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Shpongle - Are You Shpongled?


Guest d.mcnair[at]dailyrecord.co[dot]u

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I'll have to mark my 10/10 here. Shpongle IS a place - this isn't just music,

its sheer AUDIO ENTERTAINMENT on the highest level. Take the Shpongle

challenge and try and "learn" everything going on in this album - I DARE YOU!

You'll be hooked for years :-D - This is the only album that keeps that little

seratonin waterfall feeling in my brain going for almost the whole time :) :)

:) :) :) :) FINALLY: We've found GOD ;P -=- Matt/Strumpling -=-

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Guest jacquii_17[at]hotmail[dot]com

This is fucking brilliant, i'm addicted to many things- speed, LSD, ecstasy,

and now i have found something else to be addicted to. Fuck, there are no

words to describe how fucking awesome this is, 20 thumbs up guys, I LUV IT!!!!!

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Guest shao[at]spininside[dot]it

and finally i took this CD...really amazing, a true trip inside and outside

the music dimension and the dark and the light of the mind that blows into a

thousands colours... I find myself and and I lose it suddenly ...

This CD take a important place into my music collection.

Peace & Love by Shao, Italian musical&dream hunter.

www.spininside.it

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Panchamk

there've already been many review up above telling you all you need to know

about this masterpeice; so i'll not give you any info. what i'll tell you is

how ifell when i listen to this album.

 

first; let me tell you; that i've never touched drugs in my whole life. and

thanks to this cd; i know exactly how an lsd trip feels like. only difference

is; that a shpongle trip is much more trippier than any drug trip.

 

with that out of the way;

shpongle falls very nicely sets the mood for the rest of the album; a sign of

things to come; slowly welcoming you into posford's world where there is no

pain; no sorrow; only unity; and love.

monster hit continues the introduction as you begin to fall deeper into

shpongleland.

and then comes vapour rumours. raja ram lures us with his entrancing flute;

you begin to fly... fly away from this world; fly away from the pollution; fly

away from the misery; getting lost into the universe's vapour; as it enters

your body; you can smell it; and the sweetest perfume enters your nostrils;

your senses begin to fade; your memory begins to recede; all sense of life

leaves you as you float out of your body; and taste the sweet 'shpongle

spores' the taste leaves you frozen at the spot; there's only beauty all

around you; you see a planet; and you cannot take it's beauty; you blink your

eyes to make sure it's real; and then you close your eyes.

then you see what worlds lie 'behind closed eyelids' a deeper journey through

the deepest darkest dimension of the galaxy; and you start to move; your body

loses all voluntary action; moving away as you find out reality in the 'divine

moments of truth' and all the questions that you've asked are answered. you

then see his face; the face that we all seek to see; you see the face of the

supreme being; and he welcomes you into his lap; slowly making you pure;

washing away all your dirt; your world fades slowly; and then you're finally

lost in deep sleep 'and the day turns [turned] to night'

 

like i said before; i don't take drugs; but i feel everything when i listen to

this sonic perfection.

ratings simply do not do justice to this album. if you're like me; have stayed

away from drugs; and want to find out what a 'trip' feels like; don't try

drugs; try this CD first. trust me; you'll thank me for it later.

10/10

this is now the best CD in the universe for me.

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  • 2 months later...

10/10

Listening to this may well be a life changing experience. If you could only

listen to a handful of albums for the rest of your life this would be one of

them.

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  • 3 years later...
  • 1 month later...

... And The Day Turned To Night

best piece of electronic music I heard so far

479591[/snapback]

i feel the same.

except for me it is the best piece of any music

for a long time already

 

when the breaks kick in after the long intro... mmmmmmm

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Just listened to it a couple of times (after having never heard it) because I feel that is how you have to appreciate it. So thick and deep. So many layers that I couldn't get it all in just one or two listens. Not something I would reach for, and some of his sonic choices are a little odd and (gasp) annoying, but I have come to the church of Raja and had quite a nice visit!

 

Mdk

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  • 7 months later...

