Mixed Feelings About Chillout
Chillout music really is the valium of our generation, isn’t it. And oddly, in my case, associated with Napster because it is the genre I discovered through using it, at least the most clear cut one anyway. Most early chillout was essentially electronica, not a genre with which I have a particularly easy relationship, and so I rather eyed it with suspicion at the beginning. Besides which, it started life as comedown music for drug takers, which I never was, so our paths never really crossed.
Q Magazine released a brilliant compilation years ago, something like 2000 or 2001 (yes, that actually is years ago now), called Chillout which mixed all this downbeat electronica with some gorgeous acoustic tracks from the likes of Fairport Convention and John Martyn. This CD introduced me to Goldfrapp and, I think, Lemonjelly, but it was access to Napster that really allowed me to explore and enjoy bands like them, Thievery Corporation, Dzihan & Kamien and all sorts of others from a genre I might never have touched otherwise.
In many ways it’s easy to forget just how crap Napster was. You could end up dowloading any old shit, and the quality was often dismal. But it was great for exploring things you weren’t familiar with and taking a chance on new music. I did even less at work back then than I do now, and I remember sitting there watching a huge long list of things ticking over slowly as they downloaded. Oddly enough, I also remember getting loads of messages from disaffected teenagers in Australia because of my huge collection of Doug Anthony Allstars material, but that’s largely beside the point.
My relationship with Chillout was always pretty ambivalent, to be honest. I prefer acoustic music to electronic if I’m relaxing, provided it doesn’t become so morose that I fear for my guests’ will to live. Then there was the fact that almost the instant the concept caught on, it was replaced by unspeakably bland electronic mush that had absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. Was ever a musical movement so swiftly eviscerated as Chillout? I can’t think of another. By the time the likes of Zero 7 came along it was time to put the whole bloody lot in the bin and slam the lid.
It’s like people forgot that a mere mood is not enough. This is fucking music, you cretins, not interior fucking decorating. Although maybe that crossover was the heart of the problem. Go to IKEA, get some shitty furniture, throw in some nice paint and a feature wall with Habitat wallpaper, and then add some stylishly packaged pap with no musical merit whatsoever just to show people that you’ve all read the same edition of Wallpaper.
But the unconscionable garbage that it became, and that most of its better propents ultimately surrendered to, masks the fact that there were a couple of pretty good things that came out of it, early on. And the concept is sound. It thrives in indie and folk circles: close, intimiate albums full of melancholy and suited to nothing better than an evening by the fire with a glass of red wine.
So it’s gone, and not entirely lamented, but it is nevertheless a genre I sort of pity in a way.
Lemonjelly – Nervous Tension
Goldfrapp – Pilots
Thievery Corporation – Un Simple Histoire
Zero 7 – Destiny Yeuch
I started with Zero 7 and Theivery Corporation – very relaxing, but I don’t really see it as mood-music. Zero 7, at least, I like for the lyrics, paticularly Destiny, which you’ve posted, but a couple others as well.
Chillout music has not gone or if it has somebody needs to tell the Orb, Pete Namlook etc. A lot of the chillout that was around and on the best of chillout volume 901 and the rest was bandwagon jumping pish made by hash heads, las with most genres of music their are a few innovators and a whole load more of less talented pretenders. Check out some of the Rising High records compilations or Air I and II by Pete Namlook and you will find more than just mood and a few real instruments thrown in for good measure.
The mixture of the electronica and the ‘real instruments’ was what I really enjoyed at the start, to be honest. Thanks for the tips.
(& mum, billisdead).
You’ve clearly not taken enough drugs in your lifetime, Toad.
I would also cite Ozric Tentacles (LOTS of real instruments), Gong & Robert Wyatt amongst the ‘chill out’ factor. All a bit older than the standard fair, but they’ve been as ‘chill out’ was as much as early Goldfrapp is.
Electronic tracks? On Song, By Toad? Has he gone mad? A truly shocking post.
Much agree on the quality of Thievery Corporation, Dzihan & Kamien and the wonderful Lemon Jelly. But Goldfrapp and Zero 7 was always more hit and miss. You are right about the way that the quality of the genre declined.
But I can’t believe that you’ve used that picture and not mentioned KLF’s “Chillout” or mentioned the classic that is Global Communication’s “76:14″.
I like the first couple of Goldfrapp albums and that’s about. Actually, I love Felt Mountain.
Well DC & Bill, as you can tell, the grass-roots movement that preceded the commercial stuff pretty much passed me by. Ignorance is pretty rife here, I’m afraid. That picture came from a quick Google image search though, so I had no idea it had any significance. What a dolt.
Blwdy heck, I thought you were being nonchalant with the KLF reference – as in, it’s pretty much regarded as a classic of its form, so ’nuff said.
Perhaps, then, your understanding of what ‘Chill Out’ may or may not be & how it applies to your listening habits would benefit from some investigation before an opinion is formulated? Because, frankly, ‘Chill Out’ has been hi-jacked/approriated by bland electronica over the years (as well as bandwagonesque &/or poorly executed ‘mood’ musac a la Blue States*, Zero 7*, as well as Goldfrapp*, & the like) & so the ‘tag’ has been done a disservice as it is forced to go overground into the ULTIMATE series of compilation CDs partially aimed at the mainstream & partially designed to appease Ibiza casualties or wannabetheres & the like. Very much the same way as R’n'B has been hi-jacked as term, as had Acid Jazz (the original having more to do with the likes of Frank Zappa than the fucking abysmal rave shit commited to DJ mixing boards), Goth & countless others I could mention – therefore the origins & integrity/uniqueness all disappears in reinterpretation & reinvention/blatant lazy theft of a term in order to appropriate a readymade audience.
It’s another case of a terminology smothering the actuality for the sake of commercialism. But let’s not get back ot the whole ‘indie’ debate
)
*although each have produced some lovely moments, it has to be said
And to add to Acid Ted’s list the daddy of them all – A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld by the Orb (Peel Session).
DC exactly what I was trying to say above but not as eloquently
i dont really know what i want to say hear…
but as an avid listener of electronic music, i feel it not really important to discuss ‘chillout’ music
the worst kind of commodity music
it gives a bad name to electronic music
people really should look further…
look to the labels like Type records or Hapna
there really is amazingly beautiful minimal electonica or whatever you want to call it
with absolutely no connection to the coffee table nonsense sold in the big shops…
sorry rant
Xanax is the valium of our generation.
Oh, I thought wanking was.
*wanders off to ponder if she should stop then…
Chillout tends to put me to sleep too, though I don’t suppose I ever thought of Zero 7 or Goldfrapp as being part of that genre – at least not entirely. Is Royksopp chillout then? I always liked them. A lot of chillout and ambient music always seemed pointless to me, like an unfinished work.
No-one’s yet mentioned Brian Eno, who pretty much pioneered the genre. Check out Another Green World or Music for Airports.
Me thinks Zero 7 are unfairly maligned…
Hmm, short of apologising for my ignorance and going off to listen to some things, I am not sure what I can add here. Thanks guys.
Brian Eno’s ambient work is so chill-out it’s anesthesia. They play it in hospital delivery rooms. The Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks record is pretty damn great.
The Apollo album is indeed damn great, knew I should have added that as well…
I’ve been told my tracks remind some people of Air and Royksopp and Zero 7. Should I now dump my own music in the bin? I’d love your opinion. Website’s in BETA, there’s only a few tracks on the page, that’s all.
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