Here’s a new release from Chillography favorite, and previous guest, Kalpataru Tree. Curtis fuses lush, organic textures, with dreamy dubscapes to create a unique blend that is sure to please all psydub fans.

Preview the 7-track album with the player below, and buy it in your format of choice for only $5. At that price, by this artist, this album is a must own.

Finally! Some fresh new music from northwest psychill hero, and Chillography favorite, Phutureprimitive. Out today is the Luminous EP, containing three new(ish) tracks. I say “newish” because it seems like Rain has been dropping these tracks in his sets for a while, and it’s nice to finally have my own copies to play out. Style-wise, fans of his first album and subsequent compilation contributions will recognize that signature Phutureprimitive moody atmosphere and delicious bass lines. What’s new is the addition of lyrical vocals in the forefront of the mix as the new driving force for each track. These lyrics, by Alyssa Palmer and Rain, have been tastefully edited and are seamless additions to the already lush Phutureprimitive soundscape. Vocals of this caliber seem to be tricky to find in this kind of electronica, and Rain pulls it off. My gut tells me that some old fans will not be so into this new lyrical direction, but it will most certainly open up his music to an even wider audience. With Phutureprimitive now performing as a full band, this new direction should be not much of a surprise, and thankfully, in Rain’s capable hands the vocals and music continue to push the mature downtempo vibe that first caught the world’s ear six years ago.

SomaFM is broadcasting a live mix of ambient music and Shuttle Endeavour STS-130 Live Mission Audio all this week on Mission Control. The recent playlist has included past Chillography guests Gel-Sol and Osiris Indriya.

Note: Astronaut sleep periods are approximately from 6am pacific to 2pm pacific. There will be minimal mission audio at that time.

Show your love of all things chill by picking up one of our Chillography branded products here.

In their words:

Entranced, a whole new way to appreciate music.

Entranced is a 3D interactive music experience designed to immerse the player in a vibrant and responsive visual landscape, exciting the imagination and creating a sense of rhythmic flow. By listening to energetic World music, observing visual cues, and receiving feedback from the game controller, each player interprets and performs movements that sync with the music. The result is dazzling visual and audio rewards.

Here’s some video of Entranced being demoed at the 2009 Motion Graphics Festival in Austin. I can’t wait to give this a try myself.

[See post to listen to audio]

Download it in a variety of formats from here.

Dave Segal of The Stranger just wrote a good piece about local chillout superstar, Gel-Sol. The Church of Bass set referenced in the article can be dowloaded from our downloads page.

Gel-Sol (Seattle producer Andrew Reichel) is this town’s reigning Orb fanatic. Dr. Alex Paterson’s long-running ambient-dub-house collective has spawned several disciples worldwide, but Gel-Sol can stake a claim to being one of the finest in the tradition, balancing serious musical chops (he’s a staunch prog-rock fan) with witty spoken-word samples over four albums.

My introduction to Gel-Sol came with Music Made for You… and by You I Mean Me (recorded in 2003, but reissued by the esteemed and now-defunct UK label em:t in 2004). The disc lays out a luxurious banquet of rich synth swirls, languorous bass lines, and slackly funky beats. This is music for long-attention-span owners and those fond of subtly unhinging the doors of perception. It’s deep and plush, poised between the chill-out room and the opium den—except for “Numby Numbs,” which is an uncharacteristically revved-up cut animated by jagged rhythms and sprightly yet stabbing keyboard riffs. But Music Made for You is mostly geared for lounging in style, stratospherically. Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating (and giggling) in space.

As for Gel-Sol’s dub credentials, they could receive a boost depending on the outcome of his entry into Choice Cuts’ Horace Andy remix contest; Gel-Sol interestingly reworked “Watch We” from Andy and Ashley Beedle’s Inspiration Information album. (The winner will be announced on the Choice Cuts website.)

Recent live gigs at the Church of Bass and Re-bar have found Gel-Sol delving into ambience that’s aswirl in glittery vapor and redolent of beneficent herbal vibes at the former, while the latter finds him creating a churning, dubadelic soundscape. Both sets represent some of the region’s most supremely heady head music.

On Gel-Sol’s “Skub,” a 2009 single on the local Innerflight label, however, his production shows a more up-tempo tendency, though it still doesn’t move at techno/house’s brisk clip. Rather, it’s a chunkily percussive, dubwise funk track with a mutedly beautiful melody and chilly synth tones forming a halo around the rhythmic bustle. This looks like an interesting new direction for Reichel.

As for his current endeavors, Reichel says, “Most of my recent live material is music for a future release, a double-length concept album called Terramecha, that’s about a planet inhabited by robots. I’m also working on a follow-up to [2008's] IZ (written for my niece), because I got another niece on the way.”

On top of all of this, Reichel is nearing completion of Gel-Sol’s Adventures Beyond the Plunderworld, which parodies the Orb’s debut album in the form of a collage of movie/TV/radio dialog snippets that touch on scatological, sexual, pharmaceutical, and musical matters. You’ll eventually be able to hear it online for free. Speaking of which, you can hear some of Gel-Sol’s music at www.myspace.com/gelsol and www.soundcloud.com/gel-sol. It’s all very absORBing.