RADIO GNOME INVISIBLE PART 1 - FLYING TEAPOT

The first of the 3 invisible part albums is a sophisticated and yet more accessible and less raw effort than Camembert. We hear new talented musicians like Steve Hillage for the first time, though not so much evidenced here, he would be an excellent addition to guitar. Then we finally have a dedicated keyboardist, Francis Moze, even though he's handling bass, too. The sound is quite balanced, no instruments overshadowing the rest but I want to highlight the power of the rhythm section. The combination of bass and drums is already forming the trademark Gong sound. This rhythmic enthusiasm is particularly noteworthy with more monotonous sections of long tracks where the main melody remains repetitive and instruments like piano/saxophone play improvisation ("Flying teapot"). This track is an example of a psychedelic jazz-tinged jam which focuses more on atmosphere than compositional complexity. On the contrary, former pop flirtations are represented by shorter tracks like "The pot head pixies"). "Zero the hero" is a Canterbury trip with relaxed saxophone, muscular percussion and typical Canterbury alternation between two chords. To sum it up, while I don't think that this album is an essential Canterbury/psychedelic rock experience, it ranks among the best Gong albums and the first one that firmly established Gong's typical sound of the first half of the 70's.