The KLF - Chill Out (1990)

Chill Out by The KLF is an ambient house concept album "portraying a mythical night-time journey up the U.S. Gulf Coast from Texas into Louisiana. The album is a continuous composition, in which sampled music (including Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Acker Bilk and Tuvan throat singers), vocal samples and sound effects are overlaid with original music (including synthesizers and pedal steel guitar)".

Two separate times I have listened to this album and gotten a visceral religious experience from it, which is something that rarely happens to me. Its also true that both times I was on a heavy dose of opiates, so the drugs could have played a factor, but there is something about this album that is immediately tranquilizing and transports you to another place - even when sober. The first time was the first time I had ever listened to this album. It was my day off and I popped a few hydrocodones and laid in my hammock on a bright and sunny day in the backyard of my house in Echo Park. The feeling evoked from that first listen absorbed me entirely and took me away from reality for 45 blissful minutes. I was softly blown away and I still remember it vividly. The second time I had this arcanely transcendental experience was the first time I ever tried heroin. I fell onto my bed with the sun filtering in through the curtains and a nice breeze blowing in and as soon as I pushed play my mind once again became totally unfocused and drifted away to that imaginary mystical highway somewhere along the gulf coast.

However, despite its nature, the entirely of the album is not merely ambient. The progression is utterly phenomenal and builds to a climax and eventual denouement and there are two different peaks of intensity that will keep you involved throughout. This is not an album you can listen to parts of or just a song or two - its a continuous journey and you have to ride all the way through. The title is nomenclature at its most apt - if you ever want to relax completely and let your mind meander, this is the ultimate album for doing so. Another highly recommended record - Check it out.

Rating: 10/10

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?r370o3m7givgtim