Gong

Fabulous collection of Gong French TV appearances. The DVD is relatively short and covers two distinct periods of the band. It includes some of the earliest known footage of the band playing live for French television circa 1971 and 72. Watching the band live must have been a real experience as they took the art of drug induced hippiness to the next level. The band performs four tracks of their signature jazz/space rock jams including "Never Fight Another War", "Dreamin It", "Dynamite" and "Foghat Digs Holes In Space". Spacey synth work, ripping bass runs and the vocal caterwauling of Gilli Smyth and Allen is all included for your enjoyment. That is, if you like your music of the somewhat bizarre variety. The performances are good and offer a rare glimpse of the band in those early years…

After Gong disbanding, its "space whisper" in the person of Gilly Smyth carried on the adventure on the same basis: glissando guitar, female spacy vocals and twirling sax: the best era of Gong's magic ! On "Wild Child", she goes into the spacy-psychedelic universe of Gong.

As interesting and fun as the Daevid Allen period was, the name Gong became more meaningful in the context of the music as percussionist Pierre Moerlen assumed the role of bandleader. An emphasis on percussives of all sorts became clear on Gazeuse!, the band's first completely instrumental album, and the music became much jazzier, though never considered jazz. Expresso II finds Pierre Moerlen's Gong at their peak. Like their previous studio release, Gazeuse!, the album is instrumental, the music is very polished, the sound very clean. Vibes and xylophone dominate on this album, somewhat reminiscent of the sound Zappa achieved through Ruth Underwood on One Size Fits All just three years earlier. The first two tracks, "Heavy Tune" and "Golden Dilemma," are the highlights here, partially due to the fact that the rest of the cuts all blend together and sound quite similar…

This is a classic, the epitome of the band's early Daevid Allen phase with Ph.P.'s (pothead pixies) in full, blazing glory. In its infancy, Gong was a unique prog rock band that branched out in all directions at once while most other prog bands chose simply one path or another. Camembert Electrique is a testament to that. The band's eclectic "electric cheese" rock is a mixture of psychedelic rock, spacy atmospherics and lyrics, and doses of jazz often presented with a pop sensibility, yet always intense. From the first cut on Camembert, you are transported to planet Gong via the voice of a "radio gnome" who drops in intermittently to remind you you're not in Kansas anymore. Daevid Allen leads the band through several compositions musically (not lyrically) reminiscent of, and possibly influenced by, early King Crimson - a hard, raw-edged sound propelled by a strong guitar-sax-percussion combo…

The 2006 Gong Unconventional Family Gathering was for many fans the moment they had been waiting on for decades. What some considered an improbability verging on impossible was happening: Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe and Miquette Giraudy all on stage at one time in the closest thing to a classic Gong reunion, playing a set laden heavily with pieces from the classic trilogy of Flying Teapot, Angels Egg, and You…

Formed in 1989 as an offshoot of the original Gong, this line up, recorded at the Fridge, Brixton in May 1991, features Gong members Daevid Allen and Didier Malherbe…

Gong gone punk. "About Time" documents Daevid Allen's 1979 New York trip to partake of the then-happenin' CBGB's scene. The new sound is an odd hybrid of Psychedelia ("Preface"), New Wave ("I Am a Freud") and Punk ("Much Too Old"), with a lyrical sentiment reminiscent of early-'70s Gong ("Jungle Window"). The CD opens with an effects-laden recording of Allen reciting his "trippy" poetry. Some of the compositions, like "I Am a Freud," bleed quirky rhythms and melodies resembling the work of the League of Gentlemen and Talking Heads. "Materialism" and "Strong Woman" feature Allen's glissando guitar, which seems a forerunner to the sound Fripp and Belew employed on their early-'80s King Crimson projects. "Materialism," penned by Laswell, is a standout with its dominating bass driving home the groove…

Between Daevid Allen's departure from the band and Pierre Moerlen's official takeover of the band, there is Shamal. This transitional album contains none of the Allen-inspired psychedelia, but also very little of Moerlen's jazz influence. Shamal is, for the most part, a progressive rock album, half vocal, half instrumental. Its most accessible tune, the opening "Wingful of Eyes," had the potential for airplay if only it hadn't been so lengthy…