What’s in a name? The name Gong is writ large, and boldly, on the sleeve of The Universe Also Collapses, the band’s first record written and produced without the input of founder member and conceptual mastermind Daevid Allen since his death in early 2015. Some listeners are wondering aloud if this can truly be Gong, without any of the band’s original members, especially Allen, who has long been seen as the band’s guiding light. However, circumstances are everything: this is not the first Gong album produced without Allen’s input, as the band has shifted line-up frequently and extensively during its lengthy existence. It should also be noted that not only did the current line-up, under the aegis of Knifeworld’s Kavus Torabi, have Allen’s blessing to continue under the Gong moniker, Allen actually encouraged them to do so. Allen repeatedly expressed the view in interviews that he saw himself as an instigator: that the collaborations and ever-shifting line-ups of the band created a “family” of bands with a shared creative vision, all spreading the Gong worldview. The new-look Gong is no different in this respect – it’s just that this particular creation has managed to outlive Allen himself.
Whilst Gong’s previous record, Rejoice! I’m Dead! was entirely successful, the spirit of Allen permeated its very fabric. His illness and subsequent death also gave the new-look Gong something to write very specifically about, an emotional core and focus born of necessity. With Allen’s passing, and the record’s completion, the new-look Gong found themselves closing one chapter of the Book Of Gong and opening a new one, looking for new horizons to strive towards. No-one – least of all Allen himself – would have been content with a pallid, imitative Gong. So: whither Gong now?
The Universe Also Collapses feels very much like a band re-discovering its essential essence. Encouraged by Allen’s previous assertions that he wanted the band to strike out into new musical waters, the Gong of 2019 have seized on a more improvised, heavily thematic approach and crafted something really rather special. This record strikes a wonderful balance between the new and the familiar: songs and lyrics that powerfully evoke the spirit of “classic” Gong, combined with music that feels effortlessly fresh and genuinely exploratory in a way that Gong as a unit probably haven’t been since their 1970s heyday.
Nowhere is this re-commitment to musical exploration more evident than in the lengthy opening track, Forever Reoccurring. Surfing in on a blissed-out tide of synth and woozy guitars, it percolates slowly through distinct changes of mood, its unhurried and unpretentious vibe perhaps most reminiscent of the vast open musical landscapes of 1974’s You. When the real fireworks arrive, courtesy of duels between Kavus Torabi and Fabio Golfetti’s cosmic guitars and Ian East’s stentorian saxophone, the whole is lent a powerful weight by Cheb Nettles’ powerful drumming and Dave Sturt’s chunky bass, Torabi dropping mystical vocal passages into the calmer oases within the musical maelstrom. The record showcases two similar and yet distinct sides to the band’s writing, with Forever Reoccuring and the similarly expansive My Sawtooth Wake providing longer-form musical adventures, and the other two, shorter, tracks showcasing the band’s ability to construct more concise material. The spiky and mildly addictive If Never I’m And Ever You crams a lot into its two-and-a-half minutes, whilst the almost anthemic closer, The Elemental, brandishes acoustic guitar and a memorable chorus to great effect.
The Universe Also Collapses is a voyage of self-discovery; a journey into inner and outer space that has allowed the band to mythologise their own self-discovery, the sort of self-referencing fractal thinking that Allen would no doubt have delighted in. The album’s longer tracks showcase the new line-ups talent for improvisation, yet for all the expansive playing, the tracks never feel like they’re spiralling out of the band’s control. Lyrically, the topic is time – and how our concepts of past, present and future are just that: our concepts, alone. Rather than a book of discrete chapters, read (the past) and unread (the future), time is perhaps best imagined as a continuum of the present, with no neat demarcations. The Elemental reaffirms this idea, and reminds us that we should be present and focus on the now, which is all we can ultimately control. “Remember, there is only now!”
Naturally, there will be some fans for whom there can be no Gong without Allen’s physical presence. However, it’s hard to imagine that the mischievous and inventive Allen would not have approved mightily of the music and ideas that make up The Universe Also Collapses – musically, it recalls the band’s best work, and also successfully distils Big Ideas about the universe and human experience into song form with a skill that shows that Allen’s influence is as strong as ever. Rejoice! I’m Dead! was a triumph, a joyous and affectionate wake that would have made a perfect final chapter. However, The Universe Also Collapses effortlessly manages to both forge a new path for the band and reinforce the very things that made Gong such a beloved institution in the first place. Bold, colourful, atmospheric and truly absorbing, it’s a 43-minute psychedelic voyage that compares favourably with the band’s best work. When you consider Allen’s determination that Gong should outlive his physical manifestation on Earth and his faith in the new-look band, you have to feel that he knew better than anyone that he had the right people for the job. A truly miraculous rebirth....by Dave Cooper..echoesanddust.....~
Gong offer an intriguing new model for band longevity. Rather than groups facing the prospect of merely becoming a tribute act to themselves, renewal and regeneration is possible if founding elders are willing to pass the baton on to younger players who don’t just knock out the old standbys, but embrace the spirit and philosophy that fuelled the band in the first place. This is exactly what Daevid Allen planned for Gong, and so far, it’s worked out spectacularly.
If 2016’s Rejoice! I’m Dead! was a confident assertion of the post-Allen band’s musical identity, then The Universe Also Collapses pushes even further out while retaining Gong’s sense of wonderment and mischief. Featuring just four songs, it’s an album that aims to “bridge the worlds of lysergic exploration and quantum physics,” with lyrical themes of rebirth and re-death seeking to rise above the petty affairs of Man… It’s also an attempt to make a genuinely psychedelic record for the 21st century, Kavus Torabi expressing disappointment with most music that goes under that banner these days – instead, “I want to hear music that makes me feel like I’m on drugs.”
Opening 20-minute track Forever Reoccurring makes a pretty good case for achieving this objective, establishing its cosmic credentials upfront with a shimmer of glissando guitar and pulsing synth. Torabi’s weaving vocal is like a spell, a stoned invocation of blissed-out clarity, borne aloft on Dave Sturt’s buoyant bass. There’s a big surge of chords and some excellent angular fretwork from Torabi – in tandem with Ian East’s playful but powerful sax, it’s difficult not to draw favourable comparisons with VdGG and King Crimson in their 70s pomp. It’s unhurried, discursive stuff, but you can practically hear the molecules buzzing in the song’s super-structure.