Just listened to it a couple of times (after having never heard it) because I feel that is how you have to appreciate it. So thick and deep. So many layers that I couldn't get it all in just one or two listens. Not something I would reach for, and some of his sonic choices are a little odd and (gasp) annoying, but I have come to the church of Raja and had quite a nice visit!

 

Mdk

So it's grown on you a bit eh? hehehe Good to hear. :)

 

 

 

I kinda hope beyond hope that they have maybe one or two tracks on the new album that area as long as ...And the Day Turned Into Night (or at least somewhat close to being that long). That would be super sweet dealy.

 

 

 

But back to this album. I was hooked on it when I first heard Shpongle Falls. At the time when I first heard it, I was looking for some nice downtempo, ambient kind of sound but this fit the bill and then some. It was so mysterious and enchanting at the time to me because I didn't really know much about music in this kind of genre before then. It was a great experience to discover something like this existed, a very nice and enlightening surprise.

 

I just hope they can still keep that Shpongle magical energy alive with the new album.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Posted Image

 

Artist: Shpongle

Title: Are You Shpongled?

Label: Twisted Records

Released: 1st October 1998

Style: Psychedelic chillout

 

Tracklist

 

1 Shpongle Falls (8:33)

2 Monster Hit (8:57)

3 Vapour Rumours (10:26)

4 Shpongle Spores (7:16)

5 Behind Closed Eyelids (12:29)

6 Divine Moments Of Truth (10:20)

7 ...And The Day Turned To Night (19:57)

 

Shpongle, the renowned project by Simon Posford and Raja Ram, often described as pioneers in the psychedelic chillout genre. Such praise does not come lightly as their debut album Are You Shpongled? is without a doubt one of the seminal albums in the chillout genre. With heavy but relaxed beats, ethereal sounds from beyond the veil, melodies that sound like they are from an alien world and twisted samples AYS? is a real listening experience. Each track by itself is great but put together as a journey the 7 tracks are more like one long journey into the twisted DMT influenced landscape that Shpongle creates so well. This is the sort of album that you do not need drugs to experience. Many people have said that this is an album that you need to smoke to or to hear under psychedelics but the music speaks for itself & does not require anything artificial to bring out the twisted fucked up greatness of it. All this needs is a keen ear and an ability to visualise music. I may be lucky “suffering” from synaesthesia so I can easily picture the alien landscapes & twisted inner visions portrayed by the music but I am sure that even the hardened cynic could experience some kind of waking lucid dream while locked away in a darkened room with only this album to assault his senses. There are great ideas but also wonderful arrangement and production, I am sure that a lot of people in this world will hate the ideas but that in my opinion is the essence of art, a select few will absolutely adore whereas the masses will never be able to understand it & they will either hate it or be indifferent to it. Are You Shpongled? is some great audio art that I am sure will be totally adored but by just a few people.

 

Track By Track

 

1. Shpongle Falls

We start off a little shakily with a sample that stands out a little too much from the music. The guy talking about the circular vortex spinning spinning spinning is a little bit of a distraction from the lovely wet sounds of the rest of the track. The beats are tight, the flute slips through them like they are intertwined and all in all it is one nice psychedelic opener but for the sample. It is a small qualm with an otherwise great track though and is in my opinion is one of only blips on the album.

 

2. Monster Hit

The first time I heard this album this track really stood out for me, the beats are so much more twisted & broken than in the opening track, the vocals are cut up and rearranged tribal voices ala Deep Forest but in a much more dark and psychedelic way. Whereas Deep Forest’s vocals sounded natural and Terran these sound obscure & alien. The melodies are sweet & once again there are a lot of wet bubbly sounds going on. For me though it is when the music breaks down, the light female sounding vocals come in before the original ones float over the light emerging beat & the music feels like it is building to something. That something is a rather cheesy sample saying “It was a monster hit” but is followed by all the elements that made the track great come in with a different arrangement making it jaw droppingly good. Even after over a decade it still impresses me which is a very good sign!

