Psybient

Psybient, also known as ambient psy, psychedelic chillout, psychedelic ambient, ambient goa, ambient psytrance and more commonly within the Goa/psytrance scene as psychill and psydub, is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of psychedelic trance, ambient, world music, new age and even ethereal wave. It often has many dub influences and can also sound somewhat like glitch. Psybient pieces are often structured around the concept of creating a "sonic voyage" or "musical journey". Although similar to psytrance's emphasis on maintaining non-stop rhythm throughout the night, psybient is far more focused on creating a vast soundscape that can be experienced over the length of an album, focusing less on beatmatching and allowing for a myriad of tempo changes. Some of the most popular and genre leading psybient artists include Shpongle, Entheogenic, Shulman, Ott, , Hoopy Frood, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Third Ear Audio, Doof, Warp Technique, Yestegan chaY, Younger Brother, The Infinity Project, Asura, Pitch Black, The Mystery Of The Yeti, Celtic Cross, Astropilot, Androcell, Technical Pillow, Tor.Ma and Evan Bluetech.
History
Because of the heat, humidity, and dust in Goa, the birthplace of Goa trance (which was the earliest incarnation of psytrance), DJs tended to use cassette tapes or DATs instead of vinyl records. As a result, beatmatching was very hard, and many of the earliest DJs who worked within the Goan scene didn't bother trying at all, the well-known Goa Gil being one of them. As a solution to the dilemma, a production technique developed of having relatively long atmospheric portions in each track, which would allow a DJ to easily mix two tracks of different tempos without having them clash. These short periods that were free of heavy, bass driven beats acted as "chillout" periods for those who were dancing (or "tripping") to relax and regain their energy for the next track.
From its inception, goa and psytrance albums (as well as compilations) almost always contained a compulsory "chillout" track at the beginning, end, or sometimes the middle, (usually track 5) of the album, to either set the mood, give an intermission, or give a cooldown type track at the end which was the most common on the earlier days of psytrance.
Early chill albums
Perhaps the earliest full mainstream album consisting entirely of "chill psychedelic tracks" was Mystical Experiences by The Infinity Project in 1995. This was released around the same time as Simon Posford's first Hallucinogen album "Twisted" (also of The Infinity Project) which was the first big breakthrough in worldwide goa and subsequently psytrance history. Psybient and Psytrance is generally accepted as first being popularized by a remix of the 1971 track "One Of These Days" by Pink Floyd. Other early incarnations of psybient include the 1992 album by Porcupine Tree's album Voyage 34, which is also heavily influenced by Pink Floyd's songs (especially "One Of These Days", and "Run Like Hell"). Ozric Tentacles, and one of their later offshoots Eat Static and early X-Dream are also late 1980s and early 1990s bands that are the biggest influences to the whole psybient genre (pre Infinity Project) which first took off in '95 and then exploded in popularity 10 years later with many new psychill artists that redefined the genre for the new millennium. One of the most popular Steve Roach albums Dreamtime Return in 1992 may have been a big influence in the (newer western electronic) tribal ambient vein of psybient, later picked up in the later 1990s by Juno Reactor and Shpongle.
Psychedelic influence
Due to its roots in the Goa scene, psybient is considered to be highly influenced by psychoactive drugs, even more so than other forms of psytrance. The influence of psychedelics is often blatantly presented in both the musical content (such as "trippy", tweaked-out samples) the artwork, and sound samples, usually involving Terence McKenna sound samples in the earliest recordings such as Spacetime Continuum's "Alien Dreamtime" album in 1993, and Shpongle's "Tales Of The Inexpressible" (2001) albums. Shpongle's first album also has many subtle psychedelic lyrics and artwork that one would most likely miss on first glance (the cd artwork is faces) or listen. (DMT is the only song with (English) lyrics, even though they are so heavily tweaked with effects, it's hard to understand that there are actually words at first) Many other lesser known psybient songs may involve a psychedelic song title, and eastern style singing, but lyrics for a full song are still pretty rare, (Shpongle's Once Upon the Sea Of Blissful Awareness being the first (and possibly only) to incorporate a full song into psybient history and any psybient track with vocals are mainly a few short lines repeated mainly for musical effect and less for actual song effect.
Success with the downtempo market
In recent years, psybient has received a considerable amount of success in the chillout/downtempo market, a listener group far larger than the psytrance audience. An example of psybient's foothold within the "chill" market can be seen in the success of Entheogenic's second album, Spontaneous Illumination. In November 2003 it went to Number 1 on the German "Chill-Out" Charts, where it remained at Number 1 for eight weeks. The album stayed in the Top 10 for an additional 12 weeks.
Psybient in Suomisaundi
Some artists of the psychedelic trance offshoot suomisaundi have also been known to delve into the realm of psybient. Due to the suomisaundi's tendency towards sampling, as well as its popularity at forest dance parties like Earthcore, psybient productions that come out of the
suomisaundi realm of psychedelic trance often resemble world music far more than productions of artists who produce psybient exclusively.
List of notable artists
* Adham Shaikh
* Aes Dana
* Asura
* Bluetech
* Carbon Based Lifeforms
* Chronos
* Celtic Cross
* Cold Flare
* Doof
* Eat Static
* Entheogenic
* H.U.V.A. Network
* Kick Bong
* Kuba
* Makyo
* Nodens Ictus
* Ott
* Pitch Black
* Puff Dragon
* Shpongle
* Shulman
* Solar Fields
* The Infinity Project
* Vibrasphere
* Younger Brother
List of notable record labels
* Interchill Records
* Spirit Zone Recordings
* Suntrip Records
* Twisted Records
* Ultimae Records
Sample
* Dj Spirit Hood
* Dj Johnny Blue

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu