Psybient

Psybient, also known as "ambient psy", "ambient Goa" and more commonly within the Goa/psytrance scene as "psychill", is a genre of

Psybient, also known as "ambient psy", "ambient Goa" and more commonly within the Goa/psytrance scene as "psychill", is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of psychedelic trance, ambient, world music, new age and even ethereal wave. It often has many dub influences and can also sound somewhat like glitch. Psybient pieces are often structured around the concept of creating a "sonic voyage" or "musical journey". Although similar to psytrance's emphasis on maintaining non-stop rhythm throughout the night, psybient is far more focused on creating a vast soundscape that can be experienced over the length of an album, focusing less on beatmatching and allowing for a myriad of tempo changes. Psybient artists include Shpongle, Entheogenic, Bluetech, Shulman, Kick Bong, and Younger Brother.

Because of the heat, humidity, and dust in Goa, the birthplace of Goa trance (which was the precursor of psytrance), DJs tended to use cassette tapes or DATs instead of vinyl records. As a result, beatmatching was very hard, and many of the earliest DJs who worked within the Goan scene didn't bother trying at all, the notorious Goa Gil being one of them. As a solution to the dilemma, a production technique developed of having relatively long atmospheric portions in each track, which would allow a DJ to easily mix two tracks of different tempos without having them clash. These short periods that were free of heavy, bass driven beats acted as "chillout" periods for those who were dancing (and/or "tripping") to relax and regain their energy for the next track.