Release date: 1989
Label: Demi Monde
Production: Harry Williamson
Length: 55:39
Genre: Canterbury scene/progressive rock/space rock
Rating: 8/10
Gongmaison was a short-lived offshoot of the legendary Gong, led by Australian musical eccentric Daevid Allen. It lasted only a year before Allen decided the time had finally come to return to the true name of his legendary band. Gongmanison recorded just one studio album, “Gongmaison”, which took a different direction from any Gong album under Allen’s leadership and in places packed in some atypical dance and house elements. Anyone familiar with Allen’s earlier musical adventures wasn’t exactly shocked by this sudden, brief transformation, since he’d still kept in occasional contact with the experimental trance outfit System 7, led by two former Gong members, guitar virtuoso Steve Hillage and his partner Miquette Giraudy.
Of Allen’s old seventies crew, only French woodwind player Didier Malherbe appears on “Gongmansion”, while the rest of the musicians blew in from ‘all different directions’. Standing out among them is singer Turiya ‘Wandana’ Bruce, who fills in for the absent Gilli Smyth with her vocal wailing. “Flying Teacup” opens with Daevid’s psychedelic little tale of a flying cup of tea, a cousin of the flying teapot from his earlier musical odysseys, followed by electronic trance rhythms and repetitive vocalizations. The track “‘1989′”, with Malherbe’s ‘old French school’ saxophone arrangements, sounds like classic Gong at times, despite its reggae-flavored rhythmic seasoning. The satirical lyrics and the poking fun at the social climate of the day, in classic Allen style, add to that feeling.
“Titti-Caca”, which also throws in some Irish folk and world music, features sharp violin arrangements courtesy of Graham Clark, vocal mantras and sparkling flute passages. On the short instrumental “Tablas Logorythmique”, Shamal Maitra turns into Trilok Gurtu on the tabla. The eclectic experiment “Negotiate” has some gorgeously lush symphonic-acoustic arrangements, while Allen serves up more vocal silliness and, via a playful melody with a slight country tinge, once again delivers a great time. The unusually beautiful acoustic closer, with backing vocal harmonies, is one of the few truly subtle moments in Allen’s musical career.
“We Circle Around”, where elements of house, folk and dance collide, features guest backing vocals from former Hawkwind singer and poet Robert Calvert, another legend of the space rock scene who left us far too early. The CD version of “Gongmaison” also includes a bonus track, a stretched-out version of the dance standard “Flying Teacup (Silly Mix)”, made for clubs with an electronic bent.
With its occasional dance and house touches, “Gongmaison” was an unusual experiment in Allen’s already wildly varied musical career, but the album is still stylistically diverse enough to deserve a more respected spot in the Gong discography than some give it. Thanks to its radically different musical direction, it didn’t exactly thrill space rock fans of classic Gong on release, while for a new generation of young house and trance ‘junkies’ it simply didn’t sound commercial enough. Once Pierre Moerlen (temporarily) retired his version of Gong, there was nothing stopping Allen, who always loved experimenting with new musical influences, from reviving the classic, psychedelic space rock Gong under their true name. With the album “Shapeshifter (1992) they picked up the “Radio Gnome Invisible” mythology and the adventures of the anti-hero named Zero the Hero.
Review by: Peter Podbrežnik
Tracks:
1. Flying Teacup (5:25)
2. 1989 (4:22)
3. Titti-Caca (10:10)
4. Tablas Logorythmique (1:10)
5. Negotiate (13:45)
6. We Circle Around (4:58)
Bonus track on the CD version:
7. Flying Teacup (Silly Mix) (15:49)
Gongmaison:
Daevid Allen – guitar, vocals
Turiya “Wandana” Bruce – vocals (1,3,5,6), harmonium
Harry Williamson – keyboards, guitar and vocals (2), arranger (5), producer
Didier Malherbe – saxophone, flute
Graham Clark – violin
Conrad Henderson – bass guitar
Shamal Maïtra – tabla, percussion
Guest musicians:
Robert George – dulcimer (5)
Jenni Rodger – backing vocals (5,6)
Robert Calvert – backing vocals (6)
