Double R = Rhyme & Reason = Anthony Lennon & Yinka Charles
― to go hoff and things (Noel Emits), Friday, 14 August 2020 11:22 (three years ago) link
there's also always a "recreating the sound of what the sound of recreating psychedelics is like" going on
There's also a similar but more interesting feedback dynamic where it is "making music that attempts to recreate the sound / effect of hearing music that attempts to recreate the sound and effect of hearing music on drugs, on drugs".
― to go hoff and things (Noel Emits), Friday, 14 August 2020 11:56 (three years ago) link
Yeah sure there's endless layers there no doubt, a pure feedback loop, in the same way that the first time I saw trails around my moving hands on acid I immediately thought of Top of the Pops. But I think it's worth thinking about the sound of psychedelia being as much self-referential as it is an honest attempt to recreate an experience beyond itself
― The Scampos of Young Werther (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 August 2020 11:59 (three years ago) link
Whole thread of "which came first, the tripping or The Egg?" to be had here
― The Scampos of Young Werther (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:03 (three years ago) link
I'm thinking of 'dubplate' dance scenes like hardcore rave where the pipeline from party -> making tunes after the party for next week is really vital. Of course the music references itself sonically as well as being supposed to evoke or invoke experiences, and these overlap.
So-called psych music, like guitar music typically seems much more strictly referential and less successfully invocative, especially post say 1969, even though a lot of that early stuff is stylistically quite obvious and constrained. I think it's still very trippy in a way that isn't just evocative of what we think of as Psychedelic. Maybe I can't be sure about that.
― to go hoff and things (Noel Emits), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:14 (three years ago) link
I think that's why it's an unknowable loop, you're likely to hear psychedelic music before you experience psychedelic drugs I think, especially any time from the late 60s on, so the connections feed each other
― The Scampos of Young Werther (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:17 (three years ago) link
And then there's the question of what was in any given pill you might take as opposed to the "purer" psychedelics like acid or shrooms
― The Scampos of Young Werther (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:19 (three years ago) link
I can remember trying to sleep at the tail end of a trip and having a totally imaginary dub bassline rattling round my head but why did my brain conjure that particular sound etc? Obv I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying Noel just thinking about it and nostalging for hallucinogens
― The Scampos of Young Werther (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:21 (three years ago) link
"which came first, the tripping or The Egg?"
sad lol as I recall seeing the Egg at Glastonbury years ago after completely failing to come up on whatever duff drugs I'd bought earlier
― CP Radio Gorgeous (Colonel Poo), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:23 (three years ago) link
Yes, it's a loop, but certain types of drug experiences tend to have certain hallmarks, of how they are experienced?
That the phasey-filter-sweepy-sound is an effort at recreating the distortions in hearing that people often experience; the choppy tremolo effect *sounds* a lot like the way that one experiences hearing dropping in and out.
It's strange, because I can remember so many times where my friends and I set up "environments to trip in" and we'd have one room with 'classic' psychedelia, and another room with more repetitive acid techno, and another room with sitar sounds and a tape of someone reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead, thinking those would be fun environments to have a trip in?
But then, during the trip, we'd often end up spending a couple of hours with, e.g. our heads inside the air conditioning ducts, because it turned out ~the most amazing~ thing any of us had ever heard while tripping, wasn't music, it was the repetitive thump of an intake fan echoing through a metal duct. (And I did go through a phase of listening to a lot of recordings that sounded like air conditioning intake fans and fridge buzz! But that didn't sound as good, when you were not on drugs. While music that remind me of ~what fridge buzz sounds like when you're tripping~ are far more nostalgic and enjoyable to me now.)
― Branwell with an N, Friday, 14 August 2020 12:25 (three years ago) link
I spent a lot of time watching late night TV on acid and the remote was the controller of my time machine :D
― The Scampos of Young Werther (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:27 (three years ago) link
While on acid, the absolute best thing on television was watching static. That was the best visuals I ever saw!
― Branwell with an N, Friday, 14 August 2020 12:28 (three years ago) link
I would def be more likely to try field recordings and the hummer gentle ends of drone concrete now Branwell
― The Scampos of Young Werther (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:29 (three years ago) link
I mean again, none of this is remotely the experience of Peak Shamen
― The Scampos of Young Werther (Noodle Vague), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:30 (three years ago) link
Quiet, Noodle Vague, I'm trying to resonate concrete!
