Gong

This compilation's title is misleading. Despite Gong's multiple incarnations and reincarnations, this CD focuses on founder Daevid Allen, who left the band in 1975. And although it introduces listeners to Allen's world of pot head pixies and flying teapots (covering the '60s to the late '80s), it's not a conventional "best-of" collection. But convention is anathema to Daevid Allen. This is a potpourri of outtakes, live tracks, spoken-word pieces, and sundry oddities, largely from Allen's Gong and Gong-related oeuvre. There's even a recorded snippet of a riot. Before Gong, Allen was a member of Soft Machine and this collection's oldest musical artifact is a fragment of the Softs' 1967 single "Love Makes Sweet Music." Despite leaving the band in 1967, Allen continued working with Kevin Ayers, who fronts Gong here on a 1971 radio session rendition of his summery "Clarence in Wonderland." Allen's earliest work with Gong is represented by a live 1969 version of "Dreaming It"; far superior are 1972 concert recordings of the epic, bluesy "Tried So Hard" and the swaying "I Feel So Lazy." After leaving Gong, Allen retreated to Majorca, where he recorded with local musicians. The eight-minute idyll "Deya Goddess" is a beautiful document of this period, with glissando guitar, strings, and Indian-nuanced percussion. By 1977, Allen had ventured into punk with Here & Now, renamed Planet Gong; a French-language version of the raucous "Opium for the People" is included here. Although later Allen material like the ska-lite "Chernobyl Rain" is weaker, the chanted "Let Me Be One" (recorded live by a reunited Gong in 1988) provides a timeless coda. Title notwithstanding, this release doesn't tell the whole story of Gong -- and as an account of Allen's work, it's very patchy. The uninitiated are better off with Varese's Absolutely the Best of Gong. ~ Wilson Neate, All Music Guide