Looking for Music & recordings related to altered states
July 30, 2018 1:38 PM Subscribe
I'm doing a radio show on the theme of Altered States and am looking for suggestions. Especially obscure stuff, including recordings of rituals or chants or whatnot. Of course I'll include a few drug/insanity songs (eight miles high, manic depression, drone music) and some recordings by Timothy Leary, Stanislof Grof and Terrence McKenna, and the theme to "Altered States" but beyond that, I'm coming up short on Youtube. Any suggestions?
Maybe do a search for binaural beats? Also, White Rabbit is pretty seminal.
EDIT: Dammit, Yenta! LOL.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 1:47 PM on July 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
EDIT: Dammit, Yenta! LOL.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 1:47 PM on July 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Abner Jay - Cocaine
Champion Jack Dupree - Junker's Blues
One Way Streets - We All Love Peanut Butter
Jad Fair and Daniel Johnston - I Did Acid with Caroline (And here's a cover that I like)
The Vaselines - The Day I Was a Horse
Geraldine Fibbers - Marmalade
posted by kitty teeth at 2:01 PM on July 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Champion Jack Dupree - Junker's Blues
One Way Streets - We All Love Peanut Butter
Jad Fair and Daniel Johnston - I Did Acid with Caroline (And here's a cover that I like)
The Vaselines - The Day I Was a Horse
Geraldine Fibbers - Marmalade
posted by kitty teeth at 2:01 PM on July 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Hinterlands Who’s Who is short enough/ASMR enough to put between two songs (no music, so you can layer it effectively if you want to be original).
Maybe something from “the Joint - Freak Street (1967)”?
posted by saucysault at 2:01 PM on July 30, 2018
Maybe something from “the Joint - Freak Street (1967)”?
posted by saucysault at 2:01 PM on July 30, 2018
Other than White Rabbit, Heroin by the Velvet Underground is another seminal work.
Slightly less well known, you could put everything ever done by Spaceman 3, Spectrum or Spiritualized on a dartboard.
If your altered states include magical time travel, Wings by The Fall is a great song.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:31 PM on July 30, 2018
Slightly less well known, you could put everything ever done by Spaceman 3, Spectrum or Spiritualized on a dartboard.
If your altered states include magical time travel, Wings by The Fall is a great song.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:31 PM on July 30, 2018
Music from George Gurdjieff can put me into an altered state. Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Tom Waits & Gavin Bryars is very meditative.
posted by agatha_magatha at 3:20 PM on July 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by agatha_magatha at 3:20 PM on July 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
If you include depression as an altered state, I like these songs: Of Montreal’s “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse”; and “Half Asleep” by School of Seven Bells.
The song “Jackson Square” by Mason Jennings deals with mental illness and is incredibly affecting but needs a content warning for suicide.
If you are interested in doctor-prescribed altered states and ambivalence thereto, you might consider Jonathan Coulton’s “I Feel Fantastic”; and “Psychopharmacology,” by a band I’ve forgotten. N.B. I recommend those with a little hesitation; I would take a “steak tastes better pill” before ending up in Jackson Square.
posted by eirias at 3:28 PM on July 30, 2018
The song “Jackson Square” by Mason Jennings deals with mental illness and is incredibly affecting but needs a content warning for suicide.
If you are interested in doctor-prescribed altered states and ambivalence thereto, you might consider Jonathan Coulton’s “I Feel Fantastic”; and “Psychopharmacology,” by a band I’ve forgotten. N.B. I recommend those with a little hesitation; I would take a “steak tastes better pill” before ending up in Jackson Square.
posted by eirias at 3:28 PM on July 30, 2018
Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, as well some of their earlier work WRT Sid Barrett.
posted by childofTethys at 3:30 PM on July 30, 2018
posted by childofTethys at 3:30 PM on July 30, 2018
Check out icaros (ayahuasca and other medicine songs) on YouTube.
posted by rada at 3:41 PM on July 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by rada at 3:41 PM on July 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Moody Blues came to mind, though they are more mainstream.
posted by childofTethys at 3:44 PM on July 30, 2018
posted by childofTethys at 3:44 PM on July 30, 2018
i think Ministry's "Psalm 69" samples one of the DMT subjects from the movie Altered States reporting "I feel that my heart is being touched by christ."
seconding UbuRoivas onSpacemen3, especially "Dreamweapon: An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music." But it is very long. While you're considering Spacemen3, check out the 13th Floor Elevators.
i found Leary's "You Can Be Anyone This Time Around" irritating sober and otherwise, but YMMV.
Funkadelic's "Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow."
for some reason Exuma's "You Don't Know What's Going On," evokes in me the sense of an oasis of comfort in a milieu of hallucinatory anxiety. not sure why.
Tenacions D's "Jesus Ranch" depicts a bit of altered state.
also: Os Mutantes.
as to words: Del Close & John Brent's "How to Speak Hip" touches on altered states in "Put on, put down, come on, come down and bring down," "The loose wig" and "Cool."
/edited to add Exuma link.
posted by 20 year lurk at 3:45 PM on July 30, 2018
seconding UbuRoivas onSpacemen3, especially "Dreamweapon: An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music." But it is very long. While you're considering Spacemen3, check out the 13th Floor Elevators.
i found Leary's "You Can Be Anyone This Time Around" irritating sober and otherwise, but YMMV.
Funkadelic's "Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow."
for some reason Exuma's "You Don't Know What's Going On," evokes in me the sense of an oasis of comfort in a milieu of hallucinatory anxiety. not sure why.
