01	Thoughts For Naught						01:32
	02	A P.H.P.'s Advice						01:47
	03	Magick Mother Invocation						02:06
	04	Master Builder						06:07
	05	A Sprinkling Of Clouds						08:55
	06	Perfect Mystery						02:26
	07	The Isle Of Everywhere						10:20
	08	You Never Blow Your Trip Forever						11:22

Virgin (CAROL 1664-2)
UK/France 1974

Daevid Allen, guitar, vocals;
Tim Blake, keyboards;
Steve Hillage, guitars;
Mike Howlett, bass;
Didier Malherbe, woodwinds, vocals;
Pierre Moerlen, drums, percussion;
Gilli Smythe, vocals;
with Miquette Giraudy, vocals; Mireille Bauer, percussion; Benoit Moerlen, percussion

Bob Eichler:
This album is the third and final installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy. The first album in the series, Flying Teapot, tended to emphasize the lyrics, setting up the characters and story. The middle album, Angel's Egg, struck a good balance between forwarding the plot (such as it is) and indulging in spacey jams. The shift towards more music and less lyrics continued on the last album, as You is largely instrumental. It isn't really necessary to listen to the trilogy albums in order - they each can stand on their own. So the place to start would depend on your own preferences - lyrical or instrumental.
This third album includes what, for me, is probably the highlight of the whole trilogy, "Master Builder". An intensely powerful space fusion jam that really gets the crowd going at concerts. "A Sprinkling of Clouds" is also excellent. The final track sums up the story by making lyrical and musical reference back to songs from the first two albums.
Ozric Tentacles fans should definitely check out the band Gong, and particularly this album, to see where the Ozrics got their sound from. Anyone else who has an interest in space rock or fusionish jams is also recommended to give this a try.

Joe McGlinchey:
Recorded in 1974, this is the apex and the crossroads of the band Gong. Founded and led by Australian ex-patriate and ex-Soft Machine guitarist Daevid Allen, this English-French band captured a very original and eclectic sound often called 'space fusion' that continues to inspire today (e.g. Ozric Tentacles). One is struck here by how the band shifts abruptly from harmless, sunny-day pop music a la The Beatles (the opening two tracks) to an ominous, mystical fury a la Mahavishnu Orchestra ("Master Builder," and the band's masterpiece, "A Sprinkling of Clouds") at literally the bang of a gong. Second side is a bit more jam-based and not quite as effective as the first, but is still decent. It's all here: Tim Blake's sea of synthesizers, Didier Malherbe's good cop offset by Steve Hillage's brutal cop, Gilli Smythe's 'space whisper' and the thunderous rhythm section of Howlett and Moerlen. At the helm remains Allen, driving the whole hurricane with a twinkle of the eye and a wholly convoluted, absurdist story of Zero the Hero, Octave Doctors, and Pot-Head Pixies. If you've never heard Gong before, this is usually regarded as their magnum opus, and probably the place with which you should begin.


Gong - "You" (1974) I guess all of us have a "what-the-hell-is-all-the-fuzz-about-this??" band. You know, a band that everyone else seems to enjoy very much but yourself simply can't understand why. I think Gong is that band for me. To me, they are nothing else than a fusion-band(yawn!) pretending to be space-rockers. And all these idiotic vocals that was supposed to be "funny" and the infantile concept about the planet Gong and all its stupid creatures...I HATE it! This bullshit was enough for many people to declare Gong as a band with "a great sense of humour". Sorry guys, I'm not even close to smiling when listening to a Gong album but much closer to sleeping. Anyway, "You" was the last album in their "Radio Gnome" trilogy and is often regarded as their best work. And it does actually feature one of the very few tracks by them that I enjoy: "A Sprinkling of Clouds". This was a good piece of atmospheric space-music very reminiscent of Sensation's Fix' excellent "Fragments of Light" album. But the rest of the album sounds like Gong used to sound. Pointless and tiresome fusion-noodling where a bunch of spacey synths desperately tries to create something that was supposed to be spacey atmospheres. I think "Isle of Everywhere" is a "good" example of this. It's based in a simple funky rhythm that just goes on for about 10-minutes without any development at all. You should better check out bands like Hawkwind, Ashra Tempel, Sensations Fix and Mythos if you're looking for a trip to outer space. They knew MUCH better how to create space-rock than what Gong ever did.




