Legendary psych-rock troupe Gong celebrate the release of their long-awaited new album Unending Ascending with new single/video ‘My Guitar Is A Spaceship’ – what can only be described as the essence of Gong in visual form.
Take the intergalactic voyage with Gong here: https://youtu.be/RrJRaWzXvW8
Order the album and stream here: https://gong.lnk.to/unending
‘My Guitar Is A Spaceship’ was the first track to be written for the new album, as Kavus Torabi explains: “The song came into being in the spring of 2022 and we actually debuted it on the Glade Stage at Glastonbury Festival that summer. It was the first song we wrote for the new album. More than anything we’ve done together, it seemed to pop out fully formed. That morning none of it existed and then an hour later all of it did.”
He continues: “I don’t think we were even trying to write a tune at that point! What a feeling, we sort of couldn’t believe we came up with it. I said “Man, can you imagine debuting this song at Glastonbury Festival?”. Sure enough, two days later we received a message asking us if we’d like to headline the Glade Stage that year. At this point the existence of magic is not even up for debate.
“The tune is just one propulsive, cycling riff that seems to blast us and the audience upward, hence the lyrics, from which we took the title of the album. Once we’d written this, we knew the rest of the album would be great, it kind of defined the direction we would take as we wrote the remaining seven songs. I honestly can’t conceive of a Gong gig, moving forward, where we don’t play it.”
Following the success of 2019’s The Universe Also Collapses, Gong‘s intergalactic voyage has once more entered Earth’s orbit with their new album Unending Ascending.
Out now via Kscope, the new album promises another mind-expanding set of songs. Opener ‘Tiny Galaxies’ crackles with the electricity of supercharged sixties psych-pop, while ‘My Guitar Is A Spaceship’ is as close to an anthem as anything Gong have previously recorded. This uptempo, single-riff stomper is already a live favourite, garnering a positive reaction from a crowd of 90,000 Blur fans at Wembley Stadium in July 2023, when Gong frontman Kavus Torabi dropped it into his DJ set before Paul Weller took to the stage.
‘Ship of Ishtar’ is a rapt cosmic hymn where Gong make time itself stand still. Jet streams of kaleidoscopic melodies envelop ‘O, Arcturus’, to be followed by the lively polyrhythmic angularity of ‘All Clocks Reset’. ‘Choose Your Goddess’, a surprisingly muscular slice of ritualistic trance rock, ratchets up the intensity yet further. On ‘Lunar Invocation’ the band summons the Moon deities of yore with ululating feedback and squalling cymbals before the post-credits of ‘Asleep Do We Lay’ lull lugubriously, gently beginning the cycle all over again.
Gong‘s Unending Ascending is available on CD / Black LP and Digitally (sorry, the Limited Edition Green LP sold out!).
Gong will be appearing alongside Ozric Tentacles on a co-headline tour throughout the UK in November/December 2023 as well as ‘The Last Blast’ Tour in 2024.
Watch Gong live:
With Ozric Tentacles:
Nov 17: Oxford, O2 Academy2
Nov 18: London, O2 Forum (w/ The Crazy World of Arthur Brown)
Nov 19: Manchester, O2 Ritz
Nov 20: Sheffield, O2 Academy2
Nov 21: Colchester, Arts Centre
Nov 23: Northampton, Roadmenders
Nov 24: Bristol, O2 Academy
Nov 25: Gloucester, Guildhall
Nov 26: Birmingham, O2 Academy2
Nov 28: Brighton, Chalk
Nov 29: Norwich, Epic Studios
Nov 30: Bournemouth, O2 Academy
Dec 01: Frome, Cheese & Grain
Dec 02: Liverpool, O2 Academy
Mar 07: Exeter, The Phoenix
Mar 08: Falmouth, Princess Pavilion
Mar 09: Lyme Regis, Marine Theatre
Mar 10: Cardiff, The Globe
Mar 11: Swansea, Patti Pavilion
Mar 13: Southampton, The 1865
Mar 14: Margate, Dreamland
Mar 15: Hull, The Welly
Mar 16: Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
Mar 17: Stockton-on-Tees, Georgian Theatre
Mar 18: Lincoln, Engine Shed
Mar 20: Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Mar 21: Newcastle, University
Mar 22: Glasgow, St. Luke’s
Mar 23: Edinburgh, Summerhall
