RADIO GNOME INVISIBLE VOL. 3 - YOU

I have never liked Gong. I have never liked 'You'. But something went off in my brain while giving this album another listen that made me finally like it. This is the third installment in a trilogy of concept albums Gong has put out entitled 'Radio Gnome Invisible'. I have never cared to follow the plot of this trilogy, and I probably never will. The album starts relatively crappy, with the dumb, ridiculously short, nonsensical 'Thoughts for Naught'. It repeats a mediocre flute melody with some dumb voices and lyrics. It is not all bad though. The music sounds good. Then is 'A.P.H.P.'s Advice', which sounds like the intro to some old Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Kind of fun, but unnecessary in this album. 'Magic Mother Invocation' is actually not a terrible instrumental, and the fact that it is under two minutes makes it more digestible. This bleeds into 'Magic Builder', where we start getting into the real songs on this album. This is very spacey and sounds like some druggy Middle- Eastern tune until some amazing trumpets come and the track explodes into this avant-garde barrage of complicated time signatures and solos. There are some lyrics here and there, but they are barely comprehensible, so I ignore them. This is honestly one of the best Canterbury Scene tracks ever. 'A Sprinkling of Clouds' starts off like someone bought a keyboard and started driving their fists rhythmically into the keys. This goes on for quite a while until the beat slightly changes and percussion enters the scene. This creates a very spacey environment and makes good use of the song title. Some other instruments are introduced and the mood becomes more interesting. This is honestly not a bad song, it is really a great one. Makes me feel glad I gave this album another listen. 'Perfect Mystery' is a nice track with great music and annoying vocals. I'm glad this album is largely instrumental, or I might have complained a lot more. On side two is 'The Isle of Everywhere'. It starts off pretty funky with some French lady sing-talking. I love this intro. So fun and groovy, I want to get up and dance. Horns walk up on the stage and you get some amazing solos. This track is so strong and impressive, it honestly makes me hate not originally liking this album. How could I overlook this masterpiece? I don't know. The last track on this album is 'You Never Blow Yr Trip Forever'. This song starts off pretty groovy and funky, like the previous song. I am reminded of Herbie Hancock's 'Hornets'. There is some weird chanting for about a minute and the melody changes. Flutes eventually start playing, and the music returns to greatness again. There is some more chanting and another change of melody, and so on and so on. I love this track, and now I am glad to say I love this album. 4.5 stars, to be honest, but to play it safe, I'll give it a four. Prog on.

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