Psychedelic Melancholia

This 2023 collection of instrumental hip hop, down-tempo boom bap and trip hop from Bogatá’s producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Felipe Gordon is aptly named. The awkward shape and size of some of the sample loops and the deliberate, ever-so-slightly wandering pitch of some of the sounds lend the album an edgy, stoned feel, while many of the sampled instrumental sounds have that nostalgic, seventies library music feel to them, that slight oddness that comes from repurposing old sonic ideas of what the future might sound like. There are lots of strings and orchestral samples that get looped, reversed, cut up and re-edited, and there’s often something moving and emotive conjured up in the re-dressing of old forgotten audio in new clothes. Like all the best instrumental hip hop albums, the tracks are super short with the majority under three minutes, and Psychedelic Melancholia’s eleven tracks roll by easily with a nice combination of weird dreaminess and languid head-nod-a-bility.