The Least Known Modern Music Genre

When most people think of musical genres, styles like Rock, Pop, Hip hop, Jazz, Blues, and Country music probably come to mind. However, there are many lesser-known genres that fly under the mainstream radar. One obscure genre is Modern Psychedelic music.

Psychedelic music originated in the 1960s with the rise of psychedelic rock bands like The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, The Doors, and Jimi Hendrix. Their music aimed to capture the experience of altered states of consciousness and replicate the experience of psychedelic drugs like LSD. Today, modern psychedelic music continues this tradition, incorporating electronic sounds, drone instrumentation, and ambient textures to create a trance-like soundscape.

Modern Psychedelic music is a niche genre with a small but dedicated fanbase. It incorporates elements of electronic music, Krautrock, drone music, and space rock. The music is often entirely instrumental and aims to put the listener into an altered state of awareness through hypnotic rhythms, swirling synth textures, and repetition. Artists like Oneohtrix Point Never, Amon Tobin, Shpongle, and Bluetech are leading acts in the psychedelic electronic music scene.

One notable modern psychedelic artist is Orbital. Orbital is an English electronic music duo known for their energetic live shows and synth-heavy sound. Their music makes heavy use of synthesizers, samplers, and electronic beats to create a futuristic psychedelic sound. Tracks like “Halcyon + On + On” and “Belfast” exemplify their style with layers of electronic tones, pulsing beats, and trippy sound effects. Orbital’s music is meant to be an audio-visual experience that transports the listener to another mental space.

On the more experimental end, artists like Matmos create psychedelic soundscapes incorporating unusual instruments and found sounds. Matmos is an electronic music duo from San Francisco known for using unique sound sources in their music like amplified crayfish nerve tissue, liposuction surgery samples, and rat cages. Their bizarre choice of instrumentation gives their music a very strange and psychedelic quality. Matmos aims to make listeners perceive familiar instruments and sounds in new ways, crafting a disorienting psychedelic experience.

Psychedelic music remains an acquired taste and obscure genre. The unconventional sounds, lack of familiar musical structures, and often challenging nature of the music limit its mainstream appeal. However, for those who appreciate its experimental and mind-altering qualities, modern psychedelic music can be a compelling genre. The genre continues the tradition of psychedelia in creating an unusual listening experience that evokes an altered state of perception and consciousness. Although not as well-known as other genres, psychedelic electronic music has flourished with a vibrant underground scene and dedicated fan following, keeping this psychedelic spirit alive through avant-garde sounds and far-out musical experimentation.

In conclusion, while psychedelic music originated in the 1960s, the genre has evolved and lives on today in many modern electronic and experimental forms. Psychedelic electronic artists craft futuristic soundscapes, trance-inducing beats, and strange audio samples to transport the listener’s mind and create an unusual musical experience. Though not as widely known as other genres, modern psychedelic music has a niche following of fans that continue to appreciate its mind-bending and obscure nature.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Spotify