01	Foolefare						00:42
	02	Magdalene						03:58
	03	The Invisible Temple						11:35
	04	Zeroid						06:08
	05	Wise Man in Your Heart						08:04
	06	The Mad Monk						03:25
	07	Yoni on Mars						06:07
	08	Damaged Man						05:13
	09	Bodilingus						04:03
	10	Tali's Song						06:27
	11	Infinitea						07:48

(p)(c) 2000 SNAPPER MUSIC

Produced by Mike Howlett and Gong Eclective
Recorded at Moat Studios London between the Full Moons of Sept/Oct 1999
Engineered by Toby Robinson
Mastered by Denis Blackham at Country Masters
Artwork Daevid Allen
Mythos written by Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth and Mike Howlett

Gong - Zero to Infinity Country of Origin: UK
Format: CD
Record Label: Snapper Records
Catalogue #: SMACD824
Year of Release: 2000

This latest Gong offering features original members Daevid Allen (glissando and lead guitar, vocals, piano), Gilli Smyth ("voicewhisper, horsewhisper and birdsong"), Mike Howlett (bass) and Didier Malherbe (doudouk, alto sax and bamboo flute) joined by award winning saxophonist Theo Travis (tenor and soprano sax, flute, keyboards, samples) and ex Soul II Soul member Chris Taylor (drums and percussion).

The CD is very nicely presented, with mysterious and spacey images on the extensive sleeve, which also includes full lyrics and a six page commentary on the underlying storyline. Yes, storyline. You will need to put on your concept album hat in order to fully take in Zero To Infinity. But is this enough to make it prog?
Maybe I'm just too conscious to fully absorb myself into the world that is Gong. The story revolves around a person ("our hero" - I can't help noticing that the storyline for The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway also refers to the central figure as "our hero". What is it about concept albums?) called 'Zero', who through a variety of bizarre occurrences detailed in previous episodes, finds himself without a body. This album portrays his discovery of the considerable advantages of body-free virtual existence.

The album opens with Foolefare, 42 seconds of brass harmonies, opening the album with a slightly jazzy feel. The track apparently portrays "our hero" choosing to become a benign observer from behind the sensory cortex of any living creature. Apparently.
Magdalene starts with a mysterious fast sax pattern which ripples along over a continuous drum groove. After a few bars, the main melodic theme appears in the form of a sax rif and a similar vocal line. The song describes "our hero" moving through a forest and into a Tesco car park, where he is drawn to the face of the triple goddess represented by Magdalene, Diana, and Witch Yoni. The song continues in a single direction with very few changes, but with some mellow sax soloing keeping the flow moving.

According to the essential storyline commentary, The Invisible Temple portrays Witch Yoni swooping down and zapping the dream destroyers who ride on nightmares. The liberated dreamers soar with Zero and taste infinitea fresh from the Yonipot. Looking down through red mists they see vast concentric rings of romping animal energies shimmering in waves, around an invisible temple. From a angel's egg in the centre steps a mythical creature called a Gongolope.
Yes, that's roughly what I thought. Readers who experienced the first months of the BBC's coverage of the UK's National Lottery, will recognise the style of Mystic Meg telling this part of the story on the opening of The Invisible Temple. That kind of "fortune telling booth" mystery voice that never really sounds believable, but just sounds like it's supposed to sound odd and mystic in some shallow sense. For me these spoken vocals ("voicewhisper") completely distract from the great music. It's very difficult to take seriously, and it's not sufficiently funny, spooky, obscure, eccentric, surreal to be taken in any of those ways. Without chemical assistance, at least.
Musically, the majority of the eleven and a half minutes are spent grooving along with improvised sax and lead guitar, in a style very reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, with some very soothing ambient textures, unusual sound effects and so on. Not a bad track (if you can swallow the narration), though without a great deal of structure or variety.

