Shpongle is a psychedelic electronic music project from England that formed in 1996. The group includes Simon Posford and Raja Ram. The duo are considered to be one of the progenitors of the psybient genre - a genre combining world music with psychedelic trance and ambient. Their musical style combines traditional music from all over the globe and vocals with contemporary western synthesizer-based psychedelic music. When asked to describe Shpongle's music, Posford has responded that it is "like nothing you've ever heard before."
Raja Ram is an Australian-born musician and the owner of the United Kingdom record label Tip World. He was a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Quintessence in the late 1960s and early 1970s, playing at the first two Glastonbury Fayres in 1970 and 1971. He later found success in the psychedelic trance scene and continues to headline at large events worldwide.
Simon Posford, better known by his stage name Hallucinogen is an English electronic musician, specializing in psychedelic trance music. His first studio album, Twisted, released in 1995, is considered one of the most influential albums in the genre. He has toured India several times.
Martin Glover, better known by his stage name Youth, is a British record producer and musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Killing Joke. He is also a member of The Fireman, along with Paul McCartney.
Younger Brother is an electronic duo formed in 2003 by Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan. Their debut album A Flock of Bleeps was released in 2003, followed by The Last Days of Gravity in 2007 and Vaccine in 2011.
Ott is a British record producer and musician who has worked with Sinéad O'Connor, Embrace, the Orb, and Brian Eno, and has achieved recognition since 2002 for his own psychedelic dub tracks and his collaborations with Simon Posford. He has released two albums on Twisted Records: Blumenkraft (2003), Skylon (2008) and three albums on Ottsonic: Mir (2011), Fairchildren (2015) and Heads (2022).
A Valid Path is the fourth solo album by English rock musician Alan Parsons. The record was released on 24 August 2004 via Artemis label.
Are You Shpongled? is the first of six albums released by Shpongle. Are You Shpongled? sold in excess of 30,000 copies. A remastered version of Are You Shpongled? was released on 30 June 2017, along with a limited edition super-deluxe triple vinyl set.
Tales of the Inexpressible is Shpongle's second album, released in 2001. Simon Posford and Raja Ram hone and expand the style introduced on their debut album, Are You Shpongled?. Raja Ram plays Spanish and East Asian instruments along with the flute, and Simon Posford plays classical guitar as well as synthesizing and sampling.
Oliver John Wisdom was a British Goa and psy trance musician, and clothing producer, who lived in London. From the 1990s he recorded under the name Space Tribe.
Nothing Lasts... But Nothing is Lost is a 2005 album by Shpongle. It is the project's third and was announced as their last, though that plan later changed. Like the previous two albums, it features many live musicians and vocalists in combination with computer-generated sounds and spoken-word samples. Stylistically the album can be described as a fusion of world music, intelligent dance music, and psychedelic trance. It is dedicated in memory of author and psychedelic researcher Terence McKenna, whose voice and ideas are used throughout the album. The tracks flow together continuously without any break.
A Flock of Bleeps is the debut studio album by the music group Younger Brother. It is a collaborative psybient/psychill project between English psytrance producers Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan (Prometheus).
Nicholas Barber, better known by the stage name Doof, is best known as a British, London-based psychedelic trance musician.
The Last Days of Gravity is Younger Brother's second album. It is a collaborative downtempo psychedelic project between English psytrance Producers Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan.
The Mystery of the Yeti is a Goa trance concept album conceived and arranged by Ron Rothfield. It was collaboratively produced by Raja Ram and Graham Wood of The Infinity Project; Stéphane Holweck, Loïc Van Poucke, and Serge Souque ; and Simon Posford.
Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland is the fourth studio album by Shpongle released on 2 November 2009. The album's track list was released on 12 August via Twisted Records (UK)'s website. Songs from the album began to trickle to the public in live form, being played at many of Shpongle's 2009 concerts. Previews of the album were made available through Twisted Music's official audio player. The album was ranked at #7 on Sputnik's Best Of 2009 list.
George Posford, born Benjamin George Ashwell, was an English composer and conductor.
The God Particle is the third EP by Shpongle, released on 1 February 2011. Both tracks on the EP feature Benji Vaughan of Younger Brother. The EP was inspired by the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
Psydub is a fusion genre of electronic music that has its roots in psychedelic trance, ambient and dub music. Incorporated dub elements are melodic basslines, deep reggae roots and producing techniques like dynamically adding extensive echo, reverb, panoramic delay, and occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works. An incorporated ambient element is an emphasis on tone and atmosphere. Incorporated psytrance elements are low-bass frequencies and hypnotic melodies and the use of samples. Those samples mostly contain references to drugs, parapsychology, extraterrestrial life, existentialism, out of body experiences, dreams, science, time travel, spirituality and similar mysterious or unconventional topics. Psydub is also highly influenced by the music of India.
