When I first heard the sound of Goa trance, acid or psychedelic music like Shpongle, I was stunned! This music made me want to produce music myself.

... But since I’m making electronic music most of the psychedelic songs lose their psychedelic value because I KNOW where the sounds come from. (I know how to make them on a synthesizer, well most of them)

For me that was what the word ‘psychedelic’ was about: its about hearing music experiences that you never heard before and you don’t know where the sounds come from; like they are made by an extraterrestrial culture.
If I listen to (psychedelic)music, Goa trance for example, I start to analyse the song automatically and when I analyse a song it all becomes logical to me.

I think this really sucks, music was better before I started making music. I still LOVE all the psychedelic music but it isn’t as special anymore as it used to be.

Are song people experiencing the same problem?

Note: Luckily Shpongle still sounds outer space for me

I have some old pals who make electronic music, they came from a special music school btw, and they always said that only Juno Reactor could make them scratch their heads. I guess that’s the challenge isn’t it? (Part of) your obligation as a musician to take the audience to places they’ve never been. In electronic music that’s almost the difference between a musician and a technician.

Jahful - 21 November 2009 02:37 AM

I have some old pals who make electronic music, they came from a special music school btw, and they always said that only Juno Reactor could make them scratch their heads. I guess that’s the challenge isn’t it? (Part of) your obligation as a musician to take the audience to places they’ve never been. In electronic music that’s almost the difference between a musician and a technician.

Yes, finding music that will make me stratch my head IS a challenge. And analysing a song is also challenging actually. I’m always looking for music that sounds almost unexplainable to me. Juno Reactor is an amazing group: Labyrinth, Shango, Beyond the Infinite are amazing albums!
I’m always try to make my music sound as weird as possible, I sometimes make songs and then I think “Hey, how did I manage to create THAT sound??”

check out Electrypnose if you haven’t… that guy is taking sound design to the next level.

You may not love the ‘music,’ but you will appreciate the extreme attention to detail and complete mind bending sounds he uses and how he uses them. Specifically the “Where do we go” album.

It’s nice to see that others share my same views on the current state of electronic music. One of the only recent unique electronic albums that I can think of would have to be BT’s “This Binary Universe”. I’m not a big fan of his mainstream dance stuff but this album is completely different and feels more like a work of art than a typical electronic album.

As opposed to Moby’s latest serving of, well, my Mom always said if you can’t say anything nice…

Daanvh - 21 November 2009 02:09 AM

When I first heard the sound of Goa trance, acid or psychedelic music like Shpongle, I was stunned! This music made me want to produce music myself.

... But since I’m making electronic music most of the psychedelic songs lose their psychedelic value because I KNOW where the sounds come from. (I know how to make them on a synthesizer, well most of them)

For me that was what the word ‘psychedelic’ was about: its about hearing music experiences that you never heard before and you don’t know where the sounds come from; like they are made by an extraterrestrial culture.
If I listen to (psychedelic)music, Goa trance for example, I start to analyse the song automatically and when I analyse a song it all becomes logical to me.

I think this really sucks, music was better before I started making music. I still LOVE all the psychedelic music but it isn’t as special anymore as it used to be.

Are song people experiencing the same problem?

Note: Luckily Shpongle still sounds outer space for me

Well it’s interesting point of view, but I’ve got no choice but to disagree! I understand it because I also have that bad habit when I listen something that I find brilliant, I need to analyse it and understand how it was made up, and it’s true that it might break up the charm sometime. But the true psychedelic nature to me, rather than not understanding what are the sounds made of, comes from the will of using sounds and atmospheres to depicts an alternate universe, full of symbolism, reality distortions and such, things that are usually inspired by psychedelic drugs, like most of the artists who made psychedelic music. And even though you may understand how some of the sounds were created, it’s still a different story to get how they were all assembled together in such a harmonious and musical way. And you’d still be missing the initial inspiration, idea or concept behind the artist that initiated his work, and that, no one will ever be able to understand. Take dark side of the moon by the pink floyd, one of the greatest psychedelic piece ever written, it’s all made of guitars, drums, and keyboards, does the knowledge of that makes it less psychedelic?

I think if you approach music that way, you’ll always end up frustrated.

Personally I would say that modern psychedelic music lacks the depth and significance of older material as anyone can make it with a laptop and some software. The old school artists like Gong or Pink Floyd were using raw technology and genuine innovation (often drug inspired) to create really new sounds. Does anyone on here know the work of the composer Stockhausen? Perhaps THE original psy musician.

ozdave - 22 November 2009 06:07 AM

Personally I would say that modern psychedelic music lacks the depth and significance of older material as anyone can make it with a laptop and some software. The old school artists like Gong or Pink Floyd were using raw technology and genuine innovation (often drug inspired) to create really new sounds. Does anyone on here know the work of the composer Stockhausen? Perhaps THE original psy musician.

Nop, but gonna have a look right away

As a point of interest, Irmin Schmidt from the German band Can was a student of Stockhausen’s for many years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTeLI5dUzKw

I agree with stockhausen in that music is all about evolution.

Music that expands your mind today may be humdrum in a years time, its a question of how far ahead you are composing in terms of novelty (in the Terence McKenna sense) ahead of the curve.

I don’t think its all about taking drugs, its more about imagination and opening your mind and creating sounds that may be outside your comfort zone.  When i think of shpongle, i think of it as a journey of sounds you’ve heard before in a different context with ones you haven’t heard ever before.  Its not just the sounds, its how they are put together that is just as important.