Shpongle’s psychedelic music

Shpongle’s music

Shpongle is a UK based electronic vibe band featuring the duo of trance music pioneer Simon Posford and DJ, producer Raja Ram. The group also makes use of input from external musicians to provide backing sounds. His music is best described as psychedelic vibe and is often grouped into niche electronic music genres such as psychill, psybient, and psyamb.

In the beginning

Simon Posford’s musical career began as a teenager, when he had the option of going to Oxford to study botany or working at Virgin’s recording studios. The decision to go to Virgin was a no-brainer, especially as it provided an opportunity to learn the ropes alongside luminaries like Spike Stent. For a time, Simon moved through the various Virgin studios, but the life of brewing tea and dealing with feverish egos couldn’t last indefinitely. Things came to a head with British indie band James, who had recently finished touring but was still in a touring mindset. Posford considered the experience a nightmare and began looking for work elsewhere.

Stent suggested to Simon that he contact Martin Glover at Butterfly Studios. It was here that Simon found the freedom to work on his own ideas. He quickly produced a series of groundbreaking goa trance singles culminating in the now classic album “Twisted” under his trance moniker “Hallucinogen”. At that time, Raja Ram had been involved in a group called “Infinity Project” in which Simon also worked from time to time. In many ways, the sound of the Infinity Project paved the way for what would later become Shpongle. One day, while watching a solar eclipse in India, the two decided to see if they could capture the experience of what they had just witnessed in sound. The result was the song “… And the Day Turned Into Night”. Shpongle was born.

The Shpongle sound

Describing the sound of Shpongle is like trying to describe the word Shpongle itself. Some the indefinable. The band describe their sound as a strange hybrid of electronic manipulation and shamanic dwarfs with frozen digits squeezing the envelope and crawling through the doors of perception. See what I mean? At its core, the sound is filled with swirling psychedelic layers of synth melodies, bubbly overdubs like bass lines, delay walls, an ocean of effects and samples, as well as acoustic instruments like guitars and flutes. Raja Ram’s flute work, a large part of his early musical career in the British Prog / Folk band Quintessence, featured heavily in some of his best-known songs.

Releases

Shpongle has 4 studio albums released to date. His 1998 debut CD “Are you Shpongled?” was released in 1995 at a time when the genre of psychedelic ambient (psychill) was still in its infancy and was finding a market. “Are you Shpongled?” was an instant hit and the duo began touring with their new psychedelic ambient sound almost immediately, finding that they were in high demand on the psychedelic trance and music festival circuit around the world. This was due in part to the uniqueness of the sound they had created. There really was nothing like it at the time. A true musical milestone that is still considered the best psychology album ever created.

Although they were in high demand, the pair had somewhat saturated their fan base and needed to expand their sound to find new fans. A risky step if you don’t want to alienate the people who had come to love your debut. With this in mind, Shpongle decided that his second album “Tales Of The Inexpressible” in 2001 should include more natural instruments, relying less on the samples and synthesizers of his successful debut release. The resulting album received mixed reviews. For the uninitiated it was an amazing launch filled with creativity and wonder. For die-hard fans it was seen as a disappointment. However, it is interesting that, after many listens, these fans began to change their mindset and the CD was viewed largely alike and in the minds of some people it exceeded the first album in terms of production quality and imagination. .

It would be four years before the release of the third album “Nothing Lasts … But Nothing Is Lost” in 2005. The intervening years had seen speculation as to whether the group had decided to end. The title of the new album also hinted at this possibility. The album saw a return to the heady electronic sounds of “Are you Shpongled?” perhaps in reaction to some of the negative comments received on the previous album and its use of acoustic and natural instruments. He also made use of track mixing on all tracks so that each track flowed into each other providing a long psychedelic sonic journey. It was widely praised in the music media. It was also quite evident on the album how the melodies had evolved into something that could easily support a live show with a full backing band and dancers.

Shpongle’s fourth studio album “Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongle Land” was released in 2009 and continued with the third album. Although still brilliantly psychedelic, the music seemed perfect for a live experience. As such, some listeners were a bit disappointed with the release. I think the problem was that the psychedelic background music scene was now awash with artists like Shpongle who had spent the last 10 years listening to Shpongle, trying to emulate its unique sounds. Personally, I found it to be my favorite release since debut. The album was ranked # 7 on Sputnik’s Best Of 2009 chart and # 1 on the PsyAmb chart.

Simon has also mentioned that the group is working on a fifth album for release in 2012. I guess this would depend on Younger Brother’s schedule and how much recording time they manage to fit into their busy schedules.

Album of illustrations

One of the attractive factors of any band is the care that is given to the album covers and the design of the inlays. Shpongle does not disappoint having tapped the talents of Mark Neal (Dusk Design) and Storm Thorgeson (cover designer for Pink Flyod’s “Dark Side of the Moon”)

Shpongle Live

Over the years, the Shpongle Live experience has evolved from two types behind a mixing rig to a Shpongle Live extravaganza complete with massive speaker systems, lighting, fire breathers, and psychedelic dancers. However, seeing Shpongle live is a bit of a rare experience, as it is quite difficult to organize all the musicians and dancers to travel the world at the same time. We are not talking about the Rolling Stones here! If you have never seen Shpongle live, but would like to see what you are missing, I highly recommend purchasing a copy of the “Shpongle Live at The Roundhouse” DVD from the Twisted Records online store. Shiny things!