Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Finding A Great Chill Out Music Download

By Lucile Jacobs


Finding a good chill out music download is not always easy. There are plenty of tunes out there designed to relax the listener but quite a few of them are a little too relaxing - dull wallpaper music without much bite or flair to it. This guide will look at the other end of the scale with albums that can chill you out without putting you to sleep.

The real golden age for this genre was the late 1990s when a number of brilliant blissed out LPs came out in quick succession. Of course, the thing about music which people find relaxing differs from listener to listener. This guide, therefore, will try to pick the best of that era while including something for every taste.

In 1999 American activist and recording artist Moby released an epoch defining album whose tracks became inescapable for years to come. Plays eighteen songs were largely constructed with the same formula - a vocal sampled from an old blues or gospel recording, a soft though insistent electro beat and a layer of reaching synth. This template would have a massive influence on the way pop was produced over the next decade.

Perhaps the biggest decision Moby ever made in his career was to waive all copyright restrictions on the album. This meant advertising executives could use all of Plays tracks free of charge and film makers could insert them in movies without checking on the royalty rights. This gave the album a kind of exposure never allowed before and Moby's music was transmitted daily into homes across the globe. The result was over 12 million copies shifted worldwide.

One group frequently cited along with Moby as sculpting the late nineties laid back electronic groove are the French band Air. The hypnotic funk of their debut LP 'Moon Safari' is still probably the most chilled out example of their work. Its first single 'Sexy Boy', with its swirling verses and crashing choruses, was an unexpected hit.

Perhaps the most well-known of 'Moon Safari's tunes is 'All I Need'. With its sweet, soft sensuality it perfectly packages what first brought Air to the public's attention. 'Moon Safari' is now considered to be one of French pop's landmark achievements, and was ranked by Rolling Stone as the 65th greatest French album ever.

Like Moby's sample heavy 'Play', UK duo Groove Armada's debut LP 'Vertigo' seemed perfect for advertising. It too relied on vocal tracks taken from long forgotten recordings place above catchy beats with plenty of bass and tempo. 'At The River' was a terrific example. Using a two bar vocal from Patti Page's 'Cape Cod' Groove Armada created a curiously stretched, sweet piece of blissed out pop, perfect for the period's stylish, modish mind-set.

For those hoping for a more out there chill out music download, Edinburgh's Board of Canada's debut LP 'Music Has The Right To Children' is highly recommended. A trippy, out there album it melts synths with live instrumentation, frequently running into weird, surreal interludes and going off on trance tangents. Most interestingly of all is it genuinely tactile feel, something not always apparent in electro.




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