Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, the great Carl Jung said that the pendulum of the mind alternates not between right and wrong, but between sense and nonsense. A rather fiendish perspective of our psychological habitations to be sure, but one that seems more and more true whenever the bong-ripping rhythms of duo Shpongle happen to shamble their way into my virtual nightly turntable, which is what happened quite often in the second half of 2013.

Despite how fresh & modern their take on World Music/Trance hybridization has remained since their formation in 1998, the kings of psybient have an elusive primordial quality to the musical tapestry they've assembled on each LP that pulls you back to eras long past, those lost years where man danced naked under the light of the moon and the winds and rains were gods that needed to be communed with even as you struggled to appease their whims.

So fifteen years into their career and many good albums later, how does Museum Of Consciousness fare? Sense and nonsense certainly abound in equal measure, with some songs coalescing into a clear direction early on ('Brain In A Fishtank') whilst others feel fit to have your brainwaves wander a plethora of astral planes before crashing you back down to Earth ('The Aquatic Garden Of Extra-Celestial Delights'). The flutes, the skull-reverberating synthesizers and all the insidious grooves and texturing you expect reappear in full and glorious prominence...and, if anything, they sound better than they ever have before.

Like all iconic bands & projects in their respective spheres of influence these days, Shpongle would have been hard pressed to reinvent the wheel without alienating their audience under even the most ideal of circumstances. But if the music is this engrossing despite its familiarity...do you really need to? Rave on!! \m/