mudpeople
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Posted : Oct 22, 2010 16:53
My benchmark of 'dark' are things like Xyla-Esoterica or Robert Rich and B Lustmord-Stalker. I think of dark and I think of noisome Lovecraftian ichor, Poe's 'Masque of the Red Death'.
But when it comes to dark-psy, the term has another connotation; dark meaning 'night appropriate' instead of the darker aspects of imagination. The general blanket term darkpsy means, to me, that we have no better term. I mean, we COULD go into an extensive outline of the different styles that fit under that blanket... But that would either be too specific and confusing, or would just be too verbose alienating the less-than-otaku-grade enthusiasts. The reason IMO there are genre names at all is that it saves a long-winded speech about what constitutes 'darkpsy' (the lower basses, the squelches, the squeaks, lessened emphasis on melody-driven sound, heightened emphasis on what will weird you OUT) to just say 'darkpsy'. Its not so much a description as it is a handy designation, more like an ideogram, that can be used in conversation as a handy way to describe something that otherwise would require... 9 pages on an Internet forum...
To me darkpsy is really just psychedelic music, IE music that illustrates psychedelia, that brings about WTF OMG moments that help our well-traveled mental paths perhaps take a slight detour into new, interesting, unexpected territory. All psytrance has the goal of creating similar experiences (with varying degrees of intensity, not everyone is ready to face the full monty), but IMO, darkpsy is the only one that doesnt dress itself up as club/experimental/classic-trance-y/melody-driven psychedelia/crowd pleasing/dancefloor destroyers/such, doesnt beat around the bush, doesnt try to maintain a friendly, accessible-to-the-masses sound, doesnt make excuses, doesnt euphemize, making no claim to be anything except music, for dancing, that is intensely vivid, deeply layered, calls forth strange ideas and imaginings unbidden from the depths of our selves, bangs our heads, stomps our feets, breaks open our heads with the cold sudden fury of a divine messenger, perhaps more intense than expected, perhaps less comforting than expected, perhaps invoking emotional states that initially seem difficult, challenging in its discomfort, challenging us to dig deeper and self-examine, realize maybe the reason for the discomfort comes not from the music but from aspects of ourselves that we are not always ready, or willing, to scrutinize. In my experience, the scrutiny is a healing and purgative one, ultimately I end up smiling at my previous fear, laughing that it was all so silly in the end, that it was only my fear in the end causing the tension, realizing that fear is a choice that may hinder exploring new and possibly interesting, potentially earth-shaking tastes and flavors. One never knows what those fried spiders on that one guy's show taste like til they eat one, one knows what one's own brain tastes like only when they taste their clone's cerebellum.
Or something...
(Now my only issue with the term 'darkpsy' is its negative connotations in some minds. Some hear 'dark' and images of Immortal in full corpse paint power posing with 2 foot spikes everywhere. Some seem to think that the 'dark' part is the main focus, that its designed to scare you, traumatize, whatever. If thats all it takes to get someone to avoid and even ridicule a style of music before even giving it a chance, well, more for us then i guess. Organized religion in the Western world shows us that some people like cliques, and anything outside of that clique's parameters is to be avoided. People see people having fun and want to have some too, and dont really know how to begin, so they parrot the ones having fun, thinking that if they do the same thign at the same time they too will have the same fun. All it takes to self-realize is to follow our 14 easy steps!! You too can manifest your mind! Then anything outside the box is 'wrong' or 'bad'. I guess people like to be the ones with 'The One True Faith', and for some reason this means prejudging based on vaguely associating flippant terminology with perceived self-described 'negativity'. Cuz everyone wants to smile and have FUN ALL THE TIME and LOVE PEACE JERRY GARCIA OM SHANTI. Cuz thats how the hippies changed the world, right? All that LSD and still couldn't even manage to create a viable third major political party, let alone manifest the Age of Aquarius. I applaud their optimism and hope, even if history shows that hope to be naive and childlike in its disregard for sociology and the inertia of the entrenched Establishment, and most of them stopped painting flowers on organic VW microbuses in favor of planting flowers in suburban gardens and commuting thru gridlock every weekday in tie and buttondown, working on their IRA and 401K instead of acheiving cosmic consciousness... I generalize, of course the core remained and gave birth to our own core, and we also have our idiots who someday sober up and go back to being mediocre, hiding again. Its not always the most popular position to be in, standing against everything that has been constructed in our consciousnesses, the infrastructure of standards of measurement of social convention. Standing apart from the herd, unshielded by the anonymity of the throng, unmasked. Naked in class. Some people don't like that... Some dont want their image of reality challenged, some dont want to be reminded of the fragility of that image, some are so reliant on that image that any doubt meets resistance, denial, rationalization, fear, willful ignorance bordering on induced delusion. Thats fine, some aren't ready to wake up. To some the dreams are so real they forgot they're dreaming. Freedom has no degrees, if we are free to explore and challenge, the insular minds are free to remain where they are. Its only outside convention and ritual that the tail chasing entropy becomes so clearly defined and the humor inherent in something so fragile causing so much resistance. )
.
