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Primus at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, 1030 15th Street, Suite 100, Sacramento, CA on Sep 14
Menomena at Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Avenue, Seattle, WA on Sep 10
Ratatat at Riviera Night Club, 4746 North Racine Avenue, Chicago, IL on Sep 10
Gong: Angel’s Egg
Gong
Angel’s Egg
(Virgin Records, 1973)
First let me admit… I haven’t been able to wrap my head around all the myriad dimensions of this album. It’s like an archetypal journey that I’m still experiencing. But, if I were to sum up its sound, I’d tell you that it is fusion mixed with Syd Barrett-styled vocals mixed with the earthy mysticism of woodland creatures on mushrooms. The instruments are both whimsical and driving. The vocals are alternately off-kilter, off-key, or off-base. Solos abound as do sporadic tribal chants that culminate in “Hari Hari Lady’s Lavatory!” (Begging the question: Is this band mystical or are they poking holes in mysticism itself? Or, are they using its tools for their own madcap means?)
Angel’s Egg is the second album in their Radio Gnome trilogy. If you like Parliament, Weather Report, or Sun Ra, this band owns you. Their leader is Aussie Daevid Allen, who was a founding member of totally awesome psych originals, Soft Machine. After Soft Machine, Daevid bailed to France and surrounded himself with French hippies who also wore wizard costumes, and together they made outer space-styled music whilst espousing a philosophy of planetary travel with “pothead pixies,” all the while declaring “It’s a hassle, you know, to make rocket ships go to infinity / And I’m so sick of God and these bishops that speak of divinity / Now my head’s feeling strange and my codpiece is starting to tremble.”
This record is the gnome/hobbit lifestyle embodied. It is also the sound of a drug-addled, tuned-in jazz freak jamming in harmony with the star systems. The flute is especially gnarly, as is the overwhelming flange. I’ll admit that in a fit of general madness and boredom I once synched this album up with silent film maestro Buster Keaton’s film Parlor, Bedroom and Bath, Darkside of Oz-style, and, not surprisingly, the synchronicities blew my mind (“Dude bro, as they’re singing about having a cup of tea Buster is dancing and serving up a cup of tea… holy shit, there is a god of consciousness”).
Here’s how this album came to be: Gong was one of the first acts signed to Virgin records, which released the entire Radio Gnome trilogy (starting with The Flying Teapot, check it out). Likely due to their record deal, the whole band and their entourage lived in a big house out in the French countryside (sounds lame, huh?) and further tricked the record company into sending out a mobile recording van so they could continue living loose, smoking hash, and giggling. Then they mic’ed the shit out of the house, hanging microphones from trees as the members scattered into different rooms relying on sound cues and intuition to keep it together. That’s right: Apparently they recorded these albums without even looking at each other, each member in an individual pod/room.
But that’s not to say it was a total improv affair. Sure they’re making it up on the spot, a lot of it, Charlie Parker-style, but there is a pattern to return to. This is a concept album with intricate absurdist lyricism, and the whole thing was completely mapped out in illustrations and colors as evidenced by the liner notes, which are so extensive I can’t even make it through them. Too far out!
If you want to hear the most beautiful song here it would be “Love is how You Make It.” Gong is at its peak strength when, after an epic instrumental psych jam, they bust into a singing part where Daevid espouses his philosophy of life much like how Sly Stone did back in the day. Which reminds me, we need more bands that tell us what to do in Cheshire Cat fashion!
I’ve played this band for a bunch of my friends (the third album, You, is almost all instrumental) and they are decisively split into two camps: Turn this shit off! Or… Awesome! Gong is one of my favorite bands to be surprised by these days with my iPod on shuffle.
Watch: Gong in 1972 [at youtube.com]
27 Comments
have a lager
Ah yes….another one drinks the tea….welcome…welcome…
I left my body and my bed and flew away inside my head….
the Best band ever.
Welcome indeed! Gong is One and One is You…
One day everyone will
recognise
that gong is one and one is you!
the revolution will be broadcast brain to brain.
Go for Gong and your life will become richer! But be aware to stay away from the Allen-less material, that’s another cuppa tea!
check out “I am your Egg” from Allen, Smyth, Allen:-)
its all down the oily way from now on, welcome aboard!
I love it!
It’s easy to conjure up some nice hippy on acid image here, but really, GONG is space rock, punk rock, prog rock, spirito rock and cheese rock.Camambert Electrique. Je ne fume pas des bananes’ !!! REVOLUTION!!
Opening the mind to a philosophy of life where you can be truly free – get inside, influence and above all ‘ DO IT ‘.
The word you were looking for Bananamoons is “psychedelic”….
Easter Sunday 1966
remember, you never blow yr trip forever……
daevid allen is a dreadful guitarist- and the gliss always sounds the same- whatever the song.
Ken… you’re an idiot
idiot i may be but i can knock out a basic 4/4 rhythm
ken is right daevid is not a guitarist, but he is a poet and we underestimate this
Capt. Stevie Hillfish is on Glissando
Numbers are numbers, and music is not always the same number, say like a 4/4? anyhow, free your mind and the Octaves will follow…counting again from one to nine, infinitea!!!
somebody somewehere has got to be high…..
just wanted the 23rd comment
…it’s about time…thanks Gong for your contribution to popular culture…Daevid Allen is a wonderful musician…(blodwyn, ken et al. need bigger ears) – !
Do not criticize Daevid’s musicianship. He was the Soft Machine’s guitarist when they were the opening act for Hendrix in 1966-67! Who could feel adequate after that? He describes his playing as Sidereal Dogfoot Guitar and his singing as the Aluminum Croon. His brilliance as an entertainer transcends mere music, that is only his vehicle. Oh yes, and by the way, his glissando guitar was indescribably beautiful. Too bad all of you who have never heard the title track of Flying Teapot on vinyl have been deprived of the peak experience!
gong mother gong…. all crap!! try hawkwind
Gong may represent a moment in time but that time is when many found Blake’s infinity in a grain of sand. Gong, Sun Ra, Trane and other visionaries expanded our present in ways that are as profound as they are unobvious.
you never blow yr trip forever