Music that is psychedelic

C

Chris

fractured oscillations
IdleRich said:
People have mentioned the link between religion and psychedelia but no-one has said anything about space - I think that a lot of people talk about realising the vastness of the universe and stuff but I can't think of (m)any psychedelic tracks that use theremin or other instruments which are commonly associated with spacey sounds. Perhaps it's because space is cold.
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yeah, I was trying to include space in my definition, (but psychedelic as a quality or ethic is a very hard thing to put into words directly, even if I feel like I intuitively know it) with the idea that it's music that's made with 'cosmic consciousness'.. but I'd like to clarify that I'm using that idea just to describe the cosmic mindfullness or expanding headspace that psychedelic music seems to grow in (as opposed to that New Age Gaia-mind-like idea of "cosmic consciousness" as the material universe as living and conscious entity nonsense). Think of how John Coltrane or the Grateful Dead's jams seem to unravel and unfold in 5 dimensional spacetime... which of course ties into the religious experiences or imagery that psychedelia tends to recall.

the word "psychedelic" is rooted in words that mean "soul manifest", and that's telling I think...
 
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Agent

Agent

dgaf ngaf cgaf
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
The Seeds
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
The Magical Mystery Tour
Half-Machine Lip Moves
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
vimothy said:
Download the Ocora (Indian) back catalogue. (Maybe Zhao can help you with some links??)

One other avenue to explore might be NY minimalism -- La Monte Young and gang are heavily indebted to Indian classical, and there's a continuum that runs through them straight into modern (psychedelic) rawk. Check out this for some ideas.

The awesome Prandit Pran Nath (one-time guru of Terry Riley and LMY, IIRC) is a current fave, and spans both the above groups.
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indeed. some albums here:

http://differentwaters.blogspot.com/2008/05/ocora-india-part-1.html

http://differentwaters.blogspot.com/2008/05/ocora-india-part-2.html

http://differentwaters.blogspot.com/2008/06/ocora-india-part-3.html

http://differentwaters.blogspot.com/2008/06/ocora-india-part-4-dirty-south.html
and here is the 6 CD la monte young well tuned piano:

http://differentwaters.blogspot.com/2007/10/tune-that-piano.html
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Chris said:
the word "psychedelic" is rooted in words that mean "soul manifest", and that's telling I think...
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Close: "mind-manifesting".

The invention of the word has quite a nice little story to it, actually. Aldous Huxley wrote to a British psychiatrist called Humphrey Osmond in the '50s about LSD and mescaline, and included the rhyme:

"To make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme",

which was his suggested name for drugs of this class. As far as I can make out the neologism is meant to mean something like 'torch of the spirit'. Osmond responded with:

"To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic."

I like your point about the spatial, even multi-dimensional, feel of some psychedelic music. For me the first Autechre album has several tracks that really make me think of Lovecraft's unknowable infinite dimensions and dizzying cosmic vistas: "Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen". As it happens Mrs. Tea's thesis was an experimental search for extra dimensions... (edit: sadly for all you Yog-Sothoth cultists out there, she didn't find any!)

On a side note, it's often said that Einstein's general theory of relativity (developed around 1907 to 1915) was a major influence on cubism, and that Picasso as well as Einstein may have been influenced by (late 19th/early 20th century French (poly)mathematician) Henri Poincaré's investigations into non-Euclidean geometry - another Lovecraft touchstone, of course - and still earlier work by Riemann:

Amazon product ASIN 0465018602
 
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C

Chris

fractured oscillations
that's good stuff, Mr Tea


I like the religious and romantic allusions of those rhymes, damn.


also always interesting how new dimensions conceived in theories unlock new dimensions in art, and vice versa
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
The Seeds
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This is the thing that got me started off really. I don't see what's psychedelic about bands like The Seeds - I mean, I think they're fantastic but which ones are psychedelic and why? Maybe the intro of this one.



"To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic."
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Wow, never knew that. Nice one.
 
Agent

Agent

dgaf ngaf cgaf
a song like "Night Time Girl" (from The Seeds Raw and Alive) is full of references to psychedelics. whether or not it sounds psychedelic i think is entirely subjective. But that one in particular (that's the only song by them i listen to often) is at least stoney :D
 
B

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
Seeds songs like "Evil Hoodoo" and "Up in Her Room" definitely feel pretty psychedelic to me, just through the trance-inducing repetition. The super-dumb boy-meets-girl lyrics seem to make it even more otherworldly, like seeing god while sniffing petrol outside a rural Californian gas station.
 
L

Lichen

Well-known member
Mr. Tea said:
Close: "mind-manifesting".

The invention of the word has quite a nice little story to it, actually. Aldous Huxley wrote to a British psychiatrist called Humphrey Osmond in the '50s about LSD and mescaline, and included the rhyme:

"To make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme",

which was his suggested name for drugs of this class. As far as I can make out the neologism is meant to mean something like 'torch of the spirit'. Osmond responded with:

"To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic."

I like your point about the spatial, even multi-dimensional, feel of some psychedelic music. For me the first Autechre album has several tracks that really make me think of Lovecraft's unknowable infinite dimensions and dizzying cosmic vistas: "Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen". As it happens Mrs. Tea's thesis was an experimental search for extra dimensions...

On a side note, it's often said that Einstein's general theory of relativity (developed around 1907 to 1915) was a major influence on cubism, and that Picasso as well as Einstein may have been influenced by (late 19th/early 20th century French (poly)mathematician) Henri Poincaré's investigations into non-Euclidean geometry - another Lovecraft touchstone, of course - and still earlier work by Riemann:

Amazon product ASIN 0465018602
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Sublime post, Mr Tea.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
a song like "Night Time Girl" (from The Seeds Raw and Alive) is full of references to psychedelics. whether or not it sounds psychedelic i think is entirely subjective. But that one in particular (that's the only song by them i listen to often) is at least stoney
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OK, I think I see what you mean with that one.

Seeds songs like "Evil Hoodoo" and "Up in Her Room" definitely feel pretty psychedelic to me, just through the trance-inducing repetition. The super-dumb boy-meets-girl lyrics seem to make it even more otherworldly, like seeing god while sniffing petrol outside a rural Californian gas station.
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Well, obviously I'm in the minority here - and this is the music that had the name psych bestowed on it presumably for a reason - but while I love Evil Hoodoo (don't think I know the other one) I don't find it psychedelic. Just a really invigorating pop song. That's what I think about a lot of garage-psych though, with a few exceptions, that's why I like it so much. I think that the Elevators are more psychedelic than The Seeds but I like The Seeds better



(youtube is really great for illustrating your points in this kind of thing)
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yes, I'm definitely feeling this, also the Coil track someone linked to - can certainly see what you were getting at with that one.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Anyone got the album this track comes from?



I think that tune is really nice, kinda cheesey, almost like kraut-gospel or something. I've heard that the rest of the album is a lot more abstract and less song based. Supposed to be quite a trip.
 
nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
If you like that one, the album is definitely worth buying. It's got a skewed pan-Afro futurism to it that's like nothing else I've heard, and definitely like nothing else that was released around that time...definitely my favorite Brian Eno collab, much better than "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" which is a good but overrated.

Also John Hassell has a few decent solo albums.
 
nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
IdleRich said:
Anyone got the album this track comes from?



I think that tune is really nice, kinda cheesey, almost like kraut-gospel or something. I've heard that the rest of the album is a lot more abstract and less song based. Supposed to be quite a trip.
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This would be a good birthday present for the boyfriend.
 
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