We all enjoy listening to psybient and ambient dub music in the relative quiet of our homes or through the use of headphones. This is a given. While I love listening to ambient music at home I always enjoy a live music experience too, from rock to blues to jazz and many forms in-between.
However when it comes to the live psychedelic ambient music experience it's fair to say that a solo producer sitting behind a mixing deck or set of CD mixers isn't always the most amazing experience. Psytrance and techno - no problem, I can dance my ass off all night to those guys. But put an ambient producer in front of me for 4 hours and I tend to nod off pretty quickly or head off to the veggie burger stand.
Fortunately a trend of late has been addressing this very problem - the live, on the road, psybient band showcase ! Shpongle are well known for using elaborate stage designs and sets complete with psychedelic dancers, lasers and all sort of craziness. Shulman has been touring the last year or two with his group of stage sound wizards.Peaking Goddess Collective, Younger Brother and Cosmosis are a few more acts that come to mind which have been bringing their sounds to fans via live stage formats.
Some very exciting news that come out this week is that psychedelic dub producer Ott has also decided to go on tour with a full band. The group is known as "Ott and The All Seeing I" , and what a group it is ! Don't confuse these guys with "The all seeing I" of late 90s breakbeat UK chart one-hit wonder "The beat goes on" fame. This is Ott and his mates - and what a band it is ! Ott will provide the bulk of the electronic sound magic with Naked Nick ( Nick Holden, who had provided input on a number of Ott's most popular tunes ) on guitars and vocals, Chris Barker ( from Umberloid , has worked on previous Ott and Shpongle albums ) on bass and Matt White on drums.
The group will be playing live versions of Ott's material from his albums Blumenkraft, Skylon, and Mir. Dig that ! The tour is set to kick of in October this year along the eastern U.S states with a west coast tour occurring shortly thereafter. Complete tour dates will be announced around July 10th.
Update !! Here are the latest tour dates :
Date City Venue Country
08/11/12 Beech Mountain NC Gnarnia Festival United States
08/12/12 Tidewater OR Beloved Festival United States
08/16/12 Asheville NC Asheville Music Hall United States
08/17/12 Logan OH Rootwire Festival United States
08/18/12 Stephentown NY Bella Terra Festival United States
09/29/12 Norridgewock ME Heads in Harmony Festival United States
10/03/12 Baltimore, MD Soundstage United States
10/04/12 New York, NY Club 39 United States
10/05/12 Cambridge, Massachusetts Middle East Club United States
10/06/12 Philadelphia, PA City Bisco @ Mann Center for Performing Arts United States
10/07/12 Syracuse, NY Westcott Theater United States
10/10/12 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge United States
10/11/12 Minneapolis, MN Studio B United States
10/12/12 Lawrence, KS Granada Theater United States
10/13/12 Boulder, CO Boulder Theater United States
10/14/12 Fort Collins, CO Aggie Theater United States
10/16/12 Dallas, TX Tree’s United States
10/17/12 Starkville, MS Rick’s United States
10/18/12 Knoxville, TN The Valarium United States
10/19/12 Athens, GA Georgia Theatre United States
10/20/12 Atlanta, GA Terminal West United States
10/21/12 Nashville, TN Exit / In