I SEE YOU

Though my dips into previous attempts to delve back into the Radio Gnome mythology by latter-day Gong lineups - Shapeshifter and Zero to Infinity - had left me a bit cold, I was much more impressed with this release, which proved to be the final Gong release that Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth would be credited with in their lifetimes.

Indeed, Gilli is credited as a guest rather than a full band member, suggesting that she may have already been unwell enough to hamper her capacity to contribute fully. It's notable also that Orlando Allen, Daevid and Gilli's son, is sat on the drum stool for this one and also joins his dad at the producer's console. Orlando had popped up on some Allen solo releases as a child - there's a track on 1977's Now Is the Happiest Time of Your Life which has Allen trying to explain the Radio Gnome mythology to Orlando and his sister - and there's something comforting in the fact that he was able to help his parents bring this last major creative project to fruition.

If this album is a passing on of the torch, however, it isn't Orlando who's ended up holding it in the long term - on the more recent Rejoice! I'm Dead! he's absent, having gone back to concentrating on his own musical projects. Instead, the core of the next Gong generation is the creative unit of Kavus Torabi and Fabio Golfettio on guitar, Ian East blowing away on saxophones, flutes, and whistles, and Dave Sturt on bass and computer sampling.

Sturt joins the father-and-son Allen team on production duties here, and it's perhaps in the production where the magic truly happens. Sturt's expertise in sampling is put to work, weaving in elements of classic Gong albums into a brand new context even as the more traditional performances work a new psychedelic magic. The psychedelic agenda of classic Gong remains very much present, but now advanced with modern electronic and ambient techniques worked into the repertoire seamlessly, and with a bit of a more overtly angry political tone coming in here and there too. The Gong sense of humour is still there, but the new unit is clearly unafraid to get serious.

On the whole, this manages to work in a healthy appreciation for Gong's past legacy whilst still keeping an eye on the future and not descending into nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. More importantly, the expertise of the new lineup allows the music to sound like it is actively participating in the sounds of today, rather than scrambling to keep up with current trends. It's about as solid a foundation for a new incarnation of the band as could be found.