series: Global Psychedelic Chill Out country of origin: Germany style(s): Ambient dub, psychedelic, world beat, ethno ambient essential releases: Global Psychedelic Chill Out vol. 2 (2001, Spiritzone) Global Psychedelic Chill Out vol. 3 (2002, Spiritzone) Global Psychedelic Chill Out vol. 4 (2003, Spiritzone)

Launched in 1994, German-based label Spiritzone is much loved and respected in underground circles for its championing of progressive and full-throttle psychedelic trance from an international roster of artists. Spiritzone's founder and guiding light is DJ Antaro. He was one of the first DJ's in Europe to organise the outdoor dance parties for which came to define the psy or "doof" scene, parties inspired by intensely hedonistic - or spiritual, depending on who you ask - musical gatherings that were happening at the time in Goa, India.

Perhaps less known is the label's downtempo material which draws on electro, dub, old-school ambient and world beat as well as the sounds of dancefloor trance. Although modest in quantity, it is often good and occasionally jaw-droppingly brilliant. Global Psychedelic Chill Out is a diverse and artfully packaged series of double CD's that was complied annually by Antaro between 2000 and 2003. Many tracks are breakbeat driven and flavoured with the Vedic, Mid-Eastern and rock sounds that distinguish this style from the ambient remixes of trance anthems heard on labels like Lost Language and Hooj. Not that remix work of UK producers like Solar Stone or Michael Woods is necessarily of any lesser quality, just different from their more psychedelic cousins.

The first volume is actually rather tuneless; the series hit its stride with Volume 2, a gently melodic set of beats, dub grooves and electro chord progressions. At the uplifting end of the spectrum is the breathtaking and luminous "Stardust" by Spacefish, a duo whose contributions to the series have been consistently outstanding. Imagine the sound of a hammond organ in a wind tunnel with washes of electric guitar, carried on a slow rolling dub groove. Etnica's "Trip Tonite" is the album at its weirdest and most overtly psychedelic. An eerie melody rises and falls in a long arc over a slow drum break, punctuated in parts with a droning sample from Jim Morrison about a ceremony in which the participants experienced "an intense visitation of energy".

The cinema of unease evoked by Etnica on Volume 2 is more dominant on Volume 3, an album that's distinctly uneasy listening at times with its creepy sci-fi undertones and intriguing film and TV samples.  Younger Brother's "Evil and Harm" has become a all-time favourite with its weird juxoposition of demonic sermons with sweet, liquid melodies from slide guitar. Tracks from Grey Area (Australia) and Ooze (Sweden) occupy a kind of shadowland between darkness and light, painting their understated melodies against dark electronic squelches and echoes. That said, both discs of Volume 3 do end with two of the most cosmic, sense-smooching beautiful tracks in the entire series care of Spacefish and Electric Universe.

Volume 4 proved to the the last in the series and is overall more generous with it's melodies. Aural Planet delivers spine-tingling breakbeat-trance, the duo Dual Systems sound a bit like Enigma but a while lot better, and Lider & Raichel have fashioned a vocal track of such longing in "Strong World" that it could quite possibly make you cry. The second disc includes some deeper, bass-driven tracks that echo Jamaican dub. Highlights include - once again - a track from Spacefish, the bluesy guitar licks on Olivier Orand's "Flashback", and a ten minute epic from Ooze which hypnotises with a simple accordion phrase and a stoned tribal drum loop. Things get a bit more squelchy and messy towards the end but it all ends with the deep, gorgeous keys and monastic chants of Safran's "Sole e Praia".

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