If Never I’m And Ever You is a short, nervy head-rush after a long trip, before My Sawtooth Wake takes us on another extended journey, only this time the terrain is a good deal bumpier. Fabio Golfetti’s glissando still weaves its magic, but the main riff is a tough, almost funky strut from a band getting ready to enter into battle with itself. There’s a weightless pull-back to the vocal, but the bass keeps bursting through, becoming more encrusted with noise each time. The Elemental brings the album to a blackly upbeat conclusion, East’s sax like the mocking tootling of faery folk as Torabi sings, ‘The world is ending just the same as it began.’ It combines the whimsical with the deadly serious in a way that Allen would surely have approved of.....By Joe Banks ....~
It's hard to believe that it's been four years since GONG founder Daevid Allen left this world and passed on into the eternal psychedelic haze that vibrates to form everything in the known universe but his legacy is strong as is the band that he founded way back in 1968 as it was his desire that new talent steer the psychedelic musical outfit into fresh new territories without losing the zeitgeist of the original intent. Following Allen's last album with GONG, the 2014 "I See You" came the 2016 "Rejoice! I'm Dead!" which showcased yet another version of GONG this time without Allen, without Pierre Moerlen and without any of the musicians that came and went throughout the band's lengthy existence.
While that album showcased that GONG was a viable unit taken into its next chapter of reality, the second post-Allen release THE UNIVERSE ALSO COLLAPSES pretty much leaves no doubt that GONG will continue on into the foreseeable future and seems to have found a new stable lineup with former Cardiacs and Knifeworld guitarist / vocalist Kavus Torabi, guitarist Fabio Golfetti, saxophonist / flautist / percussionist Ian East, ex-Jade Warrior bassist Dave Sturt and drummer / percussionist Cheb Nettles. While it's hard to imagine a post-Allen Gong actually pulling off the vision without one of the most unique personalities no longer in the scene, this new version of GONG has spent the last few years touring both by headlining as well as with another ex-GONG legend Steve Hillage.
Featuring only four tracks THE UNIVERSE ALSO COLLAPSES delves more into the classic psychedelic sounds of GONG's 70s period that incorporates funky bass grooves, glissando guitar, pulsing synth and haunting saxophone slides which takes a completely different approach than "Rejoice! I'm Dead!" Rather than developing the new sound set out on that album, THE UNIVERSE ALSO COLLAPSE casts its gaze into the classic GONG years for inspiration but in the process only displays why those classic albums are so classic and why this attempt to recapture those magical moments pales in comparison. While the band claims that the album aims to bridge the worlds of lysergic exploration and quantum physics, ultimately it fails to revive the golden years as its missing the whimsy and imaginative explorations that Allen along with his cosmic whisperer Gilli Smith were masters of.
The album starts with the 20 minute + "Forever Recurring" which insinuates some sort of multi-suite cosmic journey to planet Lysergia and back and to be honest it is the most psychedelic track on the album but after the slow brooding synthesized intro that slowly ushers in a rhythmic pulses and eventually lyrical content, the track just floats by without ever developing into anything more substantial. This is literally a 20 minute track that finds the same groove ad infinitum as the guitars, sax and heavier percussive forces join in. It's an ok track for sure but lacks the sheer variety of the classic years and becomes a tad monotonous even though it alternates between heavier and softer passages. Most of all it is woefully deprived of that playful introspective philosophical quandary and pixie fueled spontaneity of the Allen years.
"If Never I'm And Ever You" is a short intermission but a welcome dynamic relief with choppy guitar riffs and a heavier foray into the world of time signature rich progressive rock with stellar jazzy saxophone contributions. This track is much more interesting and i wish at least half of the time allotted for the first track was given to this one to develop as it has more potential. Next up is the second longest track "My Sawtooth Wake" which at slightly over 13 minutes sort of combines the psychedelic meandering of the first with the heavier punchiness of the second. Once again it's basically a repetitive cyclical loop of a bass groove, haunting synth and glissando guitar antics which after a couple minutes slows down and turns into a contemplative vocal sequence with different timing signatures and slow tempo. Much more interesting. Should've been the first track.
The finale "The Elemental" is completely different as it starts out with a clean rock guitar chord progression and instant vocals. The psychedelia has been replaced with more of a singer / songwriter approach which sets it apart from the rest of the album as well as pretty much anything in the known GONG universe. While it's not a bad song it does bring to focus Kavus Torabi's vocal style which unfortunately has neither sufficient charismatic magnetism nor the driving dynamics to really bring the track to full potential, which after a few listens to this album perfectly describes THE UNIVERSE ALSO COLLAPSES as an album. Despite the noble attempt to remain faithful to the band's overall vision, it feels like these guys are holding back from really making the band their own as if the great spirit of Allen watches in the background and remains steadfastly in the psyche of its current lineup.
Come on, guys! Let loose and let the creative juices flow. This sounds like a tribute band trying to capture GONG's glory days but without the wacky whimsy and dynamic sense of variety that made the Radio Gnome Trilogy years to special. The attempt to replicate Hillage's guitar style but not building upon it just sounds weak! This is a decent album but won't go down as one of the band's greatest achievements. Hopefully this new GONG will find a way to forge their way into the next chapter of the psychedelic music scene but they will have to step it up as there countless modern bands that have already found new directions to take psychedelic space rock. If you're hoping for a new album that will blow you away then look to the past but if you want a pleasant yet predictable slice of modern Canterbury infused psychedelic space rock then THE UNIVERSE ALSO COLLAPSES does satisfy on that level.....by siLLy puPPy....~
Progressive rock listeners will mostly like Gong because of the charismatic psychedelic space rock albums of the Radio Gnome Trilogy. Since enigmatic frontman Daevid Allen and 'space whisperer' Gilli Smith have both passed away the Gong tradition has been continued by a group of musicians which has been present since 2014's 'I See You' album - which was the last album on which Allen and Smith performed. Without any members of the seventies Gong the legitimacy of this line-up is debatable, but I would argue that this band deserves to be continued - especially with an album like 'The Universe Also Collapses'.
Present are the psychedelic and slightly dopey vocals with their jazzy timing, the space rock soundscapes, the jazz rock elements, a lost-in-time sixties refrain, the strong rhythmical section and above all that typical Gong sympathetic vibe. Add some very strong wind-sections by Ian East (that add a layer of VdGG intensity!) and some keyboard sounds that remind me a bit of CAN's 'Future Days' album - and you might get a picture of what to expect. The totality of it comes across as a group effort, rather than focusing on individual talents - which are evidently present. Of course, there's no replacing Deavid Allen's personality, but the vocals on this album are well done. I didn't like them at first, but somehow one moment later I 'found out' how much they are a charming tribute to Gong's founder. The production of the album is also very well done; a bit retro, yet modern enough to feel relevant in today's progressive rock landscape. Definitely better sounding - than say - 90% of the best albums of 2019.
I consider all songs (except the last) to be equally satisfying. 'Forever Reoccurring' is a twenty minute multi-part track that throws around all typical Gong elements and has a nice listenable pace to it. This song has the most Canterbury-like feel to it as well. Somehow this track has this conclusive or 'after though' feel about it, as if would perfectly fit right after the 'You' album. 'My Sawtooth Wake' is a thirteen minute track that further elaborates on the opening track and ends by musically referring to it. This would have made for a perfect ending to the album. The final song 'The Elemental' than sound a bit out of place with its songy feel and slightly flat mixing job. I actually rated the album as if this was just a bonus track.
