CANTERBURY SCENE

Daevid Allen is in such fine form here. And he really is having the time of his life it would appear. The band is incredible. These are players and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed some of those serious instrumental sections. Of course they are playing GONG songs so there's plenty of silliness as well. We get 64 minutes of music and there are two tracks in particular that really stand out. The over 11 minute "Fohat Digs Holes In Space" the longest track here, along with "Master Builder" at 8 minutes. The final track for this show was "Selene" and the encore song was "Dynamite".

I have both the audio cd and the dvd. The dvd was sent to me by Fabio Golfetti many years ago along with "UFO Planante" by the INVISIBLE OPERA COMPANY OF TIBET. The latter has brought me so much joy. To even be messaged by Fabio in the first place was an honour. And he did so to thank me for my "Volume 7" review of his VIOLETA DI OUTONO band. I was pretty star struck at the time I must admit. I would highly recommend this dvd or the audio cd. And it's a must if you're a big GONG fan.

Pye Hastings - guitars and lead vocals

Geoff Richardson - viola

David Sinclair - Organs, keyboards, piano and synthesizers

John G Perry - Bass

Richard Coughlan - Drums

and many additional musicians...

I really enjoyed this album. There are many memorable songs. The first three songs (Memory Lain, Hugh, Headloss and Hoedown) flow well into one another and Pye Hastings vocals on "Memory Lain Hugh" are awesome. The riff for "Memory lain Hugh" was stuck in my head for days its very catchy. I love the fuzzy guitar tone found throughout the album especially on "C'thlu Thlu". That is definitely a standout track. My favorite song on the album by far is "The Dog, the Dog, He's at It Again". I can't really explain why it's my favorite it's just a fun song to listen to and captivating. Side A evokes fun canterbury moments with more standard rock-oriented songs with many delightful progressive moments. While side 2 is definitely more progressive in sound. The album really starts to become spectacular from C'thlu Thlu until the end of the album in my opinion. That stretch of tracks is perfect. Song after song it was magical. Overall, I enjoyed this album very much. It is a great addition to any prog collection and a great Canterbury Scene record by a great Canterbury Band.

I give them album 4/5 stars. It's an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.

According to the artist, there is no continuity between the songs and the recording/mixing quality is not the best due to the band's lack of experience at the time. However, the seeds of what would become their subsequent album '24 can be seen in every track, and the album offers high-quality instrumental jazz rock that directly reflects the influence of Canterbury's music. The vintage organ/electric piano, which mimics Dave Stewart's playing style but condenses it into complex melody and chord progressions, the slightly sticky drums, and the guitar, which sounds more like Steve Hillage or Allan Holdsworth than Phil Miller, are all intricately intertwined within Tom Penaguin's unique methodology, and when viewed as a whole, the finished product somehow exudes the warmth of its creator. This DIY Canterbury music, which demonstrates Tom Penaguin's undeniable talent, is truly magnificent. If you were moved by his solo debut, "Beginnings" is a must-see.

The lineup featured here is the same as on the band's debut album, yet the musicianship and the chemistry between the band members seems ameliorated by far, as one could tell while inhabiting the headspace of the gorgeous arrangements here, always sufficiently elaborate but never really technically pretentious or overindulgent. There are also several catchier tunes, the "remnants" of that brilliant debut album - just breathe in the laid-back euphemisms of the opening title track. An interesting song lulls gently for eight good minutes in the face of 'And I Wish I Were Stoned', while the organ-heavy 'As I Feel I Die' works excellently and still sounds quite cerebral, as opposed to the outdated soundscapes of the preceding song. A 10-minute mini-suite closes off side one, this one is a less successful patchwork of sounds. 'Hello Hello' by Richard Sinclair is a fairly good pop number, while the centerpiece here is the gargantuan 14-minute jazz-rock suite 'Can't Be Long Now', simply capturing the band at their most extravagant and forward-thinking. Needless to say, 'Limits' is a lovely little closing piece, on an album that sounds impressive and adventurous for 1970, with its jazzy swindles and carefree pop tunes, just a fantastic LP.

This was denitely the most intense of all Gong albums, extremely dense in sounds and sights and an amalgam of jazzy improvisations, spaced out experiments and psychedelic weirdness. Tim Blake offers some of his best synthesizer work to be delivered in a Gong album, very cosmic and cinematic with some nice guitar parts by Hillage and the occasional jazzy tastes as proposed by Didier Malherbe's elegant flute lines and powerful sax assaults.''Master builder'' is a masterpiece of the style with great sax work over the guitar and synth moves, while ''A sprinkling of clouds'' may sound a bit hypnotic with its extended synth soundscapes, but ends up to be another Gong weirdness with a full jazzy background and the flute/sax prevailing in the second half.Additionally the sweet vocal parts and the light interplays connect the band for the first time with the delicacy of the Canterbury scene.''The Isle of everywhere'' and ''You never blow yr trip forever'' are the two long cuts (over 10 minutes each) dominating the flipside of the original LP.You cannot blame Daevid Allen for carrying ''...some wonderful acid and we took this acid together as a group...'' back at the time, the result was a pair of cosmic, trippy and deeply psychedelic Jazz-oriented pieces with narcotic rhythms, some funky injections and excellent guitar work by Hillage, while the second cut contains some of the most complex themes executed by Gong in a combination of Heavy/Psych Rock, Fusion and Space Rock with ethereal female voices, flute-led soloing and intricate guitar/sax moves.

Epitomizing what Space Fusion is all about (along with Clearlight).Propably the best part of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, the team effort had done good to the final result, which contains all of the Gong familiar elements: Psychedelic colors, jazzy interventions, poppy vocals and spacious landscapes.Strongly recommended.

Pretty much everything from "Flute Salad" and onward is where I really start to get into Angel's Egg. Even the bonus track on the CD version I have ("The Ooby-Scooby Doomsday...") doesn't slow the album down a bit. "Prostitute Poem" might be my lone gripe, but that gets quickly drowned out by everything else on Angel's Egg. This is a lighter, goofier, way-less-serious side of progressive rock that is worth checking out.

4.0

With the songs centered around the protruding Hammond organ sounds as well as the strong melodies and vocal harmonies, 'Caravan' is a record that is much in the style of the early Soft Machine 'Volumes' as well as some of those Cream and Floyd-ish exploratory pop tunes. The band's very own debut album already positions Caravan as a band aware of their fine songwriting capabilities, as they explore them quite interestingly and present a lush collection of moods and tones, with some songs being whimsical and uplifting, while others are being more pensive and even gloomy. Album opener 'Place of My Own' is melancholic and distantly menacing, a great song, while 'Ride' might turn out to be too trippy for some tastes. A string of three absolutely excellent numbers follow on side one, and the already impression of the album is of a very consistent, well-organized work. Just three songs on side two, among which the 9-minute closing suite 'Where but for Caravan Would I?' stands out as the first really impressive piece with more complex, challenging arrangements from Caravan. And as poor as the mixing is, and as distracting as this can be, 'Caravan' is a worthy anticipator of the Canterbury scene and a fine late 60s work that still echoes the tastes of The Wilde Flowers and the entire psychedelic rock ooze.

4.0