― Branwell with an N, Friday, 14 August 2020 12:31 (three years ago) link
You can trip out on static in the natch I'm sure. I do remember one tired morning doing that and after various spinning things and cute bees these large stable capital letters were standing out from the chaos. Not hard to find some mechanistic neurological explanation for that if you want to but it's quite striking.
― to go hoff and things (Noel Emits), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:33 (three years ago) link
I listen to loud static every night, because it's the only thing that mitigates my hyperacusis enough to allow me to sleep.
It is wild, sometimes when very tired, the kind of music that my overtired brain will project into the completely random patterns of brownian noise.
But that is the kind of short-circuit auditory illusion that acid really triggers exeptionally well.
― Branwell with an N, Friday, 14 August 2020 12:35 (three years ago) link
We should probably make a couple of new threads now, for "what is psychedelic music" and "psychedelic trance-dub bobbins of the early 90s featuring Shpongle and other sub-Shamen type acts"
― Branwell with an N, Friday, 14 August 2020 12:40 (three years ago) link
Oh yes. But I'd like to be able to hear about more current pay bollocks, and Shpongle's most recent album was released in 2017 (i.e. the best year for music of the 2010s).
― to go hoff and things (Noel Emits), Friday, 14 August 2020 12:43 (three years ago) link
Psy bollocks, that should read.
Cross-posting this thread because I think some of the tracks here fit the vibe being discussed:
Kaos Theory 2 defined my musical tastes in 1992
― shout-out to his family (DJP), Friday, 14 August 2020 13:08 (three years ago) link
the bizarre coincidence that category b music is often really really *good* at shutting up the part of my brain that I need to shut up and be quiet so I can program!
totally not the cheeky boshing Shamanic art-prankster vibe you're looking for (or at least 99% of the music therein is not, there might be occasional moments in a couple of the mixes) but the good people who have gathered 60 mixes for brain-hushing coding purposes at https://www.musicforprogramming.net/ are worthy of laudation
(sorry, Noel Emits' username put my brain in Cardiacs Mode)
― scampus unrest (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 14 August 2020 13:37 (three years ago) link
it's funny because before this thread I wouldn't particularly have said yes to "are the Shamen a conceptually and sonically unique band", but I'm trying to think of bands who combined stadium-bosh/big tunes + hippy trippiness + art pranksterism other than the Shamen* and not getting much closer than, uh
maybe put a Yello album on at the same time as a Beloved album? idk
(as I think has been said, the KLF/Orb also encompass all of these modes but mostly not all at the same time, for my money)
― scampus unrest (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 14 August 2020 13:39 (three years ago) link
That's p much OTM, in that, at the time, I really kinda dismissed them as quite shallow and silly, but with time, there really hasn't been anyone else who hit quite as many distinct modes at the same time, as they did.
Will take a look at the Music For Programming, thanks for the link.
― Branwell with an N, Friday, 14 August 2020 13:44 (three years ago) link
I suppose the thing about The Shamen was that maybe drugs had destroyed the part of their brain that might have felt a sense of embarrassment or naffness so they just didn't give a shit and smashed together elements that most producers would have separated out into different projects and eras of their career.
So an example would be Andy Meecham, who made big-room euphoric high street house as Bizarre Inc, self-consciously arty/cartoonish electro as Chicken Lips and spun out cosmic beardo hippy music as The Emperor Machine. Smash the three together and stick a sci-fi nerd and a cockney geezer in there and you've got a decent approximation of The Shamen aesthetic but most acts would feel too much shame for that.
― Matt DC, Friday, 14 August 2020 13:53 (three years ago) link
Can't make Shamen without a Shame!
― cheeky boshing shamanic art-prankster (Branwell with an N), Friday, 14 August 2020 13:55 (three years ago) link
I don't actually think it's a lack of embarrassment or shame.
I think that one of the things that prolonged use of psychedelic drugs does for some peopl, is break down their senses of artificially constructed barriers, such as idiotic ideas like 'genre'.
