2032

The return of Hillage in the band was written maybe as early as the Gong Unconvention in the winter of 2006 in Amsterdam's Melkweg, but it obviously took time to mature as in early summer of 08, Steve joined Gong on stage for two shows in London with a couple new songs, but it would be another big year before this album would see the light of day in the fall of of 09. Sooo Steve and wife Lmiquette Giraudy came back and in terms of the line-up, if the Daevid & Gilly pair are obvious, Malherbe is only a guest, reoplaced by now-usual Theo Travis, the drum stool is still under Chris Taylor and veteran Howlett on bass. Looking at the credits of the songs, it is unsurprisingly mostly an affair of the Steve/Miquette and Daevid/Gilly pairs that dominate the songwriting, even though the girls collaborate on three tracks throughout the album.

2032 is a long (almost filled to the brim) album, made from 14 songs, a few lasting between 7 and 8 minutes, and by the time you're nearing the end of the disc, it is almost 2031, so this album is aptly titled, especially if you stopped for loo emergencies. The least that can be said is that all tracks arewell-made and finely crafted, filled with a certain kind of lunacy (an updated version of early Hillage solo delirium and Daevidian madness)

Well the Pothead Pixie will find the usual Planet Gong universe, but in a violuntary updated manner, both musically, butr lyrically as well. Tracks like Digital Girl and Escape Control Delete are obvious shots at modern technology, but more annoying are the purposely light- handed pop songwriting, sometimes bordering on the silly, but not in the hilarious 70's style. The two distinctive signature lead guitars are generally working well together, Daevid's glissando solos matching Steve's delay-saturated riffs. More interesting is to try to pick out the Malherbe wind intervbention from Travis'. The album is extremely wordy with only one near-instumental (Guitar Zero) and sometimes reaches almost Kraftwerk-style of electro-pop (in Robo-Warriors) and sometimes the group sounds like another Tentacle. Overal, the most frustrating thing about this album is that such a talented, round and jazzy drummer such as Chris Taylor is held in such a binary role, no doubt a decision coming from Hillage, an inheritance from his System Taha 7 days, which are still all too fresh nor to reappear at places.

Personally I thought that Zero To Infinitea was a much worthier album in the Radio Gnome Invisible saga, but it was also playing much safer. 2032 is full of risk-taking, which is always a double edged sword, but these quirky songs might seem fresh and even bring a new blood in the Gong planet, I'm not sure that they'll age as gracefully as the previous material. Personally I consider this album as quite a deception, but let's see how it ages with successive listens, which obviously won't be as frequent after the first two months.

Old-fashioned, but highly attractive

2032 is the latter album from Radio Gnome Trylogy by british Canterbury scene band Gong. This album can be considered as a quite experimental album with all these variations in genres. The title of the album refers to year of 2032, which was mentioned in some of the earlier recordings about the planet Gong. This is the year, when the planet Gong finally make contact with Earth. I'm not quite familiar with this wonderful band Gong, but I'll change this in near future, exactly because of this reunion album of the classic line-up. Despite, not being something special 2032 reveals strong 60's psychedelic influence in very good manner. It's well-forgotten way of creating music and that's increases the value of this recording. Regretfully, I can't give it 4 stars, because it contains moments for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 stars, so it will be 3,3 stars. Highly recommended for 60's psychedelic and experimental lovers.

Highlights in 2032:

1. Wacky Baccy Banker

2. Portal

3. The Year 2032

Very nice surprise - new Gong's album, and not just Gong, but "classic early GonG", it's a big difference! If Pierre Moerlene's Gong after few first strong albums became a funny money maker very soon, Allen's Gong (and related projects) still often can attract listener with some good music.

There you can hear Daevid himself plus Trilogy-time guitarist Steve Hillage, bassist Mike Howlett and even Gilli Smyth's whisperings! It's true Gong, even if few decades is gone!

And from very first sounds you will realize that they sound as true Gong! Spacey dreamy airy electronic sounds, some nice guitar pieces, plenty of violin and characteristic Gilli's spoken vocals ("whisperings"). Album is long, but no way boring. Interesting, that musicians introduced some risky elements to their music, as almost hip-hop vocals, some modern, almost danceable rhythms, Santana-like Latin guitar,etc.

