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GONG
Magick Brother (reissue, 1970) BYG 8/10
Galaxy quest: the years are kind to cosmic adventurers’ tentative debut.
By Jim Wirth
HELPFULLY o ff e r i n g the disaffected acid heads of 1970 a reason to keep believing, Daevid Allen sang on the title track of his first LP: “If you’re feeling rather lonely and you wonder where you are, maybe you’re one of many from a faraway star”.
A cosmic voyager every bit as far out there as Hawkwind, the footloose Australian ex-window dresser was the wrong side of 30 by the time he got to record Magick Brother. He and his space-whispering partner Gilli Smyth made up for lost time by pushing their psychedelic boat out that little bit further than most, Gong’s Aquarian Age vision coalescing into a surrealist pseudophilosophy peopled by little green men from the Planet Gong sent to raise the consciousness of the world.