Psych folk

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Psych folk or Psychedelic folk is a music genre that originated in the 1960s through the blending of folk music and psychedelic rock or pop. Psych folk generally favors acoustic instrumentation although it often incorporates other instrumentation. Chanting, early music and world music influences are often found in psych folk. Much like its rock counterpart, psychedelic folk is known for a peculiar, trance-like, and atmospheric sound. Its lyrics are often concerned with such subjects as the natural world, love and beauty and try to evoke a state of mind associated with the effects of psychedelic drugs. However, drug associations are not as important to psych folk as they are to psychedelic rock.

[edit] Overview

Early Incredible String Band, Pearls Before Swine, Donovan, Fairport Convention, Pentangle and T. Rex are all prominent early examples of psych folk bands. Notice that all of these musicians (except Pearls Before Swine) are from Britain, where psychedelic music often had a stronger folk element.

New musical artists continue to draw on this tradition, although many of them would not necessarily describe their own music as psych folk (the term "Freak Folk" has gained favor). Since the 1990s, this has included existentialist pairing Pinkie Maclure & John Wills, known as Pumajaw in Scotland. Also the Georgia-based Elephant Six Collective, which includes bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, has been known to release psych folk records.

The latest generation of psych folk artists in the early to mid 2000s include The Slant, Devendra Banhart, Alela Diane, Animal Collective, CocoRosie Joanna Newsom, Damien Youth, Jana Hunter, Espers,The Collective of Con (Ireland), Vetiver, DeVotchKa, Faun Fables, Gwendolyn, Testface, Sun City Girls, Dame Darcy, Gregory Paul, Kemialliset Ystävät (Finland), PG Six, William Wesley & The Tiny Sockets, Feathers, F.J.McMahon, Pothole Skinny, Tower Recordings, Deek hoi, and Eyes and Arms of Smoke. (See New Weird America.)

Another type of folk that incorporates world music, strange sounds and trippy lyrics include psych folk's more esoteric-oriented and hermetic-centered cousin: Apocalyptic folk. While these genres are similar, the latter two appeal more to followers of darker music, while psych folk is more favoured by psychedelic music followers in general. This relationship could be considered very analogous to the similar subject matter but different treatments.

Michael Gira has also assisted in a sort of psych folk revival. Gira may have named his newest project Angels of Light after San Francisco hippy Hibiscus' transcendental theatre group of the same name (in interviews he says he cannot remember where he got the name from) and is responsible for guiding the career of new psych folk stars, Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family.

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Folk music
American folk - Anti-folk - Celtic music - Counterfolk - Filk music - Folk metal - Folk punk
Folk rock - Folktronica - Neofolk - Pop folk - Iranian folk - Psych folk - Roots revival - Urban Folk
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