Hey Guys,
I wasn’t able to make it out to the Shpongle show, because I was too broke to drive, so I had my friend Dan write up a little review of the show. Dan is an old friend of mine and actually the person who showed me Shpongle in the first place. He produces dance music under the name Debaser (Soundcloud) and is also a guitarist in the Frederick based jam band The Human Condition. What follows is a very detailed report on the show that is a true joy to read.
Many Thanks To Dan!!
-PartyChu!
THE SHPONGLETRON EXPERIENCE: A Modern Psychedelic Lightshow at it’s Finest
ANTICIPATION builds as the local freaks assemble into the newly blue-painted 9:30 club. An amalgamation of sounds such as Shpongle draws out a diverse crowd; EDM kids, psy-nuts, deadheads, the newly-turned-on college bros, and many others who sparked interested in the group due to its widely-disseminated hype across the interwebz. General pre-journey excitement and mischief is in the air as the opener mans his battle station.
Weapon of Choice—Ableton Live. Random Rab is a newcomer in the downtempo psychedelic style that began emerging out of late 90’s trip hop and in-bred with oddities like psytrance and “jamtronica”. Rab’s tunes can best be described as more stripped-down, organic versions of say, what Alex B (Pnuma Trio) used to play, pre-Pretty Lights signing. The signifying difference being the organic, psychedelic tinge to the tracks not unlike what can be found towards the end of some Chemical Brothers albums. This positive vibe cleanses the space as the revelers begin to loosen up, head-bobs giving way to full on knee dips. It should be noted that Rab had his own screen for visuals set up behind him, in front of the soon-to-be animate Shpongletron. The visuals ranged from the natural and sublime, to tediously programmed CGI (very tasteful CGI at that) sepia toned fractals growing and evolving into sometimes, a larger figure such as a tree or a face (that one specifically blew me away). Rab’s set builds to an intense trippy, but soulful climax with all the ambience of an early Aphex Twin release. Eventually most of the floor is digging Rab, the majority of the crowd dancing as if he were the main act. Cheers erupt through the club as he finishes his set, Rab seemed to enjoy it very much, especially since he had the attention of such a generally open minded party crowd. Much of the “Shponglers” find their way outside for a last cigarette and breath of fresh may air before the trip really begins.
SIMON POSFORD rises up to his booth in the Shpongletron as the crowd explodes with cheering and the house lights are dimmed; ready for liftoff. Deep timestretched vocal samples and swirling synth resonances blast through the PA (generously turned up for the headliner). This all meant one thing to me—DMT (Divine Moments Of Truth). An almost cacophonous mix of detuned, modulating synth pads and arpeggios are introduced to the mix creating a sort of psychedelic thunder warning of the storm approaching. I should note at this point the Shpongletron itself. Rewind almost a year to 2010’s Burning Man Festival. A GIGANTIC state of the art projection rig was unveiled the size of two school buses stacked on each other; the DJ booth is a relief in the middle, with projection screen behind the selectors themselves. This rig was also present at March’s Ultra Music Festival, blowing minds for audiences during such prolific acts as Sasha and Digweed (I believe they actually toured with this rig for a bit). The sophistication of the visuals parallels this technologic generation’s 3D revolution. Since the rig is wrapped on three-dimensional scaffold, ones perspective of the visuals changes depending on your position due to the rig’s depth. This gives the viewer an effect akin to wearing 3D glasses. But I digress, the SHPONGLETRON is based on this technology. Three large wings ascending in size, flank the rig. The bottom consists of two boxes to each side, with a strange cubic, mirrored chamber in the middle lined with LED lights slowly morphing in color. The coolest part about this component is that unless you’re standing dead center, your perspective gives the lines of LEDs a slight Fibbonacci spiral. Adorning the whole structure smack in the middle is the classic Shpongle six-eyed medusa head, hand carved from what appeared to be plaster of paris. Back to the performance, the psychedelic thunder diffuses into the air and the percussion accompanied shamanic chant of Divine Moments of Truth emerges through the fog and the crowd explodes in excitement in recognition of one of the groups most notable tracks.
