acid being Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/shpongle-simon-posford-20-questions-flux-contemplation-9414552/ Not sure how many of you already read this, but he says some interesting things. Probably the most unsettling bit for us is that he said his album Twisted now sounds "a bit irritating" to him! Quote If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into dance music, what would you give them? Tricky, there are so many genres of dance music … and I’ve never particularly liked any of them! I had many people tell me that my first Hallucinogen album, Twisted, “got me into dance music” or “got me into trance,” but I’m not sure I would recommend that, as it might be a bit weird for some people and it now sounds a bit irritating to me. I’m a big fan of the early Trentemøller stuff, so maybe Early Worx or something. Possibly Underworld or Leftfield. And Leftfield are great, but Underwold? I was starting to wonder if he was winding them up a bit. I mean, it's not the best interview question for a psytrance pioneer, is it? He also said he hadn't listened to much psytrance since the early 2000s. Most of the best stuff was before then so I think I get it. Worth a read anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoktorG Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Thanks for alerting us to this. Lots of brief, flippant answers in this interview. Simon is a proper humble human, so of course he's hypercritical of his own work. Also, he has genuinely moved on from the Hallucinogen days so it is faintly embarrassing juvenilia for him. Ironically, however, for me "Flux and Contemplation" is by far his weakest work yet. I couldn't even bring myself to buy it, and I was really keen to do so until I heard it. Similarly, Underworld's "Second Toughest in the Infants" and Leftfield's "Leftism" and "Rhythm & Stealth" are classics, but since then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acid being Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 3 hours ago, DoktorG said: Ironically, however, for me "Flux and Contemplation" is by far his weakest work yet. I couldn't even bring myself to buy it, and I was really keen to do so until I heard it. Interesting how much opinions differ because I think I prefer it to most of the tracks on Codex VI (I saw your discogs review of that), with the possible exception of Empty Branes. Nothing Lasts is currently my favorite Shpongle album though and I haven't listened to Flux that many times. It's quite a departure from his other music. I see it as a bit of an experiment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoktorG Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 All good; I will listen to Flux again. As you say it is a departure and I wouldn't really compare it to Shpongle in that it is mostly a fully ambient album - I just thought it was quite limp compared to Klaus Schulze, or Tangerine Dream, or Brian Eno, or Lustmord, or O Yuki Conjugate, or other ambient greats. All the Shpongle albums are excellent and Nothing Lasts might be the most obviously psychedelic of them all. I liked Codex VI because it is dubby and a bit darker and reminds me of Are you Shpongled?, which is still my favourite and the one I listen to most. I've also listened a lot to Ineffable Mysteries; I'm not sure why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriestof Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 i never liked flux and i've tried a lot to like that album not because its ambient, but because the material is flat and boring, the songs are just not that good or interesting and i can listen to drone music for hours, so it has nothing to do with my music taste 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acid being Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 On 3/1/2024 at 11:33 AM, Kriestof said: i never liked flux and i've tried a lot to like that album not because its ambient, but because the material is flat and boring, the songs are just not that good or interesting I can see where you're coming from. Most of his other work has more depth to it. I enjoy it for what it is, though, as I say, I haven't listened to it very many times. On 3/1/2024 at 5:12 AM, DoktorG said: All good; I will listen to Flux again. As you say it is a departure and I wouldn't really compare it to Shpongle in that it is mostly a fully ambient album - I just thought it was quite limp compared to Klaus Schulze, or Tangerine Dream, or Brian Eno, or Lustmord, or O Yuki Conjugate, or other ambient greats. I don't disagree with that assessment. Flux is not his strongest work. I will give Codex VI another listen as well. I was personally a bit underwhelmed by it because with every new album I'm always hoping for something more like Nothing Lasts or honestly even something closer to Hallucinogen but I'm starting to accept that Simon has moved on. I found some of the talky bits a bit distracting on Codex as well but I'll give it another go and I'm glad others are enjoying it. Hearing Klaus Schulze when very young must be one of the main things that set me on a path to loving Goa trance and psytrance. I've not heard much Brian Eno; could you recommend me an album to start with? The more electronic, the better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoktorG Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 On 3/3/2024 at 6:24 PM, acid being said: I can see where you're coming from. Most of his other work has more depth to it. I enjoy it for what it is, though, as I say, I haven't listened to it very many times. I don't disagree with that assessment. Flux is not his strongest work. I will give Codex VI another listen as well. I was personally a bit underwhelmed by it because with every new album I'm always hoping for