Shamal

great discs, wonderful packaging arrived in mint condition,..early too. I do like a more narrowed-down delivery time, but realize this isn't always easy to do. thank-you also for the best price in the world, I'm going to remember you guys & will give you priority over others on future buys. bye. B

This 1975 album found the band without founding member Daevid Allen and exploring the mallet heavy jazz rock that characterized the Pierre Moerlen fronted version of the band. Although some folks do not like this album too much, I actually think that musically it is in pretty good form. Come to think of it, the tunes consist of a nice mixture of the spacey, heavy prog of 1971-1974 and the jazz rock of 1976-1977. Nick Mason (Pink Floyd drummer) produced the album and it sounds excellent.The lineup at this point included a few holdovers from the Daevid Allen era Gong and some new members including: Mike Howlett (bass guitar, vocals); Didier "Bloom" Malherbe (Tenor and soprano saxophones, C and G flutes, bamboo flutes, and gongs); the superb Pierre Moerlen (drums, vibraphone, tubular bells); Miquette Giraudy (vocals on Bambooji); Mireille Bauer (marimba, glockenspiel, xylophone, assorted percussion and gongs); Steve Hillage (acoustic and electric guitars on Bambooji and Wingful of Eyes only); and Patrice Lemoine (electric and acoustic piano, mini moog synthesizer, and Hammond organ). Patrice was an active member of the French prog scene and played with members of the great French band Atoll and the band Arc amongst others. Although Patrice is a great player, I really miss the spacey synthesizers of Tim Blake. All of the musicians from the Shamal lineup are excellent and it was clear that although a major upheaval in personnel had occurred, the playing did not suffer one bit.The six tracks on the album range in length from 3'03" to 9'54" and consist of a mixture of tunes with vocals and instrumentals. Unfortunately, I really do not think vocals were Mike's strong suit although they do not bother me too much. Although there are a few moments that hearken back to the heavy space prog of albums like You (1974) and Angels Egg (1973), this album contains a lot of instrumentals with jazz rock overtones. In fact, the musical direction had changed quite a bit - the emphasis had shifted to from trippy "Pot-head Pixies", "Octave Doctors" and the like to virtuosic jazz rock. This is however, extremely interesting and "weird" sounding jazz rock and is not to be confused with the music of Mahavishnu Orchestra or Return to Forever. The music of Gong was still quite distinctive even during this transitional period.All in all this is a good album that shows the band moving in the direction of full blown jazz rock that they would adopt on albums like Gazeuse (1976) and Expresso II (1977). However, there are shades of the Daevid Allen period of Gong here and there, which makes this a pretty enjoyable listen.

Gong Shamal is amazing, incredibly well recorded. Pierre Moerlen era drumming is the best

Gong's Shamal is where we find this band taking their abundant musical ability seriously. More tightly focused than their previous efforts (although 'You', the album that preceded this one, is by far the brilliant best of their early period), Shamal has a vigorous jazz-rock-funk groove that sits comfortably in its European surroundings. Instead of a tedious electric guitar spoiling the bands fantastic drive, much of the lead is taken up by wind instrumentalist extraordinaire 'Bloomdido', who treats us to flute (bamboo and modern), soprano and tenor saxes; and although electric guitar is on the menu, its in capable hands and not over used.The humorous, forever young lyrics are shaded with a subtle tint of worldliness that saves them from being completely naïve.This is wonderfully creative music where wind instruments, xylophones, gongs, a violin, electric guitar, bass, drums and percussion explore anything from the wind blown deserts of central Asia to Bohemian café enchantment.

This is when the (temporary) rot began to set in. Daevid Allen took himself, and his creativity with him. And technically proficient players were left to be technically proficient. That profiency does not extend to Mike Howlett's feeble attempt at singing. It's hard to listen to his singing on track 1 without cringing. You can hear his lack of confidence with the singing as he wavers tremulously around the required pitches. And the lyrics are mystical/new-agey without any hint of humour. That being said, it's still worth buying because the great sax player Malherbe is still with them at this point, and his two compositions, especially "Cat in Clark's Shoes", are as good, and as melodic as the Allen day's stuff. They then went on to make some dreadful albums when Monsieur Malherbe called it a day to. Thankfully, all the creative personell got back together again in the 90's and are now making great albums again. (Of course, this opinion is meant for the Gong fans that like the early Daevid Allen Gong. If you're a fan of the Moerlen/Holdsworth etc Gong please don't take any offence from my comments.)

Uno dei migliori album della band. Assolutamente imperdibile per i fan.Consegna nei tempi e in perfette condizioni.

para mi es un gran disco de jazz progresivo

Geschmackssache

This is a fantastic, original, unique record. I owned it in the '70s and it wasn't prog enough for a teenage Genesis partisan. Forty odd years on, I've finally caught up with it and it's become one of the most-played records in my collection. A negative reviewer has pointed out that it's a mix of prog and jazz and that's true to a large extent but does no justice to the effortless, evocative and very melodic feel of the album. This isn't indulgent-solos jazz/prog, it isn't pompous or melodramatic and it doesn't noodle. It certainly has the musicianship and complexity of prog and sometimes uses a very jazzy instrumental lexicon (vibes, sax etc), and it also puts emphasis on instruments over vocals. But what it has that so much (not all!) jazz and prog lacks is a groove and a sense of space. There's sometimes a lot going on but the musicians are playing off one another, not on top of one another. There are no keyboard chords and very little guitar (what there is, from Steve Hillage, is great). Nick Mason's production is limpid and precise but never forgets to bring out the soul. Makes me wish he'd done much more production, instead of driving racing cars. And although it can be complicated, this album is also capable of going simple, such as by playing a lovely, eastern-tinged unaccompanied flute line over wind effects.There's the occasional nod to the more whimsical bits of Gong's past but this is very self-confident, self-contained music. If you like the chaos and scattergun eclecticism of Daevid Allen's (RIP) Gong, this isn't so much for you but as a record under any name, I recommend it very highly.

Excelente secuela del grupo Gong, menos psicodélico y más "funk-jazzistico", musicos virtuosos y efectivos, buena producción, para mi un disco de cabecera.