BREAKTHROUGH

Very short review, cause there's not much to say. I had a chance to hire it and listen to it a couple of times. This is decidedly for completists only. We can glimpse here and there a very faint shade of "good-old" Gong and instrumental skills of musicians are all right. But the sound is just as electronic and annoying as you can expect from 1986, compositions are weak - and the whole thing is really boring. There are some nice bits in the last tracks, but this is far too less to recommend this album for anyone.

Funny, this album had only two ratings till today. One 5-stars, and another 1-star. Let's try to understand, what this album is for real.

First of all, there are not too many Gong elements. Drummer Pierre Moerlen for sure is strongly associated with Gong fame, bassist Hansford Rowe is not absolute stranger, but more connected with Gongzilla. Other musicians are team ,working under glorious name for commercial success.

Music there isn't punk or hip-hop. It's a big plus. But it is such cheese and commercial jazz and world fusion, that every Gong fan could be shocked. Pleasant and sweet melodies, very polished sound, plenty of pop elements, beautiful voices.

Possibly, not a bad music. Just has no connection with real Gong, or any form of progressive rock. At all.

This is a rare Gong release I picked up during my travels in Europe. A fan of Pierre Moerlen's. I was intrigued by the drastically different line-up here. On this album Moerlen and Rowe collaborated with Swedish prog band TRIBUTE, a band that has a handful of somewhat mediocre Symphonic Prog albums under their belt.

Admittedly, I am heavily into largely instrumental Jazz-Rock and care very little for Gong with Daevid Allen. Well, "Breakthrough" has become an instant hit with me. Dynamic pieces presented here with tastefully arranged instrumentation where every note is in the right place whilst none appear to have been left out. Tight delivery by Moerlen (as usual), this album is pure delight to my ears and I rarely put it away until after three consequtive spins. (That is also true for the follow up release "Second Wind", another treasured rarity.)

To my great surprise, even the odd vocal track (sung charmingly and in French) is pleasant and I would probably miss it . Now, if it's not a "breakthrough" for me, then I don't know what is! In my books, this is a solid 5 star job I wouldn't want to be left without.

A word of caution. It took me a long time, but I managed to track down the TRIBUTE releases with great expectations. Pleasant enough work, but largely lacking the tightness of a Moerlen delivery and somewhat on the boring side. Indeed, I sold my copies as they would have just gathered dust without another spin as long as I have other choices to listen to.