CANTERBURY SCENE

YOU is much more of an instrumental album than the two that came before it. Very little of this album other than the overall sound, the first two cuts and ''Perfect Mystery'' remind me of the ANGEL'S EGG album, and this is both good and bad in a way. Gong gets the chance to stretch out their psychadelic sounds into well developed jams that at times (like on ''Isle of Everywhere'') sound like precursors to hip-hop. The downside is that tracks like ''A Sprinkling of Clouds'' take quite a bit of time to build up before the payoff theme comes in.

''You Never Blow Your Trip Forever'' deserves a special mention as it is THE piece of the album (possibly the trilogy, but I can't definitively say so to avoid hyperbole). It picks up right where ''Isle of Everywhere'' leaves off with a funky riff until the band needs to space out. This doesn't last long as the band comes back in at blistering volume with one of Howlett's best lines underpinning everything beautifully. This leads into a jazzy thing that keeps building in intensity until Daevid announces the close of the trilogy, and the piece dissolves gradually then.

Get this alongside the other two RADIO GNOME INVISIBLE parts to hear how all three match up. This has plenty of spacey instrumental passages for those that are interested, but general goofiness that originally attracted me to the group is not as prevalent here, and I'm marginally disappointed by that.

Last words: I is ready.

Gong's You, part two! (I'm such a great poet)

I was very excited about this album. Steve Hillage plays both on my favourite Gong albums and one of my all-time favourite records: Space Shanty of Kahn. His playing style is very recognisable with the jazz rock solo's and spacey delay soundscapes. If you like this style, this album might be your cup of tea! This is pure space-rock with some Canterbury style positive atmospheres and crazyness. The addition of Dave Steward is nice, but most of the band consists of former Gong members: Pierre Moerlen, Gilly Smith, Mike Howlett and Dedier Malherbe.

In a real sense this record isn't that progressive, but it does sound progressive. It sounds so much like Gong's You that I would never call this very essential. Very often we hear guitar delays, very much synthesizors going up and down and up and down in arpeggio's and things like that. I like this sound, but from minute I got the feeling I already heard this record. Like there's nothing new on it. The vocal parts with the heavy guitars are my favourite parts on the record, at least there's some emotional content on this record.

Conclusion. This album lacks some innovation that would have helped Hillage to show why he earns his solo career. Still this is magical Canterbury style space rock with some nice vocal parts and some enjoyable crazy melodies. I just gives me the feeling I have when I can't wake up at morning... it has this slowness, this repetitive sound, like your in a bath of space-rock. This is a formula that has been used to much, some variation (like on Steve Hackett's debut) would have made this a four star recording, for now it's just three stars.

One of those records that make Kahn's Space Shanty sound so good.

Such a strange year (1977) for such and sophisticated prog-record. Well, this is a true Canterbury record with a recognisable sound with certain organ sounds, certain compositional styles, jazz influences and a positive atmosphere. One highlight is the key-playing of Dave Steward (Egg, Kahn and others), one of my favourite Canterbury musicians.

This album is mainly instrumental, except from some passages with beautiful female vocals of Amanda Parsons. Even the vocal parts are highly sophisticated with an abstract (not so emotional) spacey vibe that reminds me a bit of the seriousness of Magma. Though all parts are composed very very intelligent, no part seems to touch me that much. It's just very interesting.

The instrumental passages might be the best of the whole scene, but as mentioned before, the lead to nothing. There seems to be no purpose, no structure and above all: no vision. You could describe this as a soulless masterpiece. It gave me the same feeling as the second Finch album: highly technical an proggy, but never theatrical and touchy.

Conclusion. I will not give the final conclusion for this review. This is not my cup of tea, it lacks an important ingredient. On the other hand it compensates with being one of the most technical records of the scene. Some song like tracks would have made this way more interesting for me, some Kahn like vocals would have really cheered this up. As said, no conclusion here: try this if can get satisfaction out of the pure genius compositions, but stay away if you'll miss some human emotions along the way. For me this is just three stars.

We are talking about 1968 here and as expected the sound is very dated,having lost much of his freshness nowadays.However the talent of the band is certainly there.What I can absorb from this album is actually a band deeply rooted in a typical 60's psychedelic sound but with a tendency for improvisational structures.Vocal harmonies follow also the path of somewhat ''sweet'' vocal lines, sometimes they are good,sometimes they sound rather hilarious.Fortunately ''Soft machine'' was given a lot of space for instrumental music,where the band uses the improvisational mood of jazz music without sounding jazzy at all.Wyatt is always linked with his drum kit,offering strong,tight yet schizophenic drumming with Ayers contributing with heavy bass lines.Ratledge works often on his own,adding a personal sound,which alternates between familiar psychedelic organs and experimental, almost jamming passages.Yet I'm not exactly sure if this combination of pleasant psych with experimental rock is very well balanced.

Nevertheless this is generally a good debut with the band trying to find their own identity,twisting from psych/rock to hints of what was going to come in the future.However it will propably please more fans of late 60's psych,but it would be nice if anyone tried to seek for this legendary band's early roots.

