EntertheLemming SxE Gong - the Miracle Hair Restorer

My sister once dated a Gnome Radio ham and when the relationship ended in tears (hers) she won custody of four Gong albums and bequeathed same to her little brother (moi) Forever hence, the original owner of said vinyl was referred to simply as 'the hairy stranger to soap' by Lemming soeur. To date I have never been able to make it through any of the Radio Gnome trilogy but was amazed to discover that this album is as coherent and disciplined as the former are rambling and slapdash. There is not a single pixie, orgone accumulator, teapot or paean to the futility of bathing anywhere on Gazeuse, and I really should recast the world's most grievously irritating longhair commune band in a whole new light. This is straight up jazz rock fusion, with themes, improvisations and recapitulations that Mahavishnu, Return to Forever and Weather Report would kill for. After a chemically constructed 'wall of force' decreed that Daevid Allen quit the original lineup they were still two albums short of fulfilling a contract with Virgin Records. Pierre Moerlen appears to have stepped in at this point to take control of affairs and whether he is considered a control freak or not, we should be thankful he grasped the reins, as shorn of Allen's wacky zaniness (a.k.a.stoned smug hippies dicking about) and without Hillage's gaudy psychedelia laced guitar this is a very different fusion beastie indeed.

Straight Edge Gong anyone ?

Expresso - I had to do a double take here as this can't be the same band that named a track I am Your Pussy can it ? Very carefully structured and paced right down to the last detail with sparing use of staccato unison sections and bolstered by the molten steel of Holdsworth's legato guitar. The textural detail provided by his brother's subtle vibes behind Moerlen Snr's intricate and groovin' kit plus the sparing sax interjections via Didier Malherbe are a joy. Even that 70's studio conceit of phasing the drum fills doesn't irritate here such is the strength of the material and playing throughout. Lovely double time contradiction towards the end set up by the chromatic percussion getting busier over the unwavering pulse of the underlying groove. I could swear my hair has grown since this track started ...

Night Illusion - Must be the first time I have heard Holdsworth play conventional power chords as illustrated by the intro. Another very robust composition with a main theme that lingers long in the noggin afterwards. If nothing else this album has convinced me that Pierre Moerlen is one of the best drummers I have ever heard and once again the dynamic contrasts afforded by the wealth of chromatic percussion deployed gives the track a depth of detail that rewards repeated listens. Zappa had a lifelong mallet fetish but he seldom put them to such effective use as Gong do on Gazeuse.

Percolations Parts 1 & 2 - The first part confounds my habitual prejudice about ambient style atmospherics i.e. this is assuredly not just any old flotsam drowned in a big reverb. Gorgeous swathes of composed chordal washes provide a backdrop whose source appears to be that of a pedal steel guitar put through a variety of chorused and/or overdubbed harmonies. (Whatever, it is just industrial strength sumptuous y'all) The second part racks up the tempo considerably and steals a march on much of the gamelan guitar work of the Crims that was to follow circa 1981 but here stated on vibraphone, mallets, marimba and glockenspiel. Take care to notice the compelling use of timpani on Percolations as unlike many rock bands, Gong resist the temptation to go bombastic '1812 meltdown' when armed with the orchestral critters. I am probably one of the few non-drummers who actually enjoys many drum solos and the one here provided by the multi talented Moerlen is as good an example of a carefully composed and 'musical' excursion I have encountered. Right up on a par with Billy Cobham and Tony Williams (praise indeed) Is that a light covering of fuzz I can now feel on my bald patch ?

Shadows of - Perhaps the best track on the album. Almost a perfect example of what jazz rock could be (but seldom is) The main theme is tear wellingly beautiful and the subsequent sections that follow, although all clearly discernible, serve to add to the whole and flow seamlessly into each other as the piece develops. Holdsworth's solo is a veritable 'stag night at the Whammy bar' and is just another example of the sort of light and shade and dynamic contrast that appears to have left his work as the years went by. Is this a fringe I see before me ?....

