Priest of Cubensis

http://members.shaw.ca/olgierd/High%20Prie...th%20Chakra.ogg This is our 2nd song and we're still really in our infancy when it comes to music production. It was made largely in Reason + Cubase (for a few effects).

Cosmosis has a really informative music production section on his website. He also has a collection of his Albino 2 patches available for download which include a bunch of crunchy squeaks and tweaks. http://www.cosmosis.co.uk/cms/index.php?op...&id=3&Itemid=40

I wrote this about a month ago and never got around to posting it :/ * * * * * * * * * * * So, new Shpongle album. I'm not a good writer at all, which makes trying to convey how awesome this album was difficult and painful - it's an experience I'd love to share without resorting to cliches and coming off as an shroom fiend I held off downloading it, reading the early reviews etc. so that the first listen would be completely unfamiliar to me (with the exception of Beija Flor). Three of my friends did the same thing. All of us took our choice of psychedelic (mushrooms for me) and then went on a walk outside until we came up. By the time we got back to the house we were pretty "good" and ready. My friend has an amazing speaker system in his living room and a good amount of seating, including two recliners positioned at optimal points with respect to the speakers. I took my seat in one of these recliners, my host turned on the music, I closed my eyes and braced myself. I was already a fan of Beija Flor (now split into the first three songs on the album), so the beginning was great. However, once the song(s) ended I was into completely uncharted territory. There's that moment in LOTR where Sam says "if I take one more step it will be the farthest from home I've ever been" that sort of captures the feeling as the last bit of Beija Flor faded into the new material. From that point on the whole experience was totally out of this world. As I was listening I was already thinking about how I would try convey what it was like, and it really is futile. I can barely recall any sequence of sound longer than 10 seconds and for the time being it might stay that way as I'm considering not listening to it for another few months (I'll get to this). The whole thing was just this everchanging collection of awesome moments with loose boundaries that I can only remember as "the piano, the horns, Terrence McKenna 'no that doesn't bother me', the breeze, when shall I be free, flute Solo, Buttrock" and so on *. Things like that were the landmarks on the journey that was this album. You might not remember every little tree and pebble, but you remember the beautiful landscapes. I'll continue with this analogy for a bit, and give the reason why I might hold off listening to the album for a while. Anyone who's been hiking should be familiar with that feeling of coming into a sunny subalpine meadow after kilometers of forest, or climbing over a pass and seeing the whole new landscape on the other side. There's this virgin bursting feeling that the experience gives you. The first one for me really came after Beija Flor and the big reason for that was because the first ~8 minutes had been spoiled for me. After that, it was the collection of moments that I mentioned before and I had no idea of what would happen next. I didn't even know what track number it was, what the track was called or how long into it I was. These are the kind of things that cause the experience to lose it's mystique and make an album feel less like a backcountry journey and more like a walk in the park. As you listen to the album more, you start to get so familiar that you eventually do recognize every little pebble and you anticipate every step. Because of this, the idea to avoid listening to it casually was brought up. By doing so we hope that the next listen would be just as unfamiliar as the first. Eventually you could start listening to it casually, but it only works one way. Once you've become familiar with it, it's hard to forget. After reading some of the comments here I almost feel like the people who read the early reviews, downloaded it on soulseek, memorized the tracklist, double clicked, paused and forwarded their way through the album on their computer really did themselves and the album a disservice. Of course, it's hard to be objective when you're reviewing an album you've only listened to on 4 grams of shrooms. On the other hand, criticizing the album after listening to it sober or on your $15 headphones (I'm being a bit presemptuous here, yes) is like reviewing a movie after watching it with your eyes closed. Likewise, listening to it after you're already familiar with it is like playing through a role playing game for the first time with the aid of a walkthrough. This is Shpongle. Give it the venue it deserves and listen. I sense this slight anti-Shpongle sentiment on this site because of a desire to temper the endless praise doled out by fanatics like myself. 10/10 *A few weeks ago I was dissapointed by the decision to divide most of the songs and double the number of tracks but now I think it was a really good decision. It suits the album better.

After weeks of intense labour we are finally ready to release our first ever track, entitled Cosmic Spirit. Give it a listen @ http://members.shaw.ca/olgierd/High%20Prie...ic%20Spirit.ogg We'd like some feedback / disses. Keep in mind we've made fun of this song through it's various iterations ourselves. We'd like real criticism, maybe tempered with some compliments Aside from the coked-out riffs, some comments on the mastering would be nice because we were really shooting in the dark there and trying to go with what sounds good. I know there's a few issues later on where the delay and reverb are a bit overpowering for example.