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yiannis

What do you enjoy about psychedelic downtempo?

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The title should be self-explanatory. :)

 

For me it's the following:

 

1. Obviously, the slow tempo. I love it when it's  around 70-100 bpm.

2. The pads. Extremely important for me. It feels like swimming or diving in an aural sea.

3. The layers. Although I can appreciate some minimal psybient, like some Virtual and Robert Rich releases, it sends me to other worlds when there are arpeggios and effects around the main themes.

4. The melodies. I can't enjoy purely weird or experimental music for too long.

5. The ethnic element. a. Vocals, Arabic, Far Eastern, Tuvan, almost anything goes. I know they are anathema to a lot of listeners, but I love them as a part of the whole. Not so much as the main focus, although I do like Entheogenic, for example, who sometimes tend to overuse them :rolleyes: b. Instrumentation: I enjoy all manner of traditional instruments, but I have a soft spot for tablas, stringed and wind instruments.

6. The emotional aspect. This might be my favourite element.

7. The "fractal" quality of some of the music. As it says on a sample I heard recently (but can't remember where  :ph34r:  ) "self similar, but not the same," when I get deep into a tune it feels like getting ever deeper into the Mandelbrot. I know it's the most typical example there is, but that's what it feels like. And it also gets progressively brighter, with various visual effects that look like tricks your eyes play on you on a sunny day, following the effects. I don't often have the will to focus inward for too long though. :mellow:

8. Nature sounds from field recordings. What would Matt Hillier's music be without them? ;)

9. Some artwork is fantastic and deepens the experience in its own right. I adore the art on Dakini releases, for instance.

 

As I've said elsewhere, I used to value the spiritual aspect, but now it's not as important for me anymore.

 

And you?

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Groove.

 

Bass.

 

Melody/harmony.

 

The sense that I am hearing what is inside me externalised in sonic form. Or, perhaps more accurately, a sonic manifestation of the intersection of inner and outer worlds.

 

Meaning - through spoken word samples, track/album titles, etc. Music may be a universal language, but I appreciate producers throwing up ideas and reiterating themes that are worth thinking about.

 

I use the term 'psychill' or 'chillout' myself because then people generally know what I'm talking about, but technically it's a gross misrepresentation of the genre in my opinion. I don't generally listen to 'chillout' to chill out, I find it an incredibly intense experience.

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Yiannis, nothing to add, you describe exactly what I love about this music. I always was more in the chill as on the main floor. Changed my primary skill from Psytrance to this music. I create fantastic soundscapes into the inner Universe, check out my Mixes :ph34r:

 

p:l:u:r

 

FrancoFunghi

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I guess the fact that's still an interesting melting pot. You can find ideas and influences from various styles, trance, goa, folk & traditional, techno, dub, ambient, reggae, breakbeat, you name it. The rule is: there are no rules (more or less).

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I like that every songs is an unique journey. I've been almost exclusively listening to psybient and related genres for the past 3 years and I never felt tired of it. It fits with every kind of atmosphere (imo), i can listen to it while falling asleep, while working on something, while chilling with people, i can dance to it, i can walk/run/train to psybient... its limitless. It just put me in a state of mind where im at peace and cool with everything.

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I love the hypnotozing effect of loops and multi layerness. When music drifts you away so much that you can empty your mind from doubts and worries.  Much of Matt Hillier's music is like that. Elve - Emerald is great example.

For me hypnotising effect is very important in faster genres too.

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I do somewhat disagree, yannis. Not that that's a bad thing. We all have our preferences :)

I like that it for me is blank canvas to project whatever I'm feeling onto. I always shy away from vocals or music that "wants" me to feel something specific. If it's well enough made I will feel whatever the artist intended without it feeling forced, if you catch my drift. These days I also tend to go for less psy stuff and more "classical" ambient, like the output of Taylor Deupree, Virtual and Ishq and some of what A Strangely Isolated Place puts out. I used to be into whomps and wobbles in chill, but that doesn't really speak to me anymore. These days I'm all about flowing soundscapes and strange (sometimes hypnotic, something upbeat) rhythmic patterns.

 

Some of the things I like about chillout stages, though, are a completely different thing. To me chillout stages are almost living entities in themselves in the sense that they change over the course of a festival and even across the span of a day. A chill stage can be a vastly different experience at night than it is in the afternoon. The vast variation is absolutely key to a well constructed chillout environment. You've got to have the stuff to make you dance your feet off, the stuff to mellow out to and the deep and intropective "sleepy" sounding sets.

And not only in music does a stage change, but many times also physically. I remember the SUN chill stage (first year) being made of hay that was slowly rearanged and spread out over the course the week. That's why it to me resembles a living, breathing being.

