https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10251952_901115633242755_4798129672666044223_n.jpg?oh=1a2005a618f5ab39ad1aadf2ddbe5ee5&oe=55B4DB9B&__gda__=1434123693_7059305a85e1e9a95cd2b0cb898b3506
― nickn, Wednesday, 25 March 2015 17:16 (nine years ago) link
Hadn't realised the individual lps from the Flying Teapot trilogy were being released separately as 2cds as well as on the box set. Somebody mentioned picking one up on another list so I looked them up and they came out last Friday.Wouldn't mind getting the box set but it seems a bit too expensive for me right now. But these have one cd of teh remastered lp and one of a contemporary live set.Not sure what is left not released from the box set if you get things this way, presumably things like book and other visual stuff?& that does cover the lp after Daevid Allen left too i think.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 29 September 2019 09:55 (four years ago) link
I'm streaming the new Flying Teapot deluxe edition on Spotify, and it's astonishing how much better it sounds than the previous remaster, which has always sounded like a murky third-generation cassette dub. Not expecting as much improvement on Angel's Egg and You, which sounded great on the Virgin CDs.
― J. Sam, Sunday, 29 September 2019 18:18 (four years ago) link
Oooh, I need to check it out
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:43 (four years ago) link
This is so great -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFmh3xihyNk
― Maresn3st, Tuesday, 22 October 2019 22:32 (four years ago) link
Recent post on Dangerous Minds had it that Sherman "George Jefferson" Hemsley was a pretty major Gong freak.
― henry s, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 00:18 (four years ago) link
Yeah, we had that discussion several years back.
― Beware of Mr. Blecch, er...what? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 23 October 2019 00:24 (four years ago) link
Also a huge Yes fan, right?
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 23 October 2019 00:30 (four years ago) link
huge gentle giant fan for sure i know
― Spironolactone T. Agnew (rushomancy), Wednesday, 23 October 2019 01:27 (four years ago) link
He included a short Nektar clip as the soundtrack in the show once.
― nickn, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 01:28 (four years ago) link
Who I note are back on tour now. Regrouped? Never broke up? Original lineup? I don't know.
― nickn, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 01:29 (four years ago) link
Yes, that Bremen is so good, except for the bit about two thirds in when they fanny about a bit too long, but then I guess that is such a Gong-esque thing to do. It doesn't sound like Pierre Moerlen is drumming on this.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 11:13 (four years ago) link
I don't mind the mucking about, I'm guessing what was going on was very visual anyway, the drummer was Laurie Allan who was only in the band for a short time, notably fucking up the squiggly sections of "I Never Glid Before", but even Bruford struggled with that.
― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 12:21 (four years ago) link
Yes, you are totally right, I imagine it was very visual and either way I'd have loved every millisecond of it had i been there. Cheers for the Laurie Allen info.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 17:21 (four years ago) link
I mean Allan, no relation. :-)
currently digging -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e5RvJ3lZG8
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 18:42 (four years ago) link
the current lineup of Gong is pretty much all new guys, led by Kavus Torabi who I assume most people posting in this thread are familiar with
I've heard the one they released this year, it sounds like it could've come out right after You, though the sound quality is obviously better. the fact that there aren't any original members never really occurs to you, they've definitely done their homework
― frogbs, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 18:50 (four years ago) link
I was referring to Nektar.
― nickn, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 18:54 (four years ago) link
You has impeccable sound quality.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 19:40 (four years ago) link
Yeah, You is an amazing sounding record.
― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 20:08 (four years ago) link
When I sold off most of my prog rock vinyl back in the punk rock daze, I kept You because it didn't really seem like prog to me. Cosmic hippie stoner space jazz rock I can hang with.
― A breezy pop-rock feel fairly typical of the mid-'80s (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 23 October 2019 20:14 (four years ago) link
ok 'better' is definitely the wrong word, but you can tell they're more modern even if the music & instrumentation is similar
― frogbs, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 20:18 (four years ago) link
...and I had no idea there was a new Gong record this year. Checking it out now and it's pretty cool!
