Vice magazine produces quite a lot of videos on drug themes. One of their remarkable productions is the “on acid!” series, where different people perform different activities while on acid, like performing in an amateur stand up evening, going to interview contestants in the Westminster dog show, or going to watch the monster trucks show. The results are variable, and not always that interesting, but there is a certain charm to the whole thing…
In the episode above, Josh takes drops acid and goes on stage in an open comedy night. The experience proves frightening, disorienting, yet strangely empowering.
“In the 1970s, under the influence of LSD, I saw a musical score auto-animate (that is, dance along with itself). However, because musical scores are hard to read, this effect was only possible with simple music. This led to a project I’ve pursued for all my adult life: making musical scores designed to be easy for a listener to follow. Last year (nearly forty years later), I had a chance to look at some of my animated graphical scores under the influence of LSD. Sadly, it wasn’t what I’d hoped for. However, I subsequently got to watch them under the influence of mescaline, and the effect was everything I’d dreamed of. I’ve made hundreds of these videos (which are (which are available at my YouTube channel via the link I provided).”
Indeed Malinowsky’s synesthetic clips, which receive dozens of millions of views counts on YouTube, are a delightful experience, and make the majestic pieces by Strawisnky, Debussy and Beethoven even more enjoyable.
This year, for the second time, we present you with the psychedelic video Oscars for 2013. After watching around 400 videos which were published on the Daily Psychedelic Video in 2013 (around 30 hours of psychedelic viewing!!!) we chose the 20 best videos of the year (and also included some of those which came close).
Psychedelic Music Clips
Cirrus – Bonobo
Cyriak, the web’s mad genius of consciousness-altering visuals, deconstructs 1950s style visuals and creates a complex swirling web of hypnotic disorientation. (Orignal post).
Libynthth – It’s my beak
A bunch of ducks party wildly and colorfully in a video which reeks of pure mischievous fun. (Original post).
Carpet – Nearly Four
A powerful music clip by Andreas Zimmer to a track by Carpet, with some masterful use of special effects. (Original post).
Anamanaguchi – [MEOW]
This is how it feels to trip in the arcade on a Saturday night. A delightful video to a track by Anamanaguchi. (Original post).
Beta Band – Wonderful
The psychedelic typography to the Beta Band’s “Wonderful” is highly synesthetic and makes this video into a veritable psychedelic love song. (Original post).
Vial of Sound – Lifetime passed
Ori Toor animates a track by Vial of Sound with his unique and mesmerizing style of animation. (Original post).
A deliciously psychedelic cartoon world in this video short from cartoon network. (Original post).
Jack Fried – The Deep End
Jack Fried’s uniquely multi-layered videos take the viewer on a journey into the genealogical realms of the subconscious. (Original post).
Psychedelic Nature films
Bird Ballet
The birds in the sky perform a majestic dance. It’s so easy to lose yourself in the spectacular movement of the flock, and feel yourself dissolving with the multitude which is one. (Original post).
An incredible journey through enchanted fractal realms. (Original post).
Ben Ridgway – Cosmic flower unfolding
Ben Ridgway creates a mesmerizing landscape of phosphorescent mandalic underwater flowers. (Original post).
Burning man time lapse 2013
Burning man festival in fast forward as seen from the heights of Peak Trego. Amazing vistas of movement, shadows, winds and miniscule trucks driving around the playa. The part from around 2:30 looks like the future of humanity as a futuristic intergalactic civilization in space. (Original post).
High Contrast – Spectrum Analyser
A masterful use of the glitch effect which mixes animals and computer imagery into a kicking techno-shamanic journey. (Original post).
Psychedelic Short films
Bianca Giaever – The scared is scared
This is quite possibly the cutest film I’ve ever seen. Bianca Giaever asked a six year old what her movie should be about, then she went about and followed her instructions word for word. Language creates reality.(Original post).
N.A. Brummbaer – Where in the Universe is Timothy Leary
N.A. Brummbaer send us on a fantastic journey in search of Timothy Leary. (Original post).
A night walk in the windy streets of Tel Aviv turns into a ecstatic-meditative journey, following the magical encounter of two plastic bags who wonder the streets together, going on and on in a mystical cyclical bag dance. And for a moment the whole street seems to wake up with vibrant life – joining them in a communal dance of bags, feathers, flowers and even a butterfly. (Original post).
Best pre-2013 psychedelic videos published in 2013
Half Full Glass Of Wine is the type of song you come across rarely with it’s half speed, double riffing magic. Kevins vocals float through the air like a magic carpet ride through an aural wonderland, the guitars dual each other in a call and response frenzy, which all leads up to a beast of a solo that holds you by the soul galloping away in oblivion.
Half Full Glass Of WIne comes accompanied by a video directed by creative minds Special Problems (Cut Off Your Hands, Mercy Arms) who has created the perfect trippy realm for you to get lost in. Humming birds that flutter around a sumo wrestler, monkeys bounce off of canons and dance upon their fiery discharge, dogs jump at floating ships on the horizon like possessed beasts.
Thanks to my house mate Loic for the link (I advice you to have a look at his blog as painter/street art actor : http://lepantinpeint.blogspot.fr/)
Miles Davis might have been more into heroin than into LSD, but the renowned trumpet player was also becoming increasingly psychedelic by the end of the 1960s as any glance at the 1968 Bitches Brew album cover by Matti Klarwein can reveal.
Yet, even though Miles initially wanted Hendrix to play guitar for his album, he never got around to making a psychedelic music clip. This video which mixes Davis’s music with some 1960’s LSD film footage amends this historical injustice.
The Daily Psychedelic Video 