Search - Gong :: Acid Motherhood

Gong - 'Acid Motherhood' (Voiceprint)

Mike Reed | USA | 12/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a out-of-this-world like music collaboration,between Gong's glissando guitarist/frontman Daevid Allen and Japanese psych ensemble Acid Mothers Temple's guitarist Kawabata Makoto.Whew!Watch it now,that may be a bit too much for some of you.'Acid Motherhood' is an above average effort.The Voiceprint label really knows what they're doing with their out going CD releases.The most mesmerizing tracks here are "Supercotton"(with guest vocalist Gilli Smyth),"Brainwash Me",the spoken word "Bible Study","Bazuku Logix" and the thirteen-minute mind scramber "Makototen"(great synth work).Line-up is:Daevid Allen-guitar&vocals,Kawabata Makoto-guitar,second AMT member here Cotton Casino-synthesizer&vocals,Orlando Allen-drums,Josh Pollock-guitar,Dharmawan Bradbridge-bass and Gilli Smyth-guest vocalist.A must-have for all fans of bands like Gong,Acid Mothers Temple,Ozric,Hawkwind or even psych in general.Highly recommended."

Back to basics - magnificent!

Mike Reed | 03/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"By back to basics I mean that Gong in the recent years has become less creative than they where before. On their latest tour in Europe i 2001 they played old material. The concerts where magnificent, there is no doubt about that. But something was lacking - they based their concerts on passed sucesses. No harm in that, but it was almost as they had lost their edge.But now Daevid Allen has joined forces with Acid Mothers Temple and is back on track where he belong. New creative styles, utterly compelling guitarplaying and a lot of sarcasm and ironics. Gong is back where they belong - at 65 Daeved Allen is as creative as ever - like we want him to be. Buy and enjoy!"

Weird and wonderful - Gong lives in the 21st Century!

D. Hamilton-Smith | Merrye Olde Engelond | 05/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"On the face of it, it's an old band's obscure latest album with only a couple of original members.



To most prog fans that's a familiar story, one that will immediately invoke a horrible mental montage of the many dusty, abandoned mid-90s CDs dwelling dormant and boring in your rack (or drawer, or pile if you prefer). But do not fear. 'Acid Motherhood' is a Gong album in every respect. It just has different people playing on it. That's all. Instead of Steve Hillage we've got Kawabata Makoto, an even more out-there version. Instead of Tim Blake we've got Cotton Casino, another even more out-there version (both from Acid Mothers Temple, but that's a whole other story). And essentially, other than 30 years that's the only big difference - it's all more 'out there'. Daevid Allen's absolutely unmistakeable vocal style is as present and correct (and good) as ever, there's the requisite Allenish approach to a standard-length psychedelic pop song in 'Brainwash Me' (a definite highlight), and there's two chunky noisy freakout tracks too. It lacks the thematic continuity one might be used to from Gong, but it almost exonerates itself from this criticism because it confounds any expectations. It does not sound like you think it would sound if you listened to both bands separately, and hence it also doesn't fall into the most common criticisms of these two bands ("too silly" for Gong and "too self-indulgent" for AMT). There is only one song that could possibly be construed as "self-indulgent" - the monster jam 'Makototen', which sees guitarists Josh Pollock and Makoto respectively holding down an enlessly-ascending chord riff and jamming wildly and noisily. However, it's actually not self-indulgent at all as Makoto's solos are far from guitar posturing - they brood and wail from within the mix, and are usually treated with enough effects that they're not easily distinguished from the rest of the underlying noise swells.



And therein lies the most surprising thing about 'Acid Motherhood': the intensity is all (and I do mean all) on Gong's part, and the subtlety belongs to the Acid Mothers alumni. Particularly impressive is the pairing of Cotton Casino and Gilli Smyth on the mad, funky 'Supercotton' - Smyth's finely-honed space whisper melding wonderfully with Cotton's full, washing synth tweaks. This song in particular features both original Gong vocalists in prime form - Allen as forceful and wild as ever, Smyth proving superiorily effective, which is of course incredibly encouraging as neither are what one would call young. Plus, the heaviest and most intense track, 'Zeroina', was written by Allen and Mike Howlett ('classic' Gong bassist) alone.



'Acid Motherhood' is full of fire and weirdness, but contains a couple of mellower, wistful numbers that show Allen's wiser lyrical side - 'Olde Fooles Game' in particular seems to be about continuing his 1960s musical ideology for forty years, in spite of the huge changes that have taken place in that time.



Over all, this is an album that does the Gong name its full justice in the 21st Century. The only way I can see old Gong fans disliking this is that it's TOO progressive."