Hi all so as I've seen in the comments there is mention of me leaving some artists out to which I would say; Thank you for the feedback!! you guys are super knowledgable and I am glad you are viewers of mine. That being said if an artist was not included in the video it was in order to maintain a consistent narrative structure. While there were many great one off artists, if they did not fit into a broader movement they were not included. THAT BEING SAID I want to pin this comment with a list of artists not in this video who nonetheless deserve mention in the history of psychedelia. Thank you all for the feedback 1. Hawkwind (Space Rock) 2. Alice Coltrane (Psych Jazz) 3. Pharoah Sanders (Psych Jazz) 4. Sun Ra (Psych Jazz) 5. Neon Indian (Chillwave) 6. Lez Rallizes Denuds (Japanese Psych) 7. Faust (Krautrock) 8. Mogwai (Post Rock) 9. Primal Scream (Madchester)
your research and presentation has introduced me to some music I may have never heard. Into some King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard right now. Cool stuff. thanks! You did an excellent job.
There was a brief revival of it in the 90s with bands like Combustible Edison and the Friends of Dean Martinez. There were also DJs in clubs that hosted Exotica-themed nights in larger cities. But I agree: it should have another comeback.
cool doc. but no mention of Lee Perry... Im sure yall know that his 70's output is - sonically - some of the most "psychedelic" music ever made. he may not fit within the "trippy" narrative here, but best believe Lee Perry's influence is GOAT level. he was a MASTER of texture and space, rhythm and bass.
I reckon Hawkwind and Gong at the very least deserved a mention. Also, I don't know if it was intended but a less-than-a-minute mention of electronic music can't possibly cover the extent to which it has contributed to psychedelia. Acid house was only the beginning.
@hawkboy451 11 minutes ago I was just about to type the very same message ! The last word in Space Rock is Space Ritual. If you go to the Cherry Red Records page, Born to Go has been properly "band" animated. It is one of the most impressive animations I have ever seen. Quite unbelievable !
Based on this and other comments, I think I may make a separate video on 70s psychedelia a la Gong, Hawkwind, Magma etc. because you're right I did skip over them and they do not get enough recognition and they really deserve it.
*Music, Like No Other;* Psychedelic music is extremely underrated. It is by far the most imaginative music there is. And even after decades of mining the net & old record stores for classic treasures, I still find some real gems. _Keep on truckin'_
At cd shul, you beat me to it ,ele vators lyrics and music the jug (which was really him doing a rhythm with his mouth to the mike Thro the amp maybe he invented beat boxing but in his way ,) they was acid gig after gig studio after studio and beat the greatful dead by 2 weeks to claim to be 1st
Indeed. They also played while under the influence as a rule and when they landed in S.F. everyone changed how they played. Quicksilver, Jefferson Airplane and The Dead were all influenced by the Elevators before they were run out of town by the cops.
I would have enjoyed a section on psychedelic jazz, which included Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Pharoah Sanders, and most importantly, Miles Davis, whose Bitches Brew led to a jazz funk that went into the 70's.
Thanks for mentioning Robyn Hitchcock. He’s a treasure and under-appreciated. If you like psychedelia, folk, British sense of humor, and surrealism, check out Robyn. His self-titled album from a couple of years ago is great, and proves that some artists get better with age. Trömso Kaptien is also incredible (and relatively recent).
Robyn Hitchcock albums I love ….I often dream of trains 1984 . Fegmania! 1985 excellent albums. Also Check out ” Ultra Vivid Scene ” early albums from 1988-89
A line can be drawn from the influence of Karl Stockhausen, early electronic music of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream (not to mention early 70s Miles Davis) to where it fused with disco to form House, to the early ambient works of Aphex Twin and the drum n bass movement. The 90s was full of electronic artists who used technology to create beautiful sonic landscapes, and helped launch mainstream artists like Filter and Chemical Brothers. For me “psychedelic” music is just music that is experimental with a tendency to the ethereal and fantastic, a “spacey” feel, where space and colour is important, and mainstream appeal is secondary.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon also said in interviews that they were influenced by Stockhausen. Mostly McCartney was into Stockhausen, probably turned on by German friends Kirchherr, Voormann, and Vollmer.
I'm a fan of Scriabin. In college, I read the few biographies that exist in English. He was a mad genius. One day, his friends found him in his usual formal appearance, suit and tie, walking up to his waist into a lake over and over. They asked him what he was doing and he said he could walk on water, like Jesus, if he just tuned his mind to the correct 'frequency.' After one concert appearance, he collapsed on the floor and was carried off the stage in a state of panic attack. He said he sensed that the piano was very near physically exploding with flying shards killing himself and the first several rows of the audience. He said he prevented the disaster by easing up on the intensity of his playing. One time, he rushed back to a hotel he had checked out of and in a panic told them he must return to his room and look for a hair comb he accidentally left behind. They escorted him to the room where he found his comb. He said, 'Thank God. This object contains vibrational essences that emanated from my brain. Part of me is lost if this is not kept in my possession.' Not to mention his grandiose concept of massed orchestras, thousands of dancers, and hundreds of hot air balloons in what was his design for the largest artistic performance in the history of mankind. He was able to raise much of the money to finance it, but never got around to making it happen. It would have been great if filmed by Eisenstein, but unfortunately Scriabin's concept was about 15 years too early for Eisenstein and would have needed sound recording, which came years later than that. But one can imagine it being quite spectacular, which was the intent.
I'm so happy to see that SOMEONE mentioned "Space Age Pop" it's an overlooked and FACINATING era of change in music the seemingly NO ONE remembers! Also, I was well aware of "Psychedelic Folk music", It's one of my favorite genres. Then too so is "Ragtime" (I'm all over the place, musically)! 🎶🎶🎶 P.S. I was only BORN in 1962, so this was going on while I was VERY young, But I had older siblings and cousins who were VERY HIP, LOL. And my parents had a LOT of records that are now considered "Space Age Pop", SO I got to hear a lot of this stuff as a kid.
Hawkwind? Steve Hillage? deBUssy, not DEbussy. Great video. Yma Sumac was interesting. I'd never heard of her, yet she was huge in the 50s and 60s. Learnt other things here too, thanks.
@@hawkboy451 Thanks, I enjoyed that. I saw them at Cardiff Castle in '76. Calvert brought out a machine gun and proceded to shoot it at us (photos on google images), well, over our heads, but still --the PA system hammered the shots into our nervous systems. Memorable, but not something I'd like to experience twice!
Actually, Debussy was almost the only classical name he did pronounce correctly. (French words do not emphasize one syllable over another. You pronounce all syllables with equal emphasis.) His saying "Vuh-REE-see" as Tony Soprano would have said it had me almost crying. By the way, you can Google names to find out how to pronounce them correctly.
Thanks for this video!! It would deserve so many more views because it wraps up the topic in a way that I have often been looking for but never found. Also I am flabbergasted that almost ALL of the mentioned artists are artists that I felt drawn to as soon as I heard of them, often times long before I had any actual psychedelic experience. Kudos - you’ve done a great job.
This video is sorely missing a section on psychadelic jazz. Miles davis especially pioneered trippy sounds with his rock bands playing very rhythmically complex grooves with dark harmonies, and unreal solos, all improvised and spontaneous, really making it one of the most psychadelic genres out there. Dark Magus really exemplifies this.
Yma Sumac's albums serve as inspiration for many artists from her first album "Voice of the Xtabay" (1950) of exotica to her last album "Miracles" (1972) of psychedelic rock. The fusion of genres in her albums are very varied, being considered a pioneer in World Music together with Moisés Vivanco.
I think i might do a video on that "miracles" album one day, it's literally one of the most obscure coolest records ever. You have Yma singing wordless over this psych hard rock band which is totally different than the exotica stuff she is known for. It's rad.
@@NAETEMUSIC It would be really great if you could do an analysis, I haven't seen a video dedicated to this album yet that explains its genius, from the complex vocal resources that it performs at 50 years old, its production quality to how almost impossible it is to get a copy of 1972 for being withdrawn from the market a few months later. By the way, excellent video, you made a good narration, a true documentary.
My husband owns the personal property of Yma Sumac and we have every single document about the production of Miracles... why it was removed from the shelves, the problems the producers had with horrible and deceitful Lex Baxter, Sumac's dissatisfaction with the liner notes and album cover... nobody really knows the whole story. It is fascinating and tragic because it had the potential to be huge.