Gong
You
1973
Virgin
Slipped Disc, Jacksonville, FL

Without a doubt, one of the most unusual classic progressive bands of the '70s is Gong. This band's history is at least as convoluted as that of Yes and its members are some of the most enigmatic musicians and personalities in the business. What's important however is the band's music.

Gong has evolved through several formations and musical styles over the years but the best music to ever come from the band is generally considered to have come from the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, a series of concept albums released in 1973 and 1974. The trilogy includes Flying Teapot , Angel's Egg and the band's crowning achievement, You. All three of the trilogy albums feature some great music, but You is the only album of the three which every prog fan absolutely must have. It is as much a standard issue as Yes' Close to the Edgeor Genesis' Foxtrot.

You completes the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy as well as the band's involvement in space rock. It is the absolute pinnacle of Gong's space rock era as well as that of space rock itself. You shows the band in its best and most advanced musical form before it slipped into very technical, yet comparatively boring jazz fusion in the late '70s. Unlike fellow explorers of inner space, Hawkwind, Gong featured top-notch musicians like Steve Hillage and Pierre Moerlin who could do more than just apply effects and weird synth noises to a four-chord rock and roll song. Indeed, You finds the band already delving into jazz, but simultaneously at its most spacy and mind-altering.

The album starts slowly with the short, goofy tunes "Thoughts for Naught" and "A P.H.P.'s Advice." By track three, however, the ride to Planet Gong, begins with a synth whoosh and a low, spacy, Buddhist monk-like droning vocal. The highlight of the album is the instrumental "A Sprinkling of Clouds," which starts with a repetitive Terry Riley-meets-Tangerine Dream synth sequence which slowly evolves into a heavy, Eastern-tinged jam featuring some excellent drumming and culminating in a great saxophone solo. It should be noted here that Gong is one of the few bands I have heard who use horns as well as vibraphone, marimba and other mallet instruments in a fashion I can really enjoy.

You also features all the infamous Planet Gong characters like the Pot Head Pixies, Zero the Hero and the Octave Doctor, as well as all the other silliness which is used to veil the band's mystical utopian vision. Fortunately this vision is pretty hazy and easy to ignore on this album due to the increased emphasis on instrumental passages. This also allows for much less of Daevid Allen's nasal vocal presence than previous albums. These factors certainly have a hand in making this Gong's best album.

You is one of the most listenable and listened-to albums in my collection and it will probably find a similar place in your collection if you give it a chance.






Gong 'You'

A retrospective review of a much loved album from 1974 by David Weston



Gong? I hear some of you ask, who or what is Gong?

In some ways Gong is Daevid Allen and whichever musicians are, or have been fortunate enough to work with him over the last 30 years. In other ways it is a musical philosophy strong on experimentation, ground breaking musical fusions and mysticism.

Gong is still around today (1999) in a variety of forms (see the Gong Appreciation Society - GAS site for details) but the Gong that made the best albums and crystallised their own unique sound existed in the early 1970's, splitting up after making the truly glorious album in question. Geographically the band comprised both English and French personnel, spiritually it seemed to come from somewhere in the Himalayas.

You, released in 1974, was part three of a set of albums commonly known as the 'Flying Teapot Trilogy', the first two parts being 'Flying Teapot' and 'Angels Egg'. Over the course of the trilogy Gong lost some of the spaced-out musical anarchy to be found on the earlier records ('Magick Brother Mystic Sister' and 'Camembert Electrique') to become a truly amazing psychedelic (sorry but I can't think of a better word for it), jazz-rock ensemble. Unlike most 'jazz-rock' or 'fusion' bands however, Gong had real soul (a 'heart' rather than the musical genre) and a reason for playing other than just to show off how accomplished they were.

