CAMEMBERT ELECTRIQUE

Not a masterpiece, but definitely a classic. Not something I listen to often, but when the mood strikes it certainly hits the spot. The only way it works is to listen from beginning to end in its entirety. You can't review this album without mentioning the elephant in the room(i.e. drugs). These guys were smoking a lot of grass when they made this one, and I get the feeling they were drinking a lot of red wine too(Didier Malherbe's wonky sax solos). The entire album has a drunken/stoned aura about it. The early Gong classic here is _Wet Cheese Delirium/Squeezing Sponges Over Policemen's Heads/Fohat Digs Holes In Space_ which is the carbon copy of everything to follow concerning Daevid Allen's glissando guitar and his involvement with the Gong Radio Gnome Trilogy. It's worth mentioning that this album is way ahead of its time and timeless in an _indie rock_ fashion. I sometimes get the feeling that modern bands like Sebadoh or Pavement would've died to make an album like this. I also wonder if this album was influential on the space rock scene that came out of Detroit in the mid-90s in relation to bands like Fuxa and Medusa Cyclone. Also of note is the track _Tried So Hard_. Had this track been given the proper promotion by a major record company back in the day, it could've fit nicely in between something by The Byrds or The Zombies. Really, this is a 3 star album - but it gets an extra star for being unique. There's nothing quite like Gong's Camembert Electrique. A classic!