OndaTop: The 10 Best Songs by Simon Posford and Devin Townsend

This time around, a truly special edition of OndaTop. Months ago we already applauded the highly personal sonic aesthetic of Progenie Terrestre Pura, armed with one of the most convincing and interesting metal debuts of recent years. We reached the Veneto-based duo by email, to find out which musicians have most influenced their musical thinking. So while Nex[1] offers a selection of the best tracks by Simon Posford, the guru of trance music (author of genuine landmarks in the field thanks to his projects Hallucinogen and Shpongle), Eon[0] instead presents his personal top 10 tracks by Devin Townsend, one of the most prolific and respected progressive metal songwriters of the last two decades (he has led, and still leads, various projects). An undoubtedly unusual pairing of artists, but one that, in the grooves of "Uomini Macchine Anime", has ended up taking on a prodigious meaning, in its own way truly unique. Don't make the mistake of underestimating them.

Nex[1]

10. Shpongle – …And The Day Turned to Night

The Shpongle suite: 20 minutes more of landscapes than of music, essentially the ethnic ambient typical of the first album "Are You Shpongled?". I've always imagined this track as a farewell to the setting sun, which doesn't necessarily mean everything stops afterwards: in fact, the second part almost seems to describe nightlife, the lights, the relentless movement despite the starry sky. Elsewhere the day begins and life goes on, the world doesn't stop for a single sunset, it captures the moment and then moves on.

9. Shpongle – Turn Up the Silence

It's hard to pick a track from "Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost" since it's practically one single track of over an hour. "Turn Up the Silence" has always appealed to me for its more synthetic, modern sound, with IDM influences and slapped bass, but at the same time also for that broad, cinematic, soundtrack-like quality, especially in the final section. Obviously the psychedelic streak is still there, but overall it's quite different from the usual Shpongle style.

8. Shpongle – The God Particle

A trip to Berlin? Why not. For this EP, inspired by the CERN particle accelerator (so a trip to Geneva too!), the Shpongle sound shifts a little and veers toward kraut territory: the personal stamp is still there, but overall there's a strong influence of the '70s Berlin school running through the whole track. It starts out slow and gradually accelerates until it explodes, followed by a renewed cosmic calm; in truth it's a track built more around mood than structure itself, though it has to be said that technically the structure is flawless. A somewhat different episode that is certainly no lesser in quality than the rest.

7. Hallucinogen – Gamma Goblins Part 2

What would Gong sound like if they made electronic dance music? I've always imagined them sounding like this track: super psychedelic, fun, unpredictable. I think Posford was heavily influenced by psychedelic rock (he even sampled Pink Floyd at the start of the track "Synthesizzler") and I read that he's a huge admirer of Ozric Tentacles. Well, he nailed it, this track is an absolute blast!

6. Shpongle – My Head Feels Like a Frisbee

This track is proof that with certain music, drugs aren't needed; the music itself is enough.

From the very first vocal sample and the wonky accordion, you can tell the title is a perfect fit. The central section is something absurd, a turn that feels like switching continents in an instant, thousands of kilometres in a second; towards the end there's even room for a quasi-symphonic incursion before the return of the world/salsa feel. What's truly astonishing is how all of this sounds cohesive and convincing. "High is the Moon"!

5. Hallucinogen – Deranger

Possibly the most powerful and “psychoactive” track ever written under the Hallucinogen name! The most twisted piece, a continuous crescendo where all the acid interweavings and melodies eventually explode in the final section. In truth it's also more accessible than some of his other tracks, and I remember that early on it was one of the ones I listened to most, even though I usually listen to albums from start to finish, especially given the internal continuity of each release, which are put together almost like a live-mix. A good starting point for anyone wanting to explore his sound.

4. Shpongle – Behind Closed Eyelids

Classic Shpongle sound: exotic ambient/downtempo, psychedelic effects, themed vocal samples, with Raja Ram's flute seasoning it all. This track is the essence of the Shpongle journey, of the structure behind every track by the duo: there's always a narrative thread running through each piece, a logical arrangement of elements, and yet the whole thing sounds very free - the layering of sounds and the arrangements almost dissolve once the listener steps into their world. Atmospheric sections, others more frenetic, psychedelic inserts that speak directly to the brain, bypassing the ears. Handle with care!

3. Hallucinogen – Snarling Black Mabel

After years of listening, I've often found myself thinking that this is his most balanced goa trance track: it doesn't lean too far toward the atmospheric side or the acid/psychedelic one, but sits suspended right in the middle, everything perfectly in its place. At the start it's pure journey, pure atmosphere, pure mood, then from the midpoint onward - just when you least expect it - madness hits and it truly takes off. It's like suddenly waking up, and it's impossible to stay still. Epic.

2. Shpongle – Dorset Perception

My first contact with the Shpongle universe, and it captivated me from the very first listen.

Not one of their most complex or psychedelic tracks (although certain effects still come through), but perhaps precisely because it's so close to world music and a more accessible kind of chill out, it stands out within the duo's discography. I've always admired how they managed to craft a track that's ultimately simple and linear, yet at the same time structured and polished down to the smallest detail: percussion, effects, arrangement, etc. - everything is perfectly calibrated.

1. Hallucinogen – Solstice

My first contact with the Hallucinogen universe, and here too it won me over from the first listen; maybe I'm mistaken and my actual first contact was with the classic “LSD”, but it was with “Solstice” that I truly began to get into the Hallucinogen project.

What struck me straight away is the search for an atmospheric side, not just four-on-the-floor and nothing else: in fact, the kick drum is usually not so much in the foreground, while effects and synth leads take center stage. Despite all this, it remains dance music nonetheless. There's a sort of balance in his style, but it's not clear whether it's deliberate or entirely natural: perhaps that's exactly the key to it all.

Eon[0]

10. Devin Townsend – Deep Peace

I love this track for its central break, “progressive”, deeply atmospheric and emphasized by soloing guitar melodies; it reminds me a lot of certain passages of classical music. “Terria” is a unique album studded with songs of absolute worth, some even better – generally speaking – than this one, but the peculiarity of “Deep Peace”, a magnificent piece regardless, has always bewitched me and stayed damn stuck in my head, that shift/moment you can't wait to arrive and that colors the rest of the listen too.

9. Devin Townsend – Namaste

This song is like hearing Devin Townsend (the band) play in Strapping Young Lad style; it's a precise mix of the two. Perhaps, after the flamboyant “Infinity“, Devin needed to shake things up a bit even under his own name, while still holding on to some of his bizarre quirks. “Namaste” is a fast, powerful, energetic and loaded track that's certainly not dark; it's a clever blast that sweeps you toward its end in an instant; you always find yourself at the next song too soon. Let's bow to him.

8. Devin Townsend Project – Deconstruction

A track that opens with a fart can only be acclaimed.

Townsend's good humor and eclecticism are well known, his shows are peppered with his own personal skits, and I think this long, oddball track describes that side of Devin very well. Dizzying ups and downs, unruly grooves, pathos and those same skits brought into music, all within a thoroughly crazed and theatrical context. The sum total – and title track – of yet another Devin Townsend masterpiece, a truly over-the-top record packed with facets: certainly his most complex work.

7. The Devin Townsend Band – Suicide

I remember well the evenings spent driving around listening to this track and this album; at more than one traffic light I think I was seen yelling like a madman, singing this song with no restraint whatsoever. An album as simple as it is profound, “Accelerated Evolution“ is perhaps the work that reminds me most of “Ocean Machine“ (so, Devin's early days), though in a simplified form; maybe that was even the intent. I find this album, and so this track (they're all very similar), a very “liberating” work, almost as if he needed something simpler after a demanding “Terria” and the exhausting S.Y.L., a batch of songs that are relatively simple – for him – where he could let off some steam a bit (and here, perhaps, also the urge to “shift” – maybe only metaphorically – into an actual band, even if obviously led by him).

6. Devin Townsend – Solar Winds

What I particularly love in this track is the calm, reflective opening and the finale, which builds to a glorious, "pompous" crescendo. The middle section feels more like a bridge between the two - this isn't a particularly structured or complex composition, but it's certainly a very narrative and communicative one.

