:: Shpongle & Ott ::
:: re:creation ::
:: Mishawaka Amphitheatre ::
:: June 5 and 6 ::
By Lisa Oshlo
Simon Posford is one of the most recognized and respected contributors to the psytrance genre, and lately, as part of his project Shpongle, he’s been playing a slew of full band and DJ set shows around Colorado.
The English-born electronic musician has a whole host of projects, including being the co-founder of Twisted Records, but Shpongle is a collaborative effort with Raja Ram, flute player extraordinaire. “There are no rules [with Shpongle],” said Posford. “We simply make the kind of music we want to hear. It doesn’t have to be dance floor-oriented and it’s not song-based. We absorb all sorts of influences from all over the world, and will use anything from a rubber band to a shenai flute. Real instruments and vocals get heavily processed electronically, into a soundscape of psychedelic strangeness. The only way we know a track is done is if the deadline has passed, because I could spend eternity on it and still not be 100% happy,” Posford said in a recent interview with The Marquee, before heading out for another round of dates.
Posford initially played conventional instruments until around 1991, when an Atari 1060 and a couple of Akai samplers opened up for him “a whole new world of possibilities.” Now he takes the music of these instruments and heavily chops and edits it to fit tightly with the music made on computer. The end result is richly layered, multi-dimensional, and genre-bending.
Posford’s Twisted label is also home to producer Ott, who has worked with everyone from Sinéad O’Connor to Brian Eno.
Originally a producer and freelance engineer, Ott turned to making his own beats after becoming increasingly dissatisfied with producing. “I grew tired of working to impossible deadlines in windowless rooms mixing Pepsi commercials and such, so I decided to take a huge pay cut and concentrate on my own music,” said Ott, when he also talked with The Marquee. “One of the hardest parts of finishing a record is the final mixing and my specialty as a freelance engineer was exactly that. It gave me the confidence to know what I could get away with and how far to push the sound and still have it sound good.”
The first music that Ott played was on the drums and he continues to collect percussion instruments that he uses on all his records to create his very unique sound. “I find it more satisfying to play the rhythms than to pull in loops and samples from commercial sample collections, although I do that too when it feels right,” said Ott. As a result, Ott’s music is heavily percussive, although he refuses to categorize it further. “I don’t really follow genres at all, as a rule, and I’d hate to feel as if I was making generic music. You can categorize it in any way that feels comfortable for you,” he continued. “I call it ‘music.’”
Shpongle and Ott will join forces again for the Euphonic Conceptions re:creation summer kick-off at Mishawaka Amphitheatre on June 5 and 6. While Shpongle and Ott are two of the most anticipated sets of the weekend, re:creation will also feature sets by Gaslamp Killer, Signal Path, ESKMO, Free the Robots, Welder, An•Ten•Nae, Two Fresh, Jantsen, Dr. Israel and Apostle (of Heavyweight Dub Champion), Jantsen, Passage Project, Mikey Fisher, DJ Chordata, and Octopus Nebula.
:: Shpongle & Ott ::
:: re:creation ::
:: Mishawaka Amphitheatre ::
:: June 5 and 6 ::
Recommended if you Like:
• 1200 Micrograms
• Infected Mushroom
• Skazi
3 Comments
nice article short but sweet, check out my production on myspace!
“Recommended if you Like:
• 1200 Micrograms
• Infected Mushroom
• Skazi”
Really?? I don’t know about that…
They’re a completely different style to the acts mentioned above. I suppose they all get branded psytrance now and again, but they’re VERY different, a completely different vibe…
Slackbaba, Abakus, Bluetech, Carbon based life forms, kukan dub lagan hmm.. much more alike then the psytrance aritsts mentioned 🙂