Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Gong: "2032"


I´m afraid I soon may turn into a hippie, after listening to Gong´s "2032" (2009) too many times lately . Last autumn the original gang materialized with the strong album "2032", with glissandos and space whispers, like in the good old days. The album might be a little too much for my taste (or too long), but the first part is fantastic, with songs like "City of self fascination", "Digital girl" and "Dance with the pixies" (the folk track).
Not that I have listened intensely to Gong lyrics through the years (that might even be strictly forbidden in Norway), but it seems like they inhabit the same universe they lived in 40 years ago.
The band: Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage, Gilli Smyth, Miquette Giraudy, Mike Howlett, Chris Taylor, Theo Travis, Didier Malherbe og Yuji Katsui.

This should be enough for a straight guy like me, but I just finished Daevid Allen´s "Gong Dreaming 1. From Soft Machine to the Birth of Gong" (1994, ny utg. SAF 2007) too. "Gong Dreaming 2. The Histories & Mysteries of Gong from 1969 -1975" (SAF 2009) is also published, and two more books are planned. They consumed and transported substances no parent will admit they tried, performed bodily activities I´ve only heard about, and our good friends Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers are part of the history too (behaving well of course!). Get both books from Amazon UK.
You have probably not even heard about Daevid Allen if you think this is a straightforward story.

Poor SAF try to explain the copyright rules for us (that is: don´t do anything, but read the book), but some pages later Allen´s rules occur: "All rights unreserved. All parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, used in any way at any time forever without anybody´s permission".

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