This video really could use music samples. First time listening to this channel so maybe that's its thing. Even a written list of the songs mentioned would be nice (with youtube links would be nicest)
To my ears and mind, Psychedelic music is an eclectic blend of Classical, Jazz, Middle Eastern, Raga, Spanish, Folk, and R&B. This is a very informative video. Many thanks, NAETE.
@@eternallife9786Not necessarily. It needn't be a blend of anything. Music played on the Chinese Qin, Guzheng, which are zithers, can carry strains of psychedelia. This is even more apparent in what is played on Korean zithers, where the players use bows on the instruments. Quite ethereal amd otherworldly.
Grat work friend. I'm super impressed that you included not only the impressionist and avant garde stuff but olso the space age martini music. Lots of people miss that aspect. Your scholarship and presentation skills really shine. Bravo!
Yes, NO ONE ever mentions "Space Age Pop" music! We have a collective image of what 1967 VW Bug drivers were listening to, But NOT what 1959 Buick or Cadillac drivers were. It wasn't Rock & Roll (no "kid" was driving a new Cadillac!) More accurately it would have been "Space Age Pop" for the upper middle class tailfin loving suburbanite!
Here are some more names from the 'classical' world to consider...John Cage, Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Steve Reich and early Philip Glass...if you are going to mention Varese, Debussy, Stockhausen and Xenakis, then the above list is a great way to expand on this lineage...also, you show Erik Satie but don't mention him...a big influence on Debussy
I was hugely disappointed Satie was not discussed! I think this video has been cut. I'm almost sure I heard his music discussed in this context before. How can anyone miss his eccentric theories and abstractions? His miniatures are little acid drops. Another is Charles Ives. People need to hear his music. The version of the Concord Sonata I heard on Radio 3 years ago. It was a piano composition, but there is an orchestral/tuned percussion version which featured passages of quarter tones. It was incredibly "spacey." The end of his Holidays symphony is like a rocket ship to the stars....Olivier Messiaen too. His organ piece The Nativity is fantastic. When I hear Pink Floyd's Rick Wright I hear the influence of this piece. "Visions De L' Amen" also for two pianos is incredible.
Very good the video. It is a pity you forgot to mention the goa trance movement. It is quintessentially psychedelic. And the beginning of a very solid psychedelic scene around the world. 3 decades in the future is still survives and is quite strong in the underground. Boom festival and Ozora are huge examples of what it became
as someone who considers themselves something of an amateur psychedelic music expert-- this is remarkable work. nailing this video is an impossible task but this is really on point.
It was particularly interesting to learn about the influence of modern composers such as Varese and Debussy, as well as experimental music of the Futurists. Curiously, however, this doc completely sidesteps what I think is Psychedelic Rocks greatest influence: Jazz! By the 1950s jazz artists like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Sonny Rollins were engaging in long form improvisational jams that truly manifested the "trips" of their inner minds. This influence was essential for the ground breaking psychedelic jam, "East-West", by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band which strongly influenced the Grateful Dead and many other psychedelic rock groups. In my opinion, the essential characteristic of psychedelic music is the emphasis on long-form improvisation, the psychedelic "jam", and that is something that was pioneered by Jazz artists, and doesn't derive from Debussy, Varese, or Exotica acts like Yma Sumac and Esquivel. As trippy as all that music is, I don't think it is psychedelic music because it's not based around improvisation. To make my point; Pink Floyd was a psychedelic band while led by Syd Barrett because Barrett really favored live improvisation and extended jams (Interstellar Overdrive), but the group moved away from that to very structured, highly orchestrated live performances and Pink Floyd from the 70s on is not really psychedelic rock. I think the improvisation and the long form is important because the artists are endeavoring to go on a "trip" and take the audience with them. The trip can't be totally predicted and so the artists must improvise along the way as they feel intuitively where the audience is at. This is what Jazz and Blues artists have always done, and what rock'n'rollers turned onto in the '60s. Now electronica artists improvise similarly. That's psychedelic music.
Stopped at Varese to comment because the first time I…took my first bicycle ride, when I hit the peak of the hill, I drove listening to “Ionisation” and “Octandre”. Hate to say I can’t name off the track I took it out of the CD player on, but…I was on a tight street behind a horse drawn carriage w/ the occasional jaywalking pedestrian taking advantage of the slow down…Realizing the tone of the piece we were listening to and where we were was like a score out of an Adam-12 or Dragnet anti-drug episode…The only visuals I got was not seeing anyone’s tires, cars looked like they were hovering, felt comfortable figuring that’s interesting enough and not too disorienting…I waited till I was 42 and it was worth the wait, but even now I still say “this stuff in the wrong hands,watch out…”
Voice of Xtabay is an iconic album and a cornerstone of the Exotica and the psychedelic movement, in my opinion. Yma Sumac had such an amazing 5 octaves voice range (Maria Callas said she wished she could sing like Sumac when they met). Sumac also sang her rendition of Debussy's Clair de Lune around the globe. It is fantastic. Her 1972 album Miracles is also iconic. One of my favorites.
Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions" album would fit into the Psychedelic Soul vibe. I would also include the Scorpions early albums in the Psychedelic Rock genre.
For more psychedelic soul, I would also recommend Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton's first solo album (Come To My Garden), and of course Parliament/Funkadelic, especially their 1970-73 music.
An interesting discussion, but one that overlooks a composer of central, fundamental importance to the topic: Scriabin, who counts not only for his Debussy-esque liberation from tonality, but for his concepts of light and colour as complements to the experience of music.
In all honesty I should’ve included Scriabin. He’s equal with Debussy in terms of influencing tripped out thinking. The mysterium was meant to premier in the Himalayas, I cannot think of a composer more aligned with values of 60s psychedelia than Scriabin in this way
A very influential early 90's Goa Trance album is Twisted by Hallucinogen, aka, Simon Posford, who also formed the psychedelic band, Shpongle with Raja Ram.
Well done! I will NOT mention my own preferences that may not be included- this is a Great history. It is, therefore, unnecessary to go down each "rabbit hole". Also, the fact that you included Psychedelic Soul, Pop, etc and the tie to Jazz music, is way more impressive to me than mentioning the vast use of the Theremin on many albums!
Note: All the 90's psychedelic bands I mentioned were influenced directly, or indirectly by bands such as Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, and Jean Michelle Jarre, as well as Vangelis.
You're fantastic man I've been binging your videos since i found your channel its so interesting learning about artists and genres I never would have been exposed to otherwise so thank you
This the kind of comment that motivates me to keep going with RUclips. Thank YOU for the incredibly kind words and encouragement and have an incredible rest of your day/night!
Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thank you. I encourage everyone who likes this type of music to check out some African psychedelic music. Sir Victor Uwaifo, Oriental Brothers International, Funkees, Ofo and the Black Company, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, W.I.T.C.H., Columba Sidibe, Chrissy Zebby Tembo and N’gozi Family should be enough to get you started.
Fantastic video. Thanks for bringing up Animal Collective and Tame Impala. Although Animal Collective aren’t just an electronic band. They have plenty of rock albums, and even some acoustic, too. Always psychedelic, of course, just different flavors. I would have added MGMT as well. “Congratulations”, their self-titled album, and “11-11-11” have the same sort of vibe. Backtracking to the 70’s, I would have added discussion on no wave and early industrial music. No wave was championed by Brian Eno with his “No New York” compilation, and the band Sonic Youth famously emerged from the No wave scene in the 80’s and 90’s. Thurston Moore is a major Syd Barrett fan. Genesis P-Orridge who pioneered industrial music with Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV also massively sung the praises of Syd Barrett. Of course, the music was far darker, horrific, and nightmare-inducing than most psychedelic music. But listen to an early Pink Floyd track like “Nick’s Boogie”, or even The Doors’ “Celebration of the Lizard”, and you’ll find the same kind of darkness. The elements of dissonance, abrasiveness, and even musique concrète in these genres definitely means they share a lot in common with psychedelic music. Even new wave deserves more than just a passing mention. The B-52’s had their Farfisa organ. Talking Heads had the album “Fear of Music”, which was produced by Brian Eno, features a guitar solo from King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, features guitar riffs reminiscent of Captain Beefheart’s guitarists, and even has a song aptly titled “Drugs”. Devo were pretty wild, too. Oh, and The Residents definitely deserved to be mentioned, as well. Psychedelic music and experimental music are pretty synonymous to me. That’s sorta the vibe I picked up at the beginning of this video.