In conclusion. With or without Gong legitimacy, this is the most charming space rock (and perhaps Canterbury as well) album of 2019! If the band would want to improve on this effort, it would have to expand on that varied Allenesque psychedelic songwriting - which also had a certain humanity to it. The jazzy instrumental space rock part is about as good as it could get in this tradition.... by friso....~
Founded in France in late 60s by Australian beatnik Daevid Allen Gong for decades was possible best known musical hippie commune, based in Europe. They never received a commercial success but after all these years there are still people around discussing their Radio Gnome Trilogy (I'm serious - I can even mention their names!).
So, right after the half of a century (serious age for active music collective, isn't it?) we get an offer to listen to the new music recorded by "Gong". What is in a menu?
Band's founder and spiritual/creative leader Daevid Allen passed away in 2015 and the yeasr after there was released an album contained his legacy (unfinished ideas and works and lot of music from his younger collaborators who played beside of him). It was quite a great memorial release if not really a Gong album. Now, three years later (and four years after Allen's death), we have an album of new material,not something from the vaults. I'm far not a person who idolize even a great artists, but in a case with Gong things are not so simple.
Original Gong has always been more then just a band, in fact at their best the were talented counter-couture commune playing for fun and time to time recording their hippie-dada-space tales to dedicated followers. There were lot of line-up changes and there were more then a few Gong versions as well. Even best of them (different then Allen "original" one) was a better-then-average jazz fusion band (I'm speaking about so-called "Pierre Moerlen Gong" and their "Shamal" and "Gazeuse!" albums from mid 70s), but they lost that Allen's childish playful freakiness from very first steps. It was Allen himself who saved this ingredient for any project ,he participated, no-one else.
Returning back to newest album,"The Universe Also Collapses" is surprisingly strong (for second decade of new Millennium) progressive rock release. Skilled musicians who all played on last Gong album with Allen still on board - "I See You"(2014) - do the great job here. From twenty-plus minute long space-rock opener "Forever Reoccurring" ("Hawkwind" fans must to hear it for sure)to short guitars driven well-arranged "If Never I'm And Ever You" (do you still remember American AOR bands from early 80s?)to "My Sawtooth Wake" (I really respect Steve Wilson music too)and finally the closer "The Elemental" (Jethro Tull goes AOR?)they play a high quality progressive rock of sort with enthusiasm and positive energy not so characteristic for the time when progressive rock too often become a form of self parody.
Still is it enough for calling themselves "Gong"?....by snobb.....`~
The 2015 death of guitarist/singer Daevid Allen posed a significant conundrum for experimental group Gong. After all, Allen had been the band's mastermind since its inception in 1967, and although he advised the lingering members to continue in his wake—with Knifeworld leader Kavus Torabi, who'd joined a couple of years prior, steering the ship—everyone involved was still a tad skeptical about the future of the quintet. Fortunately, 2015's sardonic yet sentimental Rejoice! I'm Dead! proved that Gong could carry on exceedingly well as a brilliantly revitalized but respectfully familiar unit under Torabi's watch. Likewise, its follow-up, The Universe Also Collapses, confirms that course. Slightly more abstract and less accessible than its predecessor, the LP finds Gong remaining relevant and resourceful alongside their contemporaries.
Rounded out by guitarist Fabio Golfetti, saxophonist Ian East, bassist Dave Sturt, and drummer Cheb Nettles, Gong sees The Universe Also Collapses as another pinnacle "celebration of the magick of science... bridging the worlds of lysergic exploration and quantum physics". In particular, Torabi calls it "the ultimate psychedelic rock album", adding that he wanted to craft the audio equivalent of a lively drug trip (as always, he succeeded). Whereas the prior outing was "a tribute of sorts" to Allen, this one "marks the dawning of a new chapter" in the group's history of "propulsive, forward-thinking open-mindedness". Although it's not a narrative album, it does focus on the general theme of how time is illusory because the entire scope of existence—from "the Big Bang... [to] the inevitable collapse of the universe"—is occurring simultaneously within our own version of reality. Above all else, The Universe Also Collapses effectively upholds what Allen began while also seeing its current iteration look toward a cosmos all its own.
Nothing reaps vintage genre excellence like starting with a multifaceted epic composition, and the 20-minute opener, "Forever Reoccurring", is precisely that. Its initial minutes can feel a bit too elongated upon introductory listens (even Torabi admits that Gong is known for "stretching a riff out" for extended periods). Yet eventual familiarity allows its otherworldly oscillations, relaxed verses, and carefree rhythms to act as a soothingly vibrant and intellectual aural blanket. Of course, it becomes more intense and intricate as it goes, with East and the guitarists colliding into delightfully flamboyant and triumphant eruptions that counter those calmer passages and evoke seminal creators like Frank Zappa, Beardfish, Phideaux, and naturally, Torabi's other main project. It's a charmingly mind-bending and meticulous declaration of purpose.
Expectedly, the remaining three tracks sustain that distinction. Despite its tongue-twisting name, the short "If Never I'm and Ever You" soars with bouncy, full-bodied instrumental enthusiasm and a comforting call-and-response vocal template to further solidify Gong's knack for luminously merging its aforementioned core with bright bits of jazz, progressive rock, and even a sliver of pop. Afterward, the lengthy "My Sawtooth Wake" offers a more avant-garde and volatile—but still blissfully melodic and welcoming—journey that recalls King Crimson, Caravan, and Porcupine Tree at their most playfully colorful and dizzyingly complex.
As for closer "The Elemental", its tranquil acoustic foundation and ceaselessly enlightened mantras ("And the elemental spirits take me for their own / And put to fire everything we've ever known / The dawn of history, the golden age of man / The world is ending just the same as it began") are inherently life-affirming. Numerous timbres (including handclaps) vividly decorate and enhance each section into a captivating and involving sing-along bursting with sundry gusto, and throughout it all, Nettles and Sturt warrant special acclaim for keeping it all centered but inventive.
The Universe Also Collapses is another singular victory for Gong. While Rejoice! I'm Dead! is superior in terms of its tightly segmented variety and approachability, this record bests its precursor when it comes to adventurous scope and cohesive ambition. The quintet has once again fashions lovingly philosophical odes beneath sophisticatedly joyous arrangements that fuse the deep-rooted penchants of Allen with the thoughtful peculiarities of Torabi. Thus, The Universe Also Collapses should appeal to fans of any Gong era, as well as stylistic aficionados in general....by...JORDAN BLUM...pop matters....~
Remember; there is only now. Following the success of their 2016 album, 'Rejoice ! I'm Dead !', which was a transitional album in the evolution of Gong and was an opportunity to say goodbye to the great Daevid Allen, the current formation of Gong are releasing an album for them. 'The Universe Also Collapses' is the sound of Gong in 2019, as vanguards of 21st century psychedelia; propulsive, mystical and ecstatic.
