Music - Part 3: Downtempo Favorites

Downtempo is a category of electronic music characterized by a slower tempo (lower beats per minute rate). This type of music is made for listening and relaxation. Downtempo and in particular Ambient is all about the soundscapes. You can enjoy the soundscapes to the max when the music is flowing slowly and smoothly, without many complexities. I mostly prefer the psychedelic variants, because I am generally into psychedelic music!

Chill-out and Lounge: Relaxation music
Pleasure Lounge - Dreamworks
Sunlounger - Lost
Sunlounger - Sunny Tales
Sunlounger - Mediterranean Flower
Paul-Oakenfold - Southern Sun
The Junior D - Synth To Love
Buddha Bar - Ocean - Playa Blanca (mp3) (Full Video)
Buddha Bar - Ocean - Cetacea (mp3) (Full Video)

Ambient: The most relaxing genre of music!
Ambient Nights CD1 (Mixed by Hephaestion)

Psybient and Psychill: Psychedelic variants of Ambient and Chill-out
Shpongle - When Shall I Be Free?
Shpongle - The Stamen Of The Shaman
Shpongle - Exhalation
Shpongle - Around the World in a Tea Daze
Shpongle - A New Way to Say Hooray
Infected Mushroom - Elation Station
Infected Mushroom - Shakawkaw
Infected Mushroom - Elevation
Wylhelm - Trip Complete
Koala & Xentrix - Infinite Dream
Zi - Blue Home
Pink Floyd - Shine on You Crazy Diamond [Psychedelic Rock]

Dark Ambient: Horror Movies kind of music
Lustmord - Strange Attractor
Lustmord - Deep Calls to Deep
Desiderii Marginis - Forlorn Pt 2

In this series:
Music - Part 1: The Journey
Music - Part 2: Psychedelic Trance Favorites
Music - Part 3: Downtempo Favorites
Next: Music - Part 4: Favorites From All The Spectrum

Music - Part 2: Psychedelic Trance Favorites

Trance music has gained lots of popularity in recent years, especially in Europe. There are many divisions of trance. Some above-ground circles that focus on Vocal Trance and Uplifting Trance. However, my taste goes more to the wondrous world of psychedelic trance, which is mostly considered to be underground music although it has so much influence on the above-ground scene.

Psychedelic Trance is mostly music-only without lyrics. It is more obscure in its nature, more emotional in the sense that it has strong capacity to cause mood swings, and more trippy in the sense that it stirs your imaginations and causes your mind to experience 'mental trips' (journey through imagination land).

The psychedelic trance has three main styles:
1- Goa trance
2- Full-on Psytrance
3- Dark Psytrance

I have compiled a list of some of my favorites.

First, let's explore Goa Trance. Music exported from India in a coastal city named Goa, a city where there is a party every night whole year long! This is the most accessible style of Psychedelic Trance. Very easy to get sucked into the mood. It makes it easy for someone who never listened to Psychedelic Music to get what this sort of music is all about.

1- Electric Universe: Best Goa Trance I know of! No contest! Just let your mind wander, and ass shake... That's all you need to enjoy their music.
1a- Radio S.P.A.C.E: That's the song that made me fall in love with this group. It literally gave me the feeling that I am dancing in deep space, with the darkness lit up by little stars in the skies all around. Never gonna forget that feeling! (mp3)
1b- Freakuencies: Music is made up of frequencies, but this one is not made of ordinary frequencies, it is made of freakuencies. (mp3)
1c- Silence In Action: (mp3)
1d- Visiting Venus: Must hear! (mp3)
1e- Orange Night: Must hear! (mp3)

2- Cosmosis:
2a- Afterglow: (mp3)
2b- Psychofunk: (mp3)
2c- In Yer Face: Something a little bit more upbeat, a little more energetic. (mp3)

3- Random Picks: Okay, no specific artists... Just whatever feels right! [Using Artist - Title convention.]
3a- Astral Projection - Mahadeva: Another energetic track, where things go a bit faster than usual. (mp3)
3b- Curly Whirly Spirits - Stoned Again: This one is really screwed up, prepare to become insanely psychotic! (mp3)
3c- Man With No Name - Lunar Cycle: Another psychosis inducing track! (mp3)
3d- Hallucinogen - L.S.D.: Mind bending! (mp3)


Let's go now to the Full-on psytrance category. This genre of music is intense and full of energy, hence the name "Full-on"!! Born on the dance-floors of Israeli nightclubs in late 90's, and ever since became a a widely recognized form of trance.

4- Infected Mushroom: One of the leaders of Full-on psytrance. Their music is controversial with lots of ups and downs, however their brave attitude in experimenting with new sounds has guaranteed them a place in the spotlight. Although technically, they are considered Full-on Psy, they do not hesitate to go to the dark side, which gives them a refreshing mixture between the light and darkness.
4a- Ballerium: This is one of their very eccentric productions. It is not exactly psytrance, it has dark psychill influences (which has a slow tempo). I have to admit that it is not an easy song, especially for those who are new to the scene. It is one of my all time favorites. (mp3)
4b- Deeply Disturbed: One of the most popular songs among fans. I like this song, but I wouldn't count it as one of the best. (mp3)
4c- Baby Killer: This song has influences from Dark Psytrance. In other words, it blows your brains out!! (mp3)
4d- Cities of The Future: One of my absolute favorites of the vocal song for Infected Mushroom. I love it mostly for the brilliant lyrics. (mp3)
4e- Becoming Insane: Another favorite of vocal songs. (mp3)