Excellent video! Judging by all the "should've included so-and-so" comments, the video may have ended up 24 hours long had you included them all. I'll use my comment to make additions for viewers to follow up on themselves: Electronic rock pioneers: The United States of America, 54-foot Hose, White Noise, TONTO's Expanding Headband Acid Folk & World Music: The Holy Modal Rounders, The Third Ear Band, Kaleidoscope (USA), Tim Buckley, Davy Graham, Skip Spence Psyche Jazz: Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, Tony Williams' Lifetime, Art Ensemble of Chicago, early Soft Machine And let's bring more women into the psyche fold!: Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Spiegel, Juana Molina, Sarah Hopkins, Bebe Barron, Julianne Barwick And if you think Japan has just idol pop and metal: Flower Traveling Band, Far East Family Band, Buffalo Daughter, Ikue Mori, Love Psychedelico, Stomu Yamashta, Miho Hatori Oh, the replies my list will generate!🤓
Yes about all the groups and musicians you mentioned, plus 1960s-70 music from Brazil, like Caetano Veloso, Tom Ze, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, and Milton Nascimento.
How could there be no mention of Gong, Hawkwind and Steve Hillage? Maybe the British psychedeiia didn't make it across the pond. There has been no more psychedelic band than Gong, in my opinion
27:26 If you're going to talk about psychedelic music in the early 90s, you can't leave out the East Coast jamband scene and particularly the Wetlands club in NYC. Phish, Shockra, Aquarium Rescue Unit, Widespread, ULU, SCI, Disco Biscuits, Yep... New England was on fire with touring bands. Look at the lineups on all the H.O.R.D. Tour in the 90s.
I like throwing Sonic Youth in there as well, as I think they really captured many different styles of experimentation. Love that krautrock and shoegaze get the mention. Oh and I’d say LCD Soundsystem too
What a amazing video. I love this so much, i'm going to do like 3 or 4 new playlits based in this knowledge. Still i miss you to mention things like Trip-hop and artists like Mac Demarco and Homeshake.
One of my fave psychedelic musical artists was Santana... He was early a master of that 60s, Hippie Summer of Love music, & evolved a world beat psychedelic rock jazz fusion in the early 70s: Santana III (also referred to as man with the outstretched hand, due to the trippy psychedelic album cover art... won't mention Abraxas which was in 60s), Caravanserai, Borboletta, Love, Devotion, & Surrender with John McLaughlin. I actually had a psychedelic religious experience seeing him. His solos often seem as though he channels music from trance state, & his music led to what many refer to trance dance...
There's Ultimate Spinach and "Mind Flowers" and "Hip Death Goddess". There's early Pink Floyd, and later on there's Blind Mr. Jones, and "Spooky Vibes", and plenty of other latter day shoegaze and dream pop bands. There's also Galaxie 500, and the entire "On Fire" album.
Re. The Hurdy Gurdy Man: I would argue that that title refers to the danish guitarist Claus Bøhling, who, in 1967, formed a rock trio named Hurdy Gurdy. This band moved to England in 1968, where they became acquainted with Donovan. According to rumours, Donovan originally wrote the aforementioned song for the danish band, but later chose to record it himself. Still later, Bøhling became a member of the (also danish) avant-garde band Secret Oyster, which was led by a sax player named Karsten Vogel, who had played in various jazz and rock bands pior to the formation of Secret Oyster.
Thank you for this fascinating video essay and mini-documentary. You put a lot of thought and work into this, and I loved how you went back to roots planted way before the modern era, and popular music.
I feel like the contributions of Spacemen 3 (and Spiritualized) on neo-psychedelia should have been highlighted. Contemporary psych bands like MGMT and Animal Collective have explicitly stated the influence of Spacemen 3 on their own music.
A beautiful analysis on Psy music ... I think a big one in the 90s was Chemical brothers (dig your own hole and Surrender era) they brought big beat electronica to a large audience and it s plenty full of psychedelic elements .. and Spacemen 3 in the 80s where a huge one , and I'd add Sun city Girls in the 2000 who were a big influence on Animal Collective and the noise scene in general .. ok I stop .. just to give a little list for people who are curious and want to explore more .. thanks to your video I discovered Jon Hopkins who I didn't know and he's pretty Good !
The flaw in this (too) fast-moving presentation is that are no sound samples, so viewers not familiar with the artists are just hearing a rapid stream-of-consciousness list of names. I'm already expecting responses telling me to search them myself and listen to them, but this would require searching dozens if not more than a hundred artists to pull up videos for each one, a project that could take weeks. I was hoping to learn something here, but there was so much information flying by, with no sounds to put anything in context, that it felt like a half-hour chore of trying to keep up with the high-speed data dump.
thank you for taking the path least taken :) i wondered though why you did not mention in the electronic music the introduction of acid music and then trance and specifically psychedelic trance. would love to see a video of this kind of music in the wider angle.
This is such great content that I really want to leave two comments. First, thank you for all the research and enthusiasm you put into this brilliant documentary. Second, a piece of constructive criticism: Apart from the section where we can see yourself, the narration is stripped of any kind of pause between the words. This makes the thoughts and information presented very hard to listen to and almost impossible to digest. I´ve noticed people doing that in their videos, so it seems to be some kind of general trend. Whatever, in this case I want to point out that this film contains really, really fascinating and interesting stuff. There´s a lot to discover and a lot to enjoy, if you allow it to breathe like you do in the section mentioned above. Thanks again!
Recently, the first psychedelic rock song has been named as "Any Way You Want It" by the Dave Clark Five in 1964. I think it is "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen in late 1963. It does not have sound feedback, guitar distortion or drug references, but it does have a vocal style that is hippie-ish, so much so that the song sounds at least five years ahead of its time.
Whoever named that the first psych song doesn't know what psych is. The Ultra Mates / "Pitter Patter" from early `63 is probably the first psych tune. The Trashmen were more of a surf/garage thing. There's no psych on that record. Del Shannon's "Runaway" was more psych than that, as was, "Telstar" by The Tornadoes, Delia Derbyshire's "Dr. Who" theme song, The Ventures / "Genesis" from 1962.
@@rickriffel6246 No problem! Glad you liked it! I've got TONS of psych!! About 165 full CD's worth of it. It's part of a huge psych collection I've been putting together since July 10, 1999.
Astonishing that you could make a half-hour timeline of psychedelic music without any music clips, or any mention of The Beatles (notably the double-A-Sided single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever early in 1967, or Tomorrow Never Knows before that, in August 1966).
Although there many omissions: Ashra Temple, Steve Hillage, Vander Graff Generator, Terry Riley... a big one was a Classical Composer: Alexander Scriabin - who even incorporated "Light Shows" - and this was in the late 1800's! There was also the Brazilian "Tropicalia" movement , spearheaded by OS Mutantes. Other than this - This was a veritable MASTER CLASS in the evolution of Psychedelia! THANK YOU!
I wonder how you would fit Surf Music into this conversation, especially the very early (Pre-Beach Boys) stuff. Some very spacy stuff was laid down by those bands. All in all a great video....thanks for sharing!
Biggest Mistake is not talking about Progressive Rock-the next step in Psychedelic Rock from the 60's. The scenes were different but fundamentally they are connected.The bands created more thorough compositions to reach the same ends of Psychedelia with a different aesthetic approach.
Very clearly explained, understandable, yet thorough! 👍 This is not a "who's who" of Psychedelic Music - but rather, a comprehensive survey of its content, definition, qualities, and influences. Many very important groups are left out, and some more obscure ones are mentioned; and for good reason!👍 - This is a description of a genre, and its musical qualities. Not a list of important bands.👍
60's Jamaican Dub Reggae, as invented and perfected by King Tubby and his proteges, had a huge influence on 70's Jungle and Drum N Bass, 80's Hip Hop and early 80's EDM.
I agree 100% - not mentioning the contributions of dub is a glaring omission in an otherwise very thorough history. The influence of dub artists (like Lee Perry, King Tubby, Scientist) reached into many genres and definitely should be included.
Excellent! I would recommend anyone to look into the life and works of madman psychedelic Alexander Scriabin. Many of his concepts will blow your mind.