I don't want to dwell on the meaning of the trilogy in too much detail as I am sure that interpretations can be found elsewhere on the WWW and to be honest I am not sure if anyone other than Daevid really understands it all. Briefly though, the teapot trilogy charts the trials and tribulations of one 'Zero the Hero' who by the end of the You album gains a level of spiritual awareness and the understanding that 'you are I and I are you'. To me this amounts to a common universal consciousness of which all things are a part and which we can help to raise if we contribute good actions and thoughts (goodwill). This is a theme to be found in a number of works of the period including Genesis's 'Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' and Van Der Graaf Generator's 'Plague of Lighthouse Keepers'. It seemed that during the 70's something (herbal tea maybe?) happened which made people want to expound this philosophy. Jolly good I say.

What about the music I hear you say?

If you haven't ever heard Gong you may find it all a little unusual. As well as the jazz-rock element mentioned above and Daevid's poem-songs you will find the very definition of what has become known as 'ambient' or 'chill-out' music contained within. However whereas since the 80's this type of music has largely become trapped by the boring, repetitious cage created by the drum machine (I hate what these bloody things have done to music!) and sequencers, on You the whole thing is driven forward by the truly wonderful rhythm section that was Mike Howlett on bass guitar and Pierre Moerlen on drums (BOA experienced a truly orgasmic Gong gig in 1997 with this very same rhythm section - we counted ourselves very lucky to be alive that night).

The ambient element is created by a combination of Daevid's glissando guitar (what is it? listen to OK Computer for a more recent example, it's sort of slide guitar extended and played as a continuous drone with lots of echo) and Tim Blake's sumptuous Mini Moog drones and twiddle-blips.

By the way, when you look at the sleeve you won't see many of these names. In a sort of ego-losing exercise some of the band members assumed new names (as happens in some religious groups). Daevid Allen became 'Dingo Virgin', Tim Blake 'Hi T Moonweed' and Didier Malherbe (sax and flute) 'Bloomdido Bad de Grass' (or sometimes as one the You sleeve Glad de Brass).

As well as the delights already described you will also find on this album Didier's inspirational sax and flute playing, Gilli Smyth's haunting 'Space Whisper', Mireille Bauer's jazzy percussion, a few nursery rhymes and the odd Buddhist chant. Intrigued? Just wait till you hear it.

Track Listing

Side 1
Thought For Nought
A P.H.P.'s Advice (P.H.P. = Pot Head Pixie)
Magick Mother Invocation
Master Builder
A Sprinkling Of Clouds


Side 2
Perfect Mistery (sic)
The Isle Of Everywhere
You Never Blow Your Trip Forever


My favourite bits? All of side one for a start (in CD terms that is the first 5 tracks up to the end of 'A Sprinkling of Clouds'). The music just rises and rises over the course of the tracks until by the second half of 'A Sprinkling of Clouds' it floats away into the stratosphere taking the listener (dining in or out) with it - a process known as 'Glidding' in Gong terms. On side two 'Isle of Everywhere' serves up similar delights.

By the way have I mentioned Steve Hillage? Of course he is on You as well prior to leaving for a solo career and subsequently System 7. Seeing Steve in Hyde Park, London in 1976 was the reason I got into Gong in the first place. Throughout the album, but especially on 'Master Builder' (the track the Ozrics turned into about seven albums), 'A Sprinkling..' and 'Isle..', his guitar is like the icing a particularly tasty and nutritious cake (carrot maybe). Not too sweet but just totally and absolutely brilliant and an object lesson in 'In a Tent' (see Chemical Alice page for explanation) guitar playing. Stop playing with computers Steve and form a real band again please.

So there it is, Gong - You.

If you have never heard Gong I whole-heartedly recommend this as an introduction. If you like it then work your way back through the trilogy.

If you have heard Gong and didn't like them, try this one if you haven't heard it already.

If you like this album as much as I do then I am glad to have made your acquaintance.

Love

David Weston May 1999

P.S. A double CD of You remixes appeared in 1997 featuring the talents of the ORB, System 7 (Steve remixes himself) and others. Not bad but don't buy it until you have bought the whole trilogy.

Check out Jezaland - An amazing site covering a broad range of music and stuff but especially lots of great information, photos and links relating to the UK festival scene of the 70's and related bands such as Gong, Here & Now, Steve Hillage, Zorch etc.Checkout the 'Bandwagon' and 'Festival Photos' areas.