Psychedelic Rain: The Odd Benefits of Idleness
April 20, 2009 by admin
Filed under electronic, electronic: acid breaks, electronic: ambient, electronic: dark ambient, electronic: glitch, electronic: idm, instrumental
A new EP is now available from the Krasnoyarsk outfit Psychedelic Rain (aka Aleksei Shapovalov), of whom we wrote last December. At the top of his listed influences we find Newcastle’s Ochre and St Albans’ Chris Clark; Shapovalov’s work does indeed seem an offshoot of that intricate, fractured IDM from the UK. A couple of years ago, Drowned in Sound referred to Clark’s “Body Riddle” album as “a complex sci-fi patchwork of glacial chimes and skittering computerised percussion. What this is not is a by-the-book record…”
The same two sentences would serve as a good introduction to Psychedelic Rain.
Although Shapovalov has been recording since 2007 and is happy to accept IDM as an overarching category for his output, given half a chance he’ll offer a fuller range of styles and genres. Soon enough, though, they become so numerous as to be virtually pointless: “2 Step, 8-bit, Acid Jazz, Ambient, Ambient Breaks, Atmospheric, Big Beat, Breakcore, Breaks, Cut & Paste, Dancehall, Dark Ambient, Darkstep, Downtempo, Drill’n'bass, Drumfunk, Dubstep, Easy Listening, Glitch, Hard IDM, Industrial Techno, Intelligent, Jungle/D’n'B, Leftfield, Lo-Fi, Neurofunk, New Age, Oldschool, Psy Chill, Psy Trance, Ragga Jungle, Rave, Reggae, Synth-Pop, Techno, Trip-Hop…”
We get the point.
And, in essence, the raison d’etre of this music is that it thrives on pointlessness. Shapovalov is allergic to anything resembling consistency, or what he refers to as normality’s “shackles.” “I seriously started working with music from early in 2007. Up to that point I was only doing it for fun – the kind of stuff you’d find on E-Jay. Now, however, I can see that this is what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life. It has become the reason I exist; some kind of escape from the shackles of the system… Escaping on a daily basis into the creative realms that good software offers me – that has already become ‘normal life’ for me. Developing, discovering, and pleasure… It’s all worth it!”
Shapovalov’s other – and always interesting – releases can be downloaded from various locations. These include the three net-EPs published over the course of 2008: two under the pseudonym of “Mutation of Primate.” From April last year, we can recommend “Mutation of Consciousness” (above), together with June’s “Pastime of Idler” (sic.). By August there was a third publication, this time as Psychedelic Rain: “Brutal Hitman” (shown below).
In terms of fundamental imagery, Shapovalov’s titles alone form an interesting contrast: the juxtaposition of idlers and scythe-swinging hitmen, as if to suggest that the most subversive activity of all is a lack of commitment. We see this in his work both textually and structurally.
On this new EP, for example, several of the tracks reach their peak in flashes of breakcore… which then quickly disappear into ambient swathes. The beats are never foregrounded long enough for us to categorize this release as dance music. Or, if we do, we’ll need a very good pair of running shoes to get us back and forth between that same dancefloor, the chill-out room, and some nocturnal/industrial landscape outside the club altogether. These sonic portraits are never positioned in one place for long.
The benefits of waywardness also underscore his lists of social preferences documented online. “I love long discussions with friends, and being alone, too. I really like spending time on the roof. I like sunrises, sunsets, the sea, rainstorms, warm winds, rainbows, and autumn. Wine and sushi. I like kind people. I like reaching my goal. I like staying quiet. I love people-watching.”
It’s a very Russian notion of activity, the fact that there’s no contradiction between activity and aimlessness as an aim. It’s what we might call “nichegonedelanie,” which translates as “doing nothing,” yet – as Shapovalov shows very nicely – it can also be a perfect exit from the “shackles” of styles, genres, and fidelity to any fixed category.
It’s useful to note that Shapovalov lists “flattery” as one of his pet hates. Flattery would mean recognition of a goal reached and reason to cut back on the experimentation.
The best way, therefore, to keep Psychedelic Rain in operation with their ever-intriguing patchwork EPs is to send them the most abusive mail possible.
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