GONG

As the title suggests this DVD captures the gig at The Subterania Club in 2000, but there is also a superb interview with Daevid Allen where he manages to totally lose the French interviewer where he starts talking about the holes in his memory being the most interesting part. Sadly the interview isn't very long, but to make up for it there is over ninety minutes of the concert. The club is small, but the crowd are very appreciative of the band. Even after all these years early members such as Gilli Smyth and Didier Malherbe are still involved, as well as Mike Howlett who has had quite a lot of the intervening time off for good behaviour.

Listening to the crowd reaction and cheers during "Outer Temple Gliss" it is as if time has rolled away. There aren't many musicians who can lay claim to being active over such a long period of time, and Daevid was in his Sixties already when this was recorded, and showing no sign at all of slowing down.

This isn't a high tech recording, but it wasn't a high tech event and the result is a warm entry into a small club where the Gong family are present and it is a privilege to watch them at play, albeit at a distance.

Originally appeared in Feedback #72, Feb 03

This was a very interesting album to receive and review. First of all I am sure I like their sound ond their skillfull playing. What I hear here is both Canterbury, Space rock and Avant-garde. The result of this mixture is interesting. Remember this is my first listening to this record and band. I wouldn't be surprised if my experience of them will grow. It uses to do that in prog. This is the mostly french band Gongs sixth record so sure they have hade time to perfect their style a lot.

There is a lot of great stuff on this record: beautiful flutes, saxophones, guitars and even song on a few tracks. Some tracks are worth four stars of five: "APHP Advice" with excellent song, "Master Builder" with a dominant feeling, "Perfect Mystery" with its fun and eventful melody and "The Isle och Everywhere" with gives a feeling of perfection.

What makes this album not a record totally in my taste is the space-feeling. I think to few things happen in this music. If they had had more vocals or more melodies, this would almost have been perfect but now it's to vague and psychedelic. Something peculiar is the sound of fairytale characters you can hear sometimes. I really thought this was interesting and I won't stop listen to You or Gong.

After hearing the likes of Steve Hillage From the Khan Album, I knew i had to check out this album in pursuit of getting my fix.

At first, the spacey atmosphere was almost too alien, but when you settle in and let this album take you away, you'll find yourself transcending into a trance-like euphoric state. The beginning 3 tracks almost seem...conventional, for the bands time. Easily associated with English based tunes, the first three tracks are somewhat bright and cheery; and as stated before, very English. But then comes track 4, Master Builder. Ahh.... The amount of serotonin released in my brain when this track begins is indescribable. The vocals enchant you with their siren like chants, alluring you into a fantasy land somewhere between time and space; and then the song picks up. driven with absolutely great bass and drum lines, the song begins its voyage into the ethereal realm and slowly develops into one of the best space jams I've ever had the joy of hearing. The album then continues with this great theme of in-distinctive chants and great solo trade offs between the sax and guitar. Truly an experience that must be heard in its entirety.

I personally feel a very "zen" sense of self enlightenment when I listen to this album, which is why I speak so highly of it. This album does a great job of capturing the free spirit vibe that was going around in the 70's. This album is perfect for people who want to escape from the busy everyday world. I personally love walking through my local parks, wandering in the forest like scenery with this album playing as my soundtrack.

With sexy bass lines, amazing vocal accompaniment from the female vocalist (not sure on the name), absolutely fantastic guitar solos, this album is an ESSENTIAL gem for anyone into space rock, Canterbury, or just prog in itself. A great masterpiece. 10/10

2032 is another charming release from the kings of crazy, Gong. This release is yet another instalment of the infamous "Radio Gnome Trilogy". Here we find out that in the year 2032 the Pot Head Pixies will make contact with planet earth and teach human beings "How to survive without killing the planet". The album is jam-packed with the sweetness of Daevid and co, but the sound is slightly grating and over compressed.

I have very much enjoyed this album. It is very fun to listen to. There are quite a few excellent tracks, for example "How To Stay Alive", "Escape Control Delete" and "Guitar Zero". There are also some pretty bad tracks as well, such as "Yoni Poem", though even these are charming.

This release is a fun listen, but certainly non-essential. I recommend to fans of "Angel's Egg", as there are many musical similarities here.

