PurrView #34 - Chillout Music

   Okay, so I'm just going to say it: music on the radio nowadays is extremely annoying and consistently leaves me unimpressed. Seemingly, a song can be utter crap with senseless lyrics to top it off; but as long as you add tacky smut, a house beat and/or auto-tune, it's a hit, right? Wrong! And aside from the badly-done electronic-music-overkill on the radio waves today, rap, hip-hop, R&B and rock have tragically continued to nosedive awkwardly over the years, resulting in weak lyrics and concepts, (not so) hidden marketing schemes, and just plain bad taste (examples in image directly below).

   My birthday was November 14th… Another wonderful year has come and gone, and it feels great to be a sexy, single, successful, ambitious, and active 28-year-old woman. Music has always been a completely essential element in my life, and since I was a child, I've had quite an open-minded, vast array of musical tastes. Through my years of experience in activities such as ballet, gymnastics, piano lessons, concert band, percussion and choir, I've been exposed to classical, jazz, gospel, Broadway, opera, and ensemble pieces. Through my training in cheer and modern dance, as well as raving and concert-going with friends, I've developed a liking for other musical genres such as rock, punk, EDM (electronic dance music), blues, folk, funk and hip-hop. But as I arrive at my 28th year of life, one thing I've noticed about my current taste in music is that I've matured a bit, in a fashion that I'm really loving and embracing.

 DJ Krush

 

   My current taste in music is chill and usually paced at about 90-100 BPM. This "downtempo electronic music" helps me relax and focus-- and it stimulates my mind. Thanks to Pandora's Music Genome Project, You Tube, Facebook, word-of-mouth and my own research in music, I've found myself drawn to a more soulful, more refined, more mature taste and feel-- atmospheric, instrumental and experimental with scarce vocals and hip-hop roots. Musicians like Portishead, Zero 7, J Boogie, RJD2 and Stephane Pompougnac are the soundtrack to much of my day as of late. I like to think of it all as my generation's dark and satisfying easy listening. With elements of bossa nova, trip-hop, ambient music, jazzy vocals, deep synthetic touches and soft bass,  it is best described by writer Dean Carlson (Pandora.com) as "the welcome niche of a pretension-free, post-party intellectual chillout," as he spoke of one of my favorite musicians, Bonobo.

  If you're ready for some "pretension-free chill out" music, test out some of the below acts. I have a feeling you'll find them to be soothing and sweet to the soul…

~Meow~

Pennies

Nightmares on Wax

  Pretty Lights

  Massive Attack

  Gramatik