Esnuria - Crunchy riffing from Holdsworth and a rhythmic feel not a million miles away from Bill Bruford's Earthworks. Lovely ostinato from Malherbe mixed tantalising low in the mix as if to tease us into reaching for the 'repeat' button. Francis Mose contributes some plaintive singing bass on this number and like everything at the bottom end on Gazeuse, plays just enough and no more to get the job done. This discipline may be a product of his stint in early Magma ?

Mireille - Rather roomy little tail-ender. Not completely redundant as it does contain some plaintive acoustic from Holdsworth over some dislocated and dreamy harmonic accompaniment via Mose's ethereal Rhodes and neurotic acoustic piano. Although hardly a 'sea parter' it's the only track that features keyboards.

Gong's output appears to be split abruptly between the communal fruits of psychedelic breakfast cereal and the latter fusion material. Whatever side of the fence your preferences might lie, I am convinced that lengthy exposure to this band might actually promote hair restoration in we balding and ageing proggers. So wedge that retreating mullet between the speakers and watch that thick glossy pate miraculously regenerate itself.

FunkFreak75 Now de facto Pierre Moerlen's Gong, the lineup has become nearly 100% French--with only Englishman Allan Holdsworth representing the empire and language of the band's founders.

Line-up / Musicians: - Didier Malherbe / tenor sax, flute (5) - Francis Moze (Magma) / fretless bass, acoustic & electric pianos (6), gong (3) - Pierre Moerlen / drums, glockenspiel & vibes (3), marimba & timpani (3) - Mireille Bauer (Édition Spécial) / marimba (1,3,5), vibraphone (1,2,4), glockenspiel (5), tom toms (3) - Benoit Moerlen / vibraphone (1-5) With: - Allan Holdsworth ('Igginbottom, Ian Carr, Tempest, The Soft Machine, The New Tony Williams Lifetime) / pedal steel (3), electric & acoustic guitars, violin - Mino Cinelu (Moravagine, Chute Libre, Miles Davis) / congas (1,4,5), gong (2,4), cuica, triangle, maracas (3), talking drum, temple blocks (4)

1. "Expresso" (5:58) this sounds so much like BRUFORD (or even UK) with a more Latin-ized sound palette (due, of course, to Allan Holdsworth's domineering guitar tone--which is getting very, VERY close to the one he will use predominantly with the aforementioned bands in the next couple years--the result of recommissioning a new neck and fretboard and overhauling the pickups of his '73 Stratocaster. This is the guitar he will use for the next three years--the Bruford and UK albums--until his move to California in late 1981.) You can hear Allan's new-found confidence spilling over across the tape. The recording sessions of Gazeuse! were 15 months after those for The New Tony Williams Lifetime: Believe It! album--an experience that Allan often cited as being the single most transformative for him over his long career. Aside from Allan's opening solo, the music is very good Jazz-Rock Fusion: funky, somewhat smooth and governed by mathematical rules, with some excellent bass play from ex-Magma bassist Francis Moze, great vibraphone support from Mireille Bauer (both of whom would soon be shacking up together and moving on to help strengthen J-R Fusion band Édition Special) and of course Pierre Moelen's flawless drum play. (9.75/10)

2. "Night Illusion" (3:42) a solid song (with some great drumming) that lacks any melodic enticements. (8.75/10)

3. "Percolations, Part 1 + Part 2" (10:00) Benoit Moerlen, Mireille Bauer, and Pierre Moerlen weave together their tuned percussion instruments into something quite beautiful and hypnotic while Didier Malherbe adds some breathy flute. (Is this what Mike Oldfield heard that caused him to recruit Pierre for his Incantations album and tour?) At 2:10 a rock drum beat enters for a short bit, signalling the percussionists to shift their weave. Thereafter Pierre and Mireille's percussion work expand to cover timpani and tom toms and, eventually, drums. Leave it to Pierre to perform one of the most enjoyable/listenable drum solos rendered to vinyl. I love mathematical music like this. Again, I think this music previews (inspired) Brand X ("...and so to F"). (18/20)