Having spent the past two years touring the world, including dates in Japan with psych legend Steve Hillage, multiple headline European tours and festivals, America's 'Cruise to the Edge' festival, a South America headline tour and a headline performance at 'Tomorrow Festival' in China, the band have won the hearts of both traditional and modern Gong fanbases. During this live journey, Gong have delved further into the truly psychedelic, exploratory and mind-expanding side of the music, and have created an album which reflects their experience.
Frontman Kavus Torabi explains the concept behind the new material "Lyrically it can be summed up with the phrase 'Remember there is only now', which was originally the working title! Everything is happening at once and always will be. There is only this and there is only now. This is both a statement about where the band is at, being part of the long Gong continuum but being here and now as Gong in 2019 but the birth and death of the universe too. The Big bang and the eventual collapse of the Universe and everything in between is all happening in the same instant. In this very moment. Time is an illusion. All we have it this and it is beautiful."
'The Universe Also Collapses' was recorded at Snorkel Studios in London, engineered and mixed by Frank Byng, mastered by Andy Jackson at Tube Mastering and features new artwork designed by 57 Design. Gong will be heading on an extensive UK tour beginning in May in support of the new album. This CD edition is presented in digipack packaging.....~
Here's another name from across the decades and one with a notable history that's still being forged, even after all its most prominent members are no longer with us. Gong were formed in a Paris commune in 1967 by Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth, who passed away in 2015 and 2016 respectively. After they left the band in 1975 (albeit not for long), Pierre Moerlen continued on as a jazz fusion band, but he died in 2005.
The line-up has changed more times than can be comfortably imagined and now features nobody who was involved at any point during the first four decades of the band's history. That's weird, but it doesn't mean that the musicians are new fish. The old hand nowadays is Fabio Golfetti, their Brazilian lead guitarist, who joined Gong in 2007 but also continues to lead his own prog rock band, Violeta de Outono, which he formed in 1985. Gong was one of his key influences from childhood so leading the band now must be a real blast.
Now, I've listened to a lot of seventies prog rock and I've enjoyed much of what I've heard, but I've never managed to get into Gong, whose influential Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of albums still seem impenetrable to me. This album, ironically, seems far more accessible to me than legendary releases like Camembert Electrique which influenced the current members.
There are four tracks here, of wildly different lengths, but they betray a commonality in each being constructed from intricate little riffs that flow into each other like tesselations. This is an album for pattern spotters or listeners with OCD because those patterns vary just a little and are often the ground over which the saxophone of Ian East soars like an alien bird.
Forever Reoccurring is a twenty minute opener, because that doesn't seem at all odd when you're Gong. It starts softly, pulsing slowly into action with echoey vocals from Kavus Torabi. This is Gong in space rock mode, patiently building with a little escalation here and a new layer there, along with a looped vocal that runs behind a good chunk of the track.
There's a lot here, maybe appropriately given that the lyrics seem to have us singing together while the universe collapses. If this were 1970, there would be a host of different names for the different movements, some led by vocals and some led by different instruments. Like the universe, though, it plays well together and seems somehow timeless. Those twenty minutes last a lifetime but are over before we know it.
Oddly, Gong follow a twenty minute track with a two minute one, which is a decent piece for its length, but we blink and we're into My Sawtooth Wake, an even more ambitious take on the ideas in the first track but compressed into a mere thirteen minutes. It's two thirds in when it comes most alive with a driving riff and an explosive solo from East's saxophone. It's good throughout but, after that wild midsection, it fades somewhat.
The final track is The Elemental, which runs a short seven minutes and has the wrong mindset to wrap up this album. It's not a bad track, but it's the safest on the album and it was never going to stand out after the couple of earlier long tracks, as playful and experimental as they were. It does end well though, with a minute or so that sums up what's gone before but with a telling repeated lyric, "Remember there is only now."
Gong, it seems, are a going concern: inventive, fearless and somehow fresh, perhaps revitalised by an entirely new generation of musicians inspired by the Gong that came before them. Surely this was the goal of Daevid Allen's e-mail to the band asking them to continue on after his death. They've done him proud.....By Hal C. F. Astell.....~
the Gong legacy gets a blast of adrenaline” All About Jazz
Remember, there is only now. Following the success of their 2016 album, Rejoice! I’m Dead!, which was a transitional album in the evolution of Gong and was an opportunity to say goodbye to the great Daevid Allen, the current formation of Gong are releasing an album for them. The Universe Also Collapses is the sound of Gong in 2019, as vanguards of 21st century psychedelia; propulsive, mystical and ecstatic.
Having spent the past two years touring the world, including dates in Japan with psych legend Steve Hillage, multiple headline European tours and festivals, America’s Cruise to the Edge festival, a South America headline tour and a headline performance at Tomorrow Festival in China, the band have won the hearts of both traditional and modern Gong fanbases. During this live journey, Gong have delved further into the truly psychedelic, exploratory and mind-expanding side of the music, and have created an album which reflects their experience.
Frontman Kavus Torabi explains the concept behind the new material “Lyrically it can be summed up with the phrase ‘Remember there is only now’, which was originally the working title! Everything is happening at once and always will be. There is only this and there is only now. This is both a statement about where the band is at, being part of the long Gong continuum but being here and now as Gong in 2019 but the birth and death of the universe too. The Big bang and the eventual collapse of the Universe and everything in between is all happening in the same instant. In this very moment. Time is an illusion. All we have it this and it is beautiful.”
The Universe Also Collapses was recorded at Snorkel Studios in London, engineered and mixed by Frank Byng, mastered by Andy Jackson at Tube Mastering and features new artwork designed by 57 Design. Gong will be heading on an extensive UK tour beginning in May in support of the new album.....~
So, how does Gong sound, without Gong? That is, without any original members, nary a one? Well, they sound, incredibly, like Gong. I own "Rejoice, I'm Dead" but I really didn't get a chance to delve into it too much before I moved to another state (of being?), and it's in storage right now. However, I did get to spend some time with the latest offering today & I have to say that it reminds me quite a bit of the "You" period of Gong, with more modern instrumentation/sound, that is. And that's not a bad thing. I am familiar with other bands Kavus Torabi has been in and he seems a great fit for the band, and Ian East's sax playing is definitely in the mold of the great Didier Malherbe (aka Bloomdido Bad de Grasse). So, all in all, while it's not Gong, it IS Gong. And I'd say that statement was in keeping with what Gong is (or was) all about. There will never, EVER, be anything like the Radio Gnome Trilogy ever again. But this is still a solid & satisfying album.....TheatreX .....~
The second GONG album since the death of mastermind Daevid Allen in 2015, who founded the group half a century ago, is said to be a purebred psychedelic rock album, as can only be heard today in exceptional cases. No idea which moon guitarist and singer Kavus Torabi lives behind when he makes such statements at a time when you can't save yourself from young acts from this spectrum, but regardless of this, " The Universe Also Collapses " keeps the promise, classical drug music and nothing else to offer.
