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healium

Why no "dark and robotic" psychill? Psychill artists need to think outside the box....

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As a longtime psychill/psybient listener I find that these albums mostly all fall into 2 categories:

 

1. The ethnic neo-hippy type music of Shpongle, Ott, Entheogenic, etc

 

2. The dignified spacy music such as: anything on the Ultimae label - Solar Fields, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Asura, etc.

 

 

So, why are there no artists that make downtempo albums which are full of dark robotic compurized sounding soundscapes?  Basically, imagine a psytrance album by Hux Flux, Sensient, X-Dream, or Krumelur - and now turn that into a downtempo album - I feel like the scene needs something like this and am surprised that I've never an album like it..

 

  I have heard some tracks here and there which have that sound - Beat Bizarre "Booger Launcher", Beat Bizarre "Slowpoke Pinoke",  Atmos - "Scientific Coverup" - but these are few and far between..

 

I would love to hear a downtempo version of something like the psytrance album by Hux Flux - "Cryptic Crunch" - but when Hux Flux did their downtempo side project "Illuminus" it was just the flowery hippy ethnochill stuff that everyone else does (very good album though in that genre)..

 

Thoughts on this?

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It's taken me a while to appreciate more genres than the initial psybient/psydub movement of Shpongle Ott and the like. I'm more open to different variations of psychedelic downtempo than before, so why not? However such evolution has to happen naturally, it can't be forced. Therefore as I see it there are two options: either wait and pray/ask the universe for it to happen soon or try to make it happen yourself if you're a musician. :)

 

healium, are you aware of the swamp subgenre? It's defined more or less as 'downtempo forest' and is often quite dark. I've only encountered it on Ektoplazm but it's certainly out there.

Not sure I understand what you mean by robotic though...

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does something like Distant System - Astromech Starport count? the beat in this track is kind of a crunchy robotic style, and I guess it's sort of dark. This might fall into your 2. Ultimae style though.

 

or something weird like Mauxuam - Wiggly Things (The Glitch Mix)? it's certainly dark at least, maybe not quite so robotic.

 

one more for you.. Mental Extensions - Munk

 

I'll try to think of some others, but on the whole it seems psybient/psychill is mostly more light & uplifting than dark.

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Hi there!

 

By "robotic" I mean lots of weird mechanical noises and melodies like you find in the minimal, progressive, and tech side of psytrance - soundscapes that are not made of the organic natural sounds - have you heard anything by the psytrance Kindzadza?  There is a lot of psytrance that sounds like this - but never do I hear downtempo like it..

 

I'm hoping someone makes dark, cyborg, sci-fi, super trippy downtempo..  Doesn't even have to be that dark - just way more mechanized sounding...

 

Realistically, there is no reason one should automatically add in a bunch of fluted and flowery organic sounds just because they are making psychedelic downtempo music..

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You should check out Ektoplazm for sure, i'd be very surprised if there wasn't someone making these kind of sounds there. If not, just get stuck in & carve the sounds you want to hear! I think, generally speaking, people just lean towards the sounds they resonate with most at that time.... sometimes this is flowery organic sounds & sometimes this is more robotic sci-fi-esque, it all depends what vibe you're going for. 


Some of the recent Miktek / Scann-Tec stuff has a very 'techincal' feel you might like...super detailed technical atmospheric spaces, really immersive, is good stuff! Some of the Easily Embarrassed has a slightly trippy robotic vibe too occasionally.

Happy hunting!

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Yeah, what you are looking for is more similar to dark ambient / experimental industrial music. Something like Coil, Nurse with Wound or Deutch Nepal. It was my first choice for *the* psychedelic music. I don't want to go off topic too much but there are more then two styles of music that you've mentioned.

 

As a DJ I'm promoting lesser known world/tribal fusion music from the psychedelic scene. Adham Shaikh, Makyo, Suns of Arqa and stuff like that. Also, Ganga Giri and Highlight Tribe although those are faster. The defining feature is mixing psytrance/psychill-specific sounds with live instruments (or samples of those) making a very interesting blend of sounds. Man, people go crazy when I play this music and there are not that many DJs promoting that sort of music. I don't know why. It's much more accessible to casual listeners and it's a great introduction to the sound of XXI Century psychedelia.