4. "Shadows Of" (7:48) a song that starts out a little lackadaisacle despite Pierre's dynamic drumming and Allan's introductory guitar melody, but then, at 1:05, slowly speeds up into a nice cruising speed with Benoit's accenting vibes and Didier's folk-feeling flute play up front. Then Allan takes over at 2:50 with some of the weirdest saw-like bent-note play. It sounds like he's playing through a muted synthesizer clarinet or a Native American drone flute. Eventually he turns back to his regular (new) sound as he's joined/twinned by Didier's flute. At 5:30 the song seems to end, but then, weirdly, it slowly picks back up, one instrument at a time--sounding as if "Ooops! We forgot a round!" Bass and acoustic guitar here are awesome, but then Allan and the band return to a more BRUFORD sound and feel for the song's finish. Solid. Worth many listens. (13.5/15)

5. "Esnuria" (8:00) an interesting percussion weave opens this one before bass, guitar, and sax join in to coerce some funky rock out of it. Quite an interesting blend of sounds and styles: funk, Latin, R&B, rock, blues, jazz-rock, prog, even a little Canterbury. I'm not quite convinced it all works but it is certainly interesting. In the song's second half the band seems to smooth out and cruise down an easy straightaway but then at the end of the fifth minute they move back into a kind of intricate FRANK ZAPPA hodge-podge weave. I must say that Didier Malherbe's sax play coupled with the rhythm section's cohesive play make for some astonishing music. In the eighth minute Allan's guitar "power chords" with Francis Moze's bass and Pierre's amazing drum play make for the most melodic and engaging music on the album. A song that is up and down for me but very impressive. (13.5/15)

6. "Mireille" (4:10) Mireille was, at the time, Pierre's live-in girlfriend and a very popular human among the band (later to fall into relationship with Francis Moze--with whom she would leave Gong in order to join Édition Spécial--helping to make them one of my favorite French Jazz-Fusion bands of the 1970s). The pretty jazz-bar melody offered up to Mireille is given several renditions and variations within this same song: the first a sparse, PAT METHENY-like acoustic guitar with Fender Rhodes treatment, then a Mr. Rogers/Vangelis Blade Runner-like Fender with Ralph Towner-like filigree-style acoustic guitar (Allan showing that his acoustic guitar playing style was quite different than that of his electric axes: his runs much more feathery, like a scurrying mouse, than the slithery stop-and-go large rodent runs of his electric. The final capitulation of the theme is left to Francis' expressive piano, tout seul. (8.875/10)

Total Time: 39:38

There is so much to this album: so many amazing ideas, such amazing musicianship, so many breath-taking riffs and runs, weaves and solos, so many stunning performances, individual and collective, and yet, at the same time, there are so many discordant and even contradictory or combative sounds and styles that I find myself reeling in kind of "wait and see" retreat. This is the first time I've ever been exposed to this album. While I find myself so often feeling exhilarated I can claim almost equal instances of bewilderment and/or repulsion. In time I imagine that it will all become so familiar to me that it will all become accepted: "Oh. That's just Gazeuse!"

On another note, like The Soft Machine, I failed to ever give this band any credit or attention. This was due to their often-hard-to-take-serious first six albums. I never knew that so many of the Canterbury bands would outgrow their frivolous silliness to become quite serious jazz-rock fusion bands. So glad to be here, now! This is the first Gong album that I've heard that I can willingly call a masterful contribution to the elevation of prog and jazz-rock fusion.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of highly entertaining Jazz-Rock Fusion from one of the most extraordinary ensembles you will hear.

seyo "Gazeuse!" was my first GONG listening experience. Since I did not know the classic Daevid Allen-led Radio Gnome trilogy, I was pretty much impressed by the wonderful space/fusion sound of "Gazeuse!", because I had no previous model to compare to.

