GONG — Gazeuse! (aka Expresso) (review)

GONG — Gazeuse! (aka Expresso) album cover Album · 1976 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
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.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Shapes of Silence (live) World Fusion
ALEPH QUINTET
Buy this album from MMA partners
Horizons Held Close Jazz Related Improv/Composition
TRANCE MAP (EVAN PARKER AND MATTHEW WRIGHT)
Buy this album from MMA partners
Puttin' On the Ritz Classic (1920s) Jazz
THE NEW WONDERS
Buy this album from MMA partners
異響同塵~Different echoes in the same dust~ Jazz Related Improv/Composition
TOSHI TSUCHITORI 土取利行
Buy this album from MMA partners
Brötzmann / Nilssen-Love : Butterfly Mushroom Avant-Garde Jazz
PETER BRÖTZMANN
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Puttin' On The Ritz
THE NEW WONDERS
js· 7 hours ago
Wet Weather Wet
THE WRONG OBJECT
js· 1 day ago
Michael Kiwanuka - Lowdown (parts i and ii)
MICHAEL KIWANUKA
js· 1 day ago
Notbad
PEELA
js· 2 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us