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I see what you mean Mønsterhed and there are periods when I have the desire for subtler music too. It largely depends on mood. Lately, coincidentally, I've been listening to quite a bit of Hillier's music myself - I put on Ishvara's Under a Hexagon Sky to start the day with. One way or another, music is about evoking emotions, so I choose what I listen to according to the emotion I want to experience. The list I wrote mentions what I like about all the types of psychedelic downtempo I listen to, but that doesn't mean all the elements are featured everywhere. Since you mention (I think?) the bass/dubstep element, that is one of the things I don't enjoy as a main feature in all the tunes on an album. I can take it for a tune or two, maybe a whole album if there are other elements from my list surrounding it, but that's it.

 

As for chill stages, I've only been to a couple of festivals here and the chill stage was just good at most. The first Aurora in 2008 was that, got to see some interesting names such as a Shpongle DJ set, Ott and Solar Fields. In the one I went to last summer (Free Earth) the chill "stage" might have been named desert stage. The heat and sunshine was unbearable until about 6:30, and music stopped at about 11:00. I might add that it was all DJ sets, quite probably all locals. What you're describing sounds really cool. I've seen photos where the stage is under trees and you really get to chill. B)

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My favorite thing about any type of downtempo is the story it alludes to.  Without lyrics, chillout makes you draw your own conclusion to what the meaning or story of the song is.  In contrast, lyrical music tells you what the song is about and doesnot leave any room for you to draw conclusions on.  Downtempo/Chillout/ etc etc etc, allows you to listen and create fantastic stories or visions, somewhat using the music as a theme or launching point, for your perception of it.  

 

This also can be said for trance as well.  Long, repetitive, and often cinematic feelings to songs helps me dust off the brain and allows me to set the direction of my thoughts depending on what I am listening to.  

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I love the state of mind this music can put you into. Especially when i'm in that state between sleeping and awake, when listening to music and dozing off in the hammock or on the sofa, these dimensions of sound get really vivid and alive and my consciousness and thoughts fly away affected by the music. Just don't know how to describe it better, but i think you know what i mean :)

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Well for me is a bit of everything mentioned above. I`m rather new to ambient/chillout/downtempo music - around 2 years of listening and before that it was just Peace Orchestra and FSOL.

 

Based on that experienced i can say that all the slower tempo genres are very not defined and blury when comes to labeling, and imho thats why they are so interesting and provide many different (lets call it) enterteinment values. Some slower tracks are dreamy and takes you into deep emotional journey thats rather chilly and other like for me Echoes of An Empty Room from E-Mantra thats great for walking/running and excercises. 

 

One thing that I`m not shure if was mentioned here, that i really like about many downtempo tracks is that they arent so everly compressed and FULL ON LOUDNESS, CLUB LEVEL. Of course they are sometimes loud and club friendly but not to the point of for example many trance/psytrance tracks out there lately (i love psy trance but sometimes its just d much, and 2 loud). 

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 all the slower tempo genres are very not defined and blury when comes to labeling, and imho thats why they are so interesting and provide many different (lets call it) enterteinment values. Some slower tracks are dreamy and takes you into deep emotional journey thats rather chilly and other like for me Echoes of An Empty Room from E-Mantra thats great for walking/running and excercises. 

 

So true. I love the fact that downtempo has now become an umbrella term. I reckon it might start being divided into sub-genres soon, though I'm not sure, mainly because there aren't any magazines -printed or digital- that I know of promoting it. In other words although there may be a need for listeners to use terms that are more specific and appropriate for their likes so that they can a) look for stuff they are likely to enjoy more effectively and in less time and b ) avoid stuff they're not likely to enjoy, if there is no sort of "objectified" culture to unify the fans, a consensus of what constitutes each sub-genre might not be possible.

Edited by Gagarin
i fixed the quote :)

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As I've said elsewhere, I used to value the spiritual aspect, but now it's not as important for me anymore.

 

And you?

 

 

That is an interesting comment. I agree with you in terms of the spiritual/religious way of life aspect of this genre.

I like to think of the spiritual impact a bit different. We are all affected by what goes on in the spiritual world. Music is one of the rare natural things that can affect the spirits around us. This is the reason why we feel so much when listening to music because spirits are with us in our affections.

 

Psychill and most forms of chill have a peaceful and uplifting affect to our own spirit while at the same time to quiet down the spirits with us, giving us time to reflect, to vibe, to relax, to quiet the natural world and all its demanding noises and recharge.

 

In that respect, its very spiritual for me. :)

 

Pax!

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