SHAMAL

After the "Radio Gnome Invisible" trilogy GONG would undergo one of its greatest transitions of all and that would be the departure of founder and main creative director Daevid Allen and along with him everyone's favorite space whisperer Gilli Smyth. Serving somewhat as a transition album between the Allen years and the next phase known as Pierre Moerlen's GONG, the sixth album SHAMAL sort of hovers in between the spacey Canterbury jazz of "You" and the full-fledged instrumental jazz-fusion workouts of "Gazeuse!" Also departing would be Moog and synthesizer player Tim Blake. The rest of the band which included Mike Howlett on bass, Didier Malherebe on sax, flute and gongs and the percussion, vibe, xylophone and glockenspiel combo pack of Mireille Bauer would stick around for the new game in play while new band leader Pierre Moerlen would take the helm and steer GONG into ever jazzier frontiers.

Given this was somewhat of a transition album, although Allen had departed, some of his soulful and playful energies had stuck around. SHAMAL has many vocal tracks that imitate his vocal style if not matching his unique quirky whimsical approach. Steve Hillage would pretty much take off for a solo career but stuck around to provide guitar parts on a couple tracks. Patrice Lemoine would join in on keyboards as well as Jorge Pinchevsky on violin which provided a completely new sound to the mix. While Allen was fresh out of the band, SHAMAL got a big boost of production by none other than Nick Mason, drummer of Pink Floyd. Despite the presence of a great deal of the old team, SHAMAL takes a noticeable step into the jazzy rock fusion that would define the next chapter of GONG for a few albums before yet another shift.

SHAMAL has six tracks that vary quite greatly in not only style but running time. They are a mix of vocal oriented tracks and completely instrumental and often sound completely unrelated. "A Wingful Of Eyes" begins with a vocal performance and ties the new sound with Allen's eccentric past, "Chandra" takes on the role of pointing the fans to the future of the GONG universe with a direct no nonsense jazz-fusion workout. "Bambooji" on the other hand exudes a strong oriental flavor with Japanese styled flute playing while "Cat In Clark's Shoes" looks to classic Mothers of Invention albums such as "Hot Rats" for the jazz-fusion workouts. Despite the jazz oriented tracks, the space rock effect is still in full swing throughout with thick atmospheres surrounding the overall scheme of things.

While many of the fans were turned off by this changing of the tides, i for one find a lot to love on SHAMAL and prefer to think of this as a different band rather than get hung up on the identical moniker that graced the preceding run of albums that found their way in the hearts of true space rock meets Canterbury jazz fans. GONG had always had two different styles sitting side by side with each other. Allen's quirky Canterbury jazz sitting side by side with the more psychedelic space rock effects was the nectar of the gods in terms of variation and keeping the albums springing with life and pixies of course. While jazz-fusion bands were a dime a dozen during the 1975 timeline, SHAMAL shines in that it add little touches such as healthy vibraphone workouts as well as other fun sounding instruments such as tubular bells, glockenspiels, marimba, xylophone and of course even a GONG!

While i wouldn't call SHAMAL my favorite GONG album by any means, neither can i say that i don't enjoy the heck out of this roster of rowdy characters playing their souls out. SHAMAL carries more dynamically fast tempos than ever before and the extra touches that include a violin give it an idiosyncratic identity that immediately sets itself apart from the Allen years. Unfortunately i believe the worst tracks are the opening ones which find substandard vocal performances but the album only gets better as it proceeds and by the time the album ends with the nine minute title track, i feel as mesmerized by the peaceful tranquil vibe of the tracks like i've been watching a sand dune shift in the Sahara for countless hours. Musically intriguing and exquisitely performed, SHAMAL is a great step for a great band in the middle of shifting gears.