― cheeky boshing shamanic art-prankster (Branwell with an N), Friday, 14 August 2020 13:56 (three years ago) link
I didn't know The Emperor Machine had been part of Bizarre Inc!
BB, Music For Programming might be too ambiently twinkly/pretty/beatless for your needs but there are some good mixes in there and they've got some interesting people to take part.
There used to be a more driving trancey radio stream that a colleague swore by for that purpose, I'll try to remember what it is, but again, not what you're after here.
Speaking of trance, did the Shpongle thread happen? Is there a place I can huddle with my 90s trance-before-trance-meant-Tiesto tapes? A safe space to admit to liking unfashionably Megadog-adjacent things without being laughed out of the room?
― scampus unrest (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 14 August 2020 14:13 (three years ago) link
speaking of shpongle, i could listen to loud eat static every night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naSvGVe-Jvs
― the late great, Friday, 14 August 2020 15:13 (three years ago) link
speaking of psychedelic UFO shamanism check out that artwork
― the late great, Friday, 14 August 2020 15:14 (three years ago) link
Is there a place I can huddle with my 90s trance-before-trance-meant-Tiesto tapes? A safe space to admit to liking unfashionably Megadog-adjacent things without being laughed out of the room?
there's always the PWOG thread...
Psychick Warriors ov Gaia, Exquisite Corpse, and their odd brand of minimal & tribal trance-techno-ambient
― Defund the indefensible (NickB), Friday, 14 August 2020 15:20 (three years ago) link
i have been waiting for eat static to be mentioned.
surely there is a megadog related thread for all this stuff ?
ahh .. PWOG .. had forgotten all about them ..
― mark e, Friday, 14 August 2020 18:52 (three years ago) link
Look, Credit to the Nation is putting out new stuff at the moment
was gonna make a Little Middleaged Credit Bloke joke here, but looks like they did one video in 2010 and an itunes-only EP in 2015
― Steppin' RZA (sic), Friday, 14 August 2020 18:59 (three years ago) link
I need a Megadog thread on which to mention the house party at my then gaff when we had a couple of dog related DJs in the front room and MMM playing for hours in someone's bedroom turned into a psychedelic womb.
― to go hoff and things (Noel Emits), Friday, 14 August 2020 19:13 (three years ago) link
Just been reminded of this excellent compilation that I haven't heard in years
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Feed-Your-Head/release/68682?ev=rr
― chonky floof (groovypanda), Friday, 14 August 2020 20:10 (three years ago) link
ok, just dug out my slow bongo floyd cds.
― mark e, Friday, 14 August 2020 20:15 (three years ago) link
Still got the 12" of Open Up Your Heart
― chonky floof (groovypanda), Friday, 14 August 2020 20:19 (three years ago) link
idea : ILM vs Shamen.i drop the samples/beats track from the Progen ep, and then those of you who can do stuff, do your stuff.yes/no ?
― mark e, Friday, 14 August 2020 20:26 (three years ago) link
More Than Jesus (Irresistible Force Mix). Big tune xp
― to go hoff and things (Noel Emits), Friday, 14 August 2020 20:29 (three years ago) link
http://ireallylovemusic.co.uk/music/15%20Sixteen%20Samples%20%26%20Beats.mp3
― mark e, Friday, 14 August 2020 20:36 (three years ago) link
Thanks mark e! Looking forward to hearing what ilxors do with this.
I have that Eat Static album on tape somewhere. My favourite Planet Dog band was Timeshard iirc. And my favourite of the pile of dubious 90s trance tapes is, or was, "Moment of Truth" by Man With No Name.
this sounds AMAZING btw
― scampus unrest (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 14 August 2020 21:48 (three years ago) link
my very first promo groove back in 2004 was a box full of Eat Static cds.and thanks for the reminder of Man With No Name, 'Earth Moving The Sun', is totally in this ballpark albeit via a chunk of trance.