P.S. I do not think I have listened to any song as much as I have listened to "How To Stay Alive". I have had this track on constant repeat. It is very funky and listenable. All my friends sing along when I put this one on.

...and then came Gong. From nowhere. I hade never heard of them before and I had no way of finding out, since this was before internet. Anyway, I found this CD in a record store and the cover caught my eye, the year of release made me decide there and then - I just had to have it.

I had no pre-conceptions and thus I was totally unprepared for it's contents. Wow! I was and am blown away by this amazing, spacey, out-there, fabolous album. It is a weird but together album. It falls perfectly in place. Crazy lyrics and musical landscapes which in a way defies description. For me this is the highlight of Gong's career. A great album, worthy of praise and ownership. Give it a go. You won't be the same afterwards.

A great album and a strong fusion lineup.

This album is a milestone in the history of the Gong family, as it marks the full transition into the lineup known as "Pierre Moerlen's Gong". The album is lush and groove heavy, and it is bursting with exotic fusion flavours. There is a definite step up in the strictness of the playing, but it remains very groovy and the mallet percussion of Pierre Moerlen is very tasty. No, this is definitely not the wacky wonderful world of Daevid Allen. The transition from Daevid Allen's psychedelic/space rock lineup into Pierre Moerlen's lush fusion lineup was not instantaneous, and "Shamal" is wedged between "You" and "Gazeuse", making the transition a bit wonky. But the crazy psychedelica is not completely gone, and there is some definite space rock hiding within the lush fusion licks on this album.

There is little to complain about on this album; it has a strong lineup of talented musicians, it contains a set of well written tracks that all contrast yet fit together well, and of course, there is the great musicianship of Allan Holdsworth, Pierre Moerlen and Didier Malherbe. However, occasionally i find Allan Holdsworth's guitar sound a little monotonous and final track "Mireille" I find to stick out a little. But the wonderful musicianship and the wonderfully crafted songs make up for any of the small imperfections.

This is a great album, and a must have for serious fusion collectors.

Peace!

This album is a personal favourite of mine, as it marks the period of transition from the psychedelic space-rock outfit "Daevid Allen Gong" to the jazz fusion lineup of "Pierre Moerlen's Gong". This is a lineup of most of my favourite Gong and Steve Hillage tracks and it is my personal favourite Gong lineup, with Hillage on the lead guitar.

The album is not without its imperfections, but the raw punchiness really adds some diversity to the Gong discography. As this is sandwiched between the release of my 2 favourite gong albums "You" and "Shamal", it is the perfect blend of the psychedelic flavours of "You" and the hippy jazz fusion vibes of "Shamal".

One of the best live albums in my collection. I highly recommend!

☮

Shamal is in my opinion Gong's strongest lineup.

This record is a masterpiece. It is rare to find such a great fusion of genres that works as well as Shamal. The record blends jazz fusion, space-rock and various other world world music genres. The lineup is run mainly by Mike Howlett, Didier 'Bloom' Malherbe and Pierre Moerlen. Mike Howlett's vocals are a nice addition to the band and were unfortunately lost within the transition into the Jazz/Fusion outfit "Pierre Moerlen's Gong". Steve Hillage's input is also very good, and it is unfortunate that there isn't more of his wonderful guitar work.

The album is bursting with feel-good vibes and there is a somewhat symphonic atmosphere, yet still retains some of the hippy atmosphere of the previous "Radio Gnome Trilogy". The album has some world music influences, most notably Indian, South-East Asian and Middle- Eastern. The album art is wonderful also, with its great Middle-Eastern font and the simple picture of the Middle-Eastern desert.

The key tracks of the record are the opener, the beautiful "Wingful of Eyes" my all time favourite Gong track, the second track "Chandra", and the atmospheric yet funky "Shamal", on which you can almost feel the sand of the middle eastern deserts (Shamal is a wind that blows across the middle east).

This is my favourite Gong album, and one of my favourite albums of all time. It is a masterpiece of Jazz/Fusion and Space/Psych-Rock.