But since I absolutely love both symphonic prog and jazz it should fit me perfectly. Well. it certainly does as long as it can be called melodic music. As soon as it gets too profound and the musicians prefer the more challenging and out of the ordinary (eclectic) stuff I tend to call it a day. Here we have an example of how I like it best. Slightly accessible music creating a delicious atmosphere. Especially the first six songs of this album are delightful to me. Both strong rocking moments and very jazzy elements determine the style here.

Last three songs the band changes the direction in an obvious way. Jack and Jill almost sounds like a funky pop song, the violin and a short organ solo and a bit of flute make it at least a bit special but that's about it. Can you hear me ? is more or less the same story where accessibility is concerned. Less funky but also here with prominent Hammond organ and violin. Both songs are still enjoyable by the way but the jazzy aspect is suddenly gone or at least strongly diminished. The real disappointment is last track All the Way. First half of the song is ok but second half is extremely repetitive for several minutes. What a shame since it almost ruins a very good feeling I have about this release.

Let's call it 42 minutes of great music and 4 extremely poor and annoying ones. So the outcome where the rating is concerned is not difficult here. It's simply an excellent album. Maybe an album in the declining phase of their career for the real fans but it doesn't bother me that their peak days are gone at this point. This album suits me much better than their magnum opus In the Land of Grey and Pink. This is Canterbury how I like it best. Four strong stars for Blind Dog !

Like the first album, many of the songs flow together, again giving them an epic feeling. Guitarist Phil Miller and keyboardist Dave Stewart are even better on this album than the first. My favorite track (and most RIO) would have to be The Yes No Interlude, with one of the best Miller solos I've ever heard.

The last five tracks were not on the original LP, coming from the odds and ends collection Afters. The best part of these songs is the heavy Oh, Len's Nature! (perhaps the heaviest this band ever played.

4.5 stars, rounded up.

Not only does LIVE FLOATING ANARCHY contain loads of wild and bubbly space-rock, most notably the majestic fifteen-minute "Allez Ali Baba Black Sheep" which still carries me away every time I hear it (and which must have been a major influence on Ozric Tentacles); it also contains Daevid's triumphant attempt to outsnarl Johnny Rotten, in a thoroughly enjoyable Sex Pistols parody called "Opium for the People". (Just why did you think this album was called "Live Floating ANARCHY"? It seems Allen was more than prepared to show those young upstarts who the true anarchists were!)

I can't imagine anyone who likes BANANAMOON, CAMEMBERT ELECTRIQUE or even YOU would fail to appreciate this album. Just don't expect subtle soloing as provided by the likes of Pierre Moerlen or Didier Malherbe. What you get here is wild and spontaneous, but still rich, thanks to (among other things) esctatic drumming, oodles of whizzing synths and yes: that dratted space whisper!

N.B. Contrary to what certain reviewers have stated, Steve Hillage did not take part in this concert, as far as I'm aware. But professor Sharpstrings, whoever he is (I always suspected him of being Daevid Allen himself, but I must be wrong), does an excellent job at reminding you of the master.

I suppose you could consider those opening pieces some kind of jazz-rock if you wanted to, but it struck me that "Searching for the Spark", the fifth album track (more than eleven minutes long) is unadulterated space-rock, similar in mood to Gong's YOU and even more similar to the manic instrumentals on Daevid Allen's and Planet Gong's LIVE FLOATING ANARCHY, an album that was recorded at around the same time as this. Daevid and Steve may have been touring different parts of the world, with different bands, but their aims were still the same, it seems. Of course Steve happened to be the flashiest guitarist on the entire Canterbury Scene - which made a difference.

Some of the lighter pieces here (e.g. "Light in the Sky" and "Electric Gipsies") remind me why I could never really take Hillage seriously as a vocalist or lyricist, but boy do his solos make up for this! The nearly fifteen minute "Lunar Music Suite" (somewhat expanded from the original on Hillage's second studio album, L) sounds clean and neat; regrettably, the great Don Cherry wasn't present to repeat his dreamily nocturnal trumpet solo live on stage.

By the final track ("It's All Too Much") Hillage's ultra-busy way of guitar playing has become just a little too much, so perhaps it's for the better that I still own Virgin's 1990 edition of this CD (only 64 minutes long) and not the recently remastered version, which has added the "Solar Music Suite". (But then again, I love the studio original of that suite. What might a live version be like...?)

This album starts with the barking of Hugh Hopper's bass and we are into Hazard Part 1. The sound is superb. The playing is flawless throughout from this, the classic Hopper/ Wyatt/Dean/Ratledge setup of Soft Machine. The songs are taken from Third/Fourth and the Fifth album. There is also a couple of other gems here.

From this period, I think Live At Henie Onstad Centre is the best live album. But Grides is an excellent album too and comes in a very good packaging with a lot of extra stuff. Stuff that makes this album almost essential if you are into this band. The sound is superb, but not excellent. The music is.

4 stars

For those expecting mostly live versions of the old Hatfield material, only four of the nine songs, Share It, Underdub, Halfway Between Heaven And Earth and It Didn't Matter Anyway, all from The Rotter's Club, fullfill this, and of the new songs, onlyy Going For A Song sounds like the original material. The rest is all straight jazz fusion. Not bad fusion, certainly listenable and competant, but not what you might expect from this band.