RADIO GNOME INVISIBLE PART 1 - FLYING TEAPOT

Radio Gnome Invisible Vol. 1 - Flying Teapot is the fourth full-length studio album by psychadelic jazz/ rock act Gong and as the title says the first in the Radio Gnome triology. All three preceeding albums have been good psychadelic jazz/ rock albums and Gong continue their wacky style on this album.

There are only six songs on the album but a song like Flying Teapot is over 10 minutes long so even though it is a rather short album you do get your money´s worth. The music on the album is a mix of psychadelic ( slightly avant garde) rock and jazz/ rock which means that there are equal portions of psychadelic moments with spacy synth sounds ( a bit like Hawkwind at times) and weird/ silly lyrics ( think Frank Zappa at his most silly and infantile) and jamming jazz/ rock sections with lots of saxophone/ flute soloing. Examples of the more psychadelic song oriented tracks would be Radio Gnome Invisible, Witch's Song/I Am Your Pussy and The Pot Head Pixies while Flying Teapot and Zero The Hero And The Witch's Spell features most jazz/ rock jamming.

The musicianship is excellent. The vocals from Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth are psychadelic and adds greatly to the atmosphere of the songs and the band is very tight and well playing. I especially enjoy the fusion like drumming by Rachid Houari. It´s noteworthy that Steve Hillage ( Arzachel, Khan) plays guitar on the album.

The production is good. You can easily make out everything that´s being played.

Allthough I find Radio Gnome Invisible Vol. 1 - Flying Teapot to be a very enjoyable album and without a doubt a high quality effort I´m gonna give it a 3 star rating. I understand if others find this to be a more essential listen than I do though.