KSCOPE 9th May 2025
Ah, Gong! A great British hippy rock tradition and as full of wonderful contradictions as can be. Ever the thought-child of Daevid Allen, himself an Australian, there have been more Gong albums without him as with him and he’s made many more albums outside Gong than with. It goes way beyond Mark Smith’s: “if it’s me and your granny on bongos, then it’s a Fall gig.” Yet he embodied the whole ethos with his all-pervasive love, chuntering about enlightenment and becoming while wearing very silly headwear. He was an inspiration in the way he lived his life. Yet again though, since he died in 2015, Gong has continued with the band he anointed and they have developed into a fire-breathing psychedelic dragon in their live shows, steadily ditching the pot, tea and pixies references to become a different thing again, yet hewn from the same tree.
Allen’s last album as Gong, with a very different band to the permutations of the seventies, was recorded as Daevid was terminally ill and was rushed out the door to release a quickly as possible. Now Kavus Torabi, guitarist and singer of Gong has had it remixed to the full strength of what it can be. He’s faced plenty of criticism for continuing with Gong and allowing it to develop and chance, so there’s an element of reinforcing that this album was a gateway to the new direction. The set is full of pixie humour, playful nonsense, references to the Gong mythology – at one point “tu veux un camembert” is dropped into the mix; part of the opening babble of the classic Camembert Electrique album. It opens with “I see you”, gleefully sung. Allen will have spent time in the ICU as a result of his treatment and this detournement is his impish joy in life as well as a linguistic trick popular in Paris 1968 where ProtoGong was formed. His life-long partner and co-conspirator from that time, Gilli Smyth is on the album too.
The band sound is great with burbling bass, sonic fun, sax, space guitar, electronic glissando and keys. There is whimsy, space-rock, prog, swirly, rushing hippy dance and general trippiness. Lyrically we are on familiar ground and there is a good deal about mental revolution, being the change, railing against Mammon. It’s a manifesto of transformation of thought. All is classic Gong, switching styles, collaging different styles into a picture of a unique world vision. The sound is both classic seventies Gong and a new, updated thing, with the seeds of a new space rock poking through.
The remix is better, clearer and worth doing but the real value of this re-issue is highlighting the passing of the torch to Torabi, Golfetti, Sturt, East and Nettles. With three studio albums now, only the first containing any Allen songs, they are the new Gong and should be experienced live, where the experience is quite different to the older Gong, being an extended psychedelic jam centred on musical transformation over lyrical imagery. It is also a lasting tribute to the enduring creativity of Daevid Allen, producing life-affirming music as he danced on the edge of extinction.