☮

After both founding member Daevid Allen and guitarist Steve Hillage left the fold, the Anglo-French outfit Gong began a whole new phase of activity, leaving behind the singular brand of sixties-born cherubic psychedelia that adorned such albums as 'The Flying Teapot' and 'You' and instead embracing a bold new brand of intricate jazz-fusion with drummer Pierre Moerlen and Soft Machine guitarist Allan Holdsworth now leading the way. As new starts go it would prove a pretty radical one, bringing to mind Soft Machine's 1970 transformation that saw the British group morph from psychedelic jokers into serious-minded Miles Davis-style jazz-rock proponents between the albums 'Volume Two' and 'Third', breathing new life into the group and producing one of the key albums of their peak years. Issued in 1976, 'Gazeuse' was an entirely instrumental affair featuring a surprisingly guitar-heavy sound, some dazzling technical flourishes and at least one outstanding track in the shape of the two-part 'Percolations', the album's lengthiest track at just over ten minutes. Parlaying slick fusion ingredients into a shiny psychedelic jazz whole whilst starting cool and finishing hot, 'Percolations' is a fine example of the brand new Gong style, featuring all the hallmarks of their late- seventies output and of the fusion movement as a whole. Fans of John McLaughlin and his Mahavishnu Orchestra, Billy Cobham, Nucleus, If, Return To Forever and, of course, Soft Machine, should then find much to enjoy on 'Gazeuse', the only less-than-impressive moments on an otherwise high quality album found on the dull and classically-informed closer 'Mireille'. Exactly what fans of Gong's earlier material will make of it is unclear - this is almost a different group - though history tells us that Gong did manage to maintain their core support right through to the 1990's before eventually re-forming in 2009. Overall then, 'Gazeuse' proves an important addition to the Gong story and an impressive stylistic leap-of-faith from one of the more curious groups of the progressive rock genre's golden era. And alongside 'You', it's arguably one of their best. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

A Daevid Allen musical scrapbook

My journey into Gong territory began rather inauspiciously in 1989 with this obscure little compilation. Actually, that's not entirely true - a few months earlier, I had come across the LP Expresso (the American pressing of Gazeuse!), by the Pierre Moerlen-led jazz/fusion version of the band. So to go from that to this... it was mighty confusing for a budding prog fan like me that didn't have the Internet yet to look these things up and make some sense of it. I think I even sold this a couple of years later, but I ended up missing it, and purchased it a second time. See, though it's a pretty random pick of outtakes of variable quality, there's actually quite a few songs on here I would not want to be without.

It takes about 5 tracks before any real music happens, as the first few opening tracks are mostly little soundbites meant to provide some slices of pre-Gong history -- such as a clip from when the police shut down a Soft Machine concert in France during some student riots (with Daevid (?) having some very choice words for the cops). But by track 5 we're into the early Gong, with the lovely, live "Dreaming It", a song I have not seen on any other album, though I did see a live clip from French television circa 1971. It's a simple bass-driven mantra number, with Allen's spiritual wailing, inspirational and yearning. Other great moments include Gong's Peel Session with Kevin Ayers, performing Kevin's now-classic "Clarence in Wonderland", a wonderfully raw take on the punky "Opium for the People"; some very lovely acoustic Daevid Allen solo material like "Deya Goddess" (pure bliss; also included on his Now Is the Happiest Time of Your Life LP), the superb ska-rocker "Chernobyl Rain" (with the Invisible Opera Company)....

Come to think of it, there's actually very little "Gong" on this CD, at least in the classic incarnation of which most prog fans are aware (Radio Gnome stuff y'know). But there's such a variety of stuff here that you're bound to find something you like, even if it's a comedy skit ("Captain Shaw and Mister Gilbert"... man is that wacky), a capella group chanting ("Let Me Be One"), spoken word poetry ("The Dream", "Gong Poem"), relaxing instrumentals ("13/8"), or what have you.

If you really want classic Gong stuff, and won't accept any substitutes, you're bound to be disappointed; however, this comp still throws you a few bones with rare versions of "Pot Head Pixies", "And I Tried So Hard", and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone". But the focus here is on covering the breadth of Daevid Allen's many musical projects (not just Gong, either) over three decades. Not all of it is great, but don't dismiss it entirely, or you may find yourself buying it again like I did.