― mark e, Friday, 14 August 2020 23:21 (three years ago) link
Just leaving this here: Spongle v Eat Static
https://open.spotify.com/album/1ypZz7SSbmsNrmvZhyhAsg?si=zlG7xzE1QYGMy4kiNq5Mtw
― the article don, Saturday, 15 August 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link
Also Eat Static did this slightly minimalist Autonomic style dnb track as recent as 2017 and it’s great
https://open.spotify.com/track/51VFhURcYmMPa97RsDFmkn?si=CwWBjkSrRFu-XDFr0aKC2w
― the article don, Saturday, 15 August 2020 00:06 (three years ago) link
the best planet dog group was children of the bong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8CRQvVwAns
lmao
― the late great, Saturday, 15 August 2020 01:34 (three years ago) link
i mean "best"
but yeah this is all time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHhLDx1OmwI
― the late great, Saturday, 15 August 2020 01:37 (three years ago) link
No one wants to be the one to start the ~Hippie Bobbins~ thread, haha, even though we all acknowledge the need for it? I do not feel qualified to start said thread, as I literally only know what Megadog is through adverts - and snarky disses - in Select Magazine, as this is degenerate music for Crusties, while also having very colourful and groovy adverts in the back, that looked like the amazing psychedelic sort of shirts you could buy in Camden Market, but dissolved in unfixed dye soup after one wash? I was of that generation where music was something you read about and saw pictures of, ages before a poorly dubbed cassette would arrive in the post from relatives in England.
My own ~Secret 90s Techno Shame~ was ... (oh god I hate this label so much - it was cringe at the time, and has only got more cringe with the years) ::whispers:: Ethno-Techno, like I would eat up anything that sounded like Transglobal Underground and Natacha Atlas. I see Shpongle has also ended up in the 'Ethno-Techo' section on Wikipedia so...
― cheeky boshing shamanic art-prankster (Branwell with an N), Saturday, 15 August 2020 05:35 (three years ago) link
My thread, is your thread, amiga omegas:
Safe Space for Crusty UK Hippie-Bobbins a la Shpongle, Megadog, Planet Dog, and all the other dodgy stuff excavated on the Shamen thread
― cheeky boshing shamanic art-prankster (Branwell with an N), Saturday, 15 August 2020 05:44 (three years ago) link
Such a nice, Scottish boy, so good to his Mum:
https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/colin-angus-of-the-shamen-pictured-with-his-parents-aberdeen-scotland-picture-id537483357
Why am I *like* this, why can't my brane just be normal ;_;
― cheeky boshing shamanic art-prankster (Branwell with an N), Sunday, 16 August 2020 06:47 (three years ago) link
Oh, phew, found it! Matt DC's memory is not flawed, just displaced. There totally was a (not Glasto but MTV) video for Phorever People, featuring Alice in Wonderland imagery and the singer(s) floating about in a swing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAq3iyDnCQI
I've fallen so deep down the rabbit hole I've been watching interviews and I'm just so smitten. I'm struck by just how Jesus Jones-y their pre-Phoward material was. They very easily could have been EMF. They compare themselves to Renegade Soundwave in the interview (plus a clip) but at moments their Jesus Loves America stuff sounds like Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste-era Ministry? Was not expecting that!
The other thing that struck me was how high, and soft, and girly Colin's speaking voice is. I genuinely thought he was a girl the first few times he spoke. (Excuse me, but I find that very phwoar!) But it also highlights something about his *singing* voice that I find so interesting and compelling. Unless he's deliberately trying to do ~rawk voice~ he has a very high, flutey, choirboy voice with a tonal range that I really love (I particularly like male vocalists who sing high).
It was really striking on live Glasto version of Phorever People, that the singer (is that Jhelisa Anderson? It's starting to really bother me, how often in dance music, it's always really easy to find out the name of the male producers, and even the male rappers, but it's often quite hard to find out the name of the (usually Black) female singer who does the hook which makes the song worthwhile?) was singing quite far down in her low range, for a powerful, gospel-bluesy tone, while Colin Angus was actually singing a higher harmony above her, but weaving in and out of her voice. One of the things that really scratches my sweet spot about the Shamen, is those really close, weaving-in-an-out harmony vocals ("I can move, move, move any mountain") - but with Anderson taking the low part and Angus taking the high part, together they create this really super-genderless, fluid, male-female-androgynous tone which really excites me.
― cheeky boshing shamanic art-prankster (Branwell with an N), Sunday, 16 August 2020 10:02 (three years ago) link