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+--- Thread: Help with the band Gong (/showthread.php?tid=3258)
Help with the band Gong - carbon_psycho - 30-05-2010
Ok guys, I need your help..
I want to get into the band Gong. I heard few tracks and loved them, which album is the best place to start, any suggestions???
17 albums are too many to go through.. so need the suggestion.
thanks
Help with the band Gong - gryphon - 30-05-2010
I have long enjoyed Gong's work over the last 25 years or so.....................They are by nature a little like trying to bottle happiness as regards trying to capture them in a recorded form...................by their very nature, they were a totally spontaneous band who, were probably best experienced live or at least first hand ......to sit with Gong in a room and listen to what they were trying to do at that moment, was the way to do it......I was never that lucky......................However, I would recommend that you start at Camembert Electronic (if you can get a copy ......it was reissued by Charley records on CD a few years back, so it should be available) ..................personally I love this album, it still seems fresh and funny to me nearly thirty years after it's first hearing................
For the rest .............I would suggest that you do some background reading ( on the internet ) about each album before listening..............with Gong, you need to know what each CD is about and the setting to help you appreciate them fully( and to weed out the technically poor albums one was recorded on a film's optical soundtrack and suffers for it !!!!!))................then go in with an open mind and appreciate them......................check out the family tree connections of the members, to other bands as they had quite an influence : Piere Moelen went on to influence Mike Oldfield ..........................Remember that Gong have a French language connection and it is worth following this into their Jazz connections..........They also connect with Belgium and their free and unpredictable lifestyle matches some of the Belgian ways of life and it is interesting to look at this as a backdrop to their work .
Hope this helps:biggrin:
Help with the band Gong - carbon_psycho - 30-05-2010
Thanks...
I had decided to start off with Flying Teapot & then to follow it with the rest of the Radio Gnome Trilogy.
But I guess I'll go with your suggestion.
Thanks once again.
Help with the band Gong - Tiggi - 30-05-2010
Haven't had too many brushes with Gong, but I like the solo work of Steve Hillage who has sporadically played guitar for the band, so the intersections between Gong & Hillage are my main interest.
The live album Live Etc. is on my buy list currently...