Congratulations for your highly interesting video,which put me in contact (for the very first time!) with great acts like Yma Sumac and Animal Collective,which I now love!! Just a funny side-note: being an italian,I often gave a look at the written sub-text,in order not to lose a single word of your narrative,and that proved to be a wise move...but I also had to laugh out loud more than once,because the great french composer Debussy has always been spelled "W C" (actually it sounds SO similar that I wholeheartedly decided to forgive the poor computer which fell into the trap...but I am still laughing nonetheless😂)! Many greetings from Italy! Sergio
Very good, very complete, I thought there was no mention of the Krautrock bands. which are a subdivision of progressive rock, which has several aspects.
Thank you for making this as this was rather thorough and included a lot of names and details I was totally unaware of. I am surprised no mention of Post Rock?...maybe due to some people lump it in with "Shoegaze"? also Animal Collective and Tame Impala are well known, but not necessarily everyone's cup of tea. I tend to find other artists I like more of the same generation; Pepe Deluxe, The Apples in Stereo..
Thank you for the kind words!! Inevitably I couldn't include everything though you're right Mogwai was certainly a contender here! I think I might make a separate video on Post-Rock which is why I left it out. But good observation thank you for the feedback!!!
@@NAETEMUSIC no problem. Yeah, Post-Rock, which say what you will about the term (semantics really), has become a massive style of music over the last 30 years, it would certainly be something to make a video about. If/when you do, I'd love to see it. I actually probably should make a video about my take/taste on it as well as there's so much of it. I've written about it and made a list or 2 on my rateyourmusic page, but never here on RUclips. There's a channel/podcast known as "Velocities in Music" that did a decent 1+ hour podcast about it a few years ago, but other than that, i don't know of many others.
Very interesting and well-made documentary, and while I'm aware you cannot mention every artist's contribution to the style, I was somewhat surprised about and the glaring omission of dub reggae in this narrative, as this genre has contributed massively to all psychedelic styles in its wake. Also, I think Turkish psychedelia deserves an honourary mention here. Other than that: great job!
My favourite psychedelic band which are arguably the heaviest psychedelic band and one of the most influential bands having been directly responsible for several genres of music that followed them and having inspired countless influential bands is of course The Stooges
To add to the discussion. No discussion of 80's psychedelic music could be complete without mentioning The Talking Heads, taking a lineage of influence tracing back to Zappa, and on through the jam bands of the 1990's like Phish. Then in the 2000's came bands like Shpongle, not to mention some of the psychedelic hip hop like Blockhead and Deltron 3030.
You’ve rewritten the history of psychedelic folk music by omitting the Byrds. Donovan’s Sunshine Superman is hardly a “psychedelic” song when compared to the Byrd’s album “5D”. “Eight Miles High”being one of the noteworthy psychedelic songs of that era. Overall, an entertaining an informative video.
I think this analysis is above my head. Very interesting but I'm not qualified to comment on it. I simply have appreciation to different degrees of these different pieces. But I did learn quite a bit. I will definitely have to give this more viewings.
You missed psytrance (i.e. psychedelic trance), a genre of electronic music explicitly intended to be listened to on psychedelics.The artist Hallucinogen (Simon Posford) is a good starting point, and historically important. In my opinion psytrance takes the ideas of psychedelic music the furthest and is where most of the innovation is happening today. Artists Like ON3, Module Virus, Vibrant are some modern examples of the genre. Hope you decide to check it out.
Great Work - I really appreciate the info on this music culture (one of my favorites) - and also believe that TRUE Psychedelic Music goes back WAY before the 60's (as well as influencing other subgenres that most people don't realize - like Jazz BeBop & Hardbop, Twist, and my favorite... Surd Psyche - like the Ventures and Takeshi Terauchi)
28:55 For psychedelic grunge and more, check out: Lovebattery - Between The Eyes; Straight Freak Ticket; Out Of Focus; See Your Mind; Fuzz Factory Truly - Fast Stories... from Kid Coma; Heart and Lungs Soundgarden - Fourth Of July, Tighter & Tighter Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene Honorary mention: Melvins - Talking Horse (video by Behn Fannin)
In my opinion, you can’t have psychedelic music without the psychedelics, so anything made prior to an artist’s experience with them doesn’t make sense to call it psychedelic.
The Fugs from here in NY were one of the first psychedelic bands. Their first 2 albums, 'The Fugs First Album' and 'Virgin Fugs' both from 1965 were both Psycho delic.
Wow, I learned so much about psychedelic music and the origins went back further than I thought. I could definitely see the Italian futurism in contemporary music. Beeper sounds or ringtones. It could only further itself through western technological advancements.
I am of the firm belief that the Beatles stopped touring because the studio became an instrument. I'm of the opinion that that was a GOOD thing. The music became so much more complex and interesting that would be impossible for 4 guys with guitars and drums could "pull-off" live. This music seriously required concentration and good headphones to dig fully. Not gonna happen in a stadium with 50,000 screaming fans.
![KSI - Thick Of It (feat. Trippie Redd) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/At8v_Yc044Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi all so as I've seen in the comments there is mention of me leaving some artists out to which I would say; Thank you for the feedback!! you guys are super knowledgable and I am glad you are viewers of mine. That being said if an artist was not included in the video it was in order to maintain a consistent narrative structure. While there were many great one off artists, if they did not fit into a broader movement they were not included. THAT BEING SAID I want to pin this comment with a list of artists not in this video who nonetheless deserve mention in the history of psychedelia. Thank you all for the feedback
1. Hawkwind (Space Rock)
2. Alice Coltrane (Psych Jazz)
3. Pharoah Sanders (Psych Jazz)
4. Sun Ra (Psych Jazz)
5. Neon Indian (Chillwave)
6. Lez Rallizes Denuds (Japanese Psych)
7. Faust (Krautrock)
8. Mogwai (Post Rock)
9. Primal Scream (Madchester)
your research and presentation has introduced me to some music I may have never heard. Into some King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard right now. Cool stuff. thanks! You did an excellent job.
10. Lee Perry
@@Odd_Nosdam Amen
Not an expert but still an absolutely fascinating video. Thanks.
Incredible compendium and survey!
Space Age Music and Exotica are some beautiful genres that need to come back in my opinion
Indeed, more people need to know about these genres!
they already do exist and merged with genres such as IDM or Electronica
It’s still around!!!
There was a brief revival of it in the 90s with bands like Combustible Edison and the Friends of Dean Martinez. There were also DJs in clubs that hosted Exotica-themed nights in larger cities. But I agree: it should have another comeback.
I agree some of the better categories of the electronic genre
You can not talk about space Rock without talking about Hawkwind!!!...nuff said!!
This. Bigly.
✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️
Gong too!
True!
Spirit of the Age. When Americans talk about Psychedelic Music its always so far removed from what people in the UK class Psychedelic Music.
cool doc. but no mention of Lee Perry... Im sure yall know that his 70's output is - sonically - some of the most "psychedelic" music ever made. he may not fit within the "trippy" narrative here, but best believe Lee Perry's influence is GOAT level. he was a MASTER of texture and space, rhythm and bass.
How did this guy not mention dub but brought up Italian futurists like wtf
I found dub reggae attractive as it had sound textures similar to Tang Dream & Pink Floyd.
Can't mention everything. I have Super Ape on vinyl though. It's cool.
Thank you for discussing Psychedelic Soul! Too often this gets overlooked. It certainly fed into the development of Funk
I'm confident that if Debussy rejected "Impressionism", he would certainly have rejected "psychedelic" too. this was cool.
I reckon Hawkwind and Gong at the very least deserved a mention. Also, I don't know if it was intended but a less-than-a-minute mention of electronic music can't possibly cover the extent to which it has contributed to psychedelia. Acid house was only the beginning.
@hawkboy451
11 minutes ago
I was just about to type the very same message ! The last word in Space Rock is Space Ritual. If you go to the Cherry Red Records page, Born to Go has been properly "band" animated. It is one of the most impressive animations I have ever seen. Quite unbelievable !
yup hawkwinds great
Based on this and other comments, I think I may make a separate video on 70s psychedelia a la Gong, Hawkwind, Magma etc. because you're right I did skip over them and they do not get enough recognition and they really deserve it.
@@NAETEMUSIC Nice one ! Space Ritual and In Search of Space by Hawkwind are exceptionally brilliant must-listens, their finest work .
