Far Out 40: the perfect songs for a psychedelic trip
“To use your head, you have to go out of your mind.” That’s how American psychologist, writer and psychonaut Timothy Leary synthesised the benefits of LSD back in the late 1960s, when music, politics and powerful hallucinogenics converged to create an era-defining countercultural movement. Since then, music and psychedelics have been closely associated, with researchers finding that music can affect the LSD experience even on a neurological level.
Healthy and beneficial psychedelic trips depend on an array of internal and external factors, almost all of which are under your control. Consider your environment: many choose to trip out in nature, where they can marvel at the world around them and be confident they’ll not catch their reflection in an ill-placed mirror. Then there’s the question of who you’re tripping with. If you’re not keen on flying solo, surround yourself with people you love, avoiding those who make you feel anxious or pressured.
Then there’s the music. In the 40-song playlist below, we’ve curated what we believe to be the perfect trip soundtrack. The psych boom of the late 1960s gave birth to a stunning range of sumptuous and mind-bending recordings, many of which we’ve included below.
Far from limiting ourselves to the likes of Revolver, The Pipers at The Gates of Dawn, and Are You Experienced?, we’ve included a range of ambient, experimental, shoegaze and neo-psych recordings that we think you’re going to love. According to some researchers, music that’s too familiar can nullify the possibility of a new experience, so we’ve included some rare gems as well. The tracks have then been organised so that the listener has the opportunity to bliss out for extended periods, with particularly potent songs serving as a milestone.
Make sure you check it out below.
The perfect songs for a psychedelic trip:
- The Beatles – ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’
- The Rolling Stones – ‘She’s A Rainbow’
- Flamingods – ‘Rhama’
- Alice Coltrane – ‘Galaxy In Turiya’
- Kikagaku Moyo – ‘Dune’
- Panda Bear – ‘Boys Latin’
- Ultimate Spinach – ‘Mind Flowers’
- The Who – ‘I Can See For Miles’
- July – ‘Dandelion Seeds’
- Jimi Hendrix – ‘If 6 Was 9’
- The Brian Jonestown Massacre – ‘Anenome’
- Wand – ‘Melted Rope’
- Pink Floyd – ‘Astronomy Domine’
- Wooden Shijps – ‘Staring At The Sun’
- Aplex Twin – ‘Xtal’
- Bowery Electric – ‘Fear of Flying’
- NEU! – ‘Hallogallo’
- Tropic of Cancer – ‘I Woke Up And The Storm Was Over’
- Lorelle Meets The Obsolete – ‘The Sound of All Things’
- Slowdive – ‘Crazy For You’
- Vangelis – ‘Love Theme’
- The Beatles – ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’
- The Beatles – ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’
- Air – ‘Alone In Kyoto’
- Smoke City – ‘Underwater Love’
- Orbital – ‘Belfast’
- Barış Manço – ‘Ölüm Allah’ın Emri’
- Gabor Szabo – ‘Galatea’s Guitar’
- Kamasi Washington – ‘Askim’
- Robbie Basho – ‘Eagle Sails The Blue Diamond Waters’
- Brian Eno – ‘Deep Blue Day’
- Sofie Winterson, Waterlelyck, Raymond Scott – ‘Portofino’
- Boards of Canada – ‘Dayvan Cowboy’
- Mort Garson – ‘Plantasia’
- Jonsi, Alex Somers – ‘Atlas Song’
- Radiohead – ‘How To Disappear Completely’
- Spiritualized – ‘Shine a Light’
- Jimi Hendrix – ‘Third Stone From The Sun’
- The Durutti Column – ‘Sketch for Summer’
- My Bloody Valentine – ‘i only said’
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