Formed in Paris in the late ‘60s by Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen and British singer Gilli Smyth, with additional British and French musicians, Gong was a truly international band. Their music embodies a genuinely continental European aesthetic that seems to me quite in tune with both the whimsical prog-rock of the Canterbury scene (from which Allen and many of the other band members came) and the rhythmic propulsion and sound explorations of Krautrock.
Gong’s style incorporates elements of psychedelic rock, space rock, jazz fusion, art-prog, electronic music, and all kinds of lyrical silliness—from witches and gnomes to pothead pixies from the planet Gong. The male/female vocal duo of Allen and Smyth was a rarity in the genres of prog rock and space rock. (Her vocal contributions are somewhat less frequent, but are typically among the best songs—“Witch’s Song / I Am Your Pussy” and “Prostitute Poem,” for example.)
Anyone who likes their music a little “out there” should absolutely love this band. I knew absolutely nothing of them at all until the retrospective listening project that has since become this website.
If you don’t know them, check them out.
Playlist 1
Their sound first came to fruition with their second album, Camembert Electronique, featured here along with an earlier collaboration with poet Dashiell Hedayat.
Playlist 2
Playlist Two highlights the trio of albums they released from 1972 through 1974, called the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy. Cool, weird stuff.
Cover Art:
Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1): Source, Discogs.com
Recent Comments