This amazing
album is the first of the two studio albums the short-lived Canterbury
Scene outfit Gilgamesh managed to record. Led by keyboardist / composer
Alan Gowen, who was the group's main contributor, the group on this
album also includes guitarist Phil Lee, bassist Jeff Clyne and drummer
Michael Travis. The album was issued by Virgin Records’ budget-line
Caroline imprint. By the mid-‘70s, Virgin’s support for bands of this
ilk was beginning to wane, with punk and new wave soon ruling the day.
Arriving late in the game, Gowen and company sounded most similar to
Canterbury supergroup Hatfield and the North, and in fact Hatfields
keyboardist Dave Stewart co-produced the album. Gilgamesh had clearly
mastered the Hatfields’ suites’n’segues approach to Canterbury-style
complexity while sidestepping blatant imitation -- for the most part.
Certainly from the first notes of opening three-part suite “One End
More/Phil’s Little Dance/Worlds of Zin,” Gilgamesh prove capable of
nimble thematic lines and knotty stops and starts, while admirably
refraining from pyrotechnics. The suite's kitchen-sink approach makes
room for King Crimson-ish Mellotron and grand piano flourishes
(recalling Keith Tippett on Lizard) as well as Stevie Wonder-ish
funk-lite clavinet, but the uniform production smooths out such quirky
juxtapositions. “Lady and Friend” provides a true jolt, with Clyne’s
lullaby-like bass melody, seasoned by light electric piano/guitar
accompaniment, preceded by a brief blast of full-band unison riffing
seemingly designed as a rude interruption. Just over a minute and a half
long, Gowen’s “Arriving Twice” is a wonderful interlude, with acoustic
guitar, electric piano, and synth sketching a melody that draws from
jazz, folk, and classical but ultimately transcends such labels; it’s
the perfect segue into “Island of Rhodes,” the first portion of the
album’s next three-part suite, with the track’s namesake keyboard
floating in nocturnal ambience a la In a Silent Way before the
introduction of a dreamily beautiful theme accompanied by the subtlest
percussive embellishments from Travis. The suite ultimately offers its
own share of unpredictable twists, ending with a driving vamp as
guitarist Lee cuts loose, but the production again manages to avoid
shattering the prevailing vibe. The album does court Hatfields imitation
here and there -- “Jamo and Other Boating Disasters” features Amanda
Parsons’ soprano vocals in pure Northettes style during an interlude
that clearly strives for the drama of The Rotters’ Club’s “Mumps” coda,
while elsewhere Lee employs a decidedly Phil Miller-esque electric
guitar tone. But Gowen himself avoids obvious Canterbury devices,
eschewing fuzz organ solos during the music’s most animated moments in
favor of round-toned synth voicings that snake and float through rather
than pierce the air. Gilgamesh’s studio-based forays may have tamped
down the band’s woollier aspects revealed by the Cuneiform archival
recording Arriving Twice issued long after Gowen’s sadly premature
death, but in retrospect, the keyboardist and his bandmates were
charting their own inimitable direction, too briefly explored but
holding up admirably in recordings such as this, decades after the
fact. Line-up / Musicians Alan Gowen/piano,clavinet,synthesizers,mellotron Jeff Clyne/bass Phil Lee/guitars Michael Travis/drums Discography(Album) Gilgamesh 1975
1. One End More/Phil's Little Dance-For Phil Miller's Trousers/Worlds Of Zin a) One End More b) Phil's Little Dance-For Phil Miller's Trousers c) Worlds Of Zin 2.Lady and Friend 3.Notwithstanding 4.Arriving Twice 5.Island Of Rhodes/Paper Boat-For Doris/As If Your Eyes Were Open a) Island Of Rhodes b) Paper Boat-For Doris c) As If Your Eyes Were Open 6.For Absent Friends 7.We Are All/Someone Else's Food/Jamo And Other Boating Disasters-From The Holiday Of The Same Name a) We Are All b) