You might think there is no space rock anymore. But this album makes clear already with its opener, "Tiny Galaxies", that there is. However, it is a rather friendly introduction to the cosmic thunderstorm that follows later.
None of this has much to do with Daevid Allen's former Pot Head Pixies and their flying teapots anymore. The group still plays this repertoire live (and yes, as their live album Pulsing Signals from 2022 shows, they know how to do it), but it turns out that guitarist and singer Kavus Torabi has increasingly taken over the direction. And he and his men (Dave Sturt, bass; Cheb Nettles, drums; Fabio Golfetti, guitar, vocals; Ian East, sax; there are no keyboards on this album) are now closer to Zappa than to Allen.
Seen in the light of things, this can hardly be any different, and it consistently continues a development that was already indicated on the previous albums. Musically, the boys are in top shape, but the mentality is different than that of the (already diverse) original Gong line-ups. Daevid Allen's friendly, crazy humor always ensured a certain lightness there, and even when sometimes he wrote quite angry lyrics, Gong always was a group that carried the listener to high heights in a partly rocking, partly jazzy way, but also always carried them back set down gently. Kavus doesn't have that sense of humor, and his voice also brings in a different character than Daevid's always slightly ironic tone -- which doesn't mean that this record is a deadly serious affair or has anything dogged about it. But it has a lot more raw power and rather blows the listener away than carrying him.
I'm not sure yet whether Unending Ascending will reach a place in my annual top list; you need more than one listening session to fully get what happens here. In any case, in terms of craftsmanship, the whole thing is played excellently, occasionally uses earlier stylistic elements, obviously loves odd time signatures, follows no fashion or trend, is superbly produced and, despite sometimes somewhat long and strenuous passages, all in all absolutely worth listening to.
Those who are among the first to order the record will also receive a numbered print, drawn and hand-signed by Kavus. It's pretty spacey too.
No comments:
Post a Comment