Allen's surviving fellow musicians understand the predecessor "Rejoice!" as a tribute to him, on which his work was extensively cited, they currently want to break new ground without renouncing old virtues. In fact, a disc like " The Universe Also Collapses " in this form of GONG has never been there, even if it won't revolutionize the music world. Rather, the band combines some of its most characteristic features in a fresh way, but could sometimes be shorter.
You don't need to refer to the opener 'Forever Reoccurring', which lasts over 20 minutes, and the almost quarter of an hour of 'My Sawtooth Wake'. Gulminatingly the opening from a wobbly wobble over electronic noise, rapt guitar and saxophone lines and jittery drums to an epic prayer, GONG could have shortened one or the other improvised part without her statement that this was the core of it to compress what constitutes psychedelic rock. Ironically, the less than three minute long 'If Never I'm And Ever You' is ultimately the mischievous highlight of the record, and also with 'The Elemental' the quintet proves that it actually consists of excellent songwriters,
CONCLUSION: Apart from the fact that when listening to " The Universe Also Collapses " the suspicion hardens that GONG take themselves too seriously as psychological savers and therefore limit themselves, the second album without Daevid Allen is also an absolutely worth listening musical equivalent of quantum physics . ...Andreas Schiffmann.....~
Children, how time flies! Even without LSD trips. This is the second Gong album since Daevid Allen's death, so the successor to the legacy / memory opus “Rejoice! I'm dead! ” And it doesn't appear on the mother ship Snapper or its psychedelic sublabel Madfish. But with his PostProg sibling Kscope. It also fits that the sound of the 21-minute “lead” “Forever Reoccurring” after a long rocking up psychology and space bubbles bubbling, from minute eight, is also quite cutting-edge excursions into the crazy jazz rock of Kavus Torabi s (vocals , Guitar, Harmonium) other projectKnifeworld is doing. Prog fans will be right, even if Kavus himself denies according to the label info: “From the start we wanted to make delirious, psychedelic head music that you could actually dance too! It's not a prog record, it's not a jazz fusion record - it's a psychedelic record. ” Mission accomplished. But where is it written that it is not possible to prognosticate until the doctor comes ( Dr. Hasche , please go to the panel surgery!.....~
Here comes out in May, the last album of the group Gong. Latest album but first without its composer and leader: Daevid Allen who died in 2015. Founded in 1969 by the latter, after his departure from Soft Machine, he left for France and founded what will become Gong and make it one of the greatest Prog groups from the Seventies. Since these beginnings, the group knew a multitude of changes but the group counts at present: Kavus Torabi (vocals, guitar), Fabio Golfetti (guitar), Ian East (flute, saxophone), Dave Sturt (bass) and Cheb Nettles (drums).
So what gives an album without its late guitarist and leader Daevid Allen. His replacement is doing a good job as well as the rest of the group because this opus keeps the spirit anchored since its formation in 1969.For those who do not know Gong, which is still one of the most cult groups of Prog for a few decades. We will always find music influenced by Prog, Jazz and Psychedelism. The term '' Planante Music '' suits him as well as Pink Floyd. Listen to the first track '' Forever Reoccurring '' where you can hear very beautiful moments of space guitars.
There are four titles, two of which exceed fifteen minutes, or the group offers us music made of planar and aerial guitars but also improvised passages, strongly influenced by Jazz. Let us not forget that in its early days, Gong was wrongly or rightly affiliated with the Canterbury School, a progressive movement having a strong Jazz influence with the use of the saxophone, an instrument which, like a Van Der Graff Generator, bring something interesting as it is on the song "Forever Reoccurring".
We are entitled to songs where the instrumental passages are more important than the sung parts which are not bad even if on '' The Elemental '', the song is more present. For our part, we appreciate that the group took a more serious turn than in the past or the group sometimes left in anything with an impro developed side. We can cite the title '' My Sawtooth Wake '' although we find on some passages strange sounds of keyboards. And the title '' The Elemental '' offers us a return to a more frenzied Rock as we can hear it on the saxophone parts.
The loss of their leader was not harmful for Gong because this opus is excellent and will please the fans. A good vintage for Gong.....~
Gong is back with a new album. The Universe Also Collapses brings the primal psychedelic progressive sounds of the band into the 21st century and offers an auditory trip for both band and listener.
It has now been four years since Gong master mind Daevid Allen passed away. The band that subsequently decided to continue at the request of Allen, released - led by their new frontman Kavus Torabi on vocals and guitar - a tribute album in the form of Rejoice! I'm Dead !, on which Allen's vocals could still be heard on two songs. And for a band that has experienced more staffing changes since the start of the sixties than an ordinary mortal can remember, the company managed to honor the traditions on that record.
Now, three years later, there is yet another chapter in the bulky music library that Gong has to his name. The Universe Also Collapses is called the new achievement, in which the five members search for music that can really do justice to the genre of psychedelic rock. According to frontman Torabi, the term psychedelic is widely used, but very little music offers an experience that seems like mind-blowing drugs have been consumed. So The Universe Also Collapses had a clear purpose.
The album brings together the entire past of the band in a renewed form. Based on the progressive Canterbury sounds of yesteryear, The Universe Also Collapses sounds modern and progressive. Of course with the artistic baggage of half a century in your pocket, which resonates in fragments of jazz rock, space rock and experimental rock. The experimental aspect on the new Gong long player is mainly reflected in the addition of brass instruments, which makes the music sound as if Soft Machine has been listened to occasionally.
Presumably just like slowly experiencing the start of an LSD trip, the bulky album opener Forever Reoccurring starts with a gradually ascending build-up, after which the music takes shape in an eclectic melting pot of styles that indeed form a psychedelic journey. Over twenty minutes a basic theme is explored, drawn out about all the instruments used and added effects. The combination of saxophone, lively guitar sounds and the skilled rhythm section can certainly be considered as an absolute highlight here. Slightly less strong is the (otherwise very short) track If Never I'm And Ever You , which is mainly due to a too simple chorus. Fortunately, the group is recovering on the My Sawtooth Wake that lasts over thirteen minutesand they close the album with the psychedelic revelation The Elemental , on which Gong with many old-fashioned progressive influences still shows that he has a right to exist.
The Universe Also Collapses has become a wonderful album with only four tracks and over forty minutes of playing time. Fans of both modern and classic prog and psychedelic rock will enjoy this new chapter in Gong history. In terms of composition, the band is very strong and the performance of those compositions at London's Snorkel Studios (where the album was recorded) is enviable. And nothing is wrong with the production. The Universe Also Collapses asks to be listened carefully if the album is to come into its own. The album will be released on May 10.....~
In 2015, Daevid Allen, the Australian cosmonaut of the planet Gong, took the plunge. A year later, the signal of the spatial murmurs of his accomplice Gilli Smyth was no longer received by our progressive base. Shortly before, David Aellen had tried to win a losing battle against the crab that devoured him, by composing new songs with the crew of "I See You". The album "Rejoice! I'm Dead!" will be posthumous despite the guitarist's vocal presence on 'Beatrix' and the writing of two other songs. Suffice to say that a new Gong album , definitively deprived of his master of thought, was hardly plausible. One could argue that in the 70s after his trilogy "Radio Gnome Invisible", the percussionist Pierre Moerlen had deposited his own standard on the planet Gong , before having to rename it Pierre Moerlen´s Gong and offer it a jazz fusion revolution. If in another world, the war of the planets resumes more beautifully between Pierre Moerlen, Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth, on our old planet, survivors of the supernova wonder.
