RADIO GNOME INVISIBLE VOL. 2 - ANGEL'S EGG

'Angel's Egg' is the second part of Gong's emblematic 'Radio Gnome Invisible' trilogy, released just several months after 'Flying Teapot', which are the two 1973 releases by the band. This album is indeed rather zany, playful and unpredictable and is a record on which the fusion experiments become even more prevalent, despite the fact that it is a daring mixture of space rock, psychedelia and prog at its core. A conceptual continuation of the first part of the trilogy, 'Angel's Egg' expands the realm of the Gong mythology and is perhaps the most erotically charged album by the band, made up of fourteen tracks in total, with each side representing to an extent a different approach from Gong - side one is definitely the more "progressive" but also more psychedelic half of the album, with longer songs and a more spacey sound, eventually looking back towards the band's origins, while side two is more puzzling and experimental, capturing the "rock" side of Gong in a mesmerizing way.

Corky guitar riffs, tasteful and angular guitar solos as well as heaps of vibrant sax and woodwinds, with the occasional "space whisper" interludes of Gilli Smyth, 'Angel's Egg' has a bit of everything in terms of musical diversity. If you subtract all the conceptual stuff, you get a Gong album full of thrilling, rich, and flamboyant psychedelic music with heavy influence from jazz rock and prog. Opener 'Other Side of the Sky' is an elaborate psych-prog avalanche of sounds and timbres, an almost structure-less piece with an otherworldly feel to it; 'Sold to the Highest Buddha' features some flashy guitar and sax parts that could have fit virtually any Soft Machine album perfectly, while the patchy second side delivers several more straightforward but no less surreal bits of Gong-y goodness - 'Oily Way', 'Inner' and 'Outer Temple', 'Love is How Y Make It' and the closing track are all gorgeous and represent some of the most exciting moments of the band's early works. This is an important album that marks the debut of Pierre Moerlen, too, and while 'Angel's Egg' might be an overall step up from 'Flying Teapot', it is only let down by 'Prostitute Poem' and 'Selene', which feel less diverse and a bit too overindulgent and trippy.

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