― A breezy pop-rock feel fairly typical of the mid-'80s (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 23 October 2019 20:20 (four years ago) link
It is!
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 20:25 (four years ago) link
― nickn
kavus torabi is probably in nektar now too
― Spironolactone T. Agnew (rushomancy), Wednesday, 23 October 2019 23:48 (four years ago) link
They really need a good documentary, like the Dead one from last year, to just lay it all out on the table for us to see, they're not an ordinary band and had such an unusual trajectory, so many brilliant rabbit holes. I've been looking into the GAS tapes of various kinds and they/he/she were so prolific.
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 24 October 2019 21:43 (four years ago) link
listened to 'you' for the first time and the sound quality is amazing, doesn't sound like 1974 to me
― global tetrahedron, Thursday, 24 October 2019 22:24 (four years ago) link
Simon Reynolds on Gong in The Guardian. He’s talked to Howlett and Hillage for the piece. Some good stuff in here.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/nov/18/gong-daevid-allen-steve-hillage-prog-rock-psychedelia
― mike t-diva, Monday, 18 November 2019 23:22 (four years ago) link
soooo.... Tim Blake, what's good??
― blazin' squab (NickB), Thursday, 25 January 2024 22:39 (three months ago) link
Dunno sorry
BUT I recently happened across this video of a concert where a group cover the whole of camembert electrique almost note for note and dress as them too, and it's all kinds of wonderful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6_JBMaExOo
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 25 January 2024 23:00 (three months ago) link
I picked up The New Jerusalem recently and sold it again cos I found the vocals unbearable - and I think of myself as reasonably robust tolerator of Difficult Singing. Maybe I was found wanting here and should have persevered… but life is short.
Feel like I listened to the first one on Spotify around that time and it was (mostly?) instrumental and much easier to get along with.
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Thursday, 25 January 2024 23:17 (three months ago) link
The two new Kavus Torabi led records (one from 2023 and one from 2019) are both really good, they don’t really sound like classic Gong to me (much less wacky) but they are a trip all the same
― frogbs, Friday, 26 January 2024 00:00 (three months ago) link
i love The New Jerusalem vox n'all. (Lighthouse is all time). Crystal Machine also ace.
He is also behind this one off 7" by Saratoga Space Messengers which is a BIG hit in my house.
― stirmonster, Friday, 26 January 2024 01:05 (three months ago) link
this one is pretty much vocal free. synth heaven!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sREVq5TPkYA
― stirmonster, Friday, 26 January 2024 02:03 (three months ago) link
i adore this video where he is rocking the vcs3 and having the time of his life. being in gong in 1973 must have been just about the best job in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSvW_O4V8Yo
― stirmonster, Friday, 26 January 2024 02:08 (three months ago) link
Did the 2 volumes of Gong Dreaming by Daevid Allen get republished. I have the 2nd one which is the one where he forms Gong but never got the first one which is his life up to that point.I thought I'd heard they were going to come out through another imprint at one point.
― Stevo, Friday, 26 January 2024 06:35 (three months ago) link
SAF the original publisher folded a few years ago i think.
― Stevo, Friday, 26 January 2024 06:37 (three months ago) link
thanks for that video stirmonster, that was indeed fantastic
― blazin' squab (NickB), Friday, 26 January 2024 08:44 (three months ago) link
(i passed on cheap copies of Crystal Machine, New Jerusalem and the self-titled Clearlight Symphony record yesterday, regretting it now! that tune off Crystal Machine that you posted definitely needs sampling btw if no-one's done it already?)
― blazin' squab (NickB), Friday, 26 January 2024 08:51 (three months ago) link
"forever reoccurring" is a major jam. twenty minutes fly by like nothing
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 26 January 2024 19:24 (three months ago) link
Just thinking about the long interview with Kramer, was it, where he talks about Gong, iirc.
