The new incarnation of the group that started working on a new album in 1975 had a noticeably different sound and playing style. Singer and bass guitarist Mike Howlett's role was now much bigger than before, due to Allen's exit, and the same could be said for percussionists Pierre Moerlen and Mireille Bauer. There was a new keyboardist called Patrice Lemoine. Together, this group really clicked and recorded Shamal, which could be argued is the best ever album by Gong on the strength of its first two tracks alone. Strangely enough, the Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason was acting as the producer when this gem was made.
The opening track Wingful of Eyes is a showcase for Howlett. He wrote the song, and took the vocal duties as well. The track introduces a new, jazzy sound for the band. Gone are the marihuana laced space rock antics that had been typical for Allen's time. The end result is mellow jazz prog at its absolute best.
But as good a start as that was for the new album, the new keyboardist Lemoine manages to outdo it. He has written track number two called Chandra, the first part of which is instrumental. Only at a relatively late stage, Howlett's vocals kick in. By that time it suddenly hits you. You are listening to a match made in heaven: a perfect combination of jazz and progressive rock. Peculiar time signatures and their perfect handling by the group left me dumbfounded when I first heard Chandra. That perfectly played instrumental ending with its fadeout is possibly the single best musical moment of the year, guaranteed to give goosebumps every time.
If only Lemoine had stayed with the group! The man who was able to compose something like Chandra could have worked wonders also later. But that was not to be: when the next Gong album came out at the end of this same year (to be discussed in the next blog entry), he had already left. Chandra remains the only song he ever composed for Gong. Sad. All the more so because Gong kept on developing towards pure jazz fusion. They ended up dropping the prog element and became Moerlen's band for the next few albums.
In any case, Patrice Lemoine's work resulted in the best individual song of 1976 award winner. Yes, it is here already: Chandra wasn't beaten by anything else released during this year, even though there are still many more absolutely brilliant songs and albums left to be discussed. 1976 was a year that peaked really early: we will also get to the best album of the year very, very soon.
The British art rock group 10cc also peaked in January. Their fourth album was called How Dare You! and it was the last one they made with their classic lineup. Following this, Godley and Creme left the group to form, er, Godley & Creme. Stewart and Gouldman continued using the name 10cc, hired new bandmates, but were never able to top the output of the original version of the group.
How Dare You! contains several outstanding songs. The best among them are I'm Mandy Fly Me, embedded above, and the moving closing track Don't Hang Up. Mandy is a sort of a sequel to Clockwork Creep that appeared on Sheet Music. That one was a song told from the point of view of a bomb set to detonate on board a passenger airliner. Mandy continues that story from the viewpoint of one of the passengers. And as you can hear above, the end result is simply stunning.
2 February already saw the release of the year's best album. Genesis had decided to continue without Peter Gabriel and also without hiring a replacement for him, by appointing Phil Collins as the new lead singer. So ended the Peter Gabriel era, and began the all too brief Tony Banks era. Later on, there would also be a Phil Collins era. But for now, the music was still melody driven art rock with some genuine prog also thrown in. The best album of 1976 was called A Trick of the Tail.
Overall, this was a very welcome release from Genesis. Some fans may have feared that the group would disband altogether. Instead, they made their strongest album since Nursery Cryme (1971). Songwriting is now on a very high quality level, with three out of eight songs unmissable tracks of the year: Mad Man Moon embedded above, the catchy title track, and the beautifully crafted Entangled. At the other end of the spectrum there is also Robbery, Assault and Battery; yet another failed attempt to be funny. I never liked Ripples much either, it has always felt too sweet and cloying to me.
Some time in 1976, more likely during the first half than the second, another interesting Finnish album was released. Matti Järvinen debuted with Matin levy (in English: Matti's Record). Filled with several lovely, nostalgic songs it contained one undying classic that has been embedded above (the video has been made by a fan less than a month ago). Sameassa vedessä (in English: In Murky Water) is a strong, melody driven pop/rock song that reminds me of symphonic prog mainly because of its instrumenation. This song was one of my favorites of this year.
Another new male singer-songwriter that debuted around this time was John Miles, whose first album Rebel was released in March. The slightly uneven recording had one outstanding track that clearly rose above the rest, exactly like there was one on Matti Järvinen's album. It was called Music, and was released as a hit single around the same time as the album. Please check it out below. Can you believe that a track like this could actually have become a hit at some point in time?
I already mentioned Camel's fourth studio album Moonmadness a little earlier. It came out on 26 March and was a clear return to more proggy soundscapes after last year's mellower The Snow Goose. A challenging but also rewarding album to listen to, it sounded to me like a companion piece to 1974's Mirage.
April saw the return of one of last year's most smashing acts. The Tubes released their second album within the space of less than a year, and I must admit that it was every bit as good as their debut. There are several brilliant, even more satirical songs contained on the album such as Don't Touch Me There and Brighter Day. But the two unmissable tracks that are in my opinion even better than those, are the title track that closes the album, and Pimp.
Apologies for that stupid, sexist image that appears in the background of the video link. I couldn't find any alternative version that would have played the original studio mix like this one does. Additional apologies for the song being in mono, but if you like it and want to hear it in stereo, please find the album. You will most likely want to hear the rest of it as well. And let's add some regrets too: I would have so much liked to embed also the title track Young and Rich that is every bit as great as Pimp, but there seems to be no decent version available either in YouTube or Spotify. So there you have one more reason to go buy the entire album.
Van der Graaf Generator followed up last year's brilliant Godbluff with a new album called Still Life on 15 April. This time, they were nowhere near as successful but took the twin masterworks route: the first two tracks on the album are absolutely great and the rest only so-so. Pilgrims opens the album with a bang, and a much quieter and sadder title track follows. Let's embed the whole album this time so you can check out them both, played in succession, like originally intended.
So now it is mid-April and, according to the headline of this blog entry, we should be taking a break. But before we do that, let's mention one more 1976 album. I have no idea when exactly during the year it was released, so we might as well discuss it now. The West German experimental duo Cluster recorded their new collection of instrumental compositions in only two days, and this took place some time in early 1976. So the end result may in truth have been released later than mid-April.
The new album was called Sowiesoso and it was their first that I genuinely liked. Their earlier ones had been a bit too minimalistic and artsy-fartsy for me but this one was perfect. I particularly enjoyed Zum Wohl - an instant classic and one of the most unmissable tracks of this year. It is a good, immensely peaceful way to close this particular blog entry. Next time, we will continue from the second half of April all the way to the year end. In 1976, the end of the year was less busy than its beginning, which was very different from several of the previous years.
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