CONTINENTAL CIRCUS

Continental Circus is the third album from psychadelic Canterbury influenced rock band Gong. The first two albums from Gong was IMO good allthough not excellent and Continental Circus continues the style even though it´s a bit more jamming than the previous two albums.

The album consists of only four tracks and even though the opener Blues for Findlay is over 10 minutes long the album is very short. Out of the first three Gong albums this is my least favorite one, but it´s still good. The trademark weirdness is there of course, but the emphasis is generally on the instrumental parts with lots of soloing from sax and guitar.

The musicianship is great. Gong is a very tight band.

The production is pretty raw, but still enjoyable.

The cover art isn´t the most beautiful thing, but as I understand from previous reviews the album is a tribute to a french car race and as the cover depicts a racecar driver it´s probably very suiting.

If you´re a Gong fan this will undoubtedly be in your collection, but if you´re new to the band I wouldn´t start here. Start with Camenbert Electrique or one of the Radio Gnome albums first. If you enjoy those this one will probably also be enjoyable to you even though it´s basically jamming all the way through. 3 stars will be my rating.