SciFi Music, Psytrance, Dark Ambient, etc

Whether I'm writing code or fiction, I find it really helps to have some appropriate music to block out the world and help you focus. When writing fiction, the music can also set the tone for what you're doing.

Recently I discovered internet radio. It'd been out there for years, I'd just never realised. Internet radio stations are basically just webservers set up to push an endless mp3 file to anyone who connects. Prior to this, some time back, I came across a few podcasts of dance music. At that time I was something of a dance music skeptic, indeed I'd been 'off' electronic music since being a childhood fan of Jarre and Vangelis, as the NME-reading mafia of my youthful days had managed to convince me that the only 'real' music was shoegazing kids mashing electric guitars; but of course free material gets anyone's attention, and they've gradually brainwashed me into becoming a trance-head.

I've never seen a genre of music as fragmented as modern electronic music. Every subdivision subdivides further upon inspection, it's kindof fractal. I've been drawn to a grouping of styles broadly called 'trance', and also to 'ambient/chillout'.

Trance is generally 'dancey' high-BPM music, and contains a subdivision known as 'psychadelic' or 'goa' or 'psy-trance'.

Psytrance is all about dancing yourself into a quasi hallucinogenic state and tends to be gleefully trashy and unrestrained, it's not afraid to seem a little ridiculous if there's fun to be had. This shows in the samples which are often from sci-fi B-movies, children's tv shows, anywhere (but especially 'Dune'). If it were a sci-fi genre, it would be space opera.

There's also 'progressive' trance which has a particular structure, a 'build up' where the BPM or other 'energetic' aspects of the music gradually increase (often, it seems to me, by layering on more and more components, much like Tabla players start off with a simple beat, and then layer beats over it until it becomes complex), until things get to a climax, where a 'cool down' occurs (a section that lowers the BPM and lets everyone get their breath back, (I first remember encountering this in the KLF's "America: What time is love?") and then a final stage that involves restarting the refreshed audience for a mad sprint to the final climax.

Progressive trance is somewhat more snooty than goa/psy and concerned with technical excellence and achieving an 'orchestral' sound. Samples will be more 'high-brow', from commentary and communications during real space missions, for instance. If it were a sci-fi genre, it would be Clarkian Hard SF.



One style that always pops up is 'Dark'. If there's anything, music, fiction, gateaux, there's always someone going to stick 'Dark' in front of the name and instantly create a new subdivision. So yes, there's dark trance, which tends to be aggressive, and sounds rather like being pursued through echoing tunnels by rampant sentient drum-machines, pissed as hell and armed to the teeth. Sci-fi samples will tend to be from dystopian sources (Bladerunner, for instance). If it were a sci-fi genre, it would be cyberpunk.

There's lots of other styles of trance, or at least lots of other names, but these are the only ones I've had any real success in identifying. Of course, as with all things, any particular track will tend to sit across these definitions and resolutely refuse to get in an appropriate box, preferring instead to keep all eight legs in territories belonging to different styles.

Then there's ambient/chillout. This is very low-tempo music with a laid-back or 'droney' feel. I listen to three strands to this:

A loungy 'chillout' style that's kindof like a soundtrack for the yuppie iphone generation (I don't mean that to sound as sneery as it does, I just mean that it's music you could imagine young, rich, beautiful people listening to as they sip designer cocktails in sushi bars). If it were a sci-fi genre it would be cyberpreppy or 'optimistic sf', or 'Star Trek'. Hmm... that sounds even more sneery.

'Space Music', which is very dreamy, cosmic-sounding music full of wonder and majesty, but definitely upbeat, optimistic. It generally has no samples, as these human noises would detract from the timeless wonder of the cosmos. If it were a science fiction genre it would be... hmm, I can't think of one that fits. The closest I can imagine is watching a cgi-heavy BBC 'Wonders of the Universe' documentary narrated by Bryan Cox after having just taken ecstasy.

'Dark Ambient', which is what Space-Music will sound like when the stars are right. The full horror of an uncaring cosmos in which we are less than gnats, and where cyclopean intelligences lurk in the timeless voids of space the mere sight of whom will make our sanity run out of our noses, is captured here in convenient .mp3 format. If it were a sci-fi genre, it would be Lovecraft crossed with Dick and 1984. Samples will tend to be of people screaming and crying, which sounds simply awful, but it's generally very well done. This is creepy, sinister stuff, not for dancing and not music you should be listening to while tripping.


Then, of course, there's breakbeat, drum-n-bass, tribal house, etc, etc. More styles of electronic music than one can count. Interestingly though, much of this music shows strong Sci-fi influences, particularly in the use of vocal samples from sci-fi movies played over the tracks, yet I perceive that there's little crossover between this music and written sci-fi. The people who read/write sci-fi seem to have no connection to the people who play/listen to it.

So, where can you find this stuff?

