Saturday, September 8, 2007

chill

No, that's not a command to relax. Nor is it a description of the opposite of today's weather conditions. It's the XM station I'm listening to right now.

I don't know how I got hooked on this stuff.

Well, yeah, I do. It all started with massage school and the search for treatment music that wasn't unbearably lame or incredibly boring. A chance encounter with a "trance yoga" CD from Borders showed me that electronica with a non-Western influence made my inner bodyworker happy, and searching for similar items on allmusic led me to the Buddha Lounge stuff, as well as the transcendent "tribal techno" that is Robert Rich's "Seven Veils" (a disc I will continue to endlessly recommend to people who don't give a crap, thanks.)

At first, I only listened to this stuff when I was actually giving a treatment. Then, somehow, instead of just throwing my CDs in my bag on my way to my massage gig, I started popping one or another into the CD player for the commute. Eventually, when I discovered XMChill was one of the stations on my satellite, I started putting it on for background while reading or surfing. And then, ultimately, playing it for dinner guests who were really probably expecting something else.

I guess I've reached the point of no return. I've got to admit I actually enjoy ambient, chill, ethnic fusion, and (as Al from Deadwood would say) the like. Should I be embarrassed about that?

xoxo

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think you should be embarrassed...

I just think this is a sign you should move to Europe, where such stuff is actually listened to, played on normal radio, and actually produces hits.

Or you should hang out at the right urban lounges/discos. I think it's the ones that are so minimalist they don't seem to have anything that would technically be called "furniture" (at least, outside of Scandinavia).

Or just move to NYC. ;)

malevolent andrea said...

Well, don't you think they should play it at Om, considering it has the Buddha Bar-esque name? What do they play there? I've been so transfixed by my feckin' $12 cocktails both times that I've been that I've forgotten to notice.

Anonymous said...

To tell you the truth, I think the were playing "chill" music when we were there, but that may be my faulty memory just assuming that's what they should have been playing.

What the DJ's play when they're there, I have no idea, but I can think of one good way of finding out. ;)

I bet that place Middlesex near The Miracle of Science plays chill... they've got almost no furniture at all. And all that lounging around at The Enormous Room should be chill-y too, but they have a different DJ every night, so that may require more reconnoitering.

malevolent andrea said...

Ditto on the maybe-false memory thing. It's like, what else would they have been playing?

The no-furniture thing cracks me up. How can one chill without a place to sit? Honestly.

And while reconnoitering these things sounds extraordinarily appealing, the fact that I need my sleep interferes. (Witness how I keep laming out every time your bro's band comes through town.) What we need here is some night-life that starts at 6:30, not 11 pm, for early-rising old folks like me, damnit.

Uncle said...

Somewhere in the archives of my somnolent blog are observations on the kind of mood music to bring when you undergo a brain MRI. Tapes from ManRay come to mind at once, and anything with the word "metal" in the description. What is chillin' depends on the situation.

malevolent andrea said...

What month of archives??? Any idea?