If you take a peek at Shpongle’s discography at discogs.com you’ll notice that plenty of tracks from ‘Tales of the Inexpressible’ have been licensed for use on compilation CDs. For some reason the same can’t be said about Nothing Lasts! Even after Nothing Lasts was released in 2005, people are still licensing tracks off Tales, even to this day.

Nothing Lasts is the best of the lot in my opinion, I’m curious as to why more labels aren’t putting of these tracks onto their compilation CDs?

Maybe the gimmick of splitting every song into 3 smaller ‘tracks’ wasn’t such an appealing idea to them?

Very good point Adam, I guess Nothing lasts is too compact and frantic to split down for the purpose of compilations.  If a track was added it may detract from the flow of a mix?

I think with NL the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and has to be listened to in it entirety… :D

agree with you electrobot.. plus I think Tales is probably a lot more accessible for people that are not entirely in love with shpongle.

The way I see it shpongle tracks should be available only in their own album.

There should not be other compiltions with these tracks in order to keep them as holy as they are!!

as for which is the best album… well can’t quite make up my mind.
when ever i think i came to a conclusive decision i find my self listening to the other albums and going : oh man this one is the best album… 

Nothing Lasts blew my mind when I first heard it - it’s basically a mixed album.  But as such, it doesn’t play as well as single tracks, you really need to hear it all together as intended.  I used the first three tracks as a single track and another two consecutive tracks as a single track in one of my mixes.  Split apart doesn’t really work as well.

If you look at Anthony Pappa’s Balance 006 mix (last track, cd2), he used the first couple tracks off Nothing Lasts, but under the name “Beija For”.  Maybe that’s what should be done, package up some of the tracks as distinct separately named tracks to avoid breaking up some of the flow.
http://www.amazon.com/Balance-006-Anthony-Pappa/dp/samples/B000286RYS/ref=dp_tracks_all_1#disc_2

Actually NL was first going to be released with long tracks (I think, because I remember I saw tracknames and stuff) and Beija Flor was to be the first track. They split it up later, but Beija Flor was already done and released as a full track before the album (with the splitted version) was out, I think. Maybe they decided to do a short-track album

I always thought track 2-8 was like one track. “Shnitzeled in the Negev” (track 7) is like the climax of it all, and the whole thing is totally awesome. I never understood why people would love the first album (which I also love) and then not like Nothing is Lost at all.

Soo…
I spent some time yesterday and remixed Nothing Lasts…But Nothing is Lost into 8 long tracks.
I like it better this way…especially when putting the Shpongle playlist on shuffle.

Here’s how I cut it up:
1) 7:11 Botanical Dimensions, Outer Shpongolia
2) 7:55 Levitation Nation, Periscopes of Consciousness, Schmaltz Herring
3) 13:28 Nothing Lasts, Shnitzled in the Negev, But Nothing Is Lost
4) 8:48 When Shall I Be Free?, The Stamen Of The Shamen
5) 7:41 Circuits Of The Imagination, Linguistic Mystic, Mentalism
6) 4:52 Invocation, Exhalation
7) 8:11 Molecular Superstructure, Turn Up The Silence
8) 8:57 Connoisseur Of Hallucinations, The Nebbish Route, Falling Awake

Also mixed it so each “track” has a smooth intro and outtro.

Cloudwalker - 11 November 2009 09:40 AM

I like it better this way…especially when putting the Shpongle playlist on shuffle.

It’s the only way to do it, in my opinion!
Otherwise the CD is constantly skipping around, on shuffle.

Ah, nice to hear Cloudwalker. I’m kinda curious though. Why did you left out Levitation nation from the first two? Wasn’t the first three tracks originally one song called Beija Flor?

because, for me, it sounded better that way. 

Also moved Exhalation after Invocation. 
They just fit so well together…and it sounded weird to mix it in with any of the other “tracks”