5- 1200 Micrograms: Another full-on psytrance group. Very unique style, with large diversity among their different songs and albums. Their music is full of energy, it won't give you a minute to take a breath!!
5a- Let's Get This Party Started: One the most straightforward songs that they produced. Straight to the point, no games, no bluffing, just pure energy to start your journey of partying! (mp3)
5b- God of Rock: Another straightforward production that will keep you dancing through the night. (mp3)
5c- Stoned Henge: A trippy production that lets your mind wander. (mp3)
5d- Numbers are Alive: 24 minutes of pure mind-blowing music. (mp3)
5e- DMT: Take the red pill and have a trip with Neo inside the Matrix. (mp3)

6- Astrix: One of the big names in the Full-on psytrance scene.
6a- Sex Style: Sexy and funky, these are the words I'd use to describe this song! Will definitely hype the dance-floor. (mp3)
6b- Underbeat: Must hear! (mp3)
6c- Beyond the Senses: This song has a very tribal feel to it, it always makes feel like I am living with a tribe in the Amazon or something! (mp3)


Finally, we are going to the dark side... Dark Psytrance just like the Full-on Psytrance is intense, but it is even pushier. Simply put, this music is a mindfuck! Beware, not for amateurs.

7- Parasense: A music act from Moscow. My favorite of this style.
7a- Vesna: (mp3)
7b- Linda rmx: This one has vocals in Russian (I think). (mp3)
7c- Ritual of Drugs: (mp3)
7d- Amazon Travel: Something to eradicate all thought from your mind! (mp3)

8- Random Picks:
8a- Bizzare Contact - Ice Age (psytekk): If you don't remember your own name after listening to this song, don't be alarmed... It happens! (mp3)
8b- Bizzare Contact VS Electro Sun - Eye Contact (psytekk): Another song that can make you forget your name! (mp3)
8c- Cujorious One - The Art Of Mindfucking: Who said mindfucking isn't an art?! (mp3)


Okay, this was a long post with many recommendations. Every song is unique in it's own right, and there is lots of diversities in those songs. Hope you enjoyed at least some of the recommendation I made. However, one good way to listen to psychedelic trance is to have a good collection and let your player shuffle through them, because it takes some time to get into the mood, and hence listening one song at a time might not give required effect.

In this series:
Music - Part 1: The Journey
Music - Part 2: Psychedelic Trance Favorites
Music - Part 3: Downtempo Favorites
Next: Music - Part 4: Favorites From All The Spectrum

Music - Part 1: The Journey

My journey with music started out early, around the age of 7. I started out with English pop music, more specifically bands of five. Backstreet Boys, Aqua, Five, and Spice Girls are all the big names that quickly come to mind. So many good memories. However, around the age of 13 I was introduced to rap, with Eminem's album Marshal Mathers LP. It was the very first time I listened to something that changed my mind and convinced me to modify my taste in music. My journey with rap was relatively short, after around one year, I was introduced to alternative rock. However, my taste did not change dramatically. I listened to both rap and alternative rock for around two years, and my taste in music changed slowly, until I was about 16 when I started listening exclusively to rock, and my taste in rock started expanding beyond alternative rock, to include many of the other styles in the rock and metal category.

I have to say, rock is great, it stuck with me for a very long time... I still listen to rock/metal although not as exclusively as I used to.

After I entered university, my taste started expanding once more. I started experimenting with non-vocal songs, classical music was my first experiment, and I loved it. I Listened mostly to Beethoven, and a little bit to other classical artists. Later on, I started experimenting with instrumental music. Guitar, Oud, and Piano were my earliest choices... I loved them too. I experimented with all of those types of music, but rock/metal remained my number one choice. And I also started listening to a handpicked selection of Arabic music. Fairouz was pretty much my number one choice. I also liked: Lena Chamamyan, Dina Hayek, and Ziad Rahbani. And to a lesser extent: Ruby (esp. Enta Aref Laih), Haifa Wehbi, and Nancy Ajram.

Until one day it happened. Around the age of 20, I listened to psychedelic trance, and fell in love instantly. There is simply nothing like it, nothing as good, nothing as beautiful. That was my second dramatic change in taste of music. I started listening to psychedelic trance exclusively, but this did not stay for long. Psychedelic trance opened my mind to a whole new world of music. Psychedelic trance, simply put, changed my idea of what music is, the most dramatic shift in taste that I ever experienced. For this reason, I had to check out other genres given my radically changed understanding of music. Uplifting trance (the most common form of trance) hit a major chord. Jazz was also lovely. After I started listening to Jazz, I started re-experimenting with instrumental music, but this time my choices were Saxophone and Violin. I also love downtempo genres such as Chill-out, Ambient, and Lounge.

On this day, psychedelic trance remains my number one choice, with a more generalized taste for instrumental and electronic music. And I still love to listen to rock/metal because I love their lyrics and energy.

In this series:
Music - Part 1: The Journey
Music - Part 2: Psychedelic Trance Favorites
Music - Part 3: Downtempo Favorites
Next: Music - Part 4: Favorites From All The Spectrum

Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music

Music fans commonly wonder about the guidelines to distinguish the different genres of music that they listen to. Couple of years ago, I used to listen to the Metal and Rock categories. But the subtle differences between the different sub-categories sometimes still puzzle me. Unfortunately, I never to this date found any properly illustrated guide to this category of music. However, nowadays, I am all into Electronic Music, and Trance in particular. Interestingly, I have found a proper guide to Electronic Music. So if you ever wondered what's the difference between Trance, Techno, and House, today is your lucky day. Even all the sub-genres of those encompassing musical genres. Everything with excerpts of typical songs that belong to that particular category!

Details can be found in Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music.