Welcome to Music Banter Forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with over 70,000 other registered members. After you create your free account, you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 1,100,000 posts.
This thread is for discussing the jazz fusion album Gazeuse! by the band Gong. It was 2010's last homework album in the prog & fusion album club.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tore
Gong - Gazeuse! (1976)
The core of Gong is, roughly speaking, a Canterbury band that plays psychedelic rock/prog about some guy's search for eastern type enlightment and which also include space travelling tea pots, clever metaphors for taking drugs and a certain kind of english humour .. or something along those lines. However, some side projects have budded off Gong that may not be described by those same things. Some time in the 70s, guitarist Daevid Allen said a wall of force prevented him to go on stage and left the band. Other core members left as well and the drummer Pierre Moerlen gained control of the band. What he did was turn Gong into a jazz fusion band and the debut of this line-up is Gazeuse!, also known as Expresso in America.
Although that might not sound like the best premise for a new album, the result is actually pretty sweet. Besides Moerlen, the album includes famous Canterbury guitarist Allan Holdsworth and early Magma bassist Francis Moze, among others. Something interesting about the album is the amount of percussion instruments dominating the sound, like vibraphone, marimba and glockenspiel. Together, they make for a very melodic album with a distinct sound not quite like anything else I've heard.
After a while, this line-up budded off the Gong band under the name "Pierre Moerlen's Gong", becoming an independent band project alongside the old Gong as Daevid Allen and his cronies were re-united. Thus this album could be regarded as Pierre Moerlen's Gong's debut rather than a Gong album. But anyways, those who are interested in fusion or have heard some of Gong's earlier material, but not this, should definetly check it out. Recommended!
What I can clearly hear on this album which I have a relationship with outside of Gong is clearly Holdsworth the guitarist. The album is somewhat similar to Allan Holdsworth's solo material, but the instrumentation makes it unique I think. It's the only fusion album I know of with such an extensive use of percussive instruments and I love those clean, vibrating tones. The songs I appreciate the most are the first four which I think are all strong. Percolations : Part I & II sounds like it could be on the soundtrack of a video game, like an underwater world in some snes rpg. I hope that doesn't cheapen the song as I actually mean it in a positive way. It's a delicious, relaxing listen and a nice contrast to some of the more rocking tracks.
My favourite Gazeuse track at the moment is Esnuria. It has a great groove and I love the build up and just how the song develops with the percussion instruments, guitar and brass. It's a brilliant song with rocking bits as well as beautiful parts.
I don't think there's anything wrong with this album. Some would perhaps argue that the compositions could be more interesting, but I like where they've taken them and what they've done on this album. Usually, it's not a record I consciously sit down and dedicate attention to, but I might put it on while working on something and then I find myself grooving along after a little while.
Nowhere near as awesome as Radio Gnome Trilogy or Camembert Electrique, but a damn good jazz-rock album. I didn't even know that Allen wasn't on board for this one, and I really don't notice the drop in quality from Shamal at all(unintentional rhyme ftw!).
Another solid album choice from the PFAC, and another album of impeccably-performed instrumentals.
There are a lot of Holdsworth guitar runs to keep the tracks moving along, but I found myself mainly listening to all the percussive details that make this album sound so special. As tore suggests, the real magic of the unusual instrumentation opens up on Percolations, but scattered throughout the tracks there are plenty of light, dancing sections where Pierre Moerlen`s various instruments dominate.
On the basis of this album, I`m going to check out Expresso II, which is apparently similar, and also the three albums that Skaligojurah mentions. I`m also going for a vote of "Brilliant" here, because the only negative comment I have about Gazeuse is that the last, soft track is way too short: it feels like they were just warming into it when someone told them to pack up and get out of the studio!
I can happily say that anyone who likes Gazeuse! will find that Expresso II is very much a continuation of the same kind of music. Hence the name, of course, as Gazeuse! is known as Expresso in north America.
These Canterbury musicians were really in and out of bed with each other, weren`t they ? I wonder if you`ve ever looked at tuneglue.netwebsite: type in "gong" for instance,click the black circle,click "expand" and the whole story starts to unfold. It`s quite fun for a while.
I highly highly suggest anyone listen to the Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy(Flying Pot, Angel's Egg, You). Probably one of the most consistently brilliant yet eclectic set of albums I've ever heard. Nearly every time I listen to one I often find myself listening to all three since it's difficult to stop listening.
These Canterbury musicians were really in and out of bed with each other, weren`t they ? I wonder if you`ve ever looked at tuneglue.netwebsite: type in "gong" for instance,click the black circle,click "expand" and the whole story starts to unfold. It`s quite fun for a while.
Hey, that's a really cool webpage how the Canterbury scene is to some extent not just a scene, but also a bit of a community, is part of the reason of why I like it so much.
In regards to Pierre Moerlen's Gong and Gong, those who travel backwards in time from Gazeuse! should not expect to encounter the same kind of music as what Pierre did with the band is quite different .. But the radio gnome trilogy is good, yeah
Yes, Expresso II sounds like it could have come from the same recording session as Gazeuse!. On the other hand, I`ve noticed that Skaligojurah is keeping pretty quiet about what kind of music is on the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, but he really likes them, that`s for sure !
I`m glad that tuneglue.net was new for you. It`s a handy place for anyone to find out what other artists recorded with their favourite band/ musician. Usually the connections just go on forever.
I don`t know to what extent the Canterbury music community was actually rooted in Canterbury city. The city itself is a pretty quiet place, exceptional mainly for it`s beautiful gothic cathedral. I spent a week there once, but didn`t notice any vibrant music scene of the type you might imagine in Seattle, New Orleans, etc.
I don`t know to what extent the Canterbury music community was actually rooted in Canterbury city. The city itself is a pretty quiet place, exceptional mainly for it`s beautiful gothic cathedral. I spent a week there once, but didn`t notice any vibrant music scene of the type you might imagine in Seattle, New Orleans, etc.
It is certainly far stretching Robert Wyatt, one of the founding fathers of the scene, has expressed some dissatisfaction with the term as he himself is not from Canterbury.
One of my friends play bass in a prog band here in Oslo and they got Richard Sinclair to come here and lay down vocals on a Canterburyish track they did, so I guess then some might call them part of the Canterbury scene as well - or at least related to it. Then there's an israelian band called Sheshet which has been called Canterbury, simply because their sound was inspired by the Canterbury scene. There are other such examples too, for example the Japanese progband Mr. Sirius. Depending on how willing you are to stretch your definition, Canterbury could be something approaching a certain sound rather than a place.
Anteater seems to have a knack for sniffing up prog bands which are not connected to Canterbury by geography.
Perhaps not the best example, but here's Sheshet's Fall Nights Canterbury away from Canterbury?
Gong - Gazeuse! (1976)
Linear Mode