And by mutual agreement the mission continues. But the objectives are clear from the start: it is not a question of offering a pale copy of what Gong could have been.but to continue the psychedelic epic. Guitarist and singer Kavust Torabi explained it well: "We wanted to create the ultimate psychedelic album". Suffice to say that according to their wishes, the members of the new Gong offer us a healthy drug-taking experience. Four pieces make up the framework of this "The Universe Also Collapses", two of which culminate in more than ten minutes. 'My Sawtooth Wake' starts out like a waking nightmare with loud blows of cymbals and brutal protrusions from saxophones. The song goes through several slowdowns before finding a rhythm close to King Crimsonover 13 minutes. The second long song, 'Forever Reocurring' engulfs the listener in an extra temporal continuum of over twenty minutes. Long throbbing and repetitive loops form the path to venture out. The saxophone and the guitar however end up coming out of their torpor. But despite the very long introduction, the following shows us that musicians have nothing to envy their predecessors. Keyboards, guitars, drums and saxophone work together to deliver a joust that ends in climax.
Unfortunately, the fairy tale lacks a scriptwriting strategy. Some erratic aspects are found scattered on the album. 'The Elemental' tends to cacophony without really convincing. The shorter song 'If Never I'm And Never You' which presents us with a more dizzying and harder aspect despite the disastrous song would have deserved a longer treatment. The voice of Kavust Torabi, if it recalls the nasal and theatrical one of his predecessor, turns out to be particularly monotonous and devoid of any sensuality (but could be a good argument for not taking drugs) often contenting himself with following the score. On 'Forever Reocurring', she misses her goal of being hypnotic. Smoky sayings in every sense of the word are consistent with the Gong has always had the freedom to cultivate a quirky and quirky spirit. Certainly the beginning of 'The Elemental' tries to deactivate this pompous aspect but finds it too quickly.
Gong is dead! Long live Gong ! If certain moments recall the great era of style and of this mythical group, we regret, however, too great freedoms taken with its heritage, causing long moments of boredom. It lacks a Steve Hillage or a Didier Malherbe to guide this vessel which, if it is not yet threatened, is likely to be lost.....ROCK PROGRESSIF .....~
Gong is more than a band. It’s an idea. A way of life. A continuum that exists in all times,
in all places, everywhere. Gong’s new album, The Universe Also Collapses, is the latest shining point on that continuum, a masterpiece of visionary 21st century psychedelia, a celebration of the magic of science, a journey both internal and external, bridging the worlds of lysergic exploration and quantum physics, equal parts Terence McKenna and Stephen Hawking. This is the second album since the death in 2015 of Daevid Allen, the maverick genius who founded Gong more than 50 years ago in a flash of LSD-fuelled inspiration. If 2016’s Rejoice! I’m Dead! was a tribute of sorts to the band’s departed talisman, then The Universe Also Collapses marks the dawning of a new chapter......~
Those who will play the bewildered or the offended by seeing a new GONG album arriving in 2019 have either spent too much time on another planet or have abused the mushroom soup, or have still not taken note of the change of owner - the new ones having nevertheless been dubbed by the old ones - or refused to do so for reasons of artistic ethics. We are not going to retrace here the previous episodes, just to remind that there was indeed a transfer of power and transmission of flame on the part of the unspeakable and inimitable Pixie in chief Daevid ALLEN to those he had recruited to continue the GONG adventure before it definitively passes… to “the other side of the sky”. It is therefore up to the new occupants of the GONG mothership to extend both the spirit and the musical imprint of GONG.
After paying eloquent tribute to Daevid ALLEN with his previous album, Rejoice! I'm Dead! , the new GONG seeks to establish its legitimacy by returning to the fundamental ethical as well as musical (which it had not really left, but good…) by which GONG marked its time, namely by recalling what a genuinely is psychedelic music and making a kind of ultimate psychedelic album, even if it makes it a little “lesson giver”…
Certainly Rejoice! I'm Dead! and before him I See You have already largely shown the high technical and musical skills of the new gonguesque siblings, consisting of Ian EAST (various winds), Fabio GOLFETTI (electric guitars and glissando), Cheb NETTLES (drums, piano, theremin) , Dave STURT (bass, synthesizer) and Kavus TORABI (electric and acoustic guitars, main vocals). So we can wonder if The Universe also Collapsesreally has something new to offer musically. To tell the truth not frankly, but that is not its purpose either. Psychedelia is not a new movement, but it still exists and defies both time and space, which it takes pleasure in distorting and transfiguring the frameworks too narrow by the rationalist conception. And GONG therefore seeks to remind us that the universe, seen and lived from a psychedelic angle, can also fall into vape…
To do this, the new GONG has put the small dishes in the big and starts its new album with a kaleidoscopic piece which alone fills half of the CD and the first side of the LP. Reaching twenty minutes, Forever Reoccurring is to date the longest piece recorded in the studio by GONG. As you can imagine, it is made up of several stages, chaining floating periods and boiling zones, takeoffs and landings, trajectories in loops and spirals rather than in straight lines, moments of suspension and flares which sometimes turn short. , but the main thing is that they turn and make heads turn, that they make lose ground and take it simultaneously, and let go.
Our “next generation” Pixies do this very well, to the point that Forever Reoccurring gives the impression of evolving in a universe that is both parallel and inbred to that of the legendary album You. We believe it, or we want to continue to believe it. The will is there, and is displayed with great application; maybe even a little too much ... Because all this is spread with a seriousness which marks the gap with the spirit pot-head-pixian, earthy, anarchist and schoolboy, of Sieur ALLEN. And yet, it is indeed psyche rock with GONG sauce, ALLEN and HILLAGE period.
The next song invites us to a 180 ° turn, since If Never Am and Ever You is one of the shortest songs (if not THE shortest ) from the GONG repertoire, barely reaching 2'30! Like what you can have the baba spirit and have adrenaline surges.
My Sawtooth Wake is the other piece extending the disc, spanning thirteen minutes with a rhythmic vitamin, saxophonistic vapors which sometimes turn sour, and guaranteed glissando effects. Here too, we take the time to alternate fury and buoyancy, to make the pressure go up and down, at least to allow Kavus TORABI to utter a few abstruse and deep verses in his voice, a torpid and languid nothing that does not, however the same effect as the more playful one of ALLEN. Fortunately, his comrades sometimes lend him a hand. But musically, the proof is made that GONG has lost nothing of its vigor.
