Gong
The Universe Also Collapses

There in my room (in my room?) it wasn't my room, I realized... when it was dark. Why was it dark? Maybe it was the beam of light penetrating through the curtains and shutters that made me believe in the darkness of colors. Green, blue, yellow, pink. In the distance, a lady who greeted me- ...a lady who was greeting me?! No... there, in my room, it was just me with my headphones plugged into someone's ears, listening bemusedly. bemused. bemused or bemused? what does it matter, the important thing to know is that it was 2015...or... the...1965?

Premise: when 7-8 years ago, during the height of my adolescence, I discovered the existence of "Psychedelic Rock", I was struck by the strangeness and originality of the bands that were part of this movement. The first song of this genre that I listened to (setting aside Pink Floyd, my first real musical crush) was the live version, a full 24 minutes, of the "Dark Star" by the Grateful Dead, contained in a dusty cassette compilation of my dad’s. From then on, I began to search, almost spasmodically, for new psychedelic music, which led to the discovery of Prog Rock, which as usual, led to a thousand other genres to discover.
Through my initial "Psych" research phase, I encountered the Gong, who I liked immediately. They were exactly what I was looking for! Weird sounds, musical instruments not typical for the rock I had listened to till then, quite a few references to drugs (which were always welcome during the rebellious teenage phase), and even complex arrangements. Cool! But... there was a but... what I was looking for was also an experience as close as possible to what taking any psychotropic substance could give me (I was 15, I justify myself). But after searches and searches, I stumbled upon the King Crimson and my musical tastes changed again. The musical-psychedelic search period was over...

Until today, the day I listened for the first time to "The Universe Also Collapses" by the "New" Gong, who, after the departure of the legendary frontman Daevid Allen and the first posthumous tribute album (which I didn't much care for), I didn’t believe would churn out anything new... and yet, here it is; a new record full of reverbs, synths, and other amenities coming straight from the '60s/'70s. The record contains nothing original and brings nothing new to today's music scene (hence the three stars), except for the number of tracks (4), which is quite unusual to see in the modern music landscape. The most exciting thing about the album is the first and third track ("Forever Reoccuring" and "My Sawtooth Wake") which are the typically wonderful Space Rock/Psychedelic Rock suites that the me of about ten years ago would have dreamed of listening to. Too bad for the partial abandonment of sounds that wink at Jazz or Progressive Rock which made Gong what they were (in the times of "Camembert Electrique" and the Pixies Trilogy).

In conclusion, my summarized opinion on this work is: if I could take a nice time travel, and bring an album from the present to my idiotic fifteen-year-old self, in his bedroom while he was racking his brain trying to listen to as much weird stuff as possible, it would definitely be this "The Universe Also Collapses" which, without particular claims, definitely would have (and has) satisfied mine.