When listening to the musics from Java and Bali, I seem to drift into a wandering space. The musical techniques and structures emerge as rolling hills. They have a rhythm, but also an organic sense of wander/wonder. The Trance Gong recordings are contemporary explorations, composed primarily within the last 20 years, with the exception of the closing piece which is an adaptation of a John Cage composition. In a time when most popular musicians feel the evolution of tradition is sampling soundbites of indigenous music and homogenizing them into a 4/4 ambient-techno-triphop dance beat, it's great to hear others forging ahead into different, more complex directions. And they do it extremely well. It really is a joyful collection of songs--some of which, especially the title track, make me want to just jump up and dance! --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

It's pretty obvious by this point: Germany produced hippiedom's ruling class. And next to these Katz, our beloved Hendrix would look like a blues-twangin' limp Q-tip. Although sonically identical to every other early 70s fuzz-wah band, Guru Guru were eons ahead of their Creem-cheese power trio... ahem... contemporaries. Closer to Tony Williams' Lifetime in their approach, drummer Mani Neumeier and his rotating cast were the wormhole between flower-power and the asteroid belt. As a purely educational gesture, their first LP should bestuck lovingly down the throat of anyone who claims that "free rock" is a contradiction in terms.

 This chronological comp covers the years of their first four releases (1971-74), all produced by Conny Plank. And you know what that means--wizardly edits lead one jam seamlessly into another, only to set you up for some truly rude splicing of the slap-in-the-face variety. Now, we're also talking about a heady stew of every psychedelic cliche imaginable here, so be warned. The idiotic beauty of Guru Guru is that we've all been in jams like these, but these guys could do it way more stoned than you. And more German. --T.W.

(review date: 12/29/96)

last update 1/17/97

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