Category: Music

Sasha | Tomorrowland Belgium 2018

In the U.K. in the 90s we had Renaissance with Sasha, John Digweed, Dave Seaman, Ian Ossia, Anthony Pappa etc. They were the greatest nights. Deep slow progressive sets building and building up for hours. We would travel the country over when they went on Tour. Sasha is the only DJ still going from the 90s that I would still travel for today. Well, him and Carl Cox. The sets would build slowly then a massive drop and bring you down again afterwards before another build resulting in a massive crescendo towards the end of the night. Very few can do this layering effect now, music would ride like a roller coaster as the drugs took hold until the lights came on. Many DJs play predefined tracks or maybe even pre mixed. These were the days of 12 inch records, the DJ quickly looking through a massive box to find a record that was required for that stage of the night… very few modern DJs have the patience to create this journey now it’s all hit after hit after hit…. you need some filler to create the journey. We didn’t have all these fancy lights and lasers, a dark room with sweat falling off the ceiling, no mobile phones, you’d have to find someone wearing a watch to know the time or wait for the first glimpse of sun to come through the sky lights. Great times.

Bloken – Maddeinc

“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.”

~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet ~

Marconi Union – Weightless (Official Video)

Band creates the ‘most relaxing tune ever’

A British band has worked with sound therapists to create a tune described by scientists as the “most relaxing song ever”.

10:34AM BST 16 Oct 2011
Boffins say the eight minute track, called Weightless, is so effective at inducing sleep it should not be listened to while driving.

Carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms and bass lines help to slow the heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Manchester trio Marconi Union worked with sound therapists to create the soothing tune, which also slows breathing and reduces brain activity.

Scientists played the song to 40 women and found it to be more effective at helping them relax than songs by Enya, Mozart and Coldplay.

The study – commissioned by bubble bath and shower gel firm Radox Spa – found the song was even more relaxing than a massage, walk or cup of tea.

The women were connected to sensors and given challenging puzzles to complete against the clock in order to induce a level of stress.

They were then played different songs as their heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and brain activity were recorded.

Studies found Weightless was 11 per cent more relaxing than any other song and even made many of the women “drowsy” in the lab.

It induced a 65 per cent reduction in overall anxiety and brought them to a level 35 per cent lower than their usual resting rates.

The song features guitar, piano and electronic samples of natural soundscapes.

It is pierced throughout by buddhist-like chants that induce a trance-like state.

Lyz Cooper, founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy, said Marconi Union had used scientific theory to make the “perfect relaxing song”.

She said: “The song makes use of many musical principles that have been shown to individually have a calming effect.

“By combining these elements in the way Marconi Union have has created the perfect relaxing song.

“The study found this to be the world’s most relaxing song.

“It contains a sustaining rhythm that starts at 60 beats per minute and gradually slows to around 50.

“While listening, your heart rate gradually comes to match that beat.

“It is important that the song is eight minutes long because it takes about five minutes for this process, known as entrainment, to occur.

“The fall in heart rate also leads to a fall in blood pressure.

“The harmonic intervals – or gaps between notes – have been chosen to create a feeling of euphoria and comfort.

“And there is no repeating melody, which allows your brain to completely switch off because you are no longer trying to predict what is coming next.

“Instead, there are random chimes, which helps to induce a deeper sense of relaxation.