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Review: Gong/Ozric Tentacles, O2 Academy
“Hang on a minute – that’s not Brandi!”
Yes, we’ve become so used to the reinvigorated Ozric Tentacles being a family affair – with a front line of Ed Wynne, Brandi Wynne and Silas Neptune – that it seems rather odd when another fella pitches up.
is needed now More than ever
Turns out he’s Vinny Shillito, who’s played with the Ozrics on and off since the 1990s. His hard-driving, gut-punching bass sound certainly helps to kick the rhythms of this venerable progressive instrumental cosmic hippy dance music up a notch.
While one would not, perhaps, expect to see these former free festival stalwarts playing in such a corporate venue as the Academy, this does have some advantages. There’s a huge screen for those retina-scorching Fruit Salad projections and the sound is beautifully clear. We can even hear some of what Ed is saying between songs, which must be something of a first for the Ozrics.
Always an under-appreciated guitar player, his fluid, bluesy style really makes this music soar, and there’s an additional treat in store when Saskia Maxwell joins in on flute for some tracks from new album Lotus Unfolding, including the technically challenging Burundi Spaceport.
Old favourites Sunscape and Sploosh! are also greeted with joy by the assembled groovers. Although the rivalry is clearly friendly, they leave the stage with a distinct air of ‘Follow that!’
Gong find themselves in a bit of an odd place in 2023. They now have more than enough New Gong material to make up a great set, but seem unwilling to finally cut the apron strings that tie them to the very different if cosmically connected ’70s band, even though no one is crying out for pothead pixies or ‘space whispers’.
Of all his many left-field musical projects, fronting Gong is the role Kavus Torabi was clearly born to play, as recognised by the late Daevid Allen. From the moment he launches in to that insistent riff driving My Guitar is a Spaceship, the pleasure he takes in purveying this hard-edged psychedelic prog rock is abundantly clear.
Indeed, all of Gong – guitarist Fabio Golfetti, bassist Dave Sturt, saxophonist Ian East and drummer Cheb Nettles – seem to be having the most enormous fun up there and it’s impossible not to get swept along.
Ace new album Unending Ascending is strongly represented in the set, including stand-outs All Clocks Reset and Tiny Galaxies (as unveiled at the Trinity Centre last year). The epic My Sawtooth Wake from previous release The Universe Also Collapses now feels like an old favourite, as does Daevid Allen’s farewell, Rejoice! (“Rejoice, I’m dead/At last I’m free”).
Of the older material, Master Builder is most in tune with New Gong and Saskia Maxwell returns to contribute vocals and ‘interpretive dance’. Tellingly, however, they choose to return to the new album for the concluding Choose Your Goddess, with Fabio demonstrating that Kavus isn’t the only singer in the band. Long may they continue to ascend.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: November 2023
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