 

Having said that, I was pondering on the same question. Why there's not that many darkish psybient? Probably because of the function on the scene (resting after tripping hard on the main floor) and the fact that artists travel a lot and tend to blend music from their travels into their projects. A lot of good music comes from Asia and people sit around temples, meditate and get inspired by oriental sound.

More darkish albums from the psy-fusion genre would be Suns of Arqa - Sacred Sacred (especially second half of the album) or something like Dubsahara - Genosis. Check it if you don't mind oriental flavour.

Being on the scene for some time now, I'm pretty sure that sooner or later some talented person is going to try making something you are asking for. If it's going to be good, then it may be another "big thing". Patience! And keep asking ;)

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I'm new to all this but I agree. I've been going through the Solar Fields back catalogue and picking out the tracks to buy which are exactly like that. His album Movements seems to fall into that category, and possibly Blue Moon Station, but the other, so far, have been a mixture of Ambient, mid and up tempo stuff, and downtempo stuff I would call something like City Psybient or Psybient Cyberpunk ('Discovering' being an example).

 

 

 

As a longtime psychill/psybient listener I find that these albums mostly all fall into 2 categories:

 

1. The ethnic neo-hippy type music of Shpongle, Ott, Entheogenic, etc

 

2. The dignified spacy music such as: anything on the Ultimae label - Solar Fields, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Asura, etc.

 

 

So, why are there no artists that make downtempo albums which are full of dark robotic compurized sounding soundscapes?  Basically, imagine a psytrance album by Hux Flux, Sensient, X-Dream, or Krumelur - and now turn that into a downtempo album - I feel like the scene needs something like this and am surprised that I've never an album like it..

 

  I have heard some tracks here and there which have that sound - Beat Bizarre "Booger Launcher", Beat Bizarre "Slowpoke Pinoke",  Atmos - "Scientific Coverup" - but these are few and far between..

 

I would love to hear a downtempo version of something like the psytrance album by Hux Flux - "Cryptic Crunch" - but when Hux Flux did their downtempo side project "Illuminus" it was just the flowery hippy ethnochill stuff that everyone else does (very good album though in that genre)..

 

Thoughts on this?

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Ok, strange cause I feel the exact opposite way (but hey, that's why forums exist :P ).

 

 

We have to agree on what we call "psychill", but to me, dark and robotic Psychill has been around for a while.

 

 

Like :

 

- The whole "ISAM" album by Amon Tobin (some tracks on "Supermodified"  also) :

 

Well, if that's not heavy cyborg psychill, I don't know what to say.

 

 

- many works from Vaexth :

 

 

- Mindbuffer as well :

 

 

- some tunes from Circuit Bent also :

https://circuitbentobox.bandcamp.com/track/arachnid-2

 

Geez, engines are breathing in here :)

 

 

- some cyberpunk psychill (well to me, it's chill and psy) with Jason Hou :

https://dohits.bandcamp.com/track/2045-peking-2045

 

- and Foldy, this one's bonus because it's happy robotic music :P :

https://rexette.bandcamp.com/track/shmooper-mylo

_________________________________

 

Then there are some combos which merge (heavy) robotic and some acoustic instruments, maybe less interesting to you though.

 

- Mumukshu

https://merkabamusic1.bandcamp.com/album/mumukshu-finding-meaning-in-nothing

 

- Zylla, not my fav but if you look for mecha textures, worth checking :

https://oldgrowthrecords.bandcamp.com/track/where-are-all-the-oceanographers

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Hey everyone, thanks for the recommendations! 

 

  Unfortunately most all of that is still not what I'm looking for - The recommendations I see above are are more in the IDM type of mechanized sound - these remind me of Autechre and artists like that - interesting music, but not what I'm after..

 

Those albums don't have the awesome psytrance/psychill type melodies - they are more the glitchy, IDM type of dark robotic sound.  I'm looking for the magical mystical psytrance/psychill sound - but dark and robotic..

 

Basically, what I'm looking for is music that follows the psychill formula - spiraling psychedelic melodies and so forth - but instead of being made out of organic and ethnic sounds, the sound palette would be dark and mechanical sounding.   Take a track like X-Dream "OScillator" or Hux Flux "Calculus" and turn it into a psychill track, and that is more what I'm looking for..  Hope that makes sense!

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