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Track Listings
| 1. Radio Gnome |
| 2. You Can't Kill Me |
| 3. I've Been Stone Before |
| 4. Mister Long Shanks: O Mother I Am Your Fantasy |
| 5. Dynamite: I Am Your Animal |
| 6. We Cheese Delirum |
| 7. Squeezing Sponges Over Policemen's Heads |
| 8. Fohat Digs Holes In Space |
| 9. Tried So Hard |
| 10. Tropical Fish: Selene |
| 11. Gnome the Second |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
First album from legendary 1970s avant-garde ensemble--the brainchild of expatriate Australian beatnik Daevid Allen, who first toured Europe as a founder-member of Soft Machine, until being denied re-entry to the UK, allegedly for a passport irregularity. Rather than return home, Allen decamped to Paris, where he found himself at the centre of a loose collective of musicians, poets and lunatics, many of whom (along with the likes of Steve Hillage and Bill Bruford) went on to appear in various incarnations of Gong. While things would become more slightly structured over the course of subsequent albums and line-up changes, the music at this stage was not unlike Allen's previous band: jazzy, partly improvised, by turns inspired and indulgent--but rarely less than interesting. The prevailing tone is best summed up by titles like "Dynamite: I am your anima" and "Wet cheese delirium". For better or worse, it was a different age. --Andrew McGuire
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This album had just been released as I entered High School. I remember it fondly and so had to get a CD version. My father called it 'Hippie Music', making the phrase a term of abuse. It may be hippie but the music doesn't abuse anything. Rhythms and themes are strong and Gilli Smyth's ethereal murmurings evoke the spaced out texture of the music.
And not far from the surface there is great musicianship: As a jazz devotee I realise why I enjoyed (and am enjoying again) it so much; this is free jazz-rock ... and really good too! No surprise that the talented Theo Travis (sax) plays in the latest incarnations of the band.
If you remember this album and feel the urge to acquire more Gong I would certainly recommend 'Egg' and 'You' - they take the jazz to a more even-handed level but are immensely enjoyable and funky.
And not far from the surface there is great musicianship: As a jazz devotee I realise why I enjoyed (and am enjoying again) it so much; this is free jazz-rock ... and really good too! No surprise that the talented Theo Travis (sax) plays in the latest incarnations of the band.
If you remember this album and feel the urge to acquire more Gong I would certainly recommend 'Egg' and 'You' - they take the jazz to a more even-handed level but are immensely enjoyable and funky.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I bought this on advice from a friend who seemed to remember it was a good listen in the 70's. I must have missed it then and i'm almost glad I did. It is very Avant Garde, so I can only presume my mate was smoking something better than I was. It is kind of ok, very much an album of taste (you will either like it or not), some good, some not so and some indifferent. I gave it 3 stars because it might grow on me..........?
34 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A surreal adventure into the world of the early seventies peace and love scene. A real mix of philosophy and fun. This album is their masterwork, an intro to the strange world where you are "squeezing sponges over policemens heads", but at the same time, "Fohat digs holes in space". Light and entertaining, but with a deep vein of thought on how this planet must change. A recording that operates at two levels simultaneously, emoting hope and a deep sense of peace and belonging. There are no disappointing tracks on this album, they are all deeply amusing, and well constructed. The craft of this ecclectic band of musicians escaping the chaos of late 1960's Paris riots, is raw and vibrant, and echos those troublesome times when freedom of expression was a truly personal possesion for the first time. "Selene" is a haunting evocation of the spirit of The Moon, whilst "I've been stoned before", is the sort of track that reminds you of what it was "really" like to be alive in the early seventies. A real treat for those who want to be back in 1972, but stil relevant to clubbers in 2001, when Fohat does his stuff, a must for the chill out room.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Electric Cheese WOW!
As with anything Daevid Allen turns his hand to this is a classic. Daevid allen is a supreme talent and a lovely man.
How to describe this album? Read more
How to describe this album? Read more
Published 9 months ago by Typically Tropical
Gong: Electric Camenbert
Gong, A blast from the past, Part New Age part Proto-dance, sink back to the 70's as policemen get sponges over the head and we all tune into gnome radio,
Brilliant,,,ok, bit... Read more
Brilliant,,,ok, bit... Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2010 by John Jary
This is THE ONE !
Gong tend to be remembered primarily for the Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg and You "trilogy". But for me Camembert, though rawer than those later albums, has always captured the... Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2008 by Tazzagh!
5 with the drugs
Great, fantastique even, though ( am told that that the acid helped )
First got into this on way to Stonehenge year before the " battle of the bean field," 1993. Read more
First got into this on way to Stonehenge year before the " battle of the bean field," 1993. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2007 by Russell Clark
For Hippies, read In-your-Face Idealists
Makes me feel free just to hear it ... startling, powerful, rythmical, anarchic, mechant ... cheese rock ? That's some strong cheese !
Published on 2 Dec 2006 by Coyote Skateboard Survivor - now favouring Sector 9 Bamboo Zen, n'est-ce pas?
Still jumps off the vinyl ..er...cd...at you
There's still so much we can learn and still need to learn from this record. How to jam. How to connect. How to just express yourself. Read more
Published on 8 July 2002 by Rupert Essinger
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