(Electronic, Acoustic, Downtempo, Ambient) Hoopy Frood - Psychonaut - 2004, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Psychonaut (2004) review:
Channel in the Street (4.5/5) 2007
"Hoopy Frood has a wonderful gift for making beautiful, organic and fun pieces of music..."
As soon as you’ve taken in the opening track of Hoopy Frood’s 2004 debut album, Psychonaut, you know you are in for an eclectic, multi-faceted psychedelic treat. Beautiful guitar mixed with the occasional drumbeat leads into fun-sounding keyboard, which then turns into a haunting piano, and back to the guitar and keyboard. Finally female voices chant over these sounds as it fades out.
I gave that description for one reason: to show how eclectic even a single track on this album is. Does it work? Yes. Like Shpongle and Ozric Tentacles before them, Hoopy Frood has a wonderful gift for making beautiful, organic and fun pieces of music out of a diverse range of influences. And unlike most albums in the psychedelic ambient genre, Psychonaut manages not to sound like “Shpongle lite” and instead forge their own sound. If Shpongle is a mind-bending trip through consciousness, Hoopy Frood is a delightful celebration of life.
If you’re new to the psychedelic ambient genre, this is as good as any of an album to start with. However, if you’re familiar with it, you’ll notice many differences. Unlike most psychedelic ambient albums, Psychonaut eschews foreign chants and Terrence McKenna samples in favor of clean trance-style vocals. It works well for the album and helps set a different type of mood. It also draws its influences from mostly Western music, though there are still African and Eastern influences on the album.
You’ll find yourself moved through a range of emotions as you listen to Psychonaut, a range as wide as the number of influences. From the chilled-out tone of “Nlite” to the melancholic “The Voice,” Psychonaut finally culminates with the nearly 13-minute epic Light and Breath, with a guitar solo almost rivalling “Comfortably Numb.” You are then left to decompress to the beautiful acoustic guitar stylings in “Friends.”
Hoopy Frood is music for music fans. If you enjoy a diverse range of styles, you’ll enjoy Psychonaut. If you enjoy albums that are not just collections of songs, but musical journeys, you’ll find yourself playing it over and over again. Hard copies of Psychonaut are hard to come by, but you can find this album easily in the iTunes Store.