shpongle music
Shpongle is a British electronic 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 ambient 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 an obvious one, especially as it provided an opportunity to learn the ropes alongside luminaries like the Spike Stent. For a time, Simon moved through the various Virgin studios, but the life of making tea and dealing with feverish egos couldn’t go on indefinitely. Things came to a head with the UK indie band James, who had recently finished touring but still had a touring mentality. Posford found the experience a nightmare and began looking for work elsewhere.
Stent suggested to Simon that he should 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 observing 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 theme “… 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. Something 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? In essence, the sound is filled with swirling psychedelic layers of synth melodies, bubbly dub 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 band Prog / Folk 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 psychedelic ambient genre (psychill) was still in its infancy and finding a market. “Are you Shpongled?” was an instant hit and the duo began roaming 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 psychill 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 incredible launch full of creativity and wonder. For die-hard fans, it was seen as a bit of a disappointment. Interesting though, after a lot of listening, these fans started to change their mindset and the CD was seen largely the same and in some people’s minds outperforming 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 call it a day. The title of the new album also hinted at this possibility. The album saw a return to the intoxicating electronic sounds of “Are you Shpongled?” perhaps as a 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 through 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 picked up where the third album left off. While it was 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 ambient music scene was now awash with Shpongle-type artists 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 its debut. The album was ranked No. 7 on Sputnik’s Best of 2009 chart and No. 1 on the PsyAmb chart.
Simon has also mentioned that the group is working on a fifth album to be released in 2012. I guess this will depend on Younger Brother’s schedule and how long recording 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 by having the talents of Mark Neal (Dusk Design) and Storm Thorgeson (cover designer for Pink Flyod’s “The Dark Side Of The Moon”).
Shpongle live
Over the years, the Shpongle Live experience has evolved from two types behind a mixing console to a massive Shpongle Live show complete with huge speaker systems, lighting, fire-eaters, 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 around 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 recommend that you purchase a copy of “Shpongle Live at The Roundhouse DVD” from the Twisted Records online store. Shiny things!