Psychedelic/Ambient On Rotation 9/30/08
Over the past couple weeks I have been having a craving for some good pyschedlic rock, and not the kind with lofty choir-like vocals, birds chirping, and songs about peace, love and becoming one with nature, more the kind with a lot of layers, preferrably with an edge and some good screeching guitar playing. Then on the other hand, I have been checking out some ambient artists that I haven’t gotten into before. Both are a little of the old mixed with a little of the new. Some are more psychedelic or ambient than others, but they fit well into the categories.
Psychedelic/Doom/Dessert Rock
Brightblack Morning Light Motion to Rejoin
Impressive album. I heard it called something like “slow motion miles davis” in a review (sorry, can’t remember where) but that is pretty much what it is.. well if miles davis sang and had a little more fuzz. But I think it’s mainly because of the horns in the music. I would also compare it to a more weeded out John Coltrane’s Blue Train, similar style of horn.
Brightblack Morning Light “Oppressions Each”
Some good sparse psychedelic dessert rock by a band from London (think QOTSA or KYUSS). It’s pretty raw, but it’s hard to get away from that thick guitar distortion. You might be able to get the album here (amongst some other gems).
King Khan & The Shrines What Is
Came out last year and was on many people’s best of albums, but I’m just jumping on the bandwagon now. Some good poppy 60’s Pychedelia, a very fun listen all around. Their latest, The Supreme Genius of.. is also a great album mixing psych-rock with R&B and Big Band.
King Khan and the Shrines “In Your Grave”
Arguable one of the first prog-metal albums, it is fully entrenched in psychedlic rock, one of the members even went crazy from lsd. Not that overdoing the lsd a psychedlic band make.. but it usually is a big sign. High Tide is best known for the album Sea Shanties, which this song is off of, a 9 minute bluesy number that reminds me a bit of today’s Black Mountain.
The Entrance The Kingdom of Heaven Must Be Taken By Storm
After posting the video for “Grim Reaper Blues” I dug in a little more into The Entrance and, although “Grim reaper..” is the best song I have heard from them so far, they have a great unadulterated, bluesy, psych-rock style. I mean his vocals are a big prescence on a lot of songs ( and over-the-top) but it somehow works when your in the mood, and the music just sounds pretty genuine like they just started playing in the basement and that is the first thing to come out.
Two members of the doom metal band Sleep disbanded and formed Om, a doomy-psych band that has put out 4 albums since 2004, including a live album from Jerusalem. Just about all the songs on this album remind me of a continuation of Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for The Heart of the Sun”, a consistent, slowly paced, driving bassline, with minimal drums and an airy, somewhat creepy voice.
Om “Unitive Knowledge of the Godhead”
Ambient/Post-Rock/Electronic Composition
Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline
Mesmerizing 2 Disc ambient album from a group that has one of my favorite names (the bands name refers to “your own personal cinema, located between your eye and eyelid”). Sit on a couch, close your eyes and put this on, you will feel like you are drifting in water (if you don’t fall asleep after the first track).
Stars of the Lid – “Tippy’s Demise”
Gavin Bryars Late Night Tales Compilation
Avant Garde Composer Bryars was a founding member of a group called the Portsmouth Sinfonia which also included Brian Eno. This song is from a compilation put together by Nouvelle Vogue which also features artists like Os Mutantes, Glen Campbell, and This Mortal Coil, but the song is also on Bryars LP Hommages, an album that came out in 1990. Bryars is “arguably the most important British post-minimalist composer” and probably his most well known track “Raising the Titanic” was mixed by Aphex Twin on 26 Mixes for Cash
Gavin Bryars “Vespertine Park”
Gavin Bryars “Raising The Titanic” (Aphex Twin Mix)
Mogwai Rock Action
An album full of grungy electronic textures, Mogwai’s first album where they used synthesizers and electronic drums and often considered one of their most accesible albums.. but this does not make it less beautiful, especially on this song “Take Me Somewhere Nice”. The entire album has a melancholy lifetime special kind of feel, sort of puts you in a lull when listening, but it’s effective for what it is.
Mogwai “Take Me Somewhere Nice”
Ulrich Schnauss A Strangely Isolated Place
His two albums A Strangely Isolated Place and Far Away Trains Passing By are being reissued along with the release of his new EP Stars. Sublime electronic music that will kind of just make the time pass by when you are listening. This is track 3 on A Strangely Isolated Place which offers up a couple of remixes in the reissue by Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins). The new Stars EP is available now for digital download and the other two albums will be re-released Oct. 13th.
Ulrich Schnauss “A Letter From Home”
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!
A good mix of ambient sound textures and post-rock guitars. This track, and entire album, are absolutely beautiful from the opening twinkling bells, to the kids singing to the surprising surge at around 5:30.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor “Antennas to Heaven”
Radiohead “Treefingers” (Extended)
I always joke with people that this is my favorite radiohead song… although it is a good song, it just sometimes seems like filler on Kid A. However if you take it out of the context of the album and mix it in with other ambient artists, its fits in quite well. It could easily be a lost track from a Brian Eno album. Apparently Thom just recorded ed playing guitar with a delay pedal for 10 minutes.
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Tags: live , ambient , On Rotation , psychedlic
If you like Entrance’s “the Kingdom of Heaven…” you should check out his earlier album, “Honey Moan” – it’s my favorite thing he’s done. A pretty damn near perfect album, I think.
on September 30th, 2008 at 4:12 am