Music Sound

Psych folk or Psychedelic folk is a music genre which began through the blending of folk music and psychedelic music in the 1960s. It is generally acoustic or mixes acoustic instrumentation with other influences. Chanting, early music and world music influences are sometimes apparent. Its lyrics are often concern such subjects as the natural world, love and beauty and try to evoke a state of mind associated with the effects of a psychedelic drug. Its fans see it as a way to get new perspectives and reach new aspects of consciousness and some may even listen to it while under the influence of such drugs.

Overview

Early examples of psych folk bands were Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, The Incredible String Band, and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

It has continued to be performed up to the present day. Other notable psych folk artists are Robyn Hitchcock, F.J.McMahon and Current 93.

Since the 1990s, Elephant Six Collective, with bands like Neutral Milk Hotel has been known to release psych folk records.

The latest generation of psych folk artists in the early 2000s include Animal Collective, DeVotchKa, Faun Fables, Gwendolyn, testface, Sun City Girls, Dame Darcy, Kemialliset Ystävät (Finland), DOPO (Portugal), Devendra Banhart, PG Six, Pothole Skinny, Tower Recordings, Eyes and Arms of Smoke, and Deek Hoi. (See New Weird America.)

Another type of folk that incorporate world music, strange sounds and trippy lyrics include psych folk's more esoteric-oriented and hermetic-centered cousin: Apocalyptic folk. While these genres are similar, the latter two appeal more to followers of darker music, while psych folk is more favoured by psychedelic music followers in general. This relationship could be considered very analogous to the similar subject matter but different treatments.

Michael Gira has also assisted in a sort of psych folk revival. Gira named his newest project Angels of Light after San Francisco hippy Hibiscus's transcendental theatre group of the same name and is responsible for guiding the career of new psych folk rising star, Devendra Banhart.

See also

• Anti-folk

External links

• The Psychedelic & Acid Folk Music Site from Psych Van Het Folk
• Dream Magazine -- great resource for psych folk and all other types of psychedelic music
• Galen Pehrson -- Psych Folk Artist and Director

Folk music
American folk music - Anti-folk - Celtic music - Counterfolk - Filk music - Folk metal - Folk punk Folk-rock - Folktronica - Neofolk - Pop-folk - Psych folk - Roots revival - Urban Folk
Folk dance - Instrumentation - Protest song - Singer-songwriter - Traditions - World music