Zeroid breaks in with a rather angular, almost King Crimson bass pattern, with threatening effected whispered vocals and soaring sax. This track held my prog attention the longest out of all the tracks on the album, purely because for me it had the most interesting and original composition and instrumentation. The storyline has "our hero" sliding down a fireman's pole and taking a subway to New York, where he sits behind the mind of Lorde Tonsil of Aplomb, who is meeting Professor Paradox for a chat. As you can imagine. The second half of the track takes a dive down from the aggresive intro, with softer vocals and a more reflective feel. More narrative-style words (not sung) over the music, portraying the story perhaps a little too literally for my taste. Many other concept albums hide the details of the storyline behind a layer of ambiguity, allowing the listener to create their own interpretation in their own mind. Gong take the other extreme and tell you the specifics.

Wise Man in your Heart reminds me a LOT of various modern Peter Gabriel solo tracks. Probably the best comparison is Blood of Eden from "Us", with its undulating vocal harmony layers and sparse production. Interestingly the drums on this track are strongly reminiscent of Manu Katche's contributions to many similar Gabriel tracks, with a bassline not a million miles from many a Tony Levin groove. It works well, especially with the dream-like sax floating in and out.
The next track, The Mad Monk, portrays "our hero" in a meeting with the Mad Monk, alledgedly a "dreadlocked giggle guru", who wisely teaches him that if you can make a proper cuppa tea, then you can virtually do anything. This of course is apparent from the music which comes in a slightly quirky modern jazz style (Django Bates style, with brass harmonies and Thelonious Monk-esque piano), with humorous vocals.

Yoni on Mars starts off with some very spacey sound effects and an improvised feel. A beautiful theramin sample marks a melodic motif which reappears later in the form of sax patterns, and represents the most memorable part of the tune. As many of the vocal parts on the album have no melodic content - just spoken narrative - these melodic parts are essential, and they work well. The storyline digs itself deep into pun-land, describing Witch Yoni on Mars, taking time out in a mars bar etc etc. A quiet, thoughtful track that kind of slides along without making a great impact, but still leaving a pleasant taste.
Damaged Man comes next, beginning with quiet sound effects, and a nice atonal piano texture bubbling away in the depths of the mix. In come some desperate-sounding vocals, strongly reminiscent of those Don't Leave Me Now vocals from Pink Floyd's The Wall. The song captures "our hero's" thoughts on ending it all, until he realises that there's nothing to end as he has no body. Around four minutes into this desolate musical scene, all manner of improvised hell breaks out, including a ringing telephone sample (more Floyd references!).

In Bodilingus, "our hero" picks up the phone to discover his body at the other end reminding him of its continued existence. The somewhat flippant vocals ("My poor old bum! My bum! My scrotum is bitching, it's tetchy, it's twitching") are certainly an acquired taste, and form the main focus of this somewhat humorous track.
The penultimate track, Tali's Song brings the mood down again from the mad festivities of the previous number, as happy childhood memories return to "our hero". It's a soft song with an acoustic feel, and features various flute parts and solos by Theo Travis.
Infinitea ends the album and concludes this episode of the Zeroid's story. Starting with a trancelike cycling drum groove, with various textures coming in and out, many minutes pass without any real feeling of achievement or direction. A nice track for ambient lovers, but I suspect many prog fans would wish for a little more action, more changes, more composition. After around six minutes, we're treated to a sax solo, which ends the track and the album.

All in all a reasonable and listenable album, and very nicely produced and recorded. All of the musicianship is excellent - the drums in particular stand out to me as being very good; nothing exciting prog-wise, no odd time signatures etc, but very precisely played grooves with a perfect feel - ideal for this kind of music. The two sax players do a sterling job in keeping up the melodic content, which is virtually ignored from a vocal perspective. If you don't mind the more ambient, groove-based end of prog, with leanings towards Pink Floyd (without their strong vocals) or early Porcupine Tree (without their strong prog appeal), then this could be a great album for you. If you're heavily into surreal storylines and have a high threshold for corniness, then the vocals will be a hit with you. The narrative vocals are a central part to most of the tracks. For me they distracted from the underlying music and spoilt several tracks, but that's just my interpretation. If you're looking for more of a prog album, with interesting time signatures, songs with changes in them, and synth parts, then I feel you will probably be disappointed.

