Search - Gong :: Magick Brother

Gong - 'Magick Brother' (Spalax / Charly)

Mike Reed | USA | 09/23/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Nice reissue of the lp that REALLY would technically BE the very first Gong lp,as for 'Magick Brothers' was originally released in 1969.However,some have claimed that 'Camembert Electrique' was Gong's very first album,but it came out in 1971,I believe.It appears that 'Magick Brother' was recorded by pretty much a duo made up of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth.This CD may be more primitive and a tad more folk than other Gong releases,but it's still top rate.Just some really good cosmic rock,as one might label it.All ten tracks sound great,but I was specially fond of the stellar "Mystic Sister:Magick Brother","Glad To Sad To Say",the poetic "Chainstore Chant:Pretty Miss" and "Princess Dreaming"(THIS tune may've actually influenced the band Brainticket,to a degree).A must have for ALL Gong fans."

Unpolished Diamond of Strangeness!

Oannes | Camberwell, Melbourne, Australia | 09/19/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I fully agree with the previous reviewer, as this early Daevid Allen and Gilly Smyth recording is a Gong album. It is a really haunting album too!, Daevid allen's guitar work is just so haunting, etherial, yet insistant. Perhaps this is the first truly "Punk" album ever, as it sounds so unpolished and rough, yet so perfect in mood and conception, it's a CD to savour again and again. My favourite track on this is the amazing "Rational Anthem" but all the tracks are weird and powerful, and I love Daevid's very "Aussie" accent, "Five and Twenty Schoolgirls" is a masterpiece of humour, worthy of Captain Beefheart at his strangest.



This should be in every serious music collection, not just of Psychedelia, a label which limits the scope and appeal of many underrated musical wonders from the 60's and 70's, this is beyond anything the so called "Prog" bands of later years could even touch, Daevid Allen and Gilly Smyth, I salute you!"