In no particular order:

Dark Ambient Radio: http://www.darkambientradio.de
Stream: http://sc7.spacialnet.com:22018/listen.pls

I must admit, my fave station. Mostly it's sinister 'droney' music, think 'Cthulhu's windchimes' occassionally yoou'll hear things like 'Lux Aeterna' (The choral 'Monolith' music from 2001) and occassionally something loud and aggressive, rise-of-the-demon-possessed-drum-machines.

Global Trance Grooves Podcast: http://www.john00fleming.co.uk/mixes/podcasts/Nov08/podcast.xml

John '00' Fleming's fantastic showcase of mostly progressive (as far as I can tell) trance. Tends to include a 'deep mix' (which is less 'progressive' and more leaning towards ambient, though still dancable) and a 'turbo mix' (high energy progressive).

Favorite episodes are:

July 2010 For two tracks that lean in the 'dark ambient' direction, Dark Soul Project's remix of Kay-D's "My Dreams" and Bart Claessen's "Hartseer".

September 2008 for a great mix by 'Nicholas Bennison', with my fave track being "Hertz - Big Bang (Bryan Cox) remix"

October 2011 an astounding deep mix that ranges from near 'darkish ambient' to an incredible and uplifting finish, with a reworking of a golden oldie from thirty years past.

Digitally Imported has channels and channels of electronic music in many different styles. Of particular interest are:

Space Music Soaring ambient with a sensawanda.

Ambient Soundscapes that are perhaps slightly less wonderous than Space-music.

Chiptunes You couldn't make this up: A channel devoted to music made with the sound chips from games consoles and early 8-bit computers. Some startling results, and some nostalgic bleeping from zx-spectrums.

http://www.di.fm/breaks.pls Breaks/Breakbeat. A style of music that seeks to use complex beat structures that 'break' the expected pattern, but still manage to stay musical.

Tribal House As the name suggests, a lot of drumming and influenced by traditional group drumming/call-and-response singing.

http://listen.di.fm/public3/goapsy.pls Goa/Psy trance.

http://listen.di.fm/public3/progressive.pls Progressive Trance.

http://listen.di.fm/public3/chillout.pls 'Chillout'

http://listen.di.fm/public3/chilloutdreams.pls More chillout

http://listen.di.fm/public3/psychill.pls Psytrance/Chillout fusion.


Radio Schizoid operates out of india, and has a great 4-channels of programming.

Goa/Psytrance

Chillout/Ambient

Progressive

General Electronic Dance Music


On a less trancy 'house' tip, there's http://www.groovelectric.com. This podcast series by Steve Boyett alternates between episodes dedicated to different styles. 'Drum' mixes are 'Tribal House' (involving a lot of drumming). 'Drone' mixes lean more towards an psytrance, in that they're just about pulsing a hypnotic baseline till you get in a groove. Other styles that pop up include the startling 'Swing house', which remixes 'Big band' music from the interwar years.

These are so consistently good that it's hard to pick favorites, but:

Favorite episodes:

The Swing Set Swing House. Whatever will they think of next? Features a great section with samples from 'Superfly'.

Lucid Drumming Fantastic 'Drum' mix, with added politics.

Califunkya when Boyett speaks of "The New Old FUNK" this is surely what he means.

Oblivion Express 'Drone' mix, starts slow and hypnotic, then builds.

Hit Factory another 'Drum/Tribal House' mix.

Drumnation another 'Drum/Tribal House' mix.

The Concrete Jungle House has a love for producing fake 'gospel sermons' about itself, this Drum mix contains something a little different, a New Labor style political speech about how house can 'stand still, or go forwards'.

Tunnel Visions Contains one of the aforementioned 'sermons' ("And yea though I walk through the valley of House, I will fear no groove, for thou DJ is with me!"). What always impresses me is how these fake preachers manage to nail the delivery and vocal trickery of the real thing. Also has the wonderfully sinister song 'Unprepared' by Marco V.

Smokefilled rooms Another eclectic mix that defies catagorization.

Conducting Thunder Excellent Drum 'n Bass mix.

Hit The Funk Pretty much does what it says on the can.

Fifth Down Distinctive, eclectic mix of allsorts from everywhere, including a mix of Dan le Sac VS Scroobius Pip "Thou Shalt always Kill", which was tongue in cheek before being remixed, but now the commandment "Thou shall not make repeatative generic music" sounds very ironic with a drum-machine beat under it, and a startlingly successful mashup of The Prodigy and Enya.

Swimming in the ruins dark atmospheric progressive house.

OMFG bouncing, funky mix, my fave is the 'Missy Eliot' track near the end.

New York, Vegas, and Mars goovey, dancey mix.

Flow A good 'drone' mix for getting in the zone at work. No complex lyrics to distract your brain, this just pulses along, and so should you. One track uses a startlingly familar sample at a little over half-way through the mix.

Gloves Off. Breakbeat and dubstep.