Some vinyl fretless goodness...

[Deleted member 165050]

Just picked this up on vinyl, actually haven't ever sat and listened to this album properly before and really digging (man) the fretless bass playing... Francis Moze?

 

[bholder]

I would have to buy that just on the strength of the album cover art...

 

[Inara]

Just picked this up on vinyl, actually haven't ever sat and listened to this album properly before and really digging (man) the fretless bass playing... Francis Moze?

Thanks for posting this! I had never heard of the band or the bassist. Just listened to a couple of things on Youtube ... pretty cool 70s prog stuff.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

The bassist from the later version of the band is also well worth checking out - Hansford Rowe.

Being old this is my era of prog

 

[coilcbl_RT]

Thanks for posting this! I had never heard of the band or the bassist. Just listened to a couple of things on Youtube ... pretty cool 70s prog stuff.

You might enjoy some of Steve Hillage's solo work- I've recently been rediscovering some the similar bands from the early 70s Canterbury scene- lots of tasty frets/no frets bass goodness. Lots of great playing from the other instruments too-

 

[Jeff Scott]

AWESOME! Goes well with Firesign Theatre. Same drugs for both.

 

[Michedelic]

That was some of the earliest stuff; Mike Howlett was the bassist on the “You” album, pretty much the apex of the band. Gives early Pink Floyd a run for their money in the ‘space out’ department. Howlett was tight and funky, Steve Hillage was an amazing, unique guitarist as well, never broke out of cult status. His first solo title, “Fish Rising”, was essentially a Gong album without David Allen. His second, “L”, was produced by Todd Rundgren with Utopia backing him up. He toured with ELO in 1976 trying to break the US market, but it didn’t happen. Both Hillage and Howlett went on to produce many UK synth-oriented new wave bands. If you’re a Tangerine Dream fan, Gong’s synth guy, Tim Blake did some great stuff worth checking out.

 

[Michedelic]

Moze returned to Gong in 1977, long after original leader Daevid Allen had departed, and right after Steve Hillage left(to be briefly replaced by Allan Holdsworth). Drummer Pierre Morlin took over, leaving the space rock behind and going into a fusion direction with lots of mallet percussion; Holdsworth’s participation was a good fit, as well as Moze’s fretless work. The band eventually fizzled out as fusion itself became less of a vital genre.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

That later version of Gong’s Espresso II is something of a fusion classic, with Alan Holdsworth on guitar and Darryl Way on violin... I absolutely love the mallet percussion (marimba and vibraphone etc) on that album. But the fretless bass is the high point