UNENDING ASCENDING

This is the fourth album issued by the current incarnation of Gong - a line-up hand-picked by Daevid Allen to keep the band's legacy going into the future - and it's the third they put out without significant involvement from Allen himself, who died after contributing to I See You. With Rejoice! I'm Dead! and The Universe Also Collapses, Sturt, Torabi and the gang proved themselves an interesting musical prospect in their own right, working in a style combining the modern approach of the members' other musical projects with the ethos of classic-era Gong.

They lack the distinctive sense of humour Daevid Allen brought to proceedings, but frankly that's for the best - the last thing they should be trying to do is imitate Allen's inimitable persona, which was the main thing which sold the jokier side of classic Gong anyway. Instead, they're offering a trip through the spacier side of the Canterbury, or perhaps the jazzier side of space rock - in this part of the musical map, the boundaries get fuzzy.

If The Universe Also Collapses was their take on the approach of You, erring as it did towards longer compositions, this takes a different approach, focusing more on shorter songs which are nonetheless part of a song cycle. It's a terse release at less than 40 minutes, but that just suggests they're applying sensible levels of quality control rather than jamming endlessly, and certainly I found the whole thing enjoyable. It's not as eye-opening as the band's classics, nor is it as ambitious as The Universe Also Collapses, but it certainly suggests that the creative spark is still flickering away at the heart of Gong.

'Unending Ascending' is a new and one of the countless Gong albums - the third post-Daevid Allen record released by the mythological psychedelic rock band formed in Paris back in the late 1960s. The current incarnation of the pothead pixies' crew is led by Persian guitar player and singer Kavus Torabi, who alongside his great bandmates makes sure to carry the spark of one of the most beloved old bands. Now, all three albums post-Daevid Allen so far have been recorded and performed by the same lineup of musicians and both the 2016 and the 2019 Gong releases have been sounding naturally very similar. 'Unending Ascending' is no exception, in fact, it is like a continuation of the former, as the band engage in the same psychedelic exercise, expanding but not necessarily evolving the sound of Gong, to be honest.

Nevertheless, all necessary Gong elements are here - the blissful gliss riffs, the psych-prog meanderings and the occasionally goofy and catchy lyrics, and much like the latest Yes album, 'Unening Ascending' is more of a celebration of what Gong is all about, rather than an attempt to showcase how much their sounds has progressed or expanded. Some great moments on here (which would include 'My Guitar Is a Spaceship', 'All Clocks Reset' and 'Choose Your Goddess') and some more derivative ones, as the band recaptures some sounds they had already presented on the last couple of albums by this lineup. Still, this is a fun listen but not necessarily an excellent highlight of their expansive discography.