Possibly, all music doesn't sound such authentic, as in early 70-s ( no strange, isn't it?), but they doesn't sound as self-parody, or as self-selling attraction as well. I think all this album could be characterised as slightly modernised Gong Trilogy's sound for the new millennium. They will hardly find new listeners with this album, but from another hand it is really great release for old fans. And great not only as souvenir or nostalgic listening, no - it's real album with new music.

My rating is 3,25.

Gong is back and the band is in great shape! Since I haven't heard any of the Allen albums since the 1974 Radio Gnome Invisible Vol. 3 - You I had no idea what to expect from this incarnation of Gong after 35 years! Therefore an open minded approach seemed to be the best way to tackle this material.

2032 might not be a complete masterpiece of an album but it's highly enjoyable and the time goes by very quickly with it on the playlist. The band tries a few new approaches to the music where at one point we even get something that resembles rap vocals from Daevid Allen. Other styles we get to hear are Hard Rock and even electronica! This combination might put most people off due to the lack of a clear direction but Gong has never been a linear act and following them requires the listener to accept whatever new addition to the sound the band decides to incorporate next.

There are some questionable choices regarding some particular song arrangements that have already been mentioned in other reviews but that doesn't distract me from the overall feel and flow of this album. The only really horrendous moments for me were the two 2 minute tracks titled Yoni Poem and Wave And A Particle that come off as incoherent rambling by Gilli Smyth which I end up skipping through whenever listening to 2032. The band finally gets back to the earlier music style towards the end of the album and we actually get a few neat moments that resemble the great material from Vol.3. Still it's not enough to make this release into an excellent performance.

Even though I realize that Gong has never been a linear act I think that this release would have been better if the band skipped all of their attempts at sounding hip and modern and instead just did what they did so well back in the day. After all, it's unlikely that this music was composed to attract any new fans since the only ones who would ever know of this album's existence are the people who have already heard their '70s albums.

***** star songs: City Of Self Fascination (6:04)

**** star songs: Digital Girl (4:23) How To Stay Alive (8:06) Escape Control Delete (7:58) Wacky Baccy Banker (8:21) The Year 2032 (5:39) Guitar Zero (4:55) The Gris Gris Girl (6:29) Pinkle Ponkle (4:35) Portal (7:08)

*** star songs: Dance With The Pixies (4:37) Robo-Warriors (3:00)

** star songs: Yoni Poem (2:09) Wave And A Particle (2:05)

So last year when this album came out, I was incredibly excited. Almost the entire "greatest" Gong lineup (in my opinion, at least) were releasing a new album tying into the Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy! Naturally, I HAD to pre-order the album so I'd get it right around when it was released. I've been listening to the album semi-regularly since then, and while it is good I must say it is a bit of a letdown. It's still got some of the Gong zaniness I love, but something's missing, and the band decided to make up for that missing bit by making the album just about as long as it could be (75 minutes!). Unfortunately, the quantity of material almost works against the album. There are some tracks I would have specifically cut to make it a bit shorter (namely the Gilli Smyth solo bits, I like them on the RGI trilogy but here they're unexciting). So far I've managed to say why I don't like the album, I suppose I should move on to why I DO like it. Most of the non-Gilli tracks are anything from good to great; generally the longest songs were my favorite, especially "Escape Control Delete", "How to Stay Alive" (Daevid Allen is secretly a rapper as well, apparently) and "Portal". Most of the members don't show their age very much (especially Daevid Allen, I'm pretty sure he could keep making music for the next 50 years and not sound any worse). Steve's back with his great guitar playing, which is a plus to any album. Like everyone else, I'm sure, I miss Pierre Moerlen's drumming on the album, though. Unfortunately he was taken from us too early.

So because of the excessive length and the few undesirable tracks, I don't think this is a good starting point to the wonderful planet of Gong, but if you like their style in general you'd probably enjoy the album. As of now it's getting three stars from me. I think that's the most fitting rating for it (Good, but not essential).