something more like Nothing Lasts or honestly even something closer to Hallucinogen but I'm starting to accept that Simon has moved on. I found some of the talky bits a bit distracting on Codex as well but I'll give it another go and I'm glad others are enjoying it. Hearing Klaus Schulze when very young must be one of the main things that set me on a path to loving Goa trance and psytrance. I've not heard much Brian Eno; could you recommend me an album to start with? The more electronic, the better. I listened to Codex last night on vinyl - I love this album and it is the one closest to the first, as I said. Brian Eno? The golden era for this artist is 1978 to 1984. Anything from then is great. My personal favourites include "Ambient 1: Music for Airports", "Ambient 4: On Land", "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", "Fourth World: Possible Musics", "Apollo" and "Pearl". However, he's been having an Indian summer of sorts in more recent years, and some of these releases like "The Equatorial Stars", "Small Craft on a Milk Sea", "The Ship", and "Foreverandevernomore" are good too. I highly recommend O Yuki Conjugate, especially Equator. Have fun listening... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technosomy Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 I so get where Simon is right now, twisted is great but yeah, after all these years he has moved on, if there are metal fans here who like bathory, quorthon wrote off his first 5 albums calling them pathetic and amateur, yet those are the albums most fans like, underworld and left field hell yeah, first 4 underworld albums are brilliant, as for left field, they moved on after first 2 also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acid being Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 I've always slightly preferred The Lone Deranger to Twisted though the albums are similar and it's hard to tell exactly why. I can't rule out if it's just the fact that I heard the Lone Deranger first. But I feel like Simon was already evolving as an artist in that second album. His sound in the Younger Brother albums has more of a Hallucinogen flavor than in Shpongle to me as well. Learning and evolving as an artist is a separate thing to choosing to explore a different style of music, although they are related. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psytones Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 The Lone Deranger > Twisted, all night long IMO: Twisted = LSD The Lone Deranger = Mushrooms Twisted = Day The Lone Deranger = Night Buying the Remaster and listening to them both back to back, I really realized an old realization of how much overall I do prefer The Lone Deranger over Twisted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astralprojection Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 twisted was ahead of its time, with tracks like LSD and Fluoro Neuro Sponge. But Lone Deranger certainly is the better one of the two and one of the best albums to date all genres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolyLight Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 On 2/29/2024 at 8:56 PM, DoktorG said: Thanks for alerting us to this. Lots of brief, flippant answers in this interview. Simon is a proper humble human, so of course he's hypercritical of his own work. Also, he has genuinely moved on from the Hallucinogen days so it is faintly embarrassing juvenilia for him. Ironically, however, for me "Flux and Contemplation" is by far his weakest work yet. I couldn't even bring myself to buy it, and I was really keen to do so until I heard it. Similarly, Underworld's "Second Toughest in the Infants" and Leftfield's "Leftism" and "Rhythm & Stealth" are classics, but since then... Yeah Simon seem like a nice guy. And about him getting a bit tired of his old tunes, if one had to play those tracks live for so many years. I imagine I would've been bored as well after a while. Still I can't help thinking sometimes, what if he had taken another path? And would've continued with the twisted uptempo Psy and developed it even further, in some other weird direction. Don't get me wrong I love Shpongle, Younger Brother etc. But yeah fav stuff is his Hallucinogen/Beast/Anubis/Infinity Project etc and his work with Slinky Wizard. Anyways his legacy is all over Psytrance. So in that sense his ideas continue to inspire and evolve through other peoples interpretations/lenses. Those early pillars of the movement created like somekind of archetypal models for the Goa sound I suppose. I'm still waiting for some of the classics to be surpassed, or atleast to be mindblown like that again. Hopefully one day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acid being Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 On 3/7/2024 at 10:36 PM, Parasphere said: Still I can't help thinking sometimes, what if he had taken another path? And would've continued with the twisted uptempo Psy and developed it even further, in some other weird direction. On 3/7/2024 at 10:36 PM, Parasphere said: I'm still waiting for some of the classics to be surpassed, or atleast to be mindblown like that again. Hopefully one day! In my opinion, Artha already has that nicely covered. If someone had told me Influencing Dreams was the new Hallucinogen album, I'd have believed them! I hope Artha's still active though. It's been eight years since his last album. https://www.discogs.com/artist/342098-Artha I agree though, it would have been fascinating to see where Simon would have taken that sound next all those years ago. Still, he made that new track recently, so there's still time for more uptempo if he wants to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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