Just saw this getting around on Twitter, not too many full reviews floating about online at the moment and this one had quite a diffrent take.

Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland - Shpongle (2009) - A full review/critique - http://bit.ly/XErIM

Whats the fan base think?

Ehm, I think it’s a well written review actually I don’t agree with him about Nothing Lasts, but the review is about Ineffable Mysteries and he’s quite right about it IMO.

Yes he talks crap about Nothing Lasts, which as we all know is a masterpiece. Personally I am failing to connect with the new album, sure it has some nice tunes on it but nothing I haven’t heard before from Shpongle. Perhaps the fact I have stopped clubbing and playing Shpongle at 7am to chill out has a lot to do with it! I am sure Ineffable Mysteries sounds great with MDMA in your bloodstream.

also good with vitamin A

I agree also about the Nothing lasts bit but everyone has their own perspective on music.  From my own viewpoint the day that another artist can make music that is as original, technically on par, equalls in production with Posfords work then I’ll be the first to say good words about it.  But to date for the last ten years I haven’t heard anything as yet.

In fact the influence which Posford has had on others work goes without saying and sonically if you take Shpongle 1 & 2 then other artists are only just starting to come up to the standard of Shpongle 2 now and that was released in 2001 so that says alot I think.  There is no way another artist could do something like Shpongle 3 and make it sound that good.

Shpongle going mainstream…hmmm I don’t think so really, yes more popular but no to mass appeal which would mean playing on daily radio.

electrobot.808 - 28 November 2009 05:05 AM

Shpongle going mainstream…hmmm I don’t think so really, yes more popular but no to mass appeal which would mean playing on daily radio.

No kidding…Not as long as people are still blasting Boom Boom Pow out of their car windows. 

its an interesting bit, saying shpongle hasn’t come up with anything new in this album. the sounds are mostly new and genuine, the melodies aren’t slizzy or familiar, and obviously no one but shpongle can make anything like that. so… has they?

i think simon’s composing process is so creative and un-pre-programmed, to say the result is something u’ve heard before is like saying you’ve got a grip on chaos. u can always label this music as “shpongle” and mark a V but it’s the experience that delivers…

the review is really well written, i enjoyed his jab at the “butterfly” reviewers… so true. what do i care that in 3:06 there are dingling bell noises that kick in? i haven’t heard it yet!

A bit heavy on the clever jokes and light on insight. Disagree with the remarks about Tales and “noodling” on any album. I need more than a two word review of any song to call it a good overall writeup. “Goofy gentleness” and “autistic and unsure” are a bit too vague and unconvincing. Seems to be more about poking fun at the fans than a good critique of the album.

shotgun - 28 November 2009 03:33 PM

i enjoyed his jab at the “butterfly” reviewers… so true. what do i care that in 3:06 there are dingling bell noises that kick in? i haven’t heard it yet!

true, though, like people say there’s nothing more boring than other people’s trip reviews..especially when they read like a field report… 

The age-old debate of ten guys who hate “Nothing Lasts…” vs. the world.

For me, I didn’t quite get “Nothing Lasts…” when it came out, like maybe a 7 out of 10 (which, for Shpongle, should have been an 11 to the negative square root of pi multiplied by all the letters in the Cyrillic alphabet). But after a while I came around. “Ineffable…” was off the scales for me the very first listen, but I believe there are elements in it that “Nothing Lasts…” kind of prepared me for! So it really is a long story told in many chapters.

SHPONGLE YAY!