@@NAETEMUSIC Nice one, looking forward to that. There are some documentaries on Hawkwind but nothing on the whole 70s scene that I'm aware of.
*Music, Like No Other;*
Psychedelic music is extremely underrated.
It is by far the most imaginative music there is.
And even after decades of mining the net & old record stores for classic treasures, I still find some real gems.
_Keep on truckin'_
"The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators" with Roky Erickson was the first to use the word psychedelic to describe their music.
Were they even mentioned?
Exactly
At cd shul, you beat me to it ,ele vators lyrics and music the jug (which was really him doing a rhythm with his mouth to the mike
Thro the amp maybe he invented beat boxing but in his way ,) they was acid gig after gig studio after studio and beat the greatful dead by 2 weeks to claim to be 1st
The Moving Sidewalks were cooler.
Indeed. They also played while under the influence as a rule and when they landed in S.F. everyone changed how they played. Quicksilver, Jefferson Airplane and The Dead were all influenced by the Elevators before they were run out of town by the cops.
I would have enjoyed a section on psychedelic jazz, which included Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Pharoah Sanders, and most importantly, Miles Davis, whose Bitches Brew led to a jazz funk that went into the 70's.
Thanks for mentioning Robyn Hitchcock. He’s a treasure and under-appreciated. If you like psychedelia, folk, British sense of humor, and surrealism, check out Robyn. His self-titled album from a couple of years ago is great, and proves that some artists get better with age. Trömso Kaptien is also incredible (and relatively recent).
Robyn Hitchcock albums I love ….I often dream of trains 1984 . Fegmania! 1985 excellent albums.
Also Check out ” Ultra Vivid Scene ” early albums from 1988-89
A line can be drawn from the influence of Karl Stockhausen, early electronic music of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream (not to mention early 70s Miles Davis) to where it fused with disco to form House, to the early ambient works of Aphex Twin and the drum n bass movement. The 90s was full of electronic artists who used technology to create beautiful sonic landscapes, and helped launch mainstream artists like Filter and Chemical Brothers. For me “psychedelic” music is just music that is experimental with a tendency to the ethereal and fantastic, a “spacey” feel, where space and colour is important, and mainstream appeal is secondary.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon also said in interviews that they were influenced by Stockhausen. Mostly McCartney was into Stockhausen, probably turned on by German friends Kirchherr, Voormann, and Vollmer.
Psych has been going for a loong time. Scriabin, Messien, even some bits of Ravel. Yeah, it is older than you think!
I'm a fan of Scriabin. In college, I read the few biographies that exist in English. He was a mad genius. One day, his friends found him in his usual formal appearance, suit and tie, walking up to his waist into a lake over and over. They asked him what he was doing and he said he could walk on water, like Jesus, if he just tuned his mind to the correct 'frequency.' After one concert appearance, he collapsed on the floor and was carried off the stage in a state of panic attack. He said he sensed that the piano was very near physically exploding with flying shards killing himself and the first several rows of the audience. He said he prevented the disaster by easing up on the intensity of his playing. One time, he rushed back to a hotel he had checked out of and in a panic told them he must return to his room and look for a hair comb he accidentally left behind. They escorted him to the room where he found his comb. He said, 'Thank God. This object contains vibrational essences that emanated from my brain. Part of me is lost if this is not kept in my possession.' Not to mention his grandiose concept of massed orchestras, thousands of dancers, and hundreds of hot air balloons in what was his design for the largest artistic performance in the history of mankind. He was able to raise much of the money to finance it, but never got around to making it happen. It would have been great if filmed by Eisenstein, but unfortunately Scriabin's concept was about 15 years too early for Eisenstein and would have needed sound recording, which came years later than that. But one can imagine it being quite spectacular, which was the intent.
I'm so happy to see that SOMEONE mentioned "Space Age Pop" it's an overlooked and FACINATING era of change in music the seemingly NO ONE remembers! Also, I was well aware of "Psychedelic Folk music", It's one of my favorite genres. Then too so is "Ragtime" (I'm all over the place, musically)! 🎶🎶🎶 P.S. I was only BORN in 1962, so this was going on while I was VERY young, But I had older siblings and cousins who were VERY HIP, LOL. And my parents had a LOT of records that are now considered "Space Age Pop", SO I got to hear a lot of this stuff as a kid.
Hawkwind? Steve Hillage? deBUssy, not DEbussy.
Great video. Yma Sumac was interesting. I'd never heard of her, yet she was huge in the 50s and 60s. Learnt other things here too, thanks.
@@hawkboy451 Thanks, I enjoyed that.
I saw them at Cardiff Castle in '76. Calvert brought out a machine gun and proceded to shoot it at us (photos on google images), well, over our heads, but still --the PA system hammered the shots into our nervous systems. Memorable, but not something I'd like to experience twice!
Actually, Debussy was almost the only classical name he did pronounce correctly. (French words do not emphasize one syllable over another. You pronounce all syllables with equal emphasis.) His saying "Vuh-REE-see" as Tony Soprano would have said it had me almost crying. By the way, you can Google names to find out how to pronounce them correctly.
Thanks for this video!! It would deserve so many more views because it wraps up the topic in a way that I have often been looking for but never found. Also I am flabbergasted that almost ALL of the mentioned artists are artists that I felt drawn to as soon as I heard of them, often times long before I had any actual psychedelic experience. Kudos - you’ve done a great job.
Thank you so much!
This video is sorely missing a section on psychadelic jazz. Miles davis especially pioneered trippy sounds with his rock bands playing very rhythmically complex grooves with dark harmonies, and unreal solos, all improvised and spontaneous, really making it one of the most psychadelic genres out there. Dark Magus really exemplifies this.
Yma Sumac's albums serve as inspiration for many artists from her first album "Voice of the Xtabay" (1950) of exotica to her last album "Miracles" (1972) of psychedelic rock. The fusion of genres in her albums are very varied, being considered a pioneer in World Music together with Moisés Vivanco.
I think i might do a video on that "miracles" album one day, it's literally one of the most obscure coolest records ever. You have Yma singing wordless over this psych hard rock band which is totally different than the exotica stuff she is known for. It's rad.
@@NAETEMUSIC It would be really great if you could do an analysis, I haven't seen a video dedicated to this album yet that explains its genius, from the complex vocal resources that it performs at 50 years old, its production quality to how almost impossible it is to get a copy of 1972 for being withdrawn from the market a few months later. By the way, excellent video, you made a good narration, a true documentary.
My husband owns the personal property of Yma Sumac and we have every single document about the production of Miracles... why it was removed from the shelves, the problems the producers had with horrible and deceitful Lex Baxter, Sumac's dissatisfaction with the liner notes and album cover... nobody really knows the whole story. It is fascinating and tragic because it had the potential to be huge.
Thanks for mentioning her❤
Debussy was very fond of javanese classical music, which is very psychedelic itself.
To me, Gamelan music is the most psychedelic music, although North Indian Classical is close.
Absolutely! Gamelan music can be heard as such.
Sometimes my wife is such a pain in the butt. Most of the time.
Hear, hear!
This video really could use music samples. First time listening to this channel so maybe that's its thing. Even a written list of the songs mentioned would be nice (with youtube links would be nicest)
Absolutely! That's my only gripe
Unfortunately, he can't due to copyright issues.
To my ears and mind, Psychedelic music is an eclectic blend of Classical, Jazz, Middle Eastern, Raga, Spanish, Folk, and R&B. This is a very informative video. Many thanks, NAETE.
Thank you so much for watching!!!
@@NAETEMUSIC You're very welcome.
Exactly psychedelia is a blend of a lot of different things musically
True
@@eternallife9786Not necessarily. It needn't be a blend of anything. Music played on the Chinese Qin, Guzheng, which are zithers, can carry strains of psychedelia. This is even more apparent in what is played on Korean zithers, where the players use bows on the instruments. Quite ethereal amd otherworldly.
Grat work friend. I'm super impressed that you included not only the impressionist and avant garde stuff but olso the space age martini music. Lots of people miss that aspect. Your scholarship and presentation skills really shine. Bravo!
Yes, NO ONE ever mentions "Space Age Pop" music! We have a collective image of what 1967 VW Bug drivers were listening to, But NOT what 1959 Buick or Cadillac drivers were. It wasn't Rock & Roll (no "kid" was driving a new Cadillac!) More accurately it would have been "Space Age Pop" for the upper middle class tailfin loving suburbanite!
