MAGICK BROTHER

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An absolutely strange UFO with very weird music well worthy of GonG but it is right now just Gong. Because if the zanyness is already present and makes for this album much of an interest , but it is not part of the Radio Gnome trilogy or linked to it. Only Malherbe , Allen and Smyth are on this album that will be present on the classic GonG.

But the main interest of the album is that I cannot think of one album that is more representative of hippydom, in fact it could epitomize it. As Daevid got thrown out of England (so called visa problems but as an Aussie and in the Commonwealth.....) , he went back to France and joined a hippy commune in Normandy and one can guess that he got those guys into this project . This album although structured reeks anarchy , but not in the same way that of Amon Djuul's first group. If this had been recorded in Germany , this would've had a chance to be classified as Polit-Rock alongside such as other left-wing activists as Kluster etc... Not that Daevid would be called left-wing but just an activist alone would fit him fine. Anyway , this album is very rough and raw to the bone (especially compared to Angel's Egg and You) but is much worth a spin but beware of your sanity. Doctor's prescription would say no more than one toke/poke a week to avoid addiction.

More proof that Psychedelic Rock was a key component/forerunner of Progressive Rock. The search for new sounds, the desire for greater artistic freedom, and the willingness to throw in the stylistic kitchen sink are things that both genres have in common. As another reviewer mentioned, this album is Gong's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn"; quite different from their later work, but magical nonetheless. I'm sure there are those who like this album a lot, and hate everything that came afterwards, just like those Syd Barrett-philes. Some of it doesn't work, but that's why CD players have a 'program' feature. Also, the sound is a little iffy, but it goes with the territory.

My God what kind of drugs makes you write this kind of music ? This is really psychadelic S... and I must admit it´s a bit too strange for me ( and this is a Zappa fan speaking).

The sound quality is a bit muddy and raw which is not a problem and as this is from 1969 I don´t expect fine audio quality. The music is very laid back even though it kind of rocks and Daevid Allen´s voice is very stoned which kind of emphazises the laid back nature of the songs. The songs are basically simple sixties rock songs with very few exceptions. This is definitely prog rock but not of the symphonic sort, it´s way too strange for that. The only band I can compare them to are The Mothers of Invention, even though they don´t really sound like them, but they have some of the same strange choice of notes.

All in all this is a bit too strange and not my taste at all, but I can´t deny the quality of the songs and the musicians playing are also pretty good. It doesn´t reach excellent in my book though so 3 stars it will be.

The debut of a bizarre planet. Well, it didn't met my expectations -- it's nothing short of good, but certainly not as stellar as GONG trilogy will be. This is a shape of GONG to come, so to say. This hyper-dipper-ultra psychedelic music - Syd Barrett's influences are obvious. There are also a lot of tape manipulations, which is fine, but there lays the problem: there' are only a few conventional songs, the rest of the album are noodling. Which doesn't have to be bad, but in this case songs=ideas. There are melodies, passages, timbres, even lyrics that will be fully developed later. However, apart from three excellent tunes (one acid electric, one acoustic and one reggae) the rest is suffering from 'the debut syndrome': young people unable to construct the whole picture. But the pieces are fine too.

Production is even below 1969 standards, but I think these guys just didn't care for that. It's evident they were experimenting with different timbres, including heavy distortion, not only on guitar, but on the whole tape mixdown - that's why it's hissy at the moments. Moreover, amounts of phaser/flanger and similar swooshing effects is hilarious. But I like it.

This record will help you understand better the origins of GONG family - from the very Canterbury beginnings (it's the only GONG record that shows the hints of Canterbury sound IMHO) to the reggae approach in 1990's.

1969 was a good year for ex-Soft Machine members kicking off new careers after leaving that band; along with Kevin Ayers recording his solo debut Joy of a Toy, Daevid Allen hooked up with Gilli Smyth and between them put this out this early proto-Gong album. I say proto-Gong because the Gong sound has not quite developed here yet. Several songs are psych-folk with lyrics alluding to the political hopes and dreams of the Summer of Love, but this typical hippy fair sits cheek by jowl with free jazz-like improv with Smyth's ethereal wailing getting an early workout. The different ingredients which make up Gong are all here but they've not yet mixed in together to make the rich broth which would appear on the later albums. Not a bad start, not a fantastic one either.

I'm Happy, I'm not happy, I'm sad....I'm not sad.... I think a lot of people remembers "The Witch" spelling these words in "Angel's Egg". Before coming to this album I didn't know that they were already been used on "Pretty Miss Titty".

So while I was expecting what somebody has called "Proto-Gong", I've been pleasantly surprised to hear this, maybe sour, full Gong album.

Yes, it has pure psychedelic moments perfectly in line with the London's summer of love, ,with sounds that can even remind to the early Barrett with a hint of Beatles, but first of all the great inventive and the jazzy weirdness of Daevid Allen.

We pass from the acid guitar and violin of "Glad To Say To Say" with the vocal line reminding to Who, Beatles and Pink Floyd at the same time, to the fantastic closer "Cos You Got Green Hair" and its flute that contains already all the kind of goods that can be found across the Radio Gnome Trilogy.

So there are two keys to access this album: a prelude to Radio Gnome and a link between the 60s late psychedelia and the Canterbury genre. The genius of Daevid Allen has already started actually to transform the hippy-trippy psychedelic standards into something new and different.

An album very innovative, with noisy unstructured avantgarde tracks like "Little Sister" followed by a country/psych song like "Change The World". Even a Floyd fan like me would regret thinking that this Gong would have probably been more appropriate to comment Zabriskie Point, apart of C'mon Number 59, of course.

This album is full of ideas, some of them abandoned later, or not developed, but this is normal in a debut. I find it excellent and deserving 4 stars