― Pictish in the Woods (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 January 2024 02:50 (three months ago) link
You was my gateway in the 70s, via a shortie in the CREEM back-of-the-book Rock-a-Rama section---not my usual fare, but oh my, lucky i.BYG has reappeared on Bandcamp, where I finally heard and dug Magick Brother, also Banana Moon, which made several of my ballots---I said this on the main Wyatt thread:
Quite a few BYG albums now reissued and streaming on Bandcamp---I started with Banana Moon, because RW is in the core band with Daevid Allen and Archie Legget, ready for excellent guests. "Stoned Innocent Frankenstein" could be the title track, considering whole set's seemingly off-handed pop-rock flair through the crusty bits*, with attentive dynamics def. incl. Wyatt's drumming and harmonies.He sings lead on "Memories," which could be a ringer, but fits with other songs' sincerity ("Get Me Outta Here," o yes), and the voice is distant, but persistent, also unmistakable, while the playing is bluesier than his otm "Rock Bottom" B-side arrangement, but sympathetically so. Here's the best audio of the B that I've heard, on Richard Sinclair's Bandcamp:https://richardsinclairsongs.bandcamp.com/track/memoriesAnd before I forget, here's the 2023 Banana Moon:https://bygrecords.bandcamp.com/album/banana-moon (Gong's reissued Magick Brother is sounding pretty good on BYG BC too)*wiki:In 2003, David Bowie included it in a list of 25 of his favourite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie", saying that "it's possible, just possibly maybe, that strands of the embryonic glam style started here."[7]
And before I forget, here's the 2023 Banana Moon:https://bygrecords.bandcamp.com/album/banana-moon (Gong's reissued Magick Brother is sounding pretty good on BYG BC too)
*wiki:
In 2003, David Bowie included it in a list of 25 of his favourite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie", saying that "it's possible, just possibly maybe, that strands of the embryonic glam style started here."[7]
As for this:
I've never followed Gong very closely, but for me Hillage earned his place in music history for helping Rachid Taha put together Made in Medina. Songlines' reviewer said when he heard it, he glimpsed what Page and Plant were going for w North African musicians. Yeah, seems like this is the realization and then some, to put it mildly. Anyway, more on Made.. should prob be for another thread--what's the deal with New York Gong? The genesis of Material, right? Is the album good?― dow, Sunday, October 14, 2012 7:11 PM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglinki've grown to really like the new york gong album over the years after completely dismissing it when i first bought it but whether you'll like it or not really depends on whether or not you dig daevid allen's schtick. the laswell hook up came via the notorious jean karakos who moved his celluloid label from france to new york and had gong connections going way back. material probably took the name from the "materialism" track on it and put their first album proper out on celluloid shortly after this came out.― stirmonster, Sunday, October 14, 2012
― dow, Sunday, October 14, 2012 7:11 PM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink
i've grown to really like the new york gong album over the years after completely dismissing it when i first bought it but whether you'll like it or not really depends on whether or not you dig daevid allen's schtick. the laswell hook up came via the notorious jean karakos who moved his celluloid label from france to new york and had gong connections going way back. material probably took the name from the "materialism" track on it and put their first album proper out on celluloid shortly after this came out.
― stirmonster, Sunday, October 14, 2012
― dow, Saturday, 27 January 2024 04:11 (three months ago) link
There is a compilation of appearances on French tv during the early 70s that I have seen crop up at the end of videos I've seen. Assume its still around though not sure when videos were upped to youtube.
I'm seeing copies of the volumes of the Gong Dreaming book going for massive prices. I did think I had heard about a reprint but not seeing copies cheap and current. Volume 2 was very good anyway.
― Stevo, Saturday, 27 January 2024 11:37 (three months ago) link
I return to this clip of "I Never Glid Before" loads, Mike Howlett's playing especially is just so absurdly good, my wife likes to point out that Daevid has a little bit of Spin Doctors singer thing going on :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeHN_VmVfRI
― MaresNest, Saturday, 27 January 2024 11:53 (three months ago) link