Conclusion: 6.5 out of 10.

Neil Durant





Zero To Infinity
2000
Genre: Psychedelic , Spacerock AOTM: Jul2000

The latest album from the masters of "pot head pixie space rock" music. The members on "Zero to Infinity" are long standing members Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe, Chris Taylor and plus new member Theo Travis. All the essential Gong elements from the bands peak era are to the fore on this latest release with new member Theo Travis adding tenor & soprano saxes, flute, keyboards & electronic samples that fit perfectly into the Gong sound. On "Zero to Infinity" our hero Zero becomes a virtual entity where he grapples with the problem of whether to be a real hero or a virtual hero. Gong not only manage to look at issues that face us all with their zany sense of humour but also they are able to interweave this into the totally unique music they have been creating now for some 30 odd years. The march of time has eroded nothing from the uniqueness of Gong. Comes with a 20 page booklet with story and words to the tracks. Recommended.








A Night At The (Invisible) Opera

Gong Live In London May 2000 - Gong 'Zero To Infinity' CD





Images courtesy of Snapper music and Copyright Fin Costello


Gong at The Hammersmith, Palais, London., May 7th 2000

I have been listening to Gong since 1976 but for many years never thought I would get to see them live. However since the 1995 25th anniversary gigs the band have been playing fairly regularly in various interesting shapes and forms. The last tour in (I think) 1998 was particularly brilliant with Pierre Moerlen on drums and Professor Sharpstrings on synths and guitar. It was a little disappointing to find that neither is currently playing in the band but oh boy was this gig brilliant. Not necessarily better or worse than the last tour, just different and totally wondrous.

The immediate impression upon walking into the venue was that this was going to be a cool gig. Day Glo Om and Ying Yang backdrops coupled with various gauze screens and large hanging balloons (onto which images would later be projected) created a great atmosphere and the audience, some in fancy dress, were clearly 'up for it' as were we.

The support act 'Witch' served up some festival style heavy-ish rock. It's clearly acceptable to be a self-righteous pagan but not a self-righteous Christian. Not my cup of (mushroom) tea really but good all the same and quite warmly received

As soon as 'Witch' left the stage we were treated to some beautiful ambient sounds courtesy (I think) of Professor Steffy Sharpstrings. The gig started here and the continuation of these sounds right up to the appearance of Gong really served to raise the atmosphere. This one was going to be gooooood!

Gong May 7th 2000 (as described on the Snapper site)

Daevid Allen: Bi-focal Vocals, Lewd Guitar and Glissando
Gilli Smyth: Vocals, Chants and Deep Space Whisper
Didier 'Bloomdido De Grasse' Malherbe: Deva Delights & gnome presence
Mike Howlett: Mesmerizing Cosmic Bass
Theo Travis: Jazzy Sax and Flute Salad
Chris Taylor: Space Funk Drummering
Gwyo Zepix: Keyboard Magick and Cynthia-Size-A






Images Copyright Onlinemusic.com


Enter Gong themselves beginning with a number of tracks from the new album 'Zero To Infinity', these like the other new tracks played on the night sounded really great live and the gig got off to a flying start (almost literally). About 10 minutes however the fun really began as the band entered one of the many deep, deep trance-funk zones that we were to be treated to. This was it, we were there in the zone and there we stayed until the last notes of the encore (and for a good while afterwards).

The current band is exploring deeper funk grooves than either the Pyle or Moerlen driven incarnations, these are truly glorious. Also the addition of Gwyo Zepix (!?) in keyboards has really added harmonic weight to the sound as well as lots more twiddle blips than have been in evidence in recent years. With no guitarist other than Daevid (although Gwyo played rhythm guitar on Oily Way and I think one other number) it was left to Mr Alien to assume the lead guitar role in his own unique style. Daevid is certainly no technician (but no slouch either) and basically plays it as he feels it. The results are usually a lot weirder than Hillage or Steffy and often quite brilliant. Overall the sound was deeply funky, highly spacey and I think the closest thing I have heard to being in a tent with Thandoy / Kharma Kanix in the early 80's. Groovesomely brilliant and totally zonal!

