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FIRECLAN: Fireclan CD
Now, it's not often in the field of electronic music that someone does something genuinely new with it, but here is a prime example - and it works!! Fireclan started out as a synths and drums duo, then Spirits Burning/Spaceship Eyes musician Don Falcone got involved and the result is a first album (eight tracks over 75 minutes) which revolves largely around synths, drums/percussion and electric bass. Now at this point, anyone from a seventies background is thinking "prog-rock" - well, no it isn't. If anything, it's "synth-prog", or maybe "synth-rock" or maybe some term that hasn't been coined yet - you see the dilemma? For the most part it's multi-layered synth soundscapes with lush backdrops, melodies, rhythms and full-sounding expansive textures, but with this amazing rhythmic propulsion from the bass and drums, all so accessible and atmospheric, melodic and solid at the same time, but it's like no-one else around, yet just fantastic music.
The melodies from the synths soar and dive, flying high as endless horizons of synths weave webs of sonic delight that will take your breath away, while the rhythm section provide this wondrous crisp, strong and chunky sea of drum rhythms and bass lines that throb and pound to perfection. A couple of tracks have extra textures added courtesy of the glissando guitar magic of Gong's guitarist, Daevid Allen, to give even more of a warm feel to the music than already exists elsewhere, and just a magical combination with the synths and rhythm section. The rhythm section tends to conform more to the rules of synth music than the rules of prog-rock, so you'll hear bass and drum tracks that fit with synth music more expertly than most synth musicians or groups have ever managed in the past, almost taking to task bands such as Ash Ra and the like, as the whole crystal clear yet solid as a rock and so atmospheric sea of sonic delights unfolds. Extra use of string synth and sequenced rhythms on occasion merely add to the already spellbinding effect, and every track is just fantastic as the combination flares into existence and burns very brightly throughout. It's one of those albums that is intriguing and fascinating on first hearing, then you really start to get into it on second play so that by the time the third play is almost demanded, you are just so into the heady magnificence and strong drive of this rich and uniquely arranged set of compositions, synth music sounding stronger than it's sounded in years, in fact more than mere "synth" - but then we're back to my opening statement, once more. By anyone's standards, this is one superb album, timeless, accessible, strong and confident, produced to perfection and simply amazing music - essential listening and then some.
GONG: Angels Egg -Remaster+Bonus Tracks CD
I was having a conversation with GAS supreme Jonny Greene, before this came out and mentioned that I thought, of all the classic era Gong albums, this was the best, purely on the grounds of its consistency as an album. Sure, 'Flying Teapot', 'You' & 'Camembert' all had their killer tracks, but they also had their turkeys too. On this album, it's nothing but great tracks from start to finish, and for that reason alone, to me, stands as the finest studio album the band did in the seventies. Now, given a truly wondrous new makeover in terms of the sound quality, its vibrancy and brilliance now comes shining out like a light in the sky.
From the opening, largely instrumental, seven minutes of 'Other Side Of The Sky', featuring some truly brilliant instrumental work from the band as a whole, the album moves to a corking Allen-penned song with an anthemic and infectious sea of choruses plus some sterling solos from Hillage & Malherbe. Then it's the one minute of delicious Tim Blake & Steve Hillage together that is 'Castle In The Clouds' before Gilli Smyth enters with her beautiful vocal and space whisper on one of the most emotive compositions she performed on a seventies Gong album, its, group-played but Malherbe-led, mix of jazz swing and eerily ambient gorgeous vocal, truly unique and highly addictive. 'Selene' is just gorgeous with multi-tracked vocals and hazy. Lazy flowing instrumentation. Then it's the turn of the four tracks that became the live stage favourite 'Oily Way', here, as a nine minute body of music, opened up by Malherbe's flute and Tim Blake's synths, the two minute intro is positively now majestic, and then suddenly it's into the main body of the song with sprightly flute, and - bang - in come the band, as the tempo increases, some beautifully fluid Hillage guitar unfolds and Allen begins another fine vocal performance. With its fantastic, typically seventies Gong outro where sax, glissando guitars, rhythm section, space synths and space whisper all combine in a sound that is uniquely Gong, it is yet another highlight of an album stuffed full of them.
