Gong Unconvention 2006 - Il commento di Aymeric Leroy:
First of all, I thought the venue was perfect. I'd only been at the Melkweg once before (to see Allan Holdsworth in 2000) and had vague memories, but it turned out to be ideal for the event - or you could say the best possible use was made of the premises. My only complaint was that on the Saturday, the large hall seemed to turn into a giant disco while all the "real" music had to fit into the smaller room. But the "techno/rave party", evidently designed to attract a younger crowd, was apparently a success which no doubt helped the festival's finances, so... The sound, lights and projections were all superb, and that everything went so smoothly and according to schedule is evidence of how competent the whole crew was. Now, to the music. Things kicked off gently on the Friday afternoon, beginning with a set by what was basically an augmented version of the Magick Brothers (Daevid, Graham Clark and Mark Robson), aided by various members of Kangaroo Moon and other guests. The material was drawn from various Daevid Allen solo albums - I must confess I'm not familiar with all of them and won't attempt a setlist, but among the songs was "Thoughts For Naught", the opening song from Gong's "You" and, most memorably, a superb version of "Wise Man In Your Heart" with Mike Howlett on bass, Orlando Allen on drums and Theo Travis on soprano sax. Hadouk Trio followed and played superbly as usual. I see this band play regularly in and around Paris so I'm quite familiar with their music, but evidently not everyone was and surely they made a big impact. The trio is the perfect context for Didier to demonstrate the extent of his instrumental mastery and lyricism, and in Steve Shehan they have a world-class percussionist. Mother Gong presented itself in a new and very promising line-up which toured the UK last month, consisting of Gwyo Ze Pix on keyboards, Tim Hall on bass, Orlando Allen on drums, plus Graham Clark and/or Didier Malherbe. I didn't really know what to expect, and thought their set was very strong. The music was very Gong-ish at times, and Gilli did her usual "space whisper" thing with commanding presence, delivering heavily political lyrics/texts. It all sounded very nice indeed. The Glissando Orchestra was more a "conceptual" interlude, in a "how long can you hold this note" way. It was nice to see all these players together on stage, and I like the sound of glissando guitar, but the "Seven Drones" concept is musically a bit beyond me. Intriguing... I share what's been said about Here & Now's gig. To be honest, I'm rather unfamiliar with this band and can't say how they compared to their albums, but I didn't really care for most of what I heard. The opening instrumental was fine, but the vocal-based material sounded dull to my ears, and Steffi Sharpstrings' solo work failed to impress me the way it had on Gong's 1990s tours. Closing the first evening was Acid Mothers Gong. To be honest, I'd been a bit nonplussed by what I'd heard them play before. I attended their first gig in London in October 2003 and to me it was just an almost unbearable wall of noise (admittedly it sounded better when I listened back to my recording of the gig - on the night I was probably too busy trying to protect my ears to really listen properly) - and I won't say anything about the Guru & Zero gig I'd seen in Paris a few months before. Friday's gig was a revelation. What I heard was no less intense sonically, but with much more nuance and a lot of panache. The set kicked off impressively with a solo spot by drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, who performed to a backing tape of extremely complex instrumental music, full of time signature changes, and then the rest of the band joined in for a performance that mixed some of Gong's trademark characteristics with the Acid Mothers' own extreme universe. I don't know if Steve Lake was in attendance - if he did, we regrettably failed to make contact - but I'd be curious to know if the gig reaffirmed his enthousiasm for AMG. I'm certainly beginning to understand why he was so complimentary about them. As I said, Saturday was a little less eventful, musically speaking. I arrived late and sadly missed Rick Chafen's wedding, celebrated by Gilli, but I did see part of the tribute to Pierre and all of the tribute to Pip, which has been described here. Subsequently I drifted from one room to the other, and as the evening progressed found more and more to enjoy... I saw some of Zorch's set, most of the Sacred Geometry set, which featured most of the Gong members at various times (and Daevid throughout, iirc), and the very sweet "Stroking TheTail Of The Bird" set with Harry Williamson on keyboards backing Daevid and Gilli. I caught a glimpse of System 7, a "chill-out" sequence with some nice guitar playing from Steve, but when the drum machine resumed I was reminded of why I could never warm up to this project - lack of nuance between the "new-age" and techno sections - I find the latter too robotic for my taste. I prefer real bass and real drums ! Finally, Sunday... House Of Thandoy opened. The band is led by guitarist Steve Higgins, joined by the rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Steve Cassidy (Here & Now) on drums, and