NederlandsDJ Hallucinogen
Biography Hallucinogen
Hallucinogen aka Simon Posford is a pioneer of electronic music and one of the founders of the psy-trance scene . With the release of his first album, "Twisted", which reached Number 27 in the French album charts, a genre was born. There are many words to describe modern electronic music but none that come close to the wealth of emotion and experience that comes from listening to a Posford tune. Perhaps the closest one can come to a verbal description is to listen to the rapturous ramblings of his Shpongle partner, Raja Ram.
Simon started as a lowly tape-op, at Olympic Studios in London, which was then part of Virgin. Learning the ropes with bands like The K.L.F, The Orb, James, and Kisty MacColl, he picked up production techniques from such luminaries as Mark `Spike` Stent, before eventually meeting up with Youth, who offered him a job as an engineer at Butterfly Studios, and later a record deal with Big Life, for simon`s band Purple Om. But it was the free party scene in the english countryside, and the acid-drenched warehouse parties of the early `90s that inspired Simon to start making electronic music on his own.
These days he is just as likely to be entrancing crowds around the globe with a throbbingly epic live set as he is to be dribbling ambient delectations in the Hallucinogen Soundlabs in the West Country. He is co-director of Twisted Records with Simon Holton, ex-label manager of Dragonfly Records. Their label is one of the hottest underground gatherings of talent this side of Mars. Halllucinogens second album "The Lone Deranger" blew the lid off the musical scene that had built up around his influence. Not only did it have more of the killer musical riffs but also was a feat of clean production and professionalism previously seen with the likes of Pink Floyd, one of Simons major influences. Another tune that influenced Simon was "The Age of Love" by Jam & Spoon and this can be heard in some of his earlier releases. He has subsequently collaborated with many acts from the trance scene, such as Infected Mushroom (who quoted him as a great influence on their work), GMS, X-Dream, Space Tribe, Doof, T.I.P., Total Eclipse, Psychaos, Eat Static, Youth, and OTT. More recently he has produced tracks with Benji Vaughan as their band Younger Brother who are currently working on their 2nd album, after building up a dedicated following to their 1st album "A Flock Of Bleeps". Simon has also started a new project called "Metal Sharon" with Merv Pepler from Eat Static, and we hope to feast on the fruits of their labours soon. There is talk of a Hallucinogen 3? but Simons most recent album is "Nothing Lasts
.but Nothing is Lost", his third album by Shpongle. Simon is the musical genius behind Shpongle and for this latest orgy of brain fluid he gathered 3 other talented musicians, as well, of course, as Raja Ram. If you are lucky, you might be able to catch the recluse at one of his legendary live performances around the globe
Japan, Australia, Israel, Turkey, Greece, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Brazil have all seen the dancefloors frothing and exploding to simon`s Huge sound