Track Listing

1. Radio Gnome
2. You Can't Kill Me
3. I've Been Stoned Before
4. Mister Long Shanks
5. O Mother I Am Your Fantasy
6. Dynamite
7. I Am Your Funeral
8. Wet Cheese Delerium
9. Squeezing Sponges Over Policemen's Heads
10. Foghat Digs Holes In Space
11. Tried So Hard
12. Tropical Fish
13. Selene
14. Gnome The Second

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16225 in Music
• Released on: 2001-03-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

CD Description
This 1971 release was the first "real" Gong album (1970's MAGICK BROTHER was really Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth with friends, recorded before the band's official debut). It's a psychedelic/space-rock classic, hinting at the conceptual/musical heights reached by the forthcoming "Radio Gnome Trilogy" but characterised by harder-edged riffing and fewer ethereal moments (Steve Hillage and Tim Blake had not yet come aboard).
Allen's underground-oriented psycho-sexual, beatniklyrics are a winning combination of wisdom and whimsy, but it's the music that makes CAMEMBERT. Allen's patented "glissando guitar" style (a spacy, flowing sound achieved with delay effects and a slide) puts the band in early Pink Floyd territory, as do the long, atmospheric jams. There's also a distinct jazz influence in both Pip Pyle's bop-inspired drumming and Didier Malherbe's freaky sax. These elements combinedwith Gilli Smyth's ambient/erotic "space whisper" backing vocals and Allen's winning tunesmithery to create some of theleast pretentious art-rock ever heard.

Customer Reviews

So Cool, it's Arctic, Ultimate Commune Rock, Seventies style
A surreal adventure into the world of the early seventies peace and love scene. A real mix of philosophy and fun. This album is their masterwork, an intro to the strange world where you are "squeezing sponges over policemens heads", but at the same time, "Fohat digs holes in space". Light and entertaining, but with a deep vein of thought on how this planet must change. A recording that operates at two levels simultaneously, emoting hope and a deep sense of peace and belonging. There are no disappointing tracks on this album, they are all deeply amusing, and well constructed. The craft of this ecclectic band of musicians escaping the chaos of late 1960's Paris riots, is raw and vibrant, and echos those troublesome times when freedom of expression was a truly personal possesion for the first time. "Selene" is a haunting evocation of the spirit of The Moon, whilst "I've been stoned before", is the sort of track that reminds you of what it was "really" like to be alive in the early seventies. A real treat for those who want to be back in 1972, but stil relevant to clubbers in 2001, when Fohat does his stuff, a must for the chill out room.

Still jumps off the vinyl ..er...cd...at you
There's still so much we can learn and still need to learn from this record. How to jam. How to connect. How to just express yourself. How to pulse out a bass riff to drive a song instead of just 'accompanying'. Full of life and raw energy, it blew a whole through the sterile Rick Wakeman, ELP and Jon Anderson LPs I was listening to at the time I picked this up, inexpensively I remember, in that period just before punk took off. Very good.

Gong man, far gong
This album had just been released as I entered High School. I remember it fondly and so had to get a CD version. My father called it 'Hippie Music', making the phrase a term of abuse. It may be hippie but the music doesn't abuse anything. Rhythms and themes are strong and Gilli Smyth's ethereal murmurings evoke the spaced out texture of the music.

And not far from the surface there is great musicianship: As a jazz devotee I realise why I enjoyed (and am enjoying again) it so much; this is free jazz-rock ... and really good too! No surprise that the talented Theo Travis (sax) plays in the latest incarnations of the band.

If you remember this album and feel the urge to acquire more Gong I would certainly recommend 'Egg' and 'You' - they take the jazz to a more even-handed level but are immensely enjoyable and funky.