Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Daevid Allen - Good Morning [Esoteric Recordings/Cherry Red - 2013]

Good Morning” was the first solo album Daevid Allen released after spliting with space rock/ cosmic hippy/ jazz /prog rock collective Gong.The album originally appeared back in 1976, and it found Allen abandoning the more dense & jam based sound of Gong's work for a mostly, stripped down acoustic hippy folk/ singer song-writer affair; though the album does still have the odd more biting ‘n’ spacey moments too. This reissue originally appeared in 2007, and it has recently been re-pressed.

The album found Allen utilizing a Spanish collective called Euterpe for the songs mainly acoustic and mostly percussive-less backing.  Here and there you pick out the  odd synth texture, the odd hint of glissando guitar/electric, or electric bass line, but mostly this is based around acoustic backing & Allen’s distinctive  & wordy vocals.

The original album featured eight tracks in all, and these well fairly short( by Gong standards)- with mostly of the tracks coming in between just over two to five minute mark. The only really lengthy & more jam- based track was the albums last track “Wise Man in Your Heart”, which came in just under the eleven & a half minute mark. This reissue features an extra track in the form of the just under ten minutes of “Euterpe Gratitude Piece”.

The album opens with “Children of The New World”, which is a haunting & a times quite melodic mix of finger plucked acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, subtle synth simmer, and a almost choir like harmony backing. Track  number three “Song Of Satisfaction” is built around a rolling & mellow almost nursery rhyme like piano melody.

One of the more electric guitar moments comes in the form of “French Garden”, which brings together a delicate picked acoustic guitar chours, and a more 70’s rocked-out chugging chours. The longest tracks comes in the form of “Wise Man In Your Heart”( which Gong would later cover on their 2000 album “Zero to Infinity”). This track I guess is more Gong sounding with a mix of locked down & rapid glockenspiel percussiveness, high-in-the-mix roving almost  funk tinged bass guitar, and spacey guitar trails.  Later on the track dips into more spaced-out ambient territory, with Gilli Smyth offering up her instantly recognizable space whisper over a simmering synth base.

Though most of the tracks here are acoustic based, there’s a fair amount of variation from track to track, and of course Allen's play-full/clever lyrics are always worthy.

The bonus track was recorded at the  same time as the originally album, but was never added in until the 2007 reissue, and  it easy to see why as the tone/ vibe is quite different on this track to rest of the album. The just under ten minute track is instrumental mix of moody swooning string synth work, spacey glissando guitar trails, and latter on a weird cut-up mix of theatrical/ rock stage based samples, and just near the tracks end a peaceful garden field recording with twittering birds.

The reissue comes with a 16 page inlay booklet, which takes in original album cover art work/ text, full song lyrics & a write-up three page write up about the album by Esoteric Recordings Mark Powell. On the whole this is another worthy, and rewarding reissue from Esoteric Recordings/Cherry Red, and while it’s not as vital & masterful as Allen’s Gong recordings of the 1970’s, it’s certainly a well put-together & cleverly conceived solo album.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Daevid Allen - Good Morning
Good Morning” was the first solo album Daevid Allen released after spliting with space rock/ cosmic hippy/ jazz /prog rock collective Gong.The album original...
160424   Rien - The New Source Recording
160424   Worship - Thoughts
150424   Lion-Girl - Lion-Girl(Blu Ray)
150424   Waidelotte - Celestial Shrine
150424   Iron Monkey - Spleen & Goad
120424   Spider Labyrinth - Spider Lab...
120424   Colosseum - Elegy- The Record...
120424   DJ Marcelle / Another Nice Me...
110424   Mad Dog Killer - Mad Dog Kil...
110424   By a Man's Face Shall You Kno...
Latest Articles

The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H...
Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
280324   The Music of Clay Ruby & Buri...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom