Has ketamine ever directly influenced musical styles?

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tryptych

waiting for a time
I was thinking about this after reading an article in the Guardian about moves to control ketamine in the UK.. along with a lot of other rubbish about kids been dopey midweek at school after doing k at the weekends, there was this quote from someone:

"It seems to fit in with the slow dubby music that is popular at the moment. At a lot of venues it has overtaken ecstasy in terms of the number of people doing it."

Does anyone think there's any truth to that? To me, quite a bit of dubstep has a sonic quality that reminds one of the ketamine experience...

More generally, has ketamine influenced musical styles before? I know it's popular among the techno/squat scene, but doesnt seem to have much input to that sound - although I wouldn't know, as it's not a genre of music I know anything about.
 
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dominic

Beast of Burden
wasn't early trance a bit of a ketamine scene & sound?

also, i had this friend back in st louis who used to restore vintage appliances -- and in fact pretty much everything in his apartment was vintage, early 20th century furniture, etc -- he used to hang picture frames in the old-time fashion w/ the string hanging down from the top border of the wall near ceiling -- and he played nothing but fats waller and billie holiday from his vintage rca stereo -- and so one night we were hanging out there, doing ketamine, and i of course over did things and fell into a stupor, somehow bracing my body against the door as a long stream of saliva stretched from my lips to the floor, and i had that weird out of body/travelling through space and time sensation, and then i as began to come to it was as though i were trying to get back in, get back to where other people were, i could see them move and i could hear them talk and i could hear their music, and yet it wasn't the world i had departed but some other place and time -- the 1930s!!!!! oh no!!!!!

so maybe fats waller is ketamine music?
 
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tryptych

waiting for a time
Hah. Well, I think any good music is good ketamine music... and have enjoyed the ketamine experience on a wide variety of sounds. Motown wouldnt be the obvious choice, but was great: lots of lovely, rolling, chocolate and gold waves in the imagery. Personally, I like shoegaze/postrock-y things best - Slowdive and Bark Psychosis are faves. Organic sounding electonica is nice too...


I suppose trance must've had some influence from k, but in a more general "psychdelic" context. If i was making music for k-heads, I think it would be fairly beatless, or at least the beats would be drowned in the mix by oceanic noise, but with a melodic and emotional edge... ie like MBV/Slowdive.

I like to think that Ulrich Schnauss et al are influenced by ketamine... but I have no real reason to believe this!
 
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simon silverdollar

Guest
villalobos is well into ketamine, i think.

and fatcat put out a record a few years back by someone called Dorinne_muraille, which was described as 'ketamine folk'. it's a pretty difficult listen.
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
apparently the whole of villalobos's last album is an ode to ketamine. i don't like it much, really.
 
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tryptych

waiting for a time
simon silverdollar said:
villalobos is well into ketamine, i think.

and fatcat put out a record a few years back by someone called Dorinne_muraille, which was described as 'ketamine folk'. it's a pretty difficult listen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had this at the back of my mind when I was writing this thread - it was actually called "ketamine laptop folk" in the original press release (or review?) (if you type that into google you'll get it).

I was quite excited by the term at the time, and though I've never listened to the Murialle record, I imagine ketamine laptop folk to be along the lines of a more twisted Four Tet-esque folktronica - at the time it seemed to fit with the glitchy indy sounds that were around too - Hood, Morr Music etc, and the more organic sounding electronica like Lexaunculpt, Ovuca.. maybe even BoC?

As for a ketamine influenced shoegaze meets grime.... if i was a musician of any kind, I'd be trying to make this sound right now. Shoestep (TM Paul Autonomic).
 
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simon silverdollar

Guest
i'll post some mp3s of that dorinne muraille record when i get home tomorrow, if yr interested. it's quite crazy stuff tho. i wouldn't expect a gentle, blissy, pastoral sound.
 
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tryptych

waiting for a time
^ Definately.

I don't really get the techno thing... K seems to make most dance sound more watery and washed out - the thud of the 4/4 gets lost. Maybe that's just me though...
 
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Badmarsh

Well-known member
LOL. I know most dubstep heads dont take drugs...mainly bun the buddah...and loads of it...forward is full of stoners...thats where the sonic quality comes from.

mind you seeing dmz on ket would be hilarious!
 
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dev79

Well-known member
back when k had it's peak over here (philly specific, u.s. east coast general) it was fairly big in the drum n bass scene, especially with a lot of tech step heads i knew. k was def a "rave" drug but i never understood it cuz it def makes you fairly immobile and unsocial...whatever, that shit is nearly impossible to get ahold of here anymore...i do miss the occasional indulgence, haha...
 
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believekevin

Well-known member
For what it's worth, a few former jungle heads in boston have cited K as the killer of east coast rave in multiple conversations..
 
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