Without doubt the most unexpected song is the last, The Elemental, since it starts with Kavus on vocals and on acoustic guitar, reminding more certain solo compositions with folk sound of Daevid ALLEN than pure GONG, but the reinforcement of sax, bass, electric guitar and drums quickly pull the piece towards a more full sound, between acid-folk and acid-rock. And at the end of the race, an archetypal punchline, repeated like a mantra, ("Remember, there is only Now") completes the ultimate psychedelic positioning.
Here, GONG is still there and has not changed, and we can not help but think that it is no longer quite the same thing. It is in this subtle paradoxical effect that this GONG is digging its way. We may regret the absence of the “brand” Daevid ALLEN and even more of the “touch” Gilli SMYTH, but we cannot accuse the current members of having altered or corrupted the spirit of the “classic GONG”. The Universes also Collapses traces a familiar path. It is its quality as much as its defect. It remains to be seen when the moment will come when this GONG will feel ready to cut the cord if it really wants to reach a new stage of emancipation; because the history of GONG was also written with stylistic and aesthetic deviances, precisely to avoid “collapsing too”…...Stéphane Fougère.....~
"We wanted to do what would have been the definitive psychedelic rock album for us": these are the words with which the guitarist and singer of Gong, Kavus Torabi, describes "The Universe Also Collapses". And he continues: “The term 'psychedelic' is used out of turn continuously, but most of what is nowadays identified as 'psychedelic' has nothing to do with that definition. I want to listen to music that makes me feel like I have taken drugs. "
A clear statement of intent and without the possibility of misunderstanding for a band that, after losing the charismatic founder Daevid Allen (who passed away at the age of 77 in 2015), could also end his life cycle. It wasn't obvious that, after the 2016 Allen tribute album - “Rejoice! I'm Dead! " - the Gongs decided to continue their experience. Instead "The Universe Also Collapses" shows us a group struggling with a sort of rebirth, the beginning of a new chapter.
Of course, the Gongs of 2019 will never be the Gongs of the luster 1970-1975, those of "Camembert Electrique" and of the trilogy "Radio Gnome Invisible". But keeping in mind this lapalissian consideration, it is possible to enjoy the new album in its exquisitely psychotropic, retro and nostalgic nature. In short, the band proposes - in a way worthy of the specific weight of its corporate name - a sound that mixes heavy psychedelia with space rock and a thread of kraut. Zero fusion, zero prog. Only one trip translated into notes.
Four pieces in about 43 minutes, each of varying length (from the opener of over 20 minutes to the concise "If Never I'm And Forever You", not even 2'30 "), to get lost in alienating panoramas, amazing and astonished paths , kaleidoscopic reflections.....~
To paraphrase a saying that has entered popular culture, "Daevid Allen is not dead (if not another)." That's for sure. I mean that anyone who hides under the acronym Gong, or intends to perpetuate its name, meaning and specificity, what he has represented over the years but above all in the first and most creative phase of his long and glorious history, he is preparing to a very difficult task. Regardless of the goodness that can be found between the grooves - or the bits, or that other basic unit that best suits you to listen to music today - by The Universe Also Collapses. The current leader and spokesperson of the unmistakable brand - which has represented much more than a band, becoming a sort of municipality or, one might say these days, an extended family, indeed very large - founded by the Australian guru who died in 2015, is the guitarist Kavus Torabi, who with regard to the new album recorded at Snorkel Studios in London is keen to let people know that "we wanted to bring Gong back to being exclusively a psychedelic band again", because according to Torabi the previous Rejoice! I'm Dead would have been judged by Daevid Allen - to whom it was dedicated - too sentimental.
However, the guitarist must have his own opinion of psychedelia. The first signs, introductory, made of an undulating sound, suspended between dream and vision induced by more or less amazing substances, mantras, in practice, guitars and keyboards loaded with reverberation, echoes and sizzling sounds typical of space rock hybridized precisely with the psychedelia, they run out of their (bland) charge around the 8th minute, when the electric six string starts pedaling solo, to launch the sprint thanks to the rest of the group that pulls, it's true, in full trip: definitely more progressive rock , for the crystallinity of the painting, which is psychedelic. A picture on which, thanks to the winds of Ian East, fall mists that seem blown by the Canterbury wind. From minute 12 onwards, then, any trace of "delusional psychedelic music that could even be danced" - again words of Kavus Torabi - are pure illusion. Thank God, one would say. In reverse,Forever Reoccurring , a 20-minute suite, the main course of the menu, is completed with extreme clarity, according to architectures that require a steady hand and a well-aimed rudder. What then here and there, at the start as already mentioned and just before the finish line, is infarcted with a minimal outline of school / psychedelic base, the substance does not change. In Forever Reoccurring , in short, there is little delusion but even less dancing.
If Never I'm And Never You is a fragment that in the golden age of vinyl would have appeared on the market as a single B-side, while the subsequent My Sawtooth Wake is the second course for interest: thirteen double-faced, alternating among the most docile and sentimental Pink Floyds and a more tense backhand, dictated by a tight rhythm, and unlucky by an acid sax that steers (the song) and lashes. Closes The Elemental , also in this case by disregarding the proclamations of Torabi: easier than the ears to catch echoes of Van der Graaf Generator- but don't worry about looking for traces that lead to this or that record of the troop led by Hammill: it is the mood that makes the eye sense the movement of teapots fluttering against the background of this collapsing universe , on which the Gongs, rightly, they warn us. We treasure their clarification. And despite the confusing presentation of today's Gong, we consider The Universe Also Collapses a chapter that in the copious discography of the band does not disfigure. ....Andrea C. Soncini....~
The universe is more popular than ever. Is that due to the death on March 14, 2018 of scientist and cosmologist Steve Hawking? Is that due to the publication on April 10, 2019 of a spectacular photo of the black hole? Or is it because of the new album The Universe Also Collapses by legendary space and psychedelic rockers Gong ? I'm betting on the latter. After all, Gong is more than a legendary band. It's an idea. A way of life. A continuum that exists in all times and everywhere. Gong is like the black hole.
When we have to believe singer and guitarist Kavus Torabi van Gong, The Universe Also Collapses wanted to make 'the ultimate psychedelic rock album'. It took them a long time, I thought when I read this. Another statement from Torabi: "I want to hear music that makes me feel like I'm on drugs." Then he may not know the album Voyage 34 by Porcupine Tree, as far as I am concerned still the ultimate psychedelic rock album.