Now, when I know well most of the GONG 70s releases, I can even more appreciate this album. Pierre Moerlen took the lead and, backed by the enormous contribution of Malherbe's woodwinds, produced a jazz-rock masterpiece. Perhaps only on some of the MOTHERS OF INVENTION albums could I hear such a creative, playful and intelligent use of various percussion in the rock band format. Pierre and Benoit Moerlen, Mireille Bauer and Mino Cinelou act like a percussive symphonic orchestra, utilizing legions of instruments, some of which I never heard of before. Apart from Pierre's drum kit, you can hear vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, xylophone, congas, African bell-gong, cuica, maracas, talking drum, vibra, timpani... The best example of their capabilities is a two-part percussion suite "Percolations", which remind you that even the sole percussive rhythm instruments can create real music.

Another important contribution to this album is unbelievable lead guitar of Allan Holdsworth. The sound of his guitar is really unique and compositions where he gives his best like "Expresso" or "Shadows Of" are masterpieces of jazz-rock. Fans of LEB I SOL are strongly advised to listen to Holdsworth, because the undisputed ex-Yugoslav/Macedonian guitar genius Vlatko Stefanovski (ex leader of LEB I SOL) has repeatedly mentioned Holdsworth's influence on his own guitar technique.

Although the confirmed adherents to the earlier "Radio Gnome Invisible" space-rock mythology will probably dismiss "Gazeuse!" as ultimately a non-GonG record, other listeners (and specially jazz rock fans) are strongly advised to give it a try.

Warthur This album is really the debut of the Gong spin-off known as "Pierre Moerlen's Gong" - they changed their name to that as soon as their contract with Virgin, and other Gong factions with other lineups performed parallel to them even before then - one wonders whether the name change would have happened sooner had Virgin Records been up for it.

The group plays a highly percussion-focused brand of fusion which at points is reminiscent of the work on Billy Cobham's Spectrum album. The lineup is structured around a core unit of no less than four percussionists, with a few other musicians to round out the sound - standouts here include Allan Holdsworth on guitar and Didier Malherbe on flute and sax. Though the band occasionally dip into 1970s rock/fusion cliches (a drum solo, when you have so many other awesome percussion instruments to play with? Really, Pierre?) but is otherwise a reasonably confident first draft of this Gong incarnation's distinctive style.

Sean Trane Before starting the review, this album was apparently released in the US under the name of Expresso, which will explain why the following album will bear the name Expresso II. After the still very GonG-ian Shamal, where the spirit of Daevid was not completely erased yet, as can be seen by constant traits of humour in the instrumental music, Gazeuse is a rather different object, retaining a certain form of rock in their jazz-rock, that they are very much comparable of Canterbury bands like Hatfield, Gilgamesh or National Health. Even though Hillage is gone and replaced by Alan Holdsworth (ex-Nucleus and Soft Machine), the group is now in majority French in its personnel, Howlett being replaced by ex-Magma Francis Moze (also playing keyboards).

Gong is now a full-blown jazz-rock outfit, a very percussive one at that with no less than four members playing percussion instruments as disparate as marimbas, congas, drums, glockenspiels, maracas and temple blocks (even leaving a lengthy percussion passage at the end of Night Illusion; thus leaving only Holdsworth (guitars & violin), Malherbe (winds) and Moze (pianos) front the septet with solo instruments. With a stupendous and colourful (dare I even say joyous) artwork, it is a little amazing to notice that the album is so serious: Shamal and Gazeuse should've traded artworks to fit better the musical content. Moze's Kobaian-speaking bass adds a little je-ne-sais-quoi to the music that makes this album quite enjoyable. Holdsworth's heavy guitars often take the group to a Canterburian trail (the future National Health and UK guitarist is clearly blossoming in Gazeuse), and his composition Shadow Of is one of the album's highlights. While Gazeuse has no links whatsoever to the Daevid-ian Gong, it is certainly no less an album, just as worthy but differently, but likely to appeal to a different kind of proghead.