Glad you're still able to pump out content despite any turmoil you're experiencing
Thank you so much my friend, it's actually quite healing!!! And thank you for watching and supporting as always!
Here are some more names from the 'classical' world to consider...John Cage, Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Steve Reich and early Philip Glass...if you are going to mention Varese, Debussy, Stockhausen and Xenakis, then the above list is a great way to expand on this lineage...also, you show Erik Satie but don't mention him...a big influence on Debussy
Xenakis’ tape music is absolutely insane, very sculptural. Darkly psychedelic for sure.
Satie was marketed to a young audience in the early '70's. His idiosyncracies were cited as "street cred" for "free thinkers."
I was hugely disappointed Satie was not discussed! I think this video has been cut. I'm almost sure I heard his music discussed in this context before. How can anyone miss his eccentric theories and abstractions? His miniatures are little acid drops. Another is Charles Ives. People need to hear his music. The version of the Concord Sonata I heard on Radio 3 years ago. It was a piano composition, but there is an orchestral/tuned percussion version which featured passages of quarter tones. It was incredibly "spacey." The end of his Holidays symphony is like a rocket ship to the stars....Olivier Messiaen too. His organ piece The Nativity is fantastic. When I hear Pink Floyd's Rick Wright I hear the influence of this piece. "Visions De L' Amen" also for two pianos is incredible.
OMG Lamont Young! He's a whack!! How long is his never ending piano song now??
@@hirampopcock6626 I heard somewhere he did it for 4 hours!!! Could be a rumor though
Very good the video. It is a pity you forgot to mention the goa trance movement. It is quintessentially psychedelic. And the beginning of a very solid psychedelic scene around the world. 3 decades in the future is still survives and is quite strong in the underground. Boom festival and Ozora are huge examples of what it became
as someone who considers themselves something of an amateur psychedelic music expert-- this is remarkable work. nailing this video is an impossible task but this is really on point.
90’s psychedelia: Jane’s Addiction were often pretty psychedelic.
"Now, the next question is of course: What happened to the musical template of psychedelia in the 1970s?"
Well, it moved to Germany
It was particularly interesting to learn about the influence of modern composers such as Varese and Debussy, as well as experimental music of the Futurists. Curiously, however, this doc completely sidesteps what I think is Psychedelic Rocks greatest influence: Jazz! By the 1950s jazz artists like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Sonny Rollins were engaging in long form improvisational jams that truly manifested the "trips" of their inner minds. This influence was essential for the ground breaking psychedelic jam, "East-West", by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band which strongly influenced the Grateful Dead and many other psychedelic rock groups. In my opinion, the essential characteristic of psychedelic music is the emphasis on long-form improvisation, the psychedelic "jam", and that is something that was pioneered by Jazz artists, and doesn't derive from Debussy, Varese, or Exotica acts like Yma Sumac and Esquivel. As trippy as all that music is, I don't think it is psychedelic music because it's not based around improvisation. To make my point; Pink Floyd was a psychedelic band while led by Syd Barrett because Barrett really favored live improvisation and extended jams (Interstellar Overdrive), but the group moved away from that to very structured, highly orchestrated live performances and Pink Floyd from the 70s on is not really psychedelic rock. I think the improvisation and the long form is important because the artists are endeavoring to go on a "trip" and take the audience with them. The trip can't be totally predicted and so the artists must improvise along the way as they feel intuitively where the audience is at. This is what Jazz and Blues artists have always done, and what rock'n'rollers turned onto in the '60s. Now electronica artists improvise similarly. That's psychedelic music.
Stopped at Varese to comment because the first time I…took my first bicycle ride, when I hit the peak of the hill, I drove listening to “Ionisation” and “Octandre”. Hate to say I can’t name off the track I took it out of the CD player on, but…I was on a tight street behind a horse drawn carriage w/ the occasional jaywalking pedestrian taking advantage of the slow down…Realizing the tone of the piece we were listening to and where we were was like a score out of an Adam-12 or Dragnet anti-drug episode…The only visuals I got was not seeing anyone’s tires, cars looked like they were hovering, felt comfortable figuring that’s interesting enough and not too disorienting…I waited till I was 42 and it was worth the wait, but even now I still say “this stuff in the wrong hands,watch out…”
Voice of Xtabay is an iconic album and a cornerstone of the Exotica and the psychedelic movement, in my opinion. Yma Sumac had such an amazing 5 octaves voice range (Maria Callas said she wished she could sing like Sumac when they met). Sumac also sang her rendition of Debussy's Clair de Lune around the globe. It is fantastic. Her 1972 album Miracles is also iconic. One of my favorites.
Yma Sumac indeed needs more exposure for how unique she was. A big part of my channel is highlighting how amazing pre-rock era music is!
Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions" album would fit into the Psychedelic Soul vibe. I would also include the Scorpions early albums in the Psychedelic Rock genre.
For more psychedelic soul, I would also recommend Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton's first solo album (Come To My Garden), and of course Parliament/Funkadelic, especially their 1970-73 music.
Stevie's Secret Life of Plants tops that...
@@ericchristen2623 Eh...
Try listening to Shuggie Otis.
@@omnisexualmindblower Oh yeah, Shuggie Otis is cool.
An interesting discussion, but one that overlooks a composer of central, fundamental importance to the topic: Scriabin, who counts not only for his Debussy-esque liberation from tonality, but for his concepts of light and colour as complements to the experience of music.
In all honesty I should’ve included Scriabin. He’s equal with Debussy in terms of influencing tripped out thinking. The mysterium was meant to premier in the Himalayas, I cannot think of a composer more aligned with values of 60s psychedelia than Scriabin in this way
A very influential early 90's Goa Trance album is Twisted by Hallucinogen, aka, Simon Posford, who also formed the psychedelic band, Shpongle with Raja Ram.
Well done! I will NOT mention my own preferences that may not be included- this is a Great history. It is, therefore, unnecessary to go down each "rabbit hole". Also, the fact that you included Psychedelic Soul, Pop, etc and the tie to Jazz music, is way more impressive to me than mentioning the vast use of the Theremin on many albums!
Note: All the 90's psychedelic bands I mentioned were influenced directly, or indirectly by bands such as Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, and Jean Michelle Jarre, as well as Vangelis.
Asia Minor, Floyd, magma, nektar, Aphrodite's child 666, ESKATON ✌️🙌🤘👍
You're fantastic man I've been binging your videos since i found your channel its so interesting learning about artists and genres I never would have been exposed to otherwise so thank you
This the kind of comment that motivates me to keep going with RUclips. Thank YOU for the incredibly kind words and encouragement and have an incredible rest of your day/night!
Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thank you. I encourage everyone who likes this type of music to check out some African psychedelic music. Sir Victor Uwaifo, Oriental Brothers International, Funkees, Ofo and the Black Company, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, W.I.T.C.H., Columba Sidibe, Chrissy Zebby Tembo and N’gozi Family should be enough to get you started.
Fantastic video. Thanks for bringing up Animal Collective and Tame Impala. Although Animal Collective aren’t just an electronic band. They have plenty of rock albums, and even some acoustic, too. Always psychedelic, of course, just different flavors.
I would have added MGMT as well. “Congratulations”, their self-titled album, and “11-11-11” have the same sort of vibe.
Backtracking to the 70’s, I would have added discussion on no wave and early industrial music.
No wave was championed by Brian Eno with his “No New York” compilation, and the band Sonic Youth famously emerged from the No wave scene in the 80’s and 90’s.
Thurston Moore is a major Syd Barrett fan.
Genesis P-Orridge who pioneered industrial music with Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV also massively sung the praises of Syd Barrett.
Of course, the music was far darker, horrific, and nightmare-inducing than most psychedelic music.
But listen to an early Pink Floyd track like “Nick’s Boogie”, or even The Doors’ “Celebration of the Lizard”, and you’ll find the same kind of darkness.
The elements of dissonance, abrasiveness, and even musique concrète in these genres definitely means they share a lot in common with psychedelic music.
Even new wave deserves more than just a passing mention. The B-52’s had their Farfisa organ.
Talking Heads had the album “Fear of Music”, which was produced by Brian Eno, features a guitar solo from King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, features guitar riffs reminiscent of Captain Beefheart’s guitarists, and even has a song aptly titled “Drugs”.
