DJ Solitare - Music Reviews

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Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible

Twisted Records
twscd13

  1. Dorset Perception 8.12
  2. Star shpongled banner 8.23
  3. A new way to say “hooray” 8.32
  4. Room 23 5.05
  5. My head feels like a Frisbee 8.53
  6. Shpongleyes 8.56
  7. Once upon the sea of blissful awareness 7.31
  8. Around the world in a tea daze 11.22
  9. Flute fruit 2.09

The title of the new Shpongle album, Tales of the Inexpressible (however you choose to spell it), is more than appropriate. The first album continues to defy description, and we have long been expecting the second one; it does not disappoint but it is very different than we might have anticipated. There is a strong presence of world music, and lots more vocals, yet the other-worldly is brought into play in more novel ways.

We had no expectations for the first album, and should not have any for this one. Although it is in many ways more accessible to listeners unfamiliar to the world of psychedelic trance and ambient, it may be even more psychedelic than its predecessor. Alan Watts once quoted GK Chesterton as saying “it is one thing to look with amazement at a gorgon or a griffin, a creature who does not exist, but it is quite another thing to look at a hippopotamus, a creature which does exist, but looks as if he does not.” By toying with world music, Simon and Raja (with the help of various cohorts - the live act will have 6 performers, including a cellist) have shown the inherently psychedelic nature of different traditional forms of music already in existence on our planet.

Several numbers have a Latin theme, among them the opening “Dorset Perception,” the second part of “Star shpongled banner,” and much of “My head feels like a Frisbee.” There are nevertheless plenty of Simon’s trademark gurgling voices, “Divine Moments of Truth”-ish digitalized vocals, and freeflow flute playing. The cheering choruses in “Star shpongled banner,” “A new way to say ‘hooray’” and “Room 23” (the title of which will delight conspiracy theorists) add a tremendous sense of upliftment, themselves symbolically becoming the cheers of the DMT elves referred to in Terrance McKenna’s sampled explanations of his favorite alternate reality.

“Shpongleyes” features bouncy rhythms and atonal instrumental madness by Raj’s flute and Simon’s synths, along with the lightest and best breakbeats that I have ever heard. “Once upon the sea of blissful awareness” is a dreamy instrumental soundscape with beautiful singing, illustrating how lounge singing could develop into a more exotic and appreciated art form. The vocalist (I don’t know who she is but she’s got a great voice) sings of seeing beauty, and it is easy to do so when presented with music like this.

The masterpiece of the disc is undoubtedly “Around the world in a tea daze.” The melodies put me in mind of Simon’s early work (very similar to some of the recently released and still unreleased Purple Om tracks), but this is not to say that it is recycled - this is a reminder of the sound of the world from which we are dreaming our present reality, that magical sense of joyful mystery expressed with mind-bending harmony that made so many Hallucinogen tracks so powerful. The sampled male and female singing (the man is singing in Turkish, but a Turk friend of mine said that the woman was not) add a grounding human element, and the last third of the track becomes what could be the best kicking tune I have ever heard - it is a dream Hallucinogen track, with a stunningly driving percussion loop, magically superimposed layers, and a harmonic development that shows how properly constructed melodic music can be psychedelic and uplifting without being cheesy. It is reminiscent of the blend of opera and dance music as in The Fifth Element, when the Diva was singing while the Fifth Element was battling the bad guys, and it is the best piece of music I have heard in eons. A dessert of “Flute fruit” is a welcome come-down after this full-on sensory feast.

Throughout the album, the engineering is so transparent as to make even Simon’s other work sound thick. The layering is astonishingly clear, the sounds incredibly sharp - the production itself sets a new standard for producers of electronic music, let alone the musical content. This album should definitely appeal to experienced musical psychonauts (who may have to open their minds a bit, a process which should not have ceased with the discovery of trance) as well as to people less experienced with the music that those on this list have come to love. May it inspire the musical revolution that it has the potential to.

© by Mark Ainley 2001