Just before retiring to bed yesterday I supported my dearest musicians with a few pounds, and then I saw Simon Posford with short hair in my dream, he gave a friendly hug, and in the morning I received all the formats of the new album Shpongle – Codex VI. In order to go deeply into the new material I set off into the wood with flac in my player and the son sleeping in the pram. I caught up a notepad to fix my current impressions. I represent them here including photo-associations track by track based on our greenword.ru activity.
Today I won’t see the autumn forest, I’ll watch the sounds. We’ve waited for it since 2013. Here we go!
~ Remember the Future. Here we meet everything at once. The whole Shpongle. The whole psychedelic orchestra playing to Raja Ram’s pipe. Simon’s subtle paths lead us away, the basses add up the volume, the drums pull the body’s strings. The dub-groove suggests pausing as if on a bridge to look around and see the cosmos unfolding from all around. However they calm us down in the end.
~ They lead us across to The Magumba State which meets with an intriguing deep bass. It’s a shaman state, the vocal evokes chills overlapping the near-zero-forest goose bumps. The flute will tear me up now together with sacred melody, sacred water. Raja Ram was correct before the album release: it’s an invisible drug being poured into the ear. It’s snowing like sand and the whole essential life is passing before my eyes. Near the end they break the peace and catch us out of the context onto a new turn. By the way I can call it the favourite track of the album.
~ Empty Branes are not empty brains as you may misread at the first glance, they are in fact empty branes from the string theory. But you can perceive them only after clearing up the mind. They call us in a thorough and familiar way and we follow them wherever they are even if it were an excursion to the galaxy heart. Those who are in the loop can visit the galaxy heart and cards will be laid for them. The rhythm is excellent, the blood in my veins resonates. Simon creates round by round, and Raja interprets the simple arrangement of the multi-dimension world. And it sounds as if the choir supported these words on the background. We return to earth little by little, one should leave the galaxy heart without fuss.
~ Are we there yet? We’re driven into the fourth track by the civilization’s technical progress. Here everybody will bob their heads. Cast everything away and break into a dance among the pines, hop and jump. And Raja Ram will tell us in the end: Happiness as a state of being, inside and out. Year, we should lighten up and keep our inner dance as if at a great disco.
~ Herr Gringleflapper’s Secret Stash Box. Well, who is this Herr picking up the baton? He is apparently one of the fellows, he arranges a melodious psychedelic walk in a stylish, jazz-like style. Good heavens, how close to the heart everything sounds here. They lead us away with an inviting rhythm as if into the overgrown mountains where each of us met his or her own world of images. At the end of this story they talk of flowers in a low voice. It’s typical of Shpongle to lead away far but then return very carefully.
~ Strange Planet. It’s new for us, nobody ever visited. The sound of cosmic void and fullness at the same time leads curious psychonauts around this planet. And the energetic development of the theme creates an inner call: Simon! Come to Moscow, play for us so that we dance forgetting ourselves. Here there are associations with Stanisław Lem’s or Kir Bulychev’s books, and through the thorns to the stars we move in tune having no fear.
~ For I woke up as a Shlummutz I climbed onto the dam to the large water and it was right. The magic volume unfolded in the ears, in my soul and before my eyes. I’ll sit here a bit enjoying the smile. This fairy-tale is simple and kind, and at the same time mischievous and wise. The dark waves rock me and I enjoy feeling the planet’s gravitation and a possibility of levitation in music fantasy.
~ Celestial Intoxication is lyric poetry with old kind dub and an age-old Latin tune. The guitar makes even my heart smile, and the flute makes my soul fly like a bird. But it’s impossible to figure you out, cunning fellows, you never stop adding unexpected turns.
~ Hammock Therapy. Who fails to know this feeling when you get tired, fall into a hammock, and lose the gravitation. Trees toss their leaves in the breeze, the ray of the evening Sun delicately penetrates through the branches. Don’t forget to take a breath loosing yourself in the space of calmness.
~ A Series of Heads (Bonus). In conclusion we’ll cheer up diving once again into the transcendent world full of powerful, inspiring, beloved energy.
Thank you for your best quality, mastery, and musical mega-trips!
Russian version