Tape 001: Cacti & Succulents

A botanical playlist and kundalini meditation journey. 
Inspired by sensual succulents and resilient cacti, curated by DJ Kyma for horti.

THE SUCCULENT SOUNDS OF A CACTUS:


With sensual and psychedelic influences of enduring love and resilience, the tracks for this playlist have been intentionally chosen and sequenced to get under thick skins, to take you on a trip into deserted lands within and warm up the heart, getting into all that juicy goodness that flows beneath the surface.

  • Breathe Hold -  This track has been my jam for the past month. With it’s funky and psychedelic guitar riffs and harmonic humming + whistles allow yourself to be transported to a surrealistic landscape of melting desert sky with cotton candy hues. A loan ranger whistling along his/her vision quest into the swirling sunset.
  • Desert Days - An ode to spaciousness and the warmth of desert horizons.  
  • Rain Makes the River - So powerful and primal. Love this one as a soulful echo descending from crystal clear blue skies. In the heat of anger you are supported and loved eternally. Let your tears fall to fill your rivers of creativity. Release control and soften tendrils. Let all the juices flow….
  • Through the Yard - Kauf has been on my radar for awhile as one of my fave LA based producers. Well known for his depth in lyrical dance music, distant dreamy vocals and synth textures this specific track spoke to me with the distorted desert flute and drums remixed by Fort Romeau - plenty in his catalogue to explore.  
  • Hold Them - The buoyancy of the synth Justin Martin uses with ethereal vocals of Mohna — a succulent’s wet-dream.
  • Loud Magic - Felt this song definitely spoke to a cactus reaching for the clouds. Echoing resilience, endurance, warmth, power, magic…
  • Sirens - The hypnotic and poetic lyrics from Monolink always resonate deep inside me. This one really gets beneath the flesh to flowing rivers within. Unleash your wild…  
  • Let Myself Go - Emotional agonies are real. Surrender into the darkness - let it go, let it flow and the sun will rise again to fill you with lightness…
  • Luca Musto made it on this list twice with Chapters and Parabel Remix by Lorie - He always has the dopest soulful samples and cross pollinated rhythms. Huge fan of his work. A fusion of East and West...
  • Tankwa Town - I had to do some research on where Tankwa Town actually exists. This exploration led to the discovery that this is a mirage, a temporary town that gets set up in Karoo...The burning man of Afrika #AfrikaBurnFestival - who’s down to cruise in 2019???
  • Eh El Maghna - Under a purple middle eastern sky…
  • Reality - A plant-based perspective - envision yourself as a potted cactus observing your owner go about his/her days…
  • My Eternal - Suchhhh a surrealistic succulents daydream...read full lyrics HERE
  • i used to (dixon re-touch) - Another plant perspective…with dem 80’s synth bops - lyrics HERE.
  • Take My Time - Skinshape is a one man band - incredibly vintage vibe - this track speaking to growth - taking your time - and carrying with you what’s right for you and let everything else drop away like leaves on an Autumn day  “Begin to stand up on your feet; And learn what's right for you to keep.”
  • If You Want to Know - Natureboy Flako has been on my radar since 2012ish with tracks like 12 O’ Clock Shadow, With Me Now, Eclosure, I Want You, Lonely Town - always coming with crazy cool experimental beats and digging the Universal Love feeling from Reginald Omas Mamode IV on this track - the essence of plant life.. (Check out more Exper!mental tracks to get weird to HERE).
  • Conditional Love - Just a sexy and sensual ambient outro to marinate in ALLLL your juiciness...

EMBODIMENT ACTIVITY (optional):

Begin to imagine yourself transforming into a groovy cactus under the desert sun. Feel the warmth on your soft and prickly skin. Feel your breathe like roots connecting to deep untilled soils. Feel any emotions as your waters flow within. On each inhale, feel the yellow heat in your belly expand to touch the green glow of your heart. Exhale through a straight stem that connects those deep roots high into the vast blueness of the skies above. Continue to inhale deep into your roots and exhale high into the blue skies. Soften your eyes...let them close and just listen.

BACKSTORY:

Just like animals and flowers, plants too have symbolically spoken to various cultures throughout the ages. As of recently I have been attracted to the cactus more than ever before. For example, my phone case is currently a rubber cactus with blossoming flowers (very protective and the best $5 investment on Amazon I’ve ever made). I recently got back from a trip to the west coast where my friend had a beautiful cactus in his downtown Los Angeles loft that I could not stop admiring. The next day I ventured to Arizona, the land of the cacti. So I’ve started to explore the botanical messages I am being sent. I’ve learned that all plants — because of their green nature — speak to and vibrate with the heart chakra (maybe this is why it feels so good and heart opening to be amongst our lush green friends).

As with all symbols, their meanings vary from culture to culture and person to person. The meaning of the cactus symbol that has spoken to me the most from indigenous stories is warmth, protection and endurance. Although the cactus (part of the succulent family) does not have leaves that fall during this autumnal transition, I think it will suit me well to carry it with me into the fall and winter days for protection, warmth and endurance. Not to mention I will quite literally carry it with me in the form of my rubber cactus phone everywhere I go with earbuds plugged in, listening to this Spotify playlist.