To celebrate the release of the new compilation Telepathic Fish: Trawling the Early 90s Ambient Underground, Mario Aguera traces how Telepathic Fish became a psychedelic counterpoint to the full-on bludgeon of rave.

Before a flood of cash-in compilations and cookie-cutter wine bar tracks turned chill-out into a pejorative genre in the late 90s, there was a time when the sound – ambient engineered for club-rattled minds – was genuinely cutting edge. And between 1992-95, Telepathic Fish was at the very heart of it.

Started by Chantal Passamonte (a.k.a. the much-missed Mira Calix), David Vallade, Mario Aguera and Kevin Foakes (a.k.a. DJ Food) – collectively known as Openmind – Telepathic Fish was an ambient happening informed by art-school backgrounds, mushy post-rave bliss and the lingering sense of countercultural possibilities. This bedroom escape from banging BPMs in a south London flatshare would go on to host Mixmaster Morris, Coldcut’s Matt Black and Aphex Twin, appear at events like Megatripolis, and share bills with Autechre and Higher Intelligence Agency.

To celebrate the legacy of Telepathic Fish and Openmind, Aguera, Vallade and Foakes have captured both the essence and downright weirdness of their scene with the compilation, Telepathic Fish: Trawling the Early 90s Ambient Underground (Fundamental Frequencies). Here’s Aguera to break down what it all meant.

DIY spirit

It started with a meeting of (open) minds – four disparate strangers moving into a shared house in south London. Each having taken their own musical journey from rave to metal, hip-hop to indie, they instilled an open-minded, genre-fluid attitude to what was musically acceptable. The house was the venue for crazy, prototype parties; each event having a dedicated dance area and a womb-like chill-out space, dressed in UV banners and trippy lights.

A comedown space

The underground party scene in the early 90s tended to focus on full-on dance nights, usually offering a token chill-out space playing dub. Post clubbing, partygoers tended to head back to someone’s flat to unwind and empty their heads. The idea of Telepathic Fish was to offer clubbers an aural and visual blanket they could retreat to after clubbing. The goal was to recreate that comedown bedroom space, but on a grand scale.

Mixmaster Morris

Around that time, the crew met Mixmaster Morris, a.k.a. The Irresistible Force. Morris was a true champion of ambient electronic music and instrumental in shattering the perception of what Telepathic Fish nights could be. “It’s fair to say, he opened our ears to a wealth of incredible new music. He also introduced us to his friends and contacts, famously calling up Richard James (a.k.a. Aphex Twin) to see if he would be interested in playing one of our nights,” Kevin remembers.

Wall-to-wall mattresses

Through word of mouth, the parties quickly grew, and soon bigger venues were needed. One of the benefits of the underground party scene was the abundance of squatted venues waiting to host a party. By now, the parties had transitioned into 100 percent chill-out events, starting up as the clubs were closing on Sunday mornings. Bigger venues meant bigger productions, with wall-to-wall mattresses covering the floor, sculptures, and projections lighting up the spaces.

Trippy visuals

A key component of the Telepathic Fish experience were the absorbing visuals. Providing the attendees sitting or lying around had their eyes open, Telepathic Fish had a captive audience. Instrumental in delivering the projections was Matt Black, one half of Coldcut and co-founder of Ninja Tune. A friend of Morris, he had grown a side passion for VJing – mixing and projecting video footage and computer imagery in sync with the music.

Ambient Soho

Ambient Soho – ‘Specialists in Ambience and Leftfield Beats’ – was a huge part of the story. Opening in central London in the summer of 93 in the space previously occupied by Quaff Records, and run by Rockit, part of the Liberator group, the Openmind crew were heavily involved from the start. Chantal had worked in an earlier version of the shop and you could always find members of Openmind there – either in front or behind the counter. Aside from stocking the latest ambient discs, it also served as a social hub for the scene.

MINDFOOD

Ambient nights were popping up all over the country, and every good scene needs a fanzine. Openmind rose to the challenge, creating MINDFOOD – released “on a highly irregular basis”. Utilising the design school background of two of the crew’s members, it provided cutting-edge graphic designs and creative page layouts, and featured everything you needed to know about the ambient scene – from music reviews and interviews, to Aphex Twin’s recipe for Sherbet Delight.

The Roundhouse

The Chalk Farm venue was one of the cornerstones of the 60s counterculture, but by the early 90s lay dormant and derelict. By the end of 1994, it would once again be the scene of a happening. There’s chilled out and then there’s freezing, and the old building, then squatted, was very much the latter when Telepathic Fish took part in a huge illegal event with Rainbow Tribe on New Year’s Day.

Megatripolis

Throughout 93 and 94, Telepathic Fish sets could be heard at club nights in and around London. “Of all the nights we played, though, the one that resonated most with us would be Megatripolis,” David says. The club combined new age ideology with rave culture to create a vibrant festival feel. On the opening night, 21 October 1993, 2,000 clubbers attended with another 3,000 turned away. Over the next year, the Fish crew would host the chill-out space at Megatripolis over 20 times.

Triple X

A highlight of Telepathic Fish’s journey was being asked to play the Triple X festival in Amsterdam. “Orbital, Higher Intelligence Agency, Pentatonik and Autechre were playing in the main space – an enormous disused gas holder – while we provided the soundtrack to the chill-out space,” Kevin recalls. It was packed out, showing the music had evolved to touch all genres, from psychedelic and techno to dub, with even the burgeoning drum ’n’ bass scene offering chill-out remixes.