 

3. Vapour Rumours

This is a very spacey track. The whole theme seems to be about Earth’s first experience with an alien species. From the opening sample about studying UFO’s to the long sample in the middle about Humanity’s first contact with an extra terrestrial race it holds a sense of juvenile wonder that is usually lost on adults weighed down by reality. The music starts of slow and ambient but builds into some nice beat orientated twisted mayhem, then it breaks down with the first contact sample, the beats slowly come in as the sample continues then the beats and the sweet high pitched acidic melody kick in taking this way beyond terrestrial music into the realms of drug induced alien visions. Great stuff!

 

4. Shpongle Spores

Shpongle Spores follows seamlessly with the flute linking the two tracks but from the remnants of the flute comes a great trippy melody that seems to continuously build without getting any higher like some freaky tower with steps that always go up but always return to the bottom. The quick oscillating synths that come in and out throughout the intro are extremely trippy and the second melody to come in is really sublime in its smooth spherical feeling. The melodies just keep coming and going & we even have some “Hicksville” sounding guitar sounds in the middle.

 

5. Behind Closed Eyelids

“Behind closed eyelids in very many cases the visionary quality, the quality of the vision, some says spills over into the external world so that the experiencer when he opens his eyes sees the outer world….” Such an exquisite opening sample all the better for getting obscured at the end so the end of the speech cannot be made out but is still audible making each listen bring forward a different ending a different possibility. Slow beats with a heavy tread and two melodies, one a flute the other a synth twist around each other like a double helix before the synth melody becomes dominant and rips at the inside of the head. The flutes take over in a soothing sort of way leading back into to a more beat orientated reverie of sound and vision. The longest track on the journey besides the nigh 20 minute closing track this gets the time to evolve, move, twist, turn and surprise the listener. This remains one of my favourite Shpongle pieces to date.

 

6. Divine Moments of Truth

Dimethyltryptamine is a psychoactive substance that can be known to bring on epiphanies or Divine Moments of Truth! Whether this is usually true or whether my mind has been warped by this track is unknown to me but ever since I have always associated this track with inebriated revelations, be it that we all live in a sideways dimension parallel to a more spiritually evolved race or that aliens are all around infiltrating our society but we are all unaware as we just can’t see that “reality” they always seem real at the time. The lyrics are decidedly cheesy, “LSD through DMT” etc but they really fit the music in a psychedelic and twisted way. The last part of the track with the whistles and the and the “okays” which sound like some motivational sports chant are the second small blip on the album.

 

7. …And The Day Turned To Night

…And The Day Turned To Night deserves its place in the annals of music history. If Shpongle are going to be remembered for anything it will be this album and this track. The nigh on 20 minutes of pure Shpongle bliss. Everything I like about this project is here; the flutes are simple and nice with the build up in the first few minutes being quite ambient with soft beats, touches of melody and some tribal chanting along the way. The heavier elements slowly tease in with some deep rumbling bass, dirty beats and nice synths before, after what seems to be such a long long tease, the melody comes in fast with really quick synth lines giving more and more energy without any beats. When the beats kick in, even though they are some crazy, frantic beats they seem to creep in almost unnoticed like they have been there the whole time with an innocent look on their faces. There is excellent progression through the whole track nothing seems rushed despite the frenetic pace of the beats. The ambience surrounding them is great and the atmosphere adds up to one wonderful journey. This track is a great way to round of one of the great psychedelic chillout albums ever.

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Nice review abasio! you describe well the feeling of each songs.

i agree with your favorite behind closed eyelids and ...and the day turned.But i really love DMT and shpongle falls, ans less vapour rumors. But hey taste is taste! :lol:

 

The best album ive ever heard. without a doubt, after... maybe kettel with the albums through friendly waters or whisper me wishes

Every song is a 10/10

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Nice review abasio! you describe well the feeling of each songs.

i agree with your favorite behind closed eyelids and ...and the day turned.But i really love DMT and shpongle falls, ans less vapour rumors. But hey taste is taste! :lol:

 

The best album ive ever heard. without a doubt, after... maybe kettel with the albums through friendly waters or whisper me wishes

Every song is a 10/10

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  • 1 month later...
  • 12 years later...

Behind Closed Eyelids, what a track! And such amazing memories connected to first hearing it back in 1998. I was mindblown. Perfect music to be creative with, just put on some headphones. And the let the pen and paper come alive.

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