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