I think I'd be more inclined to go for You than Angel's Egg as the quintessential Gong album, but it's a close call. It has plenty of Allen whimsy but also the sublime space jams that are Master Builder, Sprinkling of Clouds and Isle of Everywhere. Then again, Angel's Egg was my real introduction to the band, and I'll never forget the first time I heard Other Side of the Sky, when Tim Blake's glorious synth loops blew me away and took me into another universe (without the help of any drugs, either!) But it's a great selection nevertheless, and I love your obvious enthusiasm and passion about this great subgenre of 70s music.
Hey Glen, I didn't even see the second part before I responded to the first, so I see now that you did cover Gong. Although Steve Hillage didn't really manage to fill Allen's shoes and the band definitely lost its essential "Gong-ness" when he left, I'd personally be a little bit more up on Shamal, Expresso and Expresso II which hold up fairly well compared to the later Pierre Moerlen's Gong albums. Hillage also did a really wonderful album, Space Shanty, with the genius of Hatfield, Dave Stewart, that some might call essential Canterbury. Even though some of it is almost comically overblown psychedelic, there's some drop-dead gorgeous organ on it with Dave's characteristic fuzz in the moment before he joined Hatfield. Pierre Moerlen-led Gong is especially important because of Allan Holdsworth, who's not a key figure in Canterbury but who did play with Soft Machine and Dave Stewart (in Bruford, not strictly a Canterbury band but maybe the best British prog outfit of the late 70s). Holdsworth took the wide-open harmonic approach of Hatfield and fused it with real jazz (not jazz funk) to create a truly original and convincing style in his solo career, which sustained a lot of Canterbury heads (not to mention fusion and advanced metal fans) in the 80s and 90s when the spirit of Canterbury was otherwise completely deceased. Not just the drop-dead shredder his legend would have it, he's also a great and original composer. I couldn't possibly agree more with your drooling praise of Dave's masterpiece Lumps on the second side of The Rotters Club, which remains one of my all-time favorite pieces in rock, however you'd sub-class it. I wouldn't call it a "jazz piece," though, because although jazz-influenced to be sure, its approach to soloing is so manifestly different than the riff-based blowing in Gong and Soft Machine. It's a highly through-composed piece, as influenced by Holst and Stravinsky as by jazz, and one of the many things which stun me about it is its thematic integrity. All of the themes are derived from each other; the main theme after the first solo section which comes back at the climax, the theme of Prenut and then the Jimmy Hastings flute figure in the space jam section have an organic relationship, as does the guitar embellishment of the highly whimsical "Alphabet Song." Some of the chord progressions are so simultaneously beautiful and original as to defy description.
Hey Glenn-very well chosen.I guessed your choices though I would have found it hard not to have included Soft Machine 1 and 2. But yes,those are probably the seminal albums.All the organ sound-especially for Hatfield-was Ratledge infuenced.V interesting .Good job!!
Wow!!!! Gong is a whole 'nother world… LOL!!!!! I still follow the works of Didier Malherbe; next to Elton Dean, my favorite reed player in the whole world. I hope more youngsters explore and discover this stuff……. Nobody I know of, plays music like this anymore…...
I have all of em! I love Soft Machine "the Moon In June" ! I have pretty much every Caravan album, one of my faves is Blind dog at St. Dunstans . I don't have the Angels Egg, but thats a "need to get", GOOD video!
I would have to add a "track" not a full blown LP to your list, "A Visit To Newport Hospital" by Egg. But then we could all add a personal fav couldn't we! :)
I think I'd be more inclined to go for You than Angel's Egg as the quintessential Gong album, but it's a close call. It has plenty of Allen whimsy but also the sublime space jams that are Master Builder, Sprinkling of Clouds and Isle of Everywhere. Then again, Angel's Egg was my real introduction to the band, and I'll never forget the first time I heard Other Side of the Sky, when Tim Blake's glorious synth loops blew me away and took me into another universe (without the help of any drugs, either!) But it's a great selection nevertheless, and I love your obvious enthusiasm and passion about this great subgenre of 70s music.
Hey Glen,
I didn't even see the second part before I responded to the first, so I see now that you did cover Gong. Although Steve Hillage didn't really manage to fill Allen's shoes and the band definitely lost its essential "Gong-ness" when he left, I'd personally be a little bit more up on Shamal, Expresso and Expresso II which hold up fairly well compared to the later Pierre Moerlen's Gong albums. Hillage also did a really wonderful album, Space Shanty, with the genius of Hatfield, Dave Stewart, that some might call essential Canterbury. Even though some of it is almost comically overblown psychedelic, there's some drop-dead gorgeous organ on it with Dave's characteristic fuzz in the moment before he joined Hatfield.
Pierre Moerlen-led Gong is especially important because of Allan Holdsworth, who's not a key figure in Canterbury but who did play with Soft Machine and Dave Stewart (in Bruford, not strictly a Canterbury band but maybe the best British prog outfit of the late 70s). Holdsworth took the wide-open harmonic approach of Hatfield and fused it with real jazz (not jazz funk) to create a truly original and convincing style in his solo career, which sustained a lot of Canterbury heads (not to mention fusion and advanced metal fans) in the 80s and 90s when the spirit of Canterbury was otherwise completely deceased. Not just the drop-dead shredder his legend would have it, he's also a great and original composer.
I couldn't possibly agree more with your drooling praise of Dave's masterpiece Lumps on the second side of The Rotters Club, which remains one of my all-time favorite pieces in rock, however you'd sub-class it. I wouldn't call it a "jazz piece," though, because although jazz-influenced to be sure, its approach to soloing is so manifestly different than the riff-based blowing in Gong and Soft Machine. It's a highly through-composed piece, as influenced by Holst and Stravinsky as by jazz, and one of the many things which stun me about it is its thematic integrity. All of the themes are derived from each other; the main theme after the first solo section which comes back at the climax, the theme of Prenut and then the Jimmy Hastings flute figure in the space jam section have an organic relationship, as does the guitar embellishment of the highly whimsical "Alphabet Song." Some of the chord progressions are so simultaneously beautiful and original as to defy description.
Hey Glenn-very well chosen.I guessed your choices though I would have found it hard not to have included Soft Machine 1 and 2. But yes,those are probably the seminal albums.All the organ sound-especially for Hatfield-was Ratledge infuenced.V interesting .Good job!!
Wow!!!! Gong is a whole 'nother world… LOL!!!!! I still follow the works of Didier Malherbe; next to Elton Dean, my favorite reed player in the whole world. I hope more youngsters explore and discover this stuff……. Nobody I know of, plays music like this anymore…...
No service to the Canterbury Scene is complete without Egg.
I have all of em! I love Soft Machine "the Moon In June" ! I have pretty much every Caravan album, one of my faves is Blind dog at St. Dunstans . I don't have the Angels Egg, but thats a "need to get", GOOD video!
I would have to add a "track" not a full blown LP to your list, "A Visit To Newport Hospital" by Egg. But then we could all add a personal fav couldn't we! :)