Devo were pretty wild, too.
Oh, and The Residents definitely deserved to be mentioned, as well.
Psychedelic music and experimental music are pretty synonymous to me. That’s sorta the vibe I picked up at the beginning of this video.
Excellent video! Judging by all the "should've included so-and-so" comments, the video may have ended up 24 hours long had you included them all. I'll use my comment to make additions for viewers to follow up on themselves:
Electronic rock pioneers: The United States of America, 54-foot Hose, White Noise, TONTO's Expanding Headband
Acid Folk & World Music: The Holy Modal Rounders, The Third Ear Band, Kaleidoscope (USA), Tim Buckley, Davy Graham, Skip Spence
Psyche Jazz: Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, Tony Williams' Lifetime, Art Ensemble of Chicago, early Soft Machine
And let's bring more women into the psyche fold!:
Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Spiegel, Juana Molina, Sarah Hopkins, Bebe Barron, Julianne Barwick
And if you think Japan has just idol pop and metal:
Flower Traveling Band, Far East Family Band, Buffalo Daughter, Ikue Mori, Love Psychedelico, Stomu Yamashta, Miho Hatori
Oh, the replies my list will generate!🤓
Yes about all the groups and musicians you mentioned, plus 1960s-70 music from Brazil, like Caetano Veloso, Tom Ze, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, and Milton Nascimento.
And from Nigeria, Fela Kuti.
Bjork, Kid Cudi, Childish Gambino
How could there be no mention of Gong, Hawkwind and Steve Hillage? Maybe the British psychedeiia didn't make it across the pond. There has been no more psychedelic band than Gong, in my opinion
27:26 If you're going to talk about psychedelic music in the early 90s, you can't leave out the East Coast jamband scene and particularly the Wetlands club in NYC. Phish, Shockra, Aquarium Rescue Unit, Widespread, ULU, SCI, Disco Biscuits, Yep... New England was on fire with touring bands. Look at the lineups on all the H.O.R.D. Tour in the 90s.
I like throwing Sonic Youth in there as well, as I think they really captured many different styles of experimentation. Love that krautrock and shoegaze get the mention. Oh and I’d say LCD Soundsystem too
So glad you brought up Space Aged and Exotica music. Certainly has been my main ear worm for many years now.
Another sort of kitsch off-shoot that I love are the psycho-Western tracks by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood. 'Some Velvet Morning'... etc.
Great video!
I am surprised though that when talking about the 90s, you didn't bring up Tool, or the genre of "trip-hop"
Well that's a good thing he didn't mention it, instead focused on the subject instead of crap
@@putridabomination you're missing out, Tool rocks!
@@atomicvinylreviews3420 nah, not missing out, everyone and their parents know Tool.
I think Vaporwave turns the hollow and shallow sound explorations of the ‘80s and ‘90s on its head and makes it highly psychedelic anyway.
What a amazing video. I love this so much, i'm going to do like 3 or 4 new playlits based in this knowledge. Still i miss you to mention things like Trip-hop and artists like Mac Demarco and Homeshake.
One of my fave psychedelic musical artists was Santana... He was early a master of that 60s, Hippie Summer of Love music, & evolved a world beat psychedelic rock jazz fusion in the early 70s: Santana III (also referred to as man with the outstretched hand, due to the trippy psychedelic album cover art... won't mention Abraxas which was in 60s), Caravanserai, Borboletta, Love, Devotion, & Surrender with John McLaughlin. I actually had a psychedelic religious experience seeing him. His solos often seem as though he channels music from trance state, & his music led to what many refer to trance dance...
There's Ultimate Spinach and "Mind Flowers" and "Hip Death Goddess". There's early Pink Floyd, and later on there's Blind Mr. Jones, and "Spooky Vibes", and plenty of other latter day shoegaze and dream pop bands. There's also Galaxie 500, and the entire "On Fire" album.
Re. The Hurdy Gurdy Man: I would argue that that title refers to the danish guitarist Claus Bøhling, who, in 1967, formed a rock trio named Hurdy Gurdy.
This band moved to England in 1968, where they became acquainted with Donovan.
According to rumours, Donovan originally wrote the aforementioned song for the danish band, but later chose to record it himself.
Still later, Bøhling became a member of the (also danish) avant-garde band Secret Oyster, which was led by a sax player named Karsten Vogel, who had played in various jazz and rock bands pior to the formation of Secret Oyster.
Thank you for this fascinating video essay and mini-documentary. You put a lot of thought and work into this, and I loved how you went back to roots planted way before the modern era, and popular music.
I feel like the contributions of Spacemen 3 (and Spiritualized) on neo-psychedelia should have been highlighted. Contemporary psych bands like MGMT and Animal Collective have explicitly stated the influence of Spacemen 3 on their own music.
Yep this dude did not do any research
A lot of early 60s surf rock reminds of of psychedelic rock
Interesting video. Thanks! I also learned that American English pronounces Debussy in a really different way to British English. It won't grow on me.
Great video! Can’t forget about neo soul stemming from psychedelic soul in the 90s/2000s also New Age music!
Oh yeah, Michael Hedges made some of the trippiest music to flow and fly from an acoustic guitar. Also agreed with you about neo-soul.
You missed out Jamaican Dub Reggae in the 60's and 70's, and Goa Trance in the mid 90's followed by PsyTrance in the early 2000's.
A beautiful analysis on Psy music ... I think a big one in the 90s was Chemical brothers (dig your own hole and Surrender era) they brought big beat electronica to a large audience and it s plenty full of psychedelic elements .. and Spacemen 3 in the 80s where a huge one , and I'd add Sun city Girls in the 2000 who were a big influence on Animal Collective and the noise scene in general .. ok I stop .. just to give a little list for people who are curious and want to explore more .. thanks to your video I discovered Jon Hopkins who I didn't know and he's pretty Good !
Ween are pros at trippy music
The Orb were pretty trippy too.
This video provides a great analysis of the history of these various genres. Good work
The flaw in this (too) fast-moving presentation is that are no sound samples, so viewers not familiar with the artists are just hearing a rapid stream-of-consciousness list of names.
I'm already expecting responses telling me to search them myself and listen to them, but this would require searching dozens if not more than a hundred artists to pull up videos for each one, a project that could take weeks. I was hoping to learn something here, but there was so much information flying by, with no sounds to put anything in context, that it felt like a half-hour chore of trying to keep up with the high-speed data dump.
thank you for taking the path least taken :) i wondered though why you did not mention in the electronic music the introduction of acid music and then trance and specifically psychedelic trance. would love to see a video of this kind of music in the wider angle.
This is such great content that I really want to leave two comments. First, thank you for all the research and enthusiasm you put into this brilliant documentary. Second, a piece of constructive criticism: Apart from the section where we can see yourself, the narration is stripped of any kind of pause between the words. This makes the thoughts and information presented very hard to listen to and almost impossible to digest. I´ve noticed people doing that in their videos, so it seems to be some kind of general trend. Whatever, in this case I want to point out that this film contains really, really fascinating and interesting stuff. There´s a lot to discover and a lot to enjoy, if you allow it to breathe like you do in the section mentioned above. Thanks again!
Recently, the first psychedelic rock song has been named as "Any Way You Want It" by the Dave Clark Five in 1964. I think it is "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen in late 1963. It does not have sound feedback, guitar distortion or drug references, but it does have a vocal style that is hippie-ish, so much so that the song sounds at least five years ahead of its time.
There's lots of trippy concept stuff in the 50s in the jazz easy listening category
@@sorendomaschofsky6617 Vocalese and exotica, stuff like that?
Whoever named that the first psych song doesn't know what psych is. The Ultra Mates / "Pitter Patter" from early `63 is probably the first psych tune.
The Trashmen were more of a surf/garage thing. There's no psych on that record. Del Shannon's "Runaway" was more psych than that, as was, "Telstar" by The Tornadoes, Delia Derbyshire's "Dr. Who" theme song, The Ventures / "Genesis" from 1962.
@@RedVynil Hey thanks I love that song.
@@rickriffel6246 No problem! Glad you liked it! I've got TONS of psych!! About 165 full CD's worth of it. It's part of a huge psych collection I've been putting together since July 10, 1999.
Astonishing that you could make a half-hour timeline of psychedelic music without any music clips, or any mention of The Beatles (notably the double-A-Sided single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever early in 1967, or Tomorrow Never Knows before that, in August 1966).
