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yiannis

Your favourite Posford release

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Let's see if anyone's in the mood for a bit of discussion :)

 

Simon Posford is one of the pioneers of electronic psychedelic music. Despite the fact that he's quite famous, even reaching mainstream audiences, I really like the bulk of his work, both uptempo and downtempo. So without further ado, my favourite uptempo Posford release is probably The Lone Deranger, but only marginally so. Twisted, as well as the Beast and North Central Positronics EPs are also great but TLD is the one with the perfect balance between straight goa and experimentation.

 

My favourite downtempo release is probably Shpongle's Tales of the Inexpressible. There's nothing downtempo he has had input in that I don't love, including Hallucinogen in Dub's studio album, Younger Brother's first two releases, the Celtic Cross album and even the Eclipse compilation, but Shpongle is the project that has consistently pushed boundaries and released quality music. The reason I said TotI is that there's a lot of variety on that one and there's not one tune I could do without. AYS is amazing but limited musically; NLbNIL has some skippable tunes in the second half; IMfS I wouldn't miss the first half of Shpongolese... and the whole last track; MoC lacks depth in places; and CIV I haven't fully grasped yet.

 

 

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So much respect for Simon, he literally changed my life for the better. Not sure how/why I started with their 3rd album but Nothing Lasts was not only the first Shpongle album I ever heard, it was my first taste of psychedelic music period so that one holds a special place in my heart. Almost no other album demands to be experienced as a single piece of music imo, even if there are some down moments that's just part of it.

 

After that I "accidentally" caught Younger Brother live when they opened for The Disco Biscuits for New Years Eve in 2007 (I mistakenly thought it would be a Shpongle set, at the time I didn't even know YB existed), and that was probably the most memorable live music experience I've ever had, especially since they had this "quadraphonic" sound system set up with speakers in all four corners of the venue which they made sound trippy as hell lol.

 

That show led me to discover YB's A Flock Of Bleeps album which had an equally as profound effect on me as Nothing Lasts had. Crumblenaut was an absolute monster of a track to me at the time, and it's still one of my favorites. Some of the more uptempo tracks on that album like Magic Monkey Juice and Finger were my gateway into trance music and what led me to Hallucinogen, which honestly at first was a little above my level at the time, I tried listening to Twisted at home and I couldn't fully get into it then.

 

But then I was lucky enough to catch a Hallucinogen set live and that's when it really clicked, like "ooohh I get it, you have to dance!" lol. That was the start of a love for goa trance music especially in the old school style, and Twisted and The Lone Deranger are now two of my favorites, although I'd agree that The Lone Deranger probably wins out.

 

I love downtempo more in the end though, I adore Shpongle and even though I thought albums 4-6 were good, they never quite reached the same peaks of the "holy trinity" of the first 3 albums, but I think that has more to do with my own jadedness than the quality of the later albums. Codex VI is actually a very good album.

 

What I'm really excited for in the future though is when I heard an interview of Simon on youtube where he said he would be interested in working with Benji again to make more electronic style Younger Brother music similar to the first 2 albums, and I think that there's tons of potential in that style. Vaccine was ok but I think even Simon himself thought that that style didn't really cut it compared to the earlier stuff.

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I've said it before in another thread. I was familiar with his Hallucinogen work, the albums that is, and I was starting to get into downtempo. I liked Planet Dog stuff a lot (still do) and I was at record shop in Athens. The friend I was with picked up the Spiritual Worlds compilation and read me the description under the title: "ethno chill out and shamanic beats" saying, this might be something you'd like. Spot on  :) That's where I found out about Posford's downtempo side; it's got Room 2 Om, Binah's Crescent Suns and Celtic Cross' Khatmandu. 

 

I agree about Vaccine, I can't even make myself listen to the whole album.

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The guitar solo in Dorest Perception is a 11/10 experience for me. Words cannot express... My families history is also from Dorest (UK) and when you visit this place and other places in the south west of England you find this really rich music culture and atmosphere. Psychedelics, rock, ska/reggae, drum & bass...all huge and healthy...it's not a surprise that possibly the three best musicians of Psybient ever, Eat Static, Shpongle and Ott, all came from this region (maybe others too?). So not only does this song kick-ass, but it has this great meaning to me which always puts the smile on my face.

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