This album is the second since the death of Australian Daevid Allen (ex Soft Machine) in 2015. Under the influence of LSD, he founded Gong more than 50 years ago. Where Rejoice! I'm Dead! from 2016 was a kind of tribute to Allen, The Universe Also Collapses marks a new chapter. Most likely the first chapter of a new thick book. That chapter immediately starts with the 20-minute Forever Reoccurring. During the first few minutes, a seemingly monotonous and slowly synthesized pattern builds up in your head. The great thing about it is that most of the song is made up of just a riff that is stretched and repeated continuously. Also characteristic of the sound of Gong is an often ripping and grating saxophone from here by Ian East. It gives the music a jazzy twist. Vocally, the wear is sometimes over. In general, this does not bother because the music has many instrumental passages.
The short If Never I'm And Ever You taps from a different vein. Partly because of the Andy Tillison-like vocals, it sometimes reminds of The Tangent . My personal highlight is the 13-minute My Sawtooth Wake . The song is carried literally and figuratively by an extremely infectious and repetitive rhythm. That rhythm forms the basis for drawn-out intermezzos on saxophone, guitar, keys that eventually lead to a cacophony in three quarters. That is only the transition to a dazzling final part. In contrast to the other songs, the predominantly psychedelic-tinged vocals really come into their own here. The concluding The Elemental does not add much more to the above.
There is no doubt in my mind that Gong will last at least another 50 years. An extensive live tour through home base England, China, Scandinavia, Brazil, Japan and Canada is planned. Undoubtedly a new album and perhaps a DVD will follow soon.....by Hans Ravensbergen.....~
Gong! When I see the cover of “Flying Teapot”, I smell the hash air again, which was like the air of Brussels sprouts at Christmas. I remember that I was always intrigued by the idea of musical freedom that the band radiated, but that in the end I always turned to the lack of musicality. Stoned like a pinch singing crazy songs, I didn't think it was art. School friends who turned the plates gray always had to giggle a lot, but I didn't last five minutes. No wonder I only started to appreciate Gong when it was called 'Pierre Moerlen's Gong'.
Anyway, times come, times pass, but Gong apparently always remains, even four years after the death of Supreme Gnome and founder Daevid Allen. The band he ran before his death made a kind of tribute to Allen in 2016 with “Rejoice! I'm Dead ”, but three years later it is high time to stop kneeling and pick up the thread again.
These five men do this energetically, with an album that deliberately sounds like a trip. That in itself is not a new idea, on the contrary. I dare say that all records of Gong are musical trips, created under the influence of mushrooms, LSD, herbal bags, butt sweat from old frogs and all the other hallucinatory drugs that Allen could get hold of. But although Gong gets an old idea of stable on “The Universe Also Collapses”, the music is certainly not old wine in a new bag.
Don't get me wrong: it's not new music. It is old-fashioned psychedelic rock, with endlessly pumping riffs, twenty-minute songs, slightly rudderless compositions and the necessary craziness. But unlike predecessor “Rejoice! I'm Dead ”this is an inspired album with - to the extent that it works with pieces of that length - pointy music, which is actually played professionally and also sounds like a well-kept clock. That is a nice surprise, because I had already prepared for an eternal album full of lame flut music. This is not the case here.
Not everything is equally beautiful, the vocals in My Sawtooth Wake sound as bored as they used to be, but on the other hand the song rocks heavily, with some nice powerful riffs. Concluding track The Elemental is a brilliant and completely crazy song that you could sing along if you understood the timing, with almost every second chord a different key.
It is funny that Kscope again puts the album in the package leaflet under 'progressive rock' while foreman Torabi on the Kscope website says emphatically: this is not prog, this is psychedelic rock. They are both right, because “The Universe Also Collapses” is really so psychedelic that the listener (almost) starts hallucinating, but at the same time it is a huge progression for Gong. You could almost say that the current line-up has managed to make a sort of successful blend of the acid rock from the early 1970s and the jazz rock of the later days.
At a time when I no longer expected it at all, Gong has reinvented itself. And in a way that has resulted in a handsome, very entertaining and relevant album. And the gnome dancing on my keyboard totally agrees! ....Erik Groeneweg.....~
From the glorious times of the trilogy of 'Radio Gnome Invisible' a lot of water has passed under the bridges, but for the British combo the sun of an eternal rebirth seems to shine, projected towards the future, despite the important loss of Daevid Allen, historical founder. This album breaks the chains of prog, jazz and song form, to concentrate almost solely on a flow of consciousness in music, liquid and spatial notes, pure psychedelia, mixed with a lysergic space rock to the maximum.
Four tracks of more than 10 minutes each, closely linked in a single continuum, project the listener into a kaleidoscope made of astral dimensions, colors that do not exist, distant worlds lost in a deep space, which lives within the mind of those who connects with Gong music. A small krautrock waterfall also replaces the bucolic sounds of the Canterbury school, bringing the sound experience closer to another fundamental band, namely the Ozric Tentacles. All the songs are substantially homogeneous in quality of writing, accompanied by the hand of the voice of Kavus Torabi, warm and 'English' enough. Sax, clarinet, harmonium and flute act as an elegant counterpoint to the traditional arsenal of rock (guitar, bass and drums), giving harmonic and melodic glimpses of the latest dimension. Although the disc itself is on average successful, we are not faced with the masterpieces of the seventies, but in the domains year 2019 no one requests it, and the Gongs have already written their history pages. Above all, the final 'The Elemental' stands out, playing with the Pink Floyd barrettiani, a small opal that shines lonely in the dark. Difficult for many, it could be a good viaticum to access altered states of consciousness to those who already hang out in the 'tentacles' and surroundings.....~
Should a band continue or shut down when the band's founder and face is gone? That must have been pretty much the question the remaining members of the psychedelic prog rock band Gong had to ask themselves after Daevid Allen passed away in 2015. The man was the figurehead of this unique band for almost 50 years, who in an inimitable way managed to link the complicated progressive music of the so-called Canterbury scene to the somewhat more frivolous psychedelic space rock. Allen dictated the answer from his bedside: he wanted Gong to continue with guitarist Kavus Torabi as the new leader. And so it happened. The first post-Allen album was somewhat morbidly called 'Rejoice! I'm Dead 'and contained the last songs Daevid Allen had worked on. Now, three years later, there is the first album to which Daevid Allen no longer cooperated (logically). He is still prominent as a source of inspiration.
Kavus Torabi states that 'The Universe Also Collapses' should be seen as an attempt to make the ultimate psychedelic album. Music that is not only called psychedelic but that really gives you the feeling of being high. In this sense, the setup is particularly successful. As with his previous albums with Gong, Torabi takes his luggage with him as a former member of the legendary progressive homemunkunk band Cardiacs. Whether in the more than twenty 'Forever Reoccurring' or in the other three songs, the music happily bounces in all directions, always playing a prominent role for the wind players. In the almost poppy closing song 'The Elemental' a subtle but clear hint is given for everyone who still considers Gong as Daevid Allen's band. Stop looking at the past. Also stop looking at the future by the way: “Remember, there is only now!”. We will do that. We are now going to enjoy a great album by Gong. A band from 2019. Nothing more and nothing less than that......~
Credits