TWISTING and turning through unexplored improvised sections of the track, Simon remixes on the fly: looping and drenching channels in effects, all while individually mixing each part of the song in on his gigantic 32-channel stage mixer. A master of this technique, Posford has been performing this way since the early nineties as seminal psy-trance act Hallucinogen. Such a pro at his craft, he allegedly has performed this way under the influence of LSD many times. The experiences shows—the crowds heads already becoming wrapped in a journey of the mind not stopping any time soon. Not quite yet in full ecstatic dance, most eyes are absolutely fixed on the Shpongletron. The visuals are similar to the ones mentioned for Rab’s set, but this time they are EXPLODING with color and velocity. The screens blur as the bass hits, Wrapping the screens sometimes is a trim that is filled with a smooth spectrum of all color moving as a band around the tron. Fractals, mandalas, and molecules (from my brief experience as a biochem major, appeared to be the drug N,N-DMT) shifting, spinning, and undulating through the screens, projected by what appeared to be a multi-thousand dollar projector the size of a small piano in the back. Most notable to me was the Shpongle face: due to the projections and play of light and shadow, the bank white plaster face was transformed into a gesturing, flipping character who stuck out his tongue, rolled eyes and slowly developed a bigger smile as the set progressed. It was obvious that Simon wanted to grab your mind by the ego and shred it to pieces in ecstatic bliss. From DMT on, Posford plays much of “Nothing Lasts…but Nothing is Lost” (In my opinion, his best work).
THE DANCEFLOOR IS ALIVE with dancers and ragers alike. Everyone working it out to the complex sounds from the speakers, yet still reminiscent of some strain of tribal trance music from time lost. The vibe begins to take on a sort of psychedelic mardi gras: with freaks adorned with colorful masks, beads, and feathers in hats (including Posford himself). The energy reaches its first climax at an intense, mind-melting breakdown, and the light artist turns it on. The most intense laser I personally have ever seen splits into ten or so separate beams as thick as a handrail glowing deep colors in full spectrum. The audience loves it; they become even more excited and now the whole thing is full swing and everyone is getting shpongled. A few more trippy numbers are mixed in and the tribal drums of Levitation Nation appear in the mix and the crowd goes wild. This track, my personal favorite, is dancey enough that I have surprisingly been known to mix it into my sets during a trippy, tribal tangent. As the party vocals come in (in Spanish? In Shponglish?) the entire room chants along to it and the dancing reaches maximum velocity as the set climaxes. Post-Levitation, the vibe of the music changes to a harder beat, somewhere between tribal house and trance. Obvious to me, much of this matierial is newer/unreleased (I’m way more familiar with the more “psybient” trippy stuff). The crowd continues to rage through most of these tracks, although I lose interest slightly. Simon mixes part of his songs live, doing a remix on the fly, as he did with DMT. Much of these tracks were DJed in from what I could tell, as you DO need a bounce track when you run out of channels to use in your continuous mix. The last couple of tracks were definitely pieced together off the cuff, and weren’t recognizable to me…possible new Shpongle?
Posford closes the set, and he announces to the crowd as the music dies down that he’s had a great time and thanks everyone. He even cracks a joke about how Osama Bin Laden may or may not have been killed, a bold move considering how apolitical most people in the crowd seemed, but assuring that “there are no tyrants in Shpongleland!”. Regardless, he seemed like he had a blast, and “since no one else is playing” he played one more, another one that sounded new to me.
IN A WORLD OF INSTANT GRATIFICATION one can forget that its really about the journey, not the destination. As seen with the “Shpongletron” most became fixed on the stage itself but in the end the focus (or lack there of) all became on dancing and just vibin’ out. A stage show, or lightshow, can be a crutch or a tool, depending on how its used. In Shpongle’s case, it became a catalyst for the short-lived psychedelic communion through music and dancing, or at least as much as it can be in a rock concert format.
I didn’t know I would be writing this, or else I would have written a set list down, but some of the best tracks were (in no particular order, may be some errors, shpongle songs certainly blend together!):
Divine Moments of Truth
Botanical Dimensions
Outer Shpongolia
Periscopes of Consciousness
Schmaltz Herring
Nothing Lasts…
Shnitzled in the Negev
…But Nothing is Lost
Stamen of the Shamen
Mentalism
Connoisseur of Hallucinations
The Nebbish Route
Falling Awake
Levitation Nation
The Dorset Perception
Walking Backwards through the Cosmic Mirror
MANY OTHERS!
All in all I would give the show a 7/10. 20$ ticket (+) 10$ service charge (–). Excellent stage production, cutting edge visuals/lasers etc. Tim Walther of Walther Productions (the folks who put on All Good Festival and bring many jam bands to the area) were responsible for this show and usually at his shows the bass frequencies are extremely prominent in the PA. As soon as Shpongle took the stage it was very obvious the system had been tuned specifically for this gig. Security was very thorough, but honestly 9:30 stopped being a “party” venue a long time ago. Simon seemed to have a GREAT time and so did Random Rab. Now if someone would bring out Shpongle live with Raja Ram, the singers, strings, drums and the whole nine yards, I woudn’t care what the service charge would be!
–Dan Gellerman
-Debaser-