I think "Ziltoid the Omniscient" was a fairly atypical record for a person as atypical as Devin, since it came after the breakup of The Devin Townsend Band and S.Y.L., at what was probably a particular moment for him personally, when he stepped back (or rather, tried to step back) from the music business, holing up in his home studio to produce other bands and focus more on his private life after years of relentless musical activity. So he created Ziltoid, his puppet (alter ego?), wrote a story/script, and single-handedly brought to life this great album - maybe not his best, but certainly a hugely important chapter in "Devin-thought", if we can call it that; a well-made album, peculiar (as always), fun but not "stupid", as the whole concept might easily suggest.

5. Devin Townsend Project – The Mighty Masturbator

... and just when you think everything's already been said, along comes a track like "The Mighty Masturbator". I find it hard to describe - it's a struggle, and it's probably easier to say what it isn't. A kaleidoscopic track, Townsend deciding that a suite simply has to be part of his repertoire, and so this bizarre, terrifying behemoth comes to life - contorted, multifaceted, bizarre and unpredictable - and what's frightening is the sheer ease with which it charges forward at a gallop, without hesitation or breathlessness, despite its sheer bulk. It's frightening, frightening because it raises the suspicion that Townsend has gone back to drugs: but maybe he never really left them behind. Simply incredible.

4. Strapping Young Lad – All Hail the New Flesh

Angry Devin: the opening scream sums up the concept perfectly. His ability to fuse this barely-controlled fury with his typically rich, full-bodied, melodic sound, in structures he would later cultivate under the names Devin Townsend and Devin Townsend Band but had already essentially worked out, if you look closely, on "Ocean Machine" (which would come out just a few months after "City"), is simply genius; throw Hoglan into the mix and we're set, the war machine is complete. The chorus, then, is something downright illegal. Still one of his finest moments to this day.

3. Devin Townsend (Ocean Machine) – Bastard

Even though he kept the fast tempos for his S.Y.L. work, Devin packed no small amount of viciousness into his masterpiece (in 1997) released as Ocean Machine, "Biomech" (which came out in Japan initially under the name "Ocean Machine", but this is essentially his first solo work as Devin Townsend, and indeed it was later reissued under his own name). "Bastard" is a track with a leaden stride, built on a genuinely simple yet incisive main riff (a hallmark of his, not just on this record), with Devin underlining his stature as a singer. This is where the Townsend we'd all come to know was born, at least the one beyond S.Y.L. (though in truth, even as he "split" himself between that band and the rest of his solo work, it was all obviously moving in step together); this is where his effects-laden sound is fully established, perfectly showcasing the distinctiveness of his riffs, his unique atmospheres, his visionary streak - from here come the various "Infinity", the masterpiece "Terria", the Devin Townsend Band records, and so on. It's not so much the track itself that's a work of genius as the album as a whole, the way it's conceived - something utterly new, as "City" had been just before it. He split himself in two to create two entities - both of them - unique.

2. Devin Townsend – Earth Day

Probably his most famous track, and it's no coincidence that I've always considered it his possible "anthem". "Earth Day" is very likely a grand summation of the Devin Townsend style, even though it isn't easy to pin that down in a single song - though the sheer magnificence of this track might just manage it. Across these 10 minutes, the Townsend style shows itself at its best, one of his flowing tracks that never quite abandons song-form structure but doesn't pay it much mind either; a midtempo built on Townsend's thick riffs, embellished by his trademark melodies, underpinned by sweeping keyboard landscapes, and not averse to the occasional outburst, all of it sung, naturally, by a Townsend at the very peak of himself. "RECYCLE!!!"

1. Devin Townsend – Nobody's Here

I have no trouble admitting that, from an objective point of view, this is probably not Townsend's best track, but this isn't an objective ranking, and so, in my own personal ranking, this ends up being my favourite. I've listened to plenty of masterpieces from the mad Canadian, I know his discography more or less inside out, but this ballad is, without question, the song that most detaches me from reality and truly communicates something. Essentially it's a slow number, embellished with a few ambient/spacey sounds, but there's nothing "strange" about it beyond that: arpeggios and guitar interplay, a nice prominent bass, drums keeping a steady pulse, and Devin singing. Yes, Devin singing. All perfectly ordinary, like so many others, but class is class, and what could easily become, and is for many, just another ballad turns into an absolute masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. Someone once said - and maybe more than one person - that simplicity is the key to everything, and perhaps they're right too.

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