Love your piece and your inclusion to mention the soul and folk artists ❤💪🏾
Although there many omissions: Ashra Temple, Steve Hillage, Vander Graff Generator, Terry Riley... a big one was a Classical Composer: Alexander Scriabin - who even incorporated "Light Shows" - and this was in the late 1800's! There was also the Brazilian "Tropicalia" movement , spearheaded by OS Mutantes. Other than this - This was a veritable MASTER CLASS in the evolution of Psychedelia! THANK YOU!
I wonder how you would fit Surf Music into this conversation, especially the very early (Pre-Beach Boys) stuff. Some very spacy stuff was laid down by those bands. All in all a great video....thanks for sharing!
The first 'psychedelic' music was the first music. All music can have this effect - on the receptive mind, at the right moment!
True. I would certainly include the Gregorian Chant
Biggest Mistake is not talking about Progressive Rock-the next step in Psychedelic Rock from the 60's. The scenes were different but fundamentally they are connected.The bands created more thorough compositions to reach the same ends of Psychedelia with a different aesthetic approach.
Very clearly explained, understandable, yet thorough! 👍 This is not a "who's who" of Psychedelic Music - but rather, a comprehensive survey of its content, definition, qualities, and influences. Many very important groups are left out, and some more obscure ones are mentioned; and for good reason!👍 - This is a description of a genre, and its musical qualities. Not a list of important bands.👍
When it comes to psychedelic music, it needen't be necesssrily objective.
60's Jamaican Dub Reggae, as invented and perfected by King Tubby and his proteges, had a huge influence on 70's Jungle and Drum N Bass, 80's Hip Hop and early 80's EDM.
I agree 100% - not mentioning the contributions of dub is a glaring omission in an otherwise very thorough history. The influence of dub artists (like Lee Perry, King Tubby, Scientist) reached into many genres and definitely should be included.
What a fantastic work you put together wonderful thanks
Excellent! I would recommend anyone to look into the life and works of madman psychedelic Alexander Scriabin. Many of his concepts will blow your mind.
Congratulations for your highly interesting video,which put me in contact (for the very first time!) with great acts like Yma Sumac and Animal Collective,which I now love!!
Just a funny side-note: being an italian,I often gave a look at the written sub-text,in order not to lose a single word of your narrative,and that proved to be a wise move...but I also had to laugh out loud more than once,because the great french composer Debussy has always been spelled "W C" (actually it sounds SO similar that I wholeheartedly decided to forgive the poor computer which fell into the trap...but I am still laughing nonetheless😂)!
Many greetings from Italy!
Sergio
Very good, very complete, I thought there was no mention of the Krautrock bands. which are a subdivision of progressive rock, which has several aspects.
The Grateful Dead should be mentioned for the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. They started a unique genre that is thriving.
Ween deserves an honorable mention. Great video!!! Well done.
Thank you for making this as this was rather thorough and included a lot of names and details I was totally unaware of.
I am surprised no mention of Post Rock?...maybe due to some people lump it in with "Shoegaze"?
also Animal Collective and Tame Impala are well known, but not necessarily everyone's cup of tea.
I tend to find other artists I like more of the same generation; Pepe Deluxe, The Apples in Stereo..
Thank you for the kind words!! Inevitably I couldn't include everything though you're right Mogwai was certainly a contender here! I think I might make a separate video on Post-Rock which is why I left it out. But good observation thank you for the feedback!!!
@@NAETEMUSIC no problem. Yeah, Post-Rock, which say what you will about the term (semantics really), has become a massive style of music over the last 30 years, it would certainly be something to make a video about. If/when you do, I'd love to see it.
I actually probably should make a video about my take/taste on it as well as there's so much of it. I've written about it and made a list or 2 on my rateyourmusic page, but never here on RUclips.
There's a channel/podcast known as "Velocities in Music" that did a decent 1+ hour podcast about it a few years ago, but other than that, i don't know of many others.
I would definitely include Tortoise and Isotope 217.
great video i love this! thank you NAETE!
Very interesting and well-made documentary, and while I'm aware you cannot mention every artist's contribution to the style, I was somewhat surprised about and the glaring omission of dub reggae in this narrative, as this genre has contributed massively to all psychedelic styles in its wake. Also, I think Turkish psychedelia deserves an honourary mention here. Other than that: great job!
My favourite psychedelic band which are arguably the heaviest psychedelic band and one of the most influential bands having been directly responsible for several genres of music that followed them and having inspired countless influential bands is of course The Stooges
The parallels between the decades is crazy
To add to the discussion. No discussion of 80's psychedelic music could be complete without mentioning The Talking Heads, taking a lineage of influence tracing back to Zappa, and on through the jam bands of the 1990's like Phish. Then in the 2000's came bands like Shpongle, not to mention some of the psychedelic hip hop like Blockhead and Deltron 3030.
Talking Heads that is. And i agree completely esp the big band.
Hey man! Good to meet you! Great video! Thanks for subscribing!
You’ve rewritten the history of psychedelic folk music by omitting the Byrds.
Donovan’s Sunshine Superman is hardly a “psychedelic” song when compared to the Byrd’s album “5D”.
“Eight Miles High”being one of the noteworthy psychedelic songs of that era.
Overall, an entertaining an informative video.
I think this analysis is above my head. Very interesting but I'm not qualified to comment on it. I simply have appreciation to different degrees of these different pieces. But I did learn quite a bit.
I will definitely have to give this more viewings.
You missed psytrance (i.e. psychedelic trance), a genre of electronic music explicitly intended to be listened to on psychedelics.The artist Hallucinogen (Simon Posford) is a good starting point, and historically important. In my opinion psytrance takes the ideas of psychedelic music the furthest and is where most of the innovation is happening today. Artists Like ON3, Module Virus, Vibrant are some modern examples of the genre. Hope you decide to check it out.
Great video . Thanks it enlightened me too the answers of some of the questions I have had these past 46 years of psychedelic living .
Thank you for this. Nice to see Esquivel included in this.
Great Work - I really appreciate the info on this music culture (one of my favorites) - and also believe that TRUE Psychedelic Music goes back WAY before the 60's (as well as influencing other subgenres that most people don't realize - like Jazz BeBop & Hardbop, Twist, and my favorite... Surd Psyche - like the Ventures and Takeshi Terauchi)
Too bad you did not play any of the older psychedelic examples. Can you post up some of this older stuff? Thanks.
All I missed here was exerpt examples of each artist or music pieces mentioned. That would have made this a perfect documentary.
Coming from the world of metal/punk/hardcore my psychedelic gateway band(s) were Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized
28:55 For psychedelic grunge and more, check out:
Lovebattery - Between The Eyes; Straight Freak Ticket; Out Of Focus; See Your Mind; Fuzz Factory
Truly - Fast Stories... from Kid Coma; Heart and Lungs
Soundgarden - Fourth Of July, Tighter & Tighter
Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene
Honorary mention:
Melvins - Talking Horse (video by Behn Fannin)
Fourth of July is basically sludge
@@putridabomination Agreed, however it is very psychedelic sludge. :)
This video was excellent, I enjoyed every second of it. Your content, production, research, knowledge and narration was top notch.
This is well done. Just seeing it for the first time. Informative and interesting.
Cheers and thanks! 👍🙏
In my opinion, you can’t have psychedelic music without the psychedelics, so anything made prior to an artist’s experience with them doesn’t make sense to call it psychedelic.
The Fugs from here in NY were one of the first psychedelic bands. Their first 2 albums, 'The Fugs First Album' and 'Virgin Fugs' both from 1965 were both Psycho delic.
Wow, I learned so much about psychedelic music and the origins went back further than I thought. I could definitely see the Italian futurism in contemporary music. Beeper sounds or ringtones. It could only further itself through western technological advancements.
I am of the firm belief that the Beatles stopped touring because the studio became an instrument. I'm of the opinion that that was a GOOD thing. The music became so much more complex and interesting that would be impossible for 4 guys with guitars and drums could "pull-off" live. This music seriously required concentration and good headphones to dig fully. Not gonna happen in a stadium with 50,000 screaming fans.
Especially with the PA systems and amplifiers available back then.
Wow, don't consider myself a psychedelic music fan but this video is thoroughly enjoyable!
Thasss ok!!!! Glad you enjoyed!!