The percussive -led beauty that is the song 'Love Is How Y Make It' is still a thing of joy and amazement, making you feel all warm and gooey every time you hear it, Allen's vocal, solo and mult-tracked, delivering a ballad of gorgeous feel and structure, as the drums and bass enter and simply this trio provide a slice of vintage Gong action.But then comes the album's tour-de-force in the form of the Hillage-led vocal and swirling guitar/synths dominated song that is the near six minutes of 'I Never Glid Before', the rhythm section playing a blinder, and the song now sounding as classic as anything off the 'Fish Rising' album that would follow years later. Finally, there is the wide-eyed slice of typically Gong jazz-rock song action that is 'Eat That Phone Book Coda' to end a truly remarkable album. Here, though, are four bonus tracks - a single version of 'Other Side Of The Sky' that truly distils the essence of what is a fantastic slice of instrumental splendour; the five minutes of dizzy punkiness that is the eccentricity of 'Ooby Scooby', Allen at his best in terms of lyrics, vocal and arrangement, both smiling and serious, with a wicked Hillage solo in there too; a vocal-only '73 mix of 'Love Is How Y Make It' and finally, an early version of 'Eat That Phone Book' coda that makes up in energy what it lacks in refinement, compared to the original album version, Malherbe's sax blowing a storm. Welcome, then, to the definitive version of Gong's most consistent studio album without a less than riveting second on the entire thing.
GONG: Acid Motherhood CD
Actually a meeting of a new Gong (Daevid Allen/Josh Pollock/Orlando Allen/Dharmawan Bradbridge) and Acid Mothers Temple main musicians, Makoto & Cotton. The result is a Gong album through and through where the might of the Acid Mothers beast is both a whirlwind of an asset while at the same time having been tamed by the unstoppable force that is Gong. With nothing but electric guitars, electric bass, synths and drums, plus Allen on (not that many) vocals, this is a mix of hellraising psychedelia as Gong and Acid go places you could only ever dreamed of, while the occasional more delicate moments are pure classic seventies sounding Allen in a Gong otherworld. The two longest tracks on the album - 'Supercotton' at nearly 9 minutes and 'Makototen' at over thirteen - are song and instrumental respectively, the first a 2004 version of '74-era Gong-song with some wicked bass, swooping Blake-style synths, guitars everywhere and Allen's vocal carrying it all forward in typically fun and fiery fashion. The second is a wild, ferocious ride through acid-rock with one huge sounding sea of guitars, synths, bass and drums that is simply awesome. The two minute 'Olde Foole's Game' could have emanated from the 'Good Morning' days while 'Zeroina' reprises a theme from the seventies Gong but wrapped in a fierce mix of classic psych guitars, steamroller bass and drums and just one sizzler of a three minute instrumental. Three more songs and instrumentals of equally riveting quality, writing and performing follow while the four minute Makoto-composed 'Bazuki Logic' is both beautiful and powerful with the rippling bazuki set against an ocean of synths, drones and guitars, the effect both uplifting and graceful, but when Allen's glissando guitar enters, you are transported to heaven. There's even a "hidden" twelfth track which ends the album on a slow and dark, lumbering wave of drums, guitars, samples and electronics, squalls of guitar feedback also adding to the heady quality of the piece as it spirals out and upwards to jaw-dropping effect. Overall, better than anyone could have envisaged and an album that has to be treasured alongside the classic Gong albums of the past.
GURU & ZERO: Makoto Mango CD
A single 48 minute, largely, instrumental track from Daevid Allen of Gong and Kawabata Mokoto of Acid Mothers Temple. It starts with 'Inventions For Electric Guitar'-style Ash Ra Tempel swirling guitars and heavenly backdrops as the phased, intoned, atmospheric vocal of Allen just adds to the whole seventies feel of the thing. Around the 4 minute mark, the vocal drops, and this huge-sounding , resonant, deep glissando drone appears and the effect is stunning. To this is added more layers of glissandos, guitars, electronics and choir to form this immaculate, heavenly soundscape that slowly changes texture and sound, dynamics and depth, as this onward flowing swirling bliss of sound climbs higher and higher, truly cosmic, solid and uplifting. From here on, you travel through time and space on a simply glorious cosmic space trip through deep worlds of guitars, electronics. glissandos, Tim Blake-style synth swoops, and beyond, the result being this awesome slice of cosmic heaven that's simply divine, changing as it flies, moving as it changes. At no point is it less than riveting, at no point is it anything than compulsive, easily accessible and so atmospheric, yet so much in there, an attention to detail and accessibility that you would never have expected from two such heady musical pioneers. So, light the stix, lower the lights, reach for your favourite mead and let this into your head - you won't regret it.
