Gong

The new album from Gong – their second original album since the death of Daevid Allen – is quite unique and rather fine.

Even though Allen has left the planet – Glid away? – there is a distinct ghost of his presence on the album. The ethereal glimmer of the music, a faintly folky feel to much of it but there are none of the original members left and yet, this is without question a Gong album.
Allen was a huge character and it feels to me that his influence on all of the historic members of Gong is telling.

The band now consists of Kavus Torabi (vocals and guitar), Fabio Golfetti (guitar), Dave Sturt (bass), Ian East (Saxophone) and Chab Nettles (drums) and it is pretty clear that this is a band going its own way. The psychedelia is strong with Gong and their sense of otherworldliness perpetuates every moment of the album.

The opening track ‘Forever Reoccurring’, is a full 20 minutes and has an extending and metamorphing riff that seems to focus the listener’s mind while Torabi’s vocals and East’s sax punctuate and transform the track, twisting it until the number explodes around a psych guitar solo.
The number is intended to overturn conventional notions of time and space – the concept of the big band and the collapse of the universe happening at the same time -It needs to be listened to a few times before you begin to see that depth of the number and its theme but well worth the effort.
“That song started off with this one riff,” explains Torabi. “One thing Gong is good at is stretching a riff out, so we did that for a while, and we thought, ‘What if this just grew and grew? This might make a brilliant opening song.’”

That leads into ‘If Never I’m And Ever You’, a little belter of a number that seems to kick off and disappear but again twists the listeners mind trying to keep up with multiple themes in one place.

Closer ‘The Elemental’ seems to have all the natural elements that Gong brought to their music – the biggest throwback to earlier eras – but still fits perfectly into the flow of the album.

There are only four tracks on the album but all are capable of standing alone or beith taken as a continuing thread of mind to mind consciousness. It isn’t a concept album but it does all explore perception and the construct of reality.
A brilliant album and worth of inclusion into the Gong canon.