Customer Reviews

Arista Years

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Unlike Joseph Kolb I was thrilled to see this reissue, since the sonics have been cleaned up remarkably from the original (and rare!) CD issues of Time Is The Key and Live. And I don't believe Leave It Open has ever been released before on CD. The sound is crystal clear, with dynamics and detail never before audible.

Unfortunately these are not the best albums of Pierre Moerlen's Gong. They feature Pierre's amazing mallet work but the rest of the band pretty much comps, playing the same chord over and over while Pierre solos. Earlier PMG albums were a little more egalitarian, and certainly stronger compositionally. Nevertheless this set is essential to complete the collection on what was a unique instrumental rock experiment.

i bought this from another place because it was advertised as a dvd. it isn't. it's 3 releases on 2 cds: time is the key, live and leave it open. these releases are available and most gong fans probably have them. it irritates me we have yet another compilation release. like hawkwind, gong has a ton of compilations already. granted, they may not be from the pierre moerlen era. the liner notes discuss the history of gong with emphasis on the daevid allen era. it mentions nothing of moerlen's passing. this too irritates me as trying to compare the era's is like comparing early soft machine with it's last incarnation. they should not be compared. the sound and style evolved into something totally different. why not write solely about pierre moerlen's gong, as that's what's being sold. anyway, if you don't have any of the later gong material, i guess this is a good place to start. if you have this stuff, then skip it, there's nothing new here. i would appreciate more live, unreleased material, rather than recycling what already is available.