Tales of the Inexpressible

Infobox Album | Name = Tales of the Inexpressible
Type = Album
Artist = Shpongle


Released = July 1, 2001
Recorded =
Genre = World music
Psybient
Length = 69:00
Label = Twisted Records flagicon|UK

Kinetic/BMG Records flagicon|USA
Producer = Shpongle
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:msxvad7kl8w3 link]
Last album = "Are You Shpongled?"
(1999)
This album = "Tales of the Inexpressible"
(2001)
Next album = "Nothing Lasts...But Nothing Is Lost"
(2005) |

"Tales of the Inexpressible" is Shpongle's second album, and was released in 2001.
Simon Posford and Raja Ram continue the musical journey started by previous album Are You Shpongled? with the second album "Tales of the Inexpressible", where we are yet again introduced to the musical collaboration between Simon Posford and Raja Ram. Now, Raja Ram is introducing Spanish and Oriental sounds, together with Simon Posford on the classical guitar.

The song whose name is most often stated as "Room 23" appears on the back cover of the album with the name "Room 2ॐ", where the character "ॐ" that partially looks like the digit "3" is actually the Om, the sacred eternal sound in Hinduism.

Track listing

CD:

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

Vinyl LP:

A
# "Dorset Perception" - 8:12
# "Star Shpongled Banner" - 8:23B
# "A New Way to Say Hooray!" - 8:32
# "My Head Feels Like a Frisbee" - 8:52C
# "Shpongleyes" - 8:56
# "Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness" – 7:30D
# "Room 23" - 5:05
# "Around the World in a Tea Daze" - 11:21
# "Flute Fruit" - 2:01

Credits

* Raja Ram: flute, vocals
* Simon Posford: programming, guitar, synths, semi-acoustic bass
* Michele Adamson: vocals ("Dorset Perception"), backing vocals ("Blissful Awareness")
* Abigail Gordon: vocals ("Blissful Awareness", "Tea Daze")
* Harry Escot: cellos, fake acoustic bass
* Pete Callard: acoustic guitars

Miscellanea

* 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.
* The "This is, er, no offense but you are a robot, aren't you?" sample used in "Shpongleyes" is taken from the classic science fiction movie Forbidden Planet
* The male vocal on "Around the World in a Tea Daze" after 6:45 is a sample from a famous Turkish song titled "Dönülmez Akşamın Ufkundayız". The lyrics are originally a poem by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı.
* Towards the end of the track "My Head Feels like a Frisbee" on the album "Tales of the Inexpressible," a sample of Ella Fitzgerald singing "How High the Moon" can be heard. The sample is sped up.