GONG
Pulsing Signals (Kscope)
It’s long been a mystery to me what Gong – like jugglers, aura readers and Ozric Tentacles – do when Glastonbury isn’t on. Turns out they compile live double albums like this one, Pulsing Signals (but of course), which synthesise the highlights from three gigs on their 2019 The Universe Also Collapses tour.
It’s tempting to describe Pulsing Signals as one for the heads, but that much would be true of every album they’ve released since forming in 1967 or 1969 (depending on which source you believe). Forget the songs – trying to follow their Wikipedia page (more than five decades of personnel changes, offshoots, side projects and eccentric mythological gibberish) is a mind-melt in itself.
What initially appears utterly preposterous – Can doing prog/jazz-rock in tie-dye T-shirts – gradually makes more sense, and before you know it you’re no longer scoffing at self-indulgence but have surrendered, realising you’re blissfully lost less than halfway into a 23-minute track called Forever Reoccurring. Founder member Daevid Allen, who passed on the baton to the current line-up before his death in 2015, will be looking down from whatever astral plane he’s on and smiling.
words BEN WOOLHEAD
