Man, I LOVE this band! I first heard this "duo" back in 2000 while sitting around a campfire with good friends. Someone put on the "Are You Shpongled?" album. I couldn't believe what I was hearing as it became the soundtrack to the rip snorting fire we were all staring at it like it was a caveman television set.
I asked my friend what in the world were we listening to? He said "Shpongle". I said "What?".
He made the "Shhhh" sign and added "Pongle" to it :) I had discovered something NEW for my ears. I loved it ALL!
It kind of reminded me of my favorite Ethnic Psychedelic Space Rock band Ozric Tentacles, but very different. By the time the Terence Mackenna samples floated in, I knew that this was going to one of my favorite bands. At some point during that initial listening, all reality seemed to fold in on itself taking me deeper and deeper into myself. It actually became kind of scary. Things were beginning to shift.
The band consists of Simon Posford and Raja Ram.
Posford is generally responsible for the synthesizers, studio work, and live instrumentation while Raja Ram contributes broad musical concepts and flute arrangements. Raja Ram stated in an interview that "Shpongle" is an umbrella term for feeling positive and euphoric emotions. Shpongle's music is heavily influenced by psychedelic experiences and frequently makes use of sonic textures that approximate psychedelic states as well as vocal samples relating to consciousness expansion, hallucinations, and altered states of awareness. The track, "Divine Moments of Truth," for example, contains a vocal sample of Raja Ram describing the effects of Dimethyltryptamine.
Are You Shpongled, Yet?
I asked my friend what in the world were we listening to? He said "Shpongle". I said "What?".
He made the "Shhhh" sign and added "Pongle" to it :) I had discovered something NEW for my ears. I loved it ALL!
It kind of reminded me of my favorite Ethnic Psychedelic Space Rock band Ozric Tentacles, but very different. By the time the Terence Mackenna samples floated in, I knew that this was going to one of my favorite bands. At some point during that initial listening, all reality seemed to fold in on itself taking me deeper and deeper into myself. It actually became kind of scary. Things were beginning to shift.
The band consists of Simon Posford and Raja Ram.
Posford is generally responsible for the synthesizers, studio work, and live instrumentation while Raja Ram contributes broad musical concepts and flute arrangements. Raja Ram stated in an interview that "Shpongle" is an umbrella term for feeling positive and euphoric emotions. Shpongle's music is heavily influenced by psychedelic experiences and frequently makes use of sonic textures that approximate psychedelic states as well as vocal samples relating to consciousness expansion, hallucinations, and altered states of awareness. The track, "Divine Moments of Truth," for example, contains a vocal sample of Raja Ram describing the effects of Dimethyltryptamine.
Even though they were hard to track down, I managed to get all of their releases, each very different but cut from the same musical cloth:
- Are You Shpongled? (1998)
- Tales of the Inexpressible (2001)
- Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost (2005)
- Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland (2009)
- Untitled Fifth Album (2012)
Are You Shpongled, Yet?
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