NEW YORK GONG: ABOUT TIME

One of those projects that proves Daevid Allen was nothing more than an interdimensional pixie floating around like a butterfly and sampling all the fertile musical nectars wherever they may reside. After leaving GONG to Pierre Moerlen after the Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy, Allen was all over the world collaborating and cross-pollinating with like-minded freethinkers far and wide. By the late 70s, the extended GONG family had blossomed into a diverse family of related band's all held together by the familiar GONG moniker inserted into their namesakes. One of the many projects that Allen himself was involved in was this bizarre little one-off project called NEW YORK GONG which these days is more often referred to as the origins of Bill Laswell's involvement in the mutant disco band Material as well as the launching off point for his involvement with the more skronky post-Henry Cow project Massacre.

Around 1978 Allen found himself in The Big Apple, a time when not only funk, disco and dance music were all the rage but also an uglier underground such as no wave, hardcore punk as well as their friendlier cousin new wave. Initially starting out as the Zu Band and created in 1978 by producer Giorgio Gomelsky who moved to New York in the hopes of promoting progressive rock bands, the changing musical tides dictated otherwise. The band included bassist Bill Laswell, guitarist Cliff Cultreri, keyboardist Michael Beinhorn and drummer Fred Maher but spontaneously and suddenly at an October 1978 performance at the Zu Club, lead singer David Allen adopted the band name NEW YORK GONG and it pretty much stuck after that point.

As NEW YORK GONG only one studio album resulted, the 1979 release ABOUT TIME which offered a very strange mix of GONG inspired psychedelia mixed with punk rock, new wave and mutant disco. The project also proved that Allen wasn't the kind of artist who could adapt to a band situation very well as his idiosyncratic personality guaranteed it sounded like an Allen project but nevertheless ABOUT TIME showcased a rather unique chapter in the greater GONG universe. The album of nine tracks at nearly 37 minutes found Allen writing the majority of the tracks but also found a few collaborative efforts from other band members. Starting with the psychedelic intro "Preface" where Allen welcomes all aliens, humanoids and other freaks of nature, the album jumps into an accessible form of punk rock with "Much Too Old" but finds Allen delivering his unique psychedelic rapping style that was prevalent in his early GONG days. "Black September" sounding more punk in nature actually finds Allen singing but he proved to be no Joe Strummer, Johnny Rotten or Jello Biafra.

The album's inconsistent nature is one of its charms as well as a hinderance at least for any points in trying to be a New York punker! "Materialism" jumps into a mutant disco style that's both danceable and psychedelic with some nice progressive moves as far as changing up the musical motifs and completely instrumental with some jittery guitar riffs. "Strong Woman" drifts into a more 70s hippie vibe with Allen's classic glissando guitar antics accompanied by tribal drumming and that sort of Talking Heads inspired sound that King Crimson was experimenting with in the 1980s. Allen's contemplative singing also finds him in outbursts of what sound like shamanic chanting trying to break into some sort of throat singing! The short "I Am Freud" breaks into unadulterated new wave synth-pop only with brief moments of sax squawks inserted into micro-breaks.

"O My Photograph" at over 9 minutes long is the strangest track on board as it showcases Allen as the hippie punk rocker with a punk bass groove accompanied by Allen's psychedelic guitar and his greatest poetic prose turned into as many ways as expressing it as possible. The longevity of the song allows the mutant disco bass groove on high energy throughout its entirely to allow many psychedelic moments with Allen and is surprisingly danceable all the while as trippy as anything Allen conjured up in GONG! The closest thing to an actually GONG song of yore was the early 70s sounding "Jungle Window" which wouldn't have sounded out of place on 1973's "Flying Teapot" as it sounds like one of those classic moments where Allen raps about multi-dimensional creatures backed by Laswell channeling those classic Gong bass grooves along with funk guitar and a feisty tenor sax cameo provided by Gary Windo. "Hour's Gone" finishes the album starting off with a strange guitar style and then sounding like an electrified Bob Dylan before bursting into a punk rock song!

While touted as a Daevid Allen punk album, this sole offering from NEW YORK GONG is really a smorgasbord of various ideas with punk as one of the ingredients. I'm sure it became obvious to the other members that this quickly became the Daevid Allen show and that his collaborative efforts always found his dominate persona and stylistic approach steering everyone into that that psychedelic mindset. Once Allen departed the rest of the band would continue as the dance-punk / mutant disco band Material but for a brief moment NEW YORK GONG offered a wild ride through the lens of Daevid Allen interpreting the world of punk rock and new wave. The album is actually quite fun if you don't take it too seriously. No this is not an essential piece of the greater GONG universe but it certainly is one that sounds like no other and given all the styles juxtaposed together in strange new ways it's actually must've sounded a bit refreshing for anyone dissatisfied with any formulaic approach of the era. Definitely worthy of a spin now and again as it showcases Allen in both fully psychedelic hippie mode only with a bit of attitude thrown in for good measure.