Angels Egg [Original recording remastered, Extra tracks, Import]

Gong | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 28, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered, Extra tracks, Import
• Label: Virgin
• ASIN: B0002WS3RS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,541 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #18 in Music > Jazz > Avant Garde & Free Jazz
  • #38 in Music > Miscellaneous > Experimental Music
  • #85 in Music > Imports > Rock

Editorial Reviews

Remastered reissue of the second installment in the Daevid Allen & Gong trilogy, originally released by Charly in 1973. Includes previously unreleased bonus tracks. Details TBA. Virgin. 2004.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent remaster, July 5, 2005

By 

kireviewer (Sunnyvale, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Angels Egg (Audio CD)

Like most of Gong's albums, this has been released on CD a number of times. The CD's have varying sound quality. They weren't horrible, but they weren't great. This remaster has excellent, beautiful sound. It really brings out the atmosphere of the music.

The original album was 45 minutes long. 15 minutes of extra tracks have been added, bringing the CD to just under 60 minutes. I don't think that any of the bonus tracks are all that great. They aren't bad, they just don't make it worth buying this if you already have an older copy.

This remaster has a nice 8 page booklet, containing the lyrics and all the info on Gong and the Pot Head Pixies. The only thing missing is the blue artwork that was on the inside of the gatefold of the original LP cover.

This is just another great Gong album. It has some of the spaciest and wildest music of any of the Gong albums. It also has a number of great songs. While it is very spacy, it is also very coherent and holds together well. The only downside is that there are a few short silly songs.

This album is as good as You, but somewhat different. There are more songs, and they are a bit shorter than what is on You.

Gong released 3 albums in the 1970's dealing with Radio Gnome Invisible and the Pothead Pixies (Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg and You). In all, Gong released 5 to 7 albums in the 1970's (depending on how you are counting) before splintering. The leader of the band, Daevid Allen left, and the remainder became a jazz fusion band.

Throught the eighties, Allen would reform the space version of Gong, and the jazz version got renamed Pierrie Moerlen's Gong. The jazz band disbanded in the eighties.

Allen reformed Gong permanently in the late nineties, and the band has put out a number of studio and live albums. They are all very good. The last three studio albums have carried on the story of the Pot Head Pixies.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well played space rock with a sense of humor, April 23, 2006

By 

Jeffrey J.Park (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angels Egg (Audio CD)

This excellent 1973 release by Gong was the second installment in the Radio Gnome Trilogy. The lineup on this album is absolutely classic Gong and includes Tim Blake (VCS3 and mini-moog synthesizers); Pierre Moerlen (drums); Mike Howlett (bass); Daevid Allen (guitar, vocals); Didier Maherbe (woodwinds); Steve Hillage (guitar); and Gilli Smyth (space whisper, vocals). A great deal of the music on Angel's Egg is very spacey, which is driven largely by Tim Blake's atmospheric synthesizer work, along with Gilli Smyth's cosmic and heavily-echoed "space whisper". On the other side of the coin however, is some seriously virtuosic drumming by Pierre Moerlen and alternately spacey and heavy guitar work by Steve Hillage. Bassist Mike Howlett is no slouch either and his thunderous playing really drives everything along. As a general rule, this band was always comprised of superb musicians and their ability to swing from jazz rock, to space rock, to spacey free-form and back again always impressed me. In addition to virtuosity, this music exhibits the quintessentially whimsical Canterburian sense of humor, which is expressed through the surreal and "dadaist" lyrics of Daevid Allen. EMI did a great job of remastering this album, and the 14 page booklet features liner notes that "explain" the premise underlying the Radio Gnome Trilogy (up through Part II at least), and discusses topics including the Planet Gong; Master of the Spheres; Octave Doctors; Pot Head Pixies and the like. In addition to the original album, there are five bonus tracks including a single version of Other side of the Sky, the outtake Ooby-Scooby Doomsday or the D-Day DJ's got the DDT Blues, a vocal mix of Love is How Y Make It, and an early version of Eat that Phone Book Coda. Overall the bonus tracks are OK, and with the exception of the excellent Ooby-Scooby, do not add too much to the original album. Fortunately, EMI did not use copy control technology on this album, so playback problems should not be an issue. This album is very highly recommended along with Magick Brother (1970); Camembert Electrique (1971); Flying Teapot (RGI Pt. 1) (1973); and You (RGI Pt. 3)(1974).

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Have Seen The Way, and it is is OILY!!!, July 7, 2006

By 

D. Gerry (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angels Egg (Audio CD)

A TON of fun - superbly executed and clearly remastered sounds!!

This is like early Pink Floyd - if Sid had remained in the group!
This is like King Crimson WITHOUT the technical chip on Fripp's shoulder - (...must...play....faster....)
This is like Zappa on mescalin!

This is post-Floyd psychedelia of a 'very high' calibre ;-)