Jason
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Posted : Oct 22, 2010 18:06
^^^ what he said, hehe
MR VOMERS
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Posted : Oct 27, 2010 02:23
dannnng
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The Andychrist
The Andychrist
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Posted : Oct 27, 2010 14:24
(hey if you're in unwashed tomato I have to give props to the track Before Thought. That snare persisting through just rips and I dig the tempo shifts. Want to hear more freestyle psy like this. no rules. )
MR VOMERS
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Posted : Oct 28, 2010 03:21
(hey if you're in unwashed tomato I have to give props to the track Before Thought. That snare persisting through just rips and I dig the tempo shifts. Want to hear more freestyle psy like this. no rules. )
DUDE DITTO!
also rich, he and I have a split album coming pretty soon on xtream dimensions, no boundaries, just whatever's clever, and so far all the tunes are way fun. andy bass is serious bass...
andy i heart you.*handsploder thing*
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the daleks
The Daleks
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Posted : Oct 30, 2010 12:18
Wow what an intense and verbose discussion!
I'm not a big lover of darkpsy, much like I am not a lover of death metal, hip-hop or coutnry, but as the same with these other genres, some if it is cool and inspirational. Nonetheless I have to agree horror screams and similar out to get you sounds make me think of some adolescent thinking aww yeah this will really trip those fuckers out. It takes me down a level and that's fine as long a there's a chillout floor I can go to. If there's no chillout floor then your party sucks because you are not giving a choice...
Science isn't all precise and all that either, we still can't measure alot of phenomena. Music that intentionally puts one ill at ease without some kind of balance or release from the tension (other than it being over) for long periods of time while tripping, I think, has ill intent. What kind of mandala do you want to make then? And if you view the floor as playthings, then by tricks of wizardry would you make your magic?
Gamma Riders EP out now on iTunes and Amazon.com!
the daleks
The Daleks
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Posted : Oct 30, 2010 15:29
Just to add good music is good music regardless of genre, but I agree with the op about too much horror creating some cliches.. Dark to me is that fast psychadelic groove which is pretty cool sometimes
That being said, Happy Halloween!
Get yer ghost on y'all!
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Posted : Oct 31, 2010 21:06
Quote:
On 2010-10-30 12:18, the daleks wrote:
I'm not a big lover of darkpsy,
But you are a Dalek...
"YOU WILL OBEY THE DALEKS OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED"
"OBEY ALL DALEK COMMANDS"
"OBEY INSTANTLY"
"OBEY WITHOUT QUESTION"
"OBEY"
"OBEY"
"OBEY"
"OBEY"
"OBEY"
"OBEY"
Maine Coon
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Nov 1, 2010 23:53
Totally off-topic:
has anybody heard from Mr. Lizzard lately?
MR VOMERS
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Posted : Nov 2, 2010 00:25
I saw him the other day..we are working on some music projects together
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Maine Coon
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Posted : Nov 2, 2010 06:33
^
Cool, thanks. Hope no psychedelic moonshine was involved.
Interesting track, BTW. I am not much into machine-gun psy ( ...have I mentioned that before?.. ), but I like your kind better than the "high-tech" wall-of-glitch variety. A listener gets so distracted by all the silly weirdness that even forgets to bitch about high BPMs. Good job, Uncle VOMIT (or is this a track by BrainVOMIT?)
MR VOMERS
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Posted : Nov 2, 2010 18:38
Thanks yo. I'm not in to the high tech glitchy stuff very much either...I think you can totally find the half time dancy groove in this or choose to let the beat rage through you 4/4 style. Either way thank you for listening.
There's still a lot to do to this, but i think it captures the essence of my thoughts on crazy music
<3
we like it trippy!
Thank you for even pressing play dude!
those people = brainVOMIT
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the dog of tears
the dog of tears
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Posted : Nov 2, 2010 20:28
Shiranui
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Posted : Nov 11, 2010 21:24
...have I mentioned that before?.. 
), but I like your kind better than the "high-tech" wall-of-glitch variety. A listener gets so distracted by all the silly weirdness that even forgets to bitch about high BPMs. Good job, Uncle VOMIT (or is this a track by BrainVOMIT?) 