It’s a relaxed Sunday afternoon. The air is clean. The remnants of last night’s downpour have evaporated. The skies are blue with little fluffy clouds. It’s as good a setting as any for some classic psychedelic ambience from collaborators Orion and Alien Project. The track in question is an instrumental tour-de-force of downtempo electronica titled “Cryptic Aliens.” It’s a bit vintage for the genre, arriving from 2002’s “Siesta,” one of the stronger comps of chill-out grooves to grace the scene.
I’m a huge fan of this genre. I spent the better part of the late ’90s and early ’00s entrenched in electronic-based psychedelic music and culture, particularly the ambient inclinations. It’s a highly interactive, expansive listening experience, one that embraces experimentation through tripped-out, hallucinogenic sounds, cultural appropriation of worldly samples, ancient and new, and meditative, mind-altering hypnosis aimed at attaining the highest spiritual peaks. It’s essentially an auditory trance-induced euphoria, focused and directed, minus the need for scene-stealing drugs (unless, of course, that’s your preference).
“Cryptic Aliens” plays like a sunset soundtrack to Area 51. It’s weird and melodic, with extraterrestrial synths and acidic sounds, twisted and folded into percussive dub rhythms, evoking a progressive first contact high. It’s music for the desert sound system, beneath open air skies, minus the light pollution of city population, fully receptive to unidentified floating objects of kaleidoscopic enlightenment.
This one’s the brainchild of Orion and Alien Project, two of psychedelic electronica’s most prominent players, aka Jean Borelli from Denmark and Ari Linker from Israel, respectively. They both have tremendous back catalogues and compilations, and were regulars in the club circuit, DJ-ing scene stealing sets that whirly-gigged and propelled beats to intense pinnacles of nirvana-induced climax, regardless of BMP. And I can vouch for that, personally.
Take a moment and try out “Cryptic Aliens” from Orion and Alien Project. I know there’s a “versus” in between their names. But it’s all collaboration, not confrontation. And if this psychedelic outing of ambience suits you, feel free to check out the “Siesta” compilation. It’s assembled by Alien Project, so you know you’re in good hands. Unfortunately, neither is available on Spotify. But YouTube is more than happy to oblige. Enjoy!
If you wish to go further, here’s the full “Siesta” compilation from which “Cryptic Aliens” hails. It’s one 70 minute continuous embed, so prepare yourself to be fully chilled upon completion.
Alien Project:
Orion:
