shoom 7]

PsyChill being the broadest term for "Psychedelic Chill-Out" or "Psychedelic Downtempo" in that its "Chill-Out," "Downtempo," or "Ambient" music that has an added Psychedelic influence (often being produces by people in the Goa or Psytrance scene).

 

Psybient being a subgenre of Psychill (of which is a subgenre of Chill-Out) which can be described as beat-less, such as traditional ambient music.

 

Thats how I view the two. I often see the term ambient being used for anything downtempo which I don't like, ambient should always refer to music without any beats.

[andorra 117]

This is one of those genre discussions I usually stay away because I think that people define music by their own sense of taste and habits.

It's hard to draw a line where psybient ends and psychill starts since there are tons of music that can be described with both terms.

 

For me it's more about the vibe in the track than "is it beat-less or with beat". For example 4/4 downtempo can be really laid back and relaxed or it can be very intense progressive trance almost.

[ralf gerritse 0]

Can psy-downtempo be the umbrella term for : psy ambient, psybient / psychill, psybass, psystep , psydub ?

For me the answer on this one was : no.. because if you ask me Ambient is beat-less. And tempo refers to beats.

 

Futher for me its all Psybient, and in Psybient you have the subgenres.. 

[arakoon 17]

the hardest thing in that genre discussion is that ambient and dub were born in 1970 much earlier than other 'relax' genres, and if we are talking about, for example, The Infinity Project - Mystical Experiences, that was released in 1995, we need to know, that trip-hop was born in 1993-1994, downtempo in 1995-1996, and chill-out even was a slang word.

 

but ambient and dub are very different genres, the umbrella term for them will be "electronic"

 

so as for me, i use slang word PsyChill to describe all psychedelic relax and meditate music, as organisers of all psytrance events do

[LazyAnt 1]

In my circle of friends we generally use "Chillectronica" as the umbrella term, the logic being that "Chill" is associated with mellow, and electronic(a) is already an umbrella term that is generally speaking associated with more upbeat things (at least around here).

[Rakoontay 2]

Hello!!

I do not think they are the same. To me, psychill is chillout with a strong psychedelic element, and psybient is more on the ambient side. You can't lump E-Mantra with Martin Nonstatic for example. 2 vastly different approaches to music.

[thanosp81 16]

It is the same with every genre and sub genre. When you have experienced listeners/fans and they can all the different sounds/elements they start putting labels to distinguish them. 

For me it is much easier to call everything Psychill since I believe they are intended for/target more or less the same audience/community.

[Suttree 2]

They are both different genres, Try to explain in short,

Psychill is psy CHILLOUT

Psybient is psy AMBIENT

I think everyone knows difference between Chillout and Ambient.

I agree. Chillout is generally focused on melody and rhythm, whereas ambient focuses on tone and atmosphere, so in my view they are generally different. Downtempo is the broader definition that I prefer (containing both psychill and psybient, plus psydub, d&b, etc) for electronic music with relatively low bpm rate.

[Kras 0]

the hardest thing in that genre discussion is that ambient and dub were born in 1970 much earlier than other 'relax' genres, and if we are talking about, for example, The Infinity Project - Mystical Experiences, that was released in 1995, we need to know, that trip-hop was born in 1993-1994, downtempo in 1995-1996, and chill-out even was a slang word.

 

On the festivals we usually have two stages: psytrance and chillout. With my friends we don't usually use neither psychill nor psybient. We say "chill music" or "chillout" and only throw in "ambient" if something's really slow (most of the time beatless but with few exceptions) but it's equally descriptive as "dub", "oriental" or "bass". So yeah, for me, psybient is de facto a sub-genre of psychill music. And that's how it goes around in the world, with few exceptions, of course. I haven't met a DJ that focuses solely on strictly beatless and ambient music but some of us do play ambient sets once in a while.

[Progressive Anarchists 1]

There are too many terms to describe styles of music. And each of them describes a constricted musical concept without much tolerance for any individualism. As soon as any musican makes his own thing, people start to critise that the music does not match the strict policies of any of these musical concepts. In my opinion, that is a shame.

 

We should think about less musical styles and tolerate individuality of each artist. So, let psytrance, psychill and psybient be synonyms for each other.

[yiannis 201]

There are too many terms to describe styles of music. And each of them describes a constricted musical concept without much tolerance for any individualism. As soon as any musican makes his own thing, people start to critise that the music does not match the strict policies of any of these musical concepts. In my opinion, that is a shame.

 

We should think about less musical styles and tolerate individuality of each artist. So, let psytrance, psychill and psybient be synonyms for each other.

Hmmm, I don't know about that. For me genre labels are used to describle the music so I know where an artist or a release stands within the general spectrum, so they are important for orientation and research. Moaning about someone "not being true to their sound" is so juvenile and show-off, as in "look at me, I'm so true, I will never betray the original sound". However, I don't see a problem with disliking a turn an artist makes without making accusations of sellout and the like. There's enough music being made on every subgenre to satisfy everyone, so I don't see why people should be criticised for being different.