Tales of the Inexpressible

Tales of the Inexpressible
Studio album by Shpongle
Released	1 July 2001
Genre	World music Psybient
Length	69:00
Label	Twisted Records Kinetic/BMG Records
Producer	Shpongle
Shpongle chronology
Are You Shpongled? (1999)Are You Shpongled?1999 Tales of the Inexpressible (2001) Nothing Lasts...But Nothing Is Lost (2005)Nothing Lasts...But Nothing Is Lost2005

Tales of the Inexpressible is Shpongle's second album, released in 2001. Simon Posford and Raja Ram hone and expand the style introduced on their debut album, Are You Shpongled?. Raja Ram plays Spanish and East Asian instruments along with the flute, and Simon Posford plays classical guitar as well as synthesizing and sampling.

The song "Room 23" appears on the back cover of the album with the name "Room 2ॐ", the character "ॐ" being the Om, the sacred eternal sound in Hinduism.

Track listing

1. "Dorset Perception" – 8:12
2. "Star Shpongled Banner" – 8:23
3. "A New Way to Say Hooray!" – 8:32
4. "Room 2ॐ" – 5:05
5. "My Head Feels Like a Frisbee" – 8:52
6. "Shpongleyes" – 8:56
7. "Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness" – 7:30
8. "Around the World in a Tea Daze" – 11:21
9. "Flute Fruit" – 2:09

Credits

• Raja Ram: flute, vocals
• Simon Posford: programming, guitar, synths, semi-acoustic bass
• Michele Adamson: vocals, backing vocals
• Abigail Gorton: vocals
• Harry Escot: cello, acoustic bass
• Pete Callard: acoustic guitar
• Dick Trevor: keyboards and programming

Samples and allusions

• The name of the song Dorset Perception alludes to Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception. Dorset is the location of Posford's studio, the Hallucinogen Sound Labs.
• The Shpongle song A New Way to Say Hooray! contains a sample of a lecture by Terence McKenna, in which he references the Pink Floyd song The Gnome (from the 1967 The Piper at the Gates of Dawn album). The gnomes are actually creatures which Terence describes meeting over and over on many of his DMT related trance experiences.
• A New Way to Say Hooray! contains vocal and choir samples from the sample CD "Heart of Africa Volume 2" by Spectrasonics.
• The sample: "This is, er, no offense but you are a robot, aren't you?" used in Shpongleyes is taken from the classic science fiction movie Forbidden Planet.
• The dinosaur sounds sample sounds heard in Shpongleyes are taken from the film Jurassic Park: The Lost World.
• The male vocals on Around the World in a Tea Daze after 6:45 are a sample from a famous Turkish song titled Dönülmez Akşamın Ufkundayız. The lyrics are originally from a poem by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı. The sample is taken from the sample CD "Voices Of Istanbul" by Q Up Arts.
• My Head Feels like a Frisbee contains merengue horns samples from the sample CD "Festa Latina" by Best Service.
• Towards the end of the track My Head Feels like a Frisbee a sample of Ella Fitzgerald singing How High the Moon can be heard. The sample is sped up.
• The end of "Star Shpongled Banner" uses a vocal part of the song "Dança do Vampiro" (Vampire's Dance), by the Brazilian axé music group Asa de Águia.

References