Tenacions D's "Jesus Ranch" depicts a bit of altered state.
also: Os Mutantes.
as to words: Del Close & John Brent's "How to Speak Hip" touches on altered states in "Put on, put down, come on, come down and bring down," "The loose wig" and "Cool."
/edited to add Exuma link.
posted by 20 year lurk at 3:45 PM on July 30, 2018
Meant to add this for some context: Jilala.
But it is religious music so maybe that's not the kind of thing you want to use.
posted by mareli at 3:51 PM on July 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
But it is religious music so maybe that's not the kind of thing you want to use.
posted by mareli at 3:51 PM on July 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Coil, pre-house Psychic TV, and perhaps Crash Worship would work, but of course I'm having a work-induced brainfreeze as to which tracks would be best. Anyone?
Slightly less well known, you could put everything ever done by Spaceman 3, Spectrum or Spiritualized on a dartboard.
Throw Experimental Audio Research on said dartboard as well.
posted by gtrwolf at 4:07 PM on July 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
Slightly less well known, you could put everything ever done by Spaceman 3, Spectrum or Spiritualized on a dartboard.
Throw Experimental Audio Research on said dartboard as well.
posted by gtrwolf at 4:07 PM on July 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
I wanna be sedated - Ramones
Vitamin C - Can
Gyutu monk chants
Michael Pollan just did a bunch of interviews on psychedelics for his new book
posted by xammerboy at 6:40 PM on July 30, 2018
Vitamin C - Can
Gyutu monk chants
Michael Pollan just did a bunch of interviews on psychedelics for his new book
posted by xammerboy at 6:40 PM on July 30, 2018
Ween has a bunch of songs where they are ripping on bongs, etc.
posted by xammerboy at 6:45 PM on July 30, 2018
posted by xammerboy at 6:45 PM on July 30, 2018
of course you'll want A Girl Named Sandoz by the Animals
posted by The_Auditor at 6:47 PM on July 30, 2018
posted by The_Auditor at 6:47 PM on July 30, 2018
No list is complete without John Prine's "Illegal Smile"
posted by Grumpy old geek at 7:02 PM on July 30, 2018
posted by Grumpy old geek at 7:02 PM on July 30, 2018
pre-house Psychic TV...
The Orchids!
It's about expanding your mind through (painful) body manipulation!
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 7:30 PM on July 30, 2018
The Orchids!
It's about expanding your mind through (painful) body manipulation!
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 7:30 PM on July 30, 2018
Response by poster: good ideas guys, thanks. I'm already including Coil's Time Machines, but the ritual recordings were really what I wanted to find. There's so many drug songs that I can't include them all, and I wanted to try to get music/sound that was actually about inducing an altered state and not just drug references.
thanks again!
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 12:01 AM on July 31, 2018
thanks again!
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 12:01 AM on July 31, 2018
You might be interested in some of the music used in Brazilian Candomble (example) - poly rhythmic percussion dedicated to one of a number of spirits (Orishas) which is designed to to put celebrants into a trance - Cuban Santeria also (example) . Search using those kind of terms for many examples.
Some of Steve Reich's music also: Its Gonna Rain, Piano Phase and lots more.
posted by rongorongo at 12:04 AM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
Some of Steve Reich's music also: Its Gonna Rain, Piano Phase and lots more.
posted by rongorongo at 12:04 AM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: btw when I'm done with the show I can post a SoundCloud link if you want to hear the results.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 12:06 AM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 12:06 AM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: also mareli, actually religious music is exactly what I'm looking for.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 12:07 AM on July 31, 2018
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 12:07 AM on July 31, 2018
Sufi Trance music, maybe? - in this case by Homayoun Shajarian and Sohrab Pournazeri
posted by rongorongo at 12:35 AM on July 31, 2018
posted by rongorongo at 12:35 AM on July 31, 2018
Another potential strand to search relates to music used for therapeutic or healing purposes. For example, music made with Tibetan singing bowls crosses the line from the use of music in Buddhist meditation to the idea of healing using sound with nodal vibration patterns ( see Cymatics) - there is a whole lot of music made with gongs, bowls, crystal bells and so on - and relating to yoga, reiki, meditation and so on. Random example.
posted by rongorongo at 1:30 AM on July 31, 2018
posted by rongorongo at 1:30 AM on July 31, 2018
I find the music of shpongle highly evocative of the psychedelic experience.
posted by spindrifter at 2:10 AM on July 31, 2018
posted by spindrifter at 2:10 AM on July 31, 2018
music/sound that was actually about inducing an altered state and not just drug references.
Oh, in that case you need some Qawwali. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is your best first point of contact. Another strand of the Sufi music alluded to above, but this time from the subcontinent.
Any of the whirling dervish music from Turkey is nice. Also Sufi. Keywords would include Konya, Rumi.
Choying Drolma & Steve Tibbetts: Cho is outstanding.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:46 AM on July 31, 2018
Oh, in that case you need some Qawwali. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is your best first point of contact. Another strand of the Sufi music alluded to above, but this time from the subcontinent.
Any of the whirling dervish music from Turkey is nice. Also Sufi. Keywords would include Konya, Rumi.
Choying Drolma & Steve Tibbetts: Cho is outstanding.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:46 AM on July 31, 2018
Coil as Time Machines, with tracks titled after the drug used in each tracks creation.
posted by DelusionsofGrandeur at 1:30 PM on July 31, 2018
posted by DelusionsofGrandeur at 1:30 PM on July 31, 2018
In Morocco there is also the Gnawa (also spelled Gnoua) who hold an all night trance ceremony called a Lila. Here is a condensed version!
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 8:04 AM on August 1, 2018
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 8:04 AM on August 1, 2018
Response by poster: Here's the show
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 1:48 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 1:48 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
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