Simon Posford's sophomore outing Tales of the Inexpressible follows on from 1999s Are You Shpongled with more post-trance psychedelica. Post is the operative word as, although this latest album enjoys all of the trappings of the genre, unlike many of its contemporaries it manages not to get caught up in a DMT fuelled dead end of either ethnically correct instrumentals or the mind(less)-expanding fractal acid of Goa trance. Posford, again accompanied by ex-Quintessence and talented flautist Raja Ram, is unafraid of live instrumentation but succeeds in fusing these elements seamlessly into synthetic ambience--hence acoustic guitar on the opening "Dorset Perception" and Harry Escot's dub bass on the subsequent "Star Shpongled Banner". Couple this with a confident production style and forays into everything from drum & bass to dub and you have another accomplished album from the Hallucinogenic Soundlabs. --Kingsley Marshall