N'EXISTE PAS!

On this album, Daevid Allen's follows in a similar vein to the pattern he set on the previous 'Now is the Happiest Time of Your Life', although with a bit less emphasis on acoustic guitar songs, and with more glissando, improv poetry, and free-jazz tracks. This album will be enjoyable for true fans, but is too fragmented and esoteric a collection to act as a good introduction to his music, and to be honest, not everything here works as music. The first side is the better side. I can listen to all except 1 of the 8 tracks on this side, and the first three tracks are really quite good. The second side is much poorer, mainly dominated by a 12-minute improvisation (both lyrics/poetry and music) that is difficult to listen to (and I really like free jazz improvs!), and the opening tune on this side has quite trite lyrics. So, while there are some minor gems here, on the whole this is for fans only. I give it 4.1 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 2 PA stars.