Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Gong
Label: Virgin Records
Release: 1976
Length: 40:01
Rating: 5/5
“Shamal” is a watershed album in the story of the legendary international prog rock outfit Gong, because its release marked the end of their psychedelic space rock era under the eccentric Australian guitarist and singer Daevid Allen, an era that peaked with the monumental album trilogy collectively known as “Radio Gnome Trilogy”. The classic Gong lineup fell apart in 1975 before a gig in the English town of Cheltenham, when Allen, saying that an “invisible wall between him and the audience” kept him from stepping on stage, refused to play and decided to head off for a while as a solo artist. Allen’s “lovely” wife Gilly Smith followed his lead, choosing to devote herself to motherhood, and so did keyboard wizard Tim Blake.
During the recording of “Shamal”, the reins of the band were taken by brilliant guitar oddball Steve Hillage, who stuck around just long enough to leave his unmistakable instrumental stamp on the album, since he and his partner, keyboardist Miquette Giraudy, decided to bow out even before it came out. At Virgin Records’ urging, the baton of bandleader soon passed to drummer Pierre Moerlen, who, together with the only remaining founding member, saxophonist Didier Malherbe, managed to keep the legendary name alive, even though “Shamal” had already given birth to a completely new band with an approach totally different from Allen’s psychedelically tripped-out, quasi-mythological visions.
In many ways “Shamal” is a transitional album, where you can still pick up on a few psychedelic motifs from past exploits, while Moerlen and Malherbe decided to air out the sound with far more refined jazz rock fusion moves, now and then also letting colorful ethnic touches run free. The long-haul space flights were over with “Shamal”, and a whole new set of sonic horizons suddenly opened up in front of the lineup that was carrying the Gong name at the time.
The album boasts a high level of stylistic variety and a distinctly polished production, handled by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. Here and there you’ll still find some endearing bits of that burlesque eccentricity so typical of the Allen era, though there’s no longer any room for his astral mantra-chanting. It’s fair to say Gong “got serious” as composers on this record while holding on to a high degree of adventurous fire. “Shamal” offers far more stylistic flexibility and sonic finesse, at the expense of the avant-garde detours and obscure improvisations that were so typical of their earlier output. All those music gourmets who never had much of an ear for Allen’s hippie-eccentric ego trips got a fresh chance with “Shamal” to fall in love with Gong as a top-notch jazz fusion band.
From start to finish, the album brings a hefty dose of rhythmic dynamism and a convincing fusion of a colorful palette of musical styles, with an emphasis on jazz and world music. Of everything on the record, the opening fusion appetizer “Wingful of Eyes” is still the closest to their previous space rock style, thanks to the dreamy vocals. This excellent composition glides superbly between jazz fusion excursions on the woodwinds, psychedelia and ethnic influences via the xylophone, while Hillage’s solos inject some rock energy. Vocals are really just a garnish on the album. In later years they would give way entirely to a purely instrumental direction.
“Chandra” is a highly complex jazz rock fusion treat, bursting at the seams with witty improvisations and fiery rhythmic meanders. The way the individual instruments are used is downright stunning, and the end result is an incredibly rich sound with plenty of unpredictable twists. World music lovers will get their fill on “Bombooji”, where they have a great time playing with some ethnic elements. The central melody on bamboo flute comes from the Far East and conjures up images of some Japanese or Chinese landscape, after which an unpredictable shift in the arrangements brings the piece, by its close, to the traditional music of Andean shepherds. “Cat in Clark’s Shoes” is a hugely witty jazz rock fusion jam with eccentric lyrics and a burlesque folk-blues rock section at the end. Here too there’s no shortage of crazy improvisational detours on the woodwinds and violin, while the rhythmic variety, led by the vibraphone, is so rich you’d think Gong had always played fusion. The closing bit with Latin arrangements on violin and spoken Spanish vocals I take as a fine parody of Mexican TV soap operas.
With “Mandrake”, a romantic fusion of ambient, world music and jazz, they wade into meditative waters in an utterly convincing way. Of course the daydreaming doesn’t last forever, and before long, via a decisive guitar riff, they swerve into a fiery jazz rock section with gourmet passages on guitar and saxophone. No single composition on the album really stands out, since every one of them shows a high level of excellence, but if I had to pick a personal favorite, I’d probably go for the title track, which is a perfect jazz fusion fairy tale and in many ways reflects their later direction. Thanks to Hillage’s guitar, most of the other compositions on the album are still closer to prog rock than to classic jazz fusion, but here the jazz component gets total free rein, apart from a few avant-garde touches with vocal harmonies. Once again it’s incredibly hard to single out the stellar solo turns of the individual players, since Pinchevsky’s violin solo “rips the knickers off” at least as successfully as Malherbe’s saxophone wizardry, while Howlett’s refined bass work deserves a nod too. Pure perfection!
“Shamal” was a magnificent kickoff to a run of more-or-less brilliant jazz rock fusion albums that Gong, under the up-and-coming leadership of their drumming powerhouse Pierre Moerlen, cranked out almost like clockwork. It’s rare for a transitional album to prove itself to the point where it can be declared a masterpiece. “Shamal” certainly belongs in that category, as it stands as one of the most convincing bridges between prog rock and jazz fusion in the story of experimental music. The jazz fusion version of Gong, impossible to compare with Allen’s incarnations of the band, wasn’t destined to hold onto ownership of the legendary name, though, because the legendary hippie patriarch later decided to return with the Planet Gong project and reclaim the top spot. After Malherbe’s departure they renamed themselves Pierre Moerlen’s Gong and grew into a completely distinctive branch of the sprawling Gong family.
Lineup
Pierre Moerlen – drums, vibraphone, tubular bells
Jorge Pinchevsky – violin
Mireille Bauer – percussion, xylophone, glockenspiel, gong, marimba
Sandy Colley – vocals
Didier Malherbe -flute, bansuri, gong, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Miquette Giraudy – keyboards, vocals
Mike Howlett – bass guitar, vocals
Patrice Lemoine – keyboards
Steve Hillage – electric and acoustic guitar
Production
Nick Mason
Track list
1. Wingful Of Eyes
2. Chandra
3. Bombooji
4. Cat In Clark’s Shoes
5. Mandrake
6. Shamal