Mention must be made of Mr Aliens costumes. Starting off in a decorated white boiler suit looking like Pete Townshend after too much acid Daevid then treated us to a white, partially fluffy, winged affair decorated with CD's which made him look like a sort of outer space Elvis. The last outfit I remember (there may have been another) consisted of a shiny sequinned one piece suite overlaid with a white and very fluffy waistcoat. Wonderful stuff and of course totally silly. At the time of writing there are some pictures at the Snapper site.

I can't name all of the tracks that they played now but the generous helping of 'Zero To Infinity' numbers, particularly the aforesaid funky grooves really served to add variety to the set after several tours consisting almost entirely of old favourites. The material from the new album sits alongside the original Teapot trilogy better than anything Daevid and the band have produced since 'You'.

Here are a few of the tracks I am pretty sure they played in no particular order:

You Can't Kill Me, Zero the Hero & the Witches Spell, Witch's Song, Radio Gnome Invisible, Oily Way, Outer Temple, Master Builder (final climatic number), Foolefare, Magdalene, Infinitea, The Invisible Temple, Tropical Fish, Yoni On Mars

I haven't mentioned all the band members but suffice to say they were all brilliant but particular mention must go to Howlett and Taylor for laying it down so deep and Bloomdido for being his usual genius self.

So there you are. That's how I remember it. Brilliant, but of course you had to be there. If you are into Gong and haven't got 'Zero To Infinity' yet then get it post haste. If you have never heard them then buy 'You' first.

Love you Baaaaby!





Gong 'Zero To Infinity' (Radio Gnome Pt 5)

Although there have been a number of albums over the years bearing the 'Gong' moniker none have really sounded that much like the band that made 'Camembert Electrique' and the Teapot Trilogy. 'Shapeshifter' (Radio Gnome Part 4) in the mid 90's had some great moments but somehow wasn't quite Gong. 'Zero To Infinity' however does sound like Gong, in parts like the Teapot albums and in parts like the less refined albums that came before, 'Camembert:' and 'Magick Brother'.

Long serving Gong members Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Mike Howlett, and Didier Malherbe are joined by Theo Travis on sax and Chris Taylor on drums.

1 Foolefare (0.42)
2 Magdalene (3.57)
3 The Invisible Temple (11.35)
4 Zeroid (6.08)
5 Wise Man in Your Heart (8.03)
6 The Mad Monk (3.24)
7 Yoni On Mars (6.07)
8 Damaged Man (5.13)
9 Bodilingus (4.02)
10 Tali Song (6.25)
11 Infinitea (7.48)

Like many Gong outings this is a two-sided, Ying and Yang affair, part spacey, jazzy, trance funk, part avant garde rock and silliness. Personally I prefer the former but then they wouldn't be Gong without the balance. It also has a very pure sound with just bass, drums, Daevid's guitar (either gliss or conventional) and sax on most tracks, the keyboards that are there are unobtrusive. At times it is maybe just a little too empty (pity that Gwyo wasn't there to add more keys and blips) but overall this is a great album and as I said above worthy of a place up with the three Teapot albums (I wouldn't personally put 'Shapeshifter' in that category).

I won't list all of the highlights as there are very few parts that aren't highlights but special mention must go to the trance funk of 'The Invisible Temple', 'Yoni On Mars' and 'Infinitea'. 'Wise Man In Your Heart' may just be one of the best songs that the band have ever recorded.

A very, very welcome addition to the all too small canon of Gong studio albums.

Daevid, Gilli, Didier, Mike (especially Mike) et al I thank you.

Buy it.

David Weston May 2000

Gong Links

Gong Netcast Archive at Online Concerts http://www.onlineconcerts.com/gong/gong_archive.htm

Official Gong Album Site http://www.snappermusic.com/gong

Gong Appreciation Society (GAS) http://www.planetgong.co.uk/

Images courtesy of Snapper Music, Fin Costello, Onlineconcerts.com