HUGH HOPPER: Jazzloops CD
Eleven tracks and 54 minutes of music, led by Hopper on guitar, bass, voice and sampling, with assorted guest musicians including fellow ex-Soft Machine members Elton Dean, John Marshall & Robert Wyatt, plus Steve Franklin, Gong's Didier Malherbe, Patrice Meyer, Isotope's Nigel Morris and more. Musically, it's quite an assorted bag, from looping atmospherics, to tracks that might have emanated from the 'Hoppertunity Box' album, with nothing outstaying its welcome, some even making you wish they could have gone on longer, which is no bad thing. The music essentially revolves around the more atmospheric and multi-layered compositions and some more powerful, typically Hopper sounding, fusion pieces. With some great work from sax, bass, guitar, looping and drums, this is a really engaging set of pieces that are all accessible, nothing random or "blowing", and make for one of the best albums you've heard from him since the aforementioned 'Box'.
PIP PYLE'S BASH: Belle Illusion CD
It's not a new Hatfields/Softs for the new millennium, but it's every bit as good. A quartet of drums-electric guitar-keyboards/Fender Rhodes/Hammond-electric bass play a strong, melodic, flowing brand of fusion that has its feet and roots in the seventies bands such as Gilgamesh & Isotope. The nine tracks range from 5 to nine minutes and, in tried and trusted Canterbury Music traditions, features sterling ensemble work as well as some seriously fine soloing from the keyboards of Alex Maguire and the steaming guitar work of Patrice Meyer, the latter who could almost be a Canterbury resident, by the amount of work he's done with this genre of musicians. Ex-Soft Machine sax player Elton Dean makes a guest appearance on two tracks to put the icing on the cake and provide even more of a musical link to what's gone before. But, all that aside, the band play as one strong and strident unit, the work from every musician outstanding, the quality of production, composition and sound absolutely first rate, and for anyone into Canterbury-esque and UK seventies fusion music, this is a cohesive, warm-sounding, consistent album full of melody, nothing flashy and some seriously playing all round.
SOFT MACHINE: Somewhere In Soho DBLCD
The truth here is I thought that the previous archive Soft Machine CD on the label, was, shall we say, a bit "lacking" in the quality stakes, so, in a fit of "pique", I flung my collection at the label, saying" if you want something GOOD, then why don't you put these out?" - and they have - this being the first.
It's a phenomenal performance representing essentially the first live steps from the "vintage" quartet as they take the new and old tracks (at the time) from the second and third albums, and extend, twist and bend the compositions in a manner that is truly electrifying. In the confines of the Ronnie Scott's club - an intimate venue at the best of times in those days - the quartet of Elton Dean, Hugh Hooper, Robert Wyatt & Mike Ratledge perform a set that is warm, flowing and yet has that jazz spark reflecting the nature of the event, a six-night residency at the club, from which this recording is taken. Each of the band members can be heard clearly while the whole feel of the sound allows you to shut your eyes and imagine you were there, the segue of 'Mousetrap' to 'Hibou Anenome & Bear' as riveting an example of this as you'll find. The fact that this was recorded in 1970 means that the transition from the second to third album way of playing, improvising and composing, is all still very much in its infancy, while the presence of improvised segments that proved to be unique for the performances, means that you'll hear things you'd not get on later live recordings. Across two full CD's an inspired recording and concert that captures the band at an electrifying level, an essential addition to the collection, for sure
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UNIVERSITY OF ERRORS: Jet-Propelled Photograph CD
For those who don't think that things go round full-circle, this wil prove you wrong. In 1967/68, Daevid Allen was an original member of Soft Machine. Now, he's a member of the band University of Errors. This album sees U of E playing old Soft Machine songs from those Allen-led days - and it's just incredible. With Allen on all lead vocals, the band positively roar through some classic Soft Machine tracks, turning them into a fiery furnace of electric guitar-driven, tungsten-strength renditions, but done with all the feeling, warmth and affection that the original material both embodies and exudes, the old meeting the new with explosive and exciting results. Throughout, the guitar work sizzles and burns, while the rhythm section drives and holds it all together, while at the same time Allen turns in one of his most amazing vocal performances in years. They even turn their hand to the classic 'Love Makes Sweet Music' and turn it into a thing of urgent beauty that rocks merrily along with all the feel of the psychedelic sixties poured into a modern indie-rock setting, a thing that surely no other band than this could even contemplate getting to absolutely superbly accurate. Across thirteen seminal tracks, this is an unforgettable album that you will be playing for years to come with a broad smile on your face and an air guitar in your hand - stunning and then some.