for most of the set by Theo Travis on flute. Actually Theo also had his tenor sax handy but didn't use it, which is probably evidence of the spontaneous/jamming nature of this project. Frankly, as with Here & Now I found their set pleasant and solid but somewhat dull. Little stood out compositionally, the musical concept seemed too shallow to sustain my interest. University Of Errors were something else. Ever since the first time I saw themin Seattle in 2002 I've really become a fan of this band, and their lead guitarist Josh Pollock in particular. I don't think anyone who's seen them live will disagree with me. I'd been to both of their Paris gigs in late October and was blown away - especially the second night when, particularly during the closing "Stoned Innocent Frankenstein"/"Fohat" medley, they reached some truly hypnotic heights. The rest of the set consisted exclusively of early Soft Machine songs. This was a reduced version of their set, but nothing really important was missing (although I'd have substituted "Feelin Reelin Squealin" for "Love Makes Sweet Music" as the final song), and they were superb. There's been nothing in the Canterbury scene and beyond in the last two or three decades at least closer to the intensity and radicality of early Mike Ratledge fuzz organ than what Josh Pollock does with his guitar. Daevid played some fine guitar himself, and the rhythm section of Michael Clare and Warren Huegel provided clean and solid backing. A high point of the week-end. After this, I must admit I skipped most of Kangaroo Moon's set. I guess I didn't want to overdose on music with so much more to come, and being the only band not to have any Gong alumnus in their ranks (they're led by Mark Robson of the Magick Brothers) it fell on them... What little I heard sounded nice enough but... there you go. I was back for Crystal Machine's set, which left me with the same impression as Tim Blake's albums - some very nice instrumental synthetic landscapes, and songs I don't really care for as I'm not too keen on his singing. The whole presentation was convincing, with Blake firmly in control of the harmonic and rhythm settings and Jean-Philippe Rykiel playing a few impressive solos. You could feel the high level of anticipation as the Steve Hillage Band took the stage. Indeed this was Steve's first performance as singer-guitarist since 1979, and reason enough for some of us to attend the event at all. The quartet consisted of Steve, his wife Miquette Giraudy on synths, computer and occasional backing vocals, and the Gong rhythm section of Mike Howlett and Chris Taylor - a similar configuration to his late 1970s bands. To be honest, I've always preferred Steve's very first band, which had a "real" keyboard player in addition to Miquette and Basil Brooks (who made a couple of appearances during the set), plus a second guitarist (the late Christian Boule). Apart from the block chords on "It's All Too Much", Miquette didn't seem to "play" much in the conventional sense, and what lead lines were heard she seemed to trigger by pressing a key. Sometimes this left the remaining trio lacking in sonic density. Steve himself was in fine form as a guitarist (certainly he got better and better as the performance progressed), but vocally he seemed to struggle a bit in the upper register at times. The setlist was largely drawn from "Fish Rising", with condensed versions of "Solar Musick Suite" and "Aftaglid" being the highlights, closing with the opening piece from "For To Next", "These Uncharted Lands" which Steve said they'd never performed live before, adding that it would indeed lead us into unpredictable directions... I'd been wondering why all these additional mikes had been set up on the left side of the stage yet remained unused. I thought Didier Malherbe might sit in on "Solar Musick Suite" (although he no longer plays tenor so reproducing his parts on the album would have been impossible) but the only guest appearance apart from Basil Brooks' brief contributions happened when Tim Blake came onstage towards the very end. Within seconds, the rest of Gong followed him, taking the audience completely by surprise, while the usual introductory tape college was heard. Before we'd realised what was going on "You Can't Kill Me" had begun, and off we went for a performance that lasted over two and a half hours. The setlist was very similar to the 1994 reunion concert - "Pot Head Pixies" being replaced by "Zero The Hero & The Witch's Spell", and with the addition of "Magdalene" from "Zero To Infinity" - covering all the classic albums from "Camembert Electrique" (better represented this time, with "Tropical Fish/Selene" and a "Fohat" jam as encore) to "You" with few important omissions. I don't even need to elaborate much on the music itself - this was just pure, classic Gong, easily as good as the old days. As my good friend Udi Koomran told me after the gig, "you could close your eyes and it all sounded exactly right". The band was very well rehearsed, everyone played brilliantly, and Chris Taylor did a great job of filling in for the departed Pip and Pierre. Miquette was present throughout the performance, Theo Travis joined Didier on tenor and flute for the second half, and Graham Clark for the closing "Fohat" jam. Pure magic !
