Gong - "Camembert Electrique" Vinyl, LP, Album, France, 1971 (BYG Records/Acteul)

My old friend Gary introduced me to this band around 1972, and I couldn't get my head around it.  Just too hippy, crazy, too foreign, and in other words, too odd.  Still, on the same day, he also played me early Kevin Ayers, and that too was a challenging listening experience for me.  Decades later, either out of boredom, my jet-lag sensibility, I purchased this album at Rockaway Records in Silver Lake.  Now, as I listen to Gong's "Camembert Electrique" I think it's a masterpiece.

Daevid Allen started the group (if memory serves me correctly, I was put off by the spelling of his first name as well as disliking the album) and somehow ended up in France.  A band, a cult - I'm not sure.  There is for sure a thought that they live on a planet called 'Gong,' but a world that had instruments, that's certain.   Still, the music is brilliant.  Hypnotic, melodic, and in places, reminds me of David Bowie of the Ziggy period.  There is also touches of The Soft Machine, which should be no surprise because Allen was a founding member of that band.

The other voice beside Daevid is Gilli Smith, who has a sinister whisper and adds a certain intensity to the mix.   For a bunch of French/British/Aussie Hippies, they are very tight and focused.  It's psychedelic for sure but has a robust rock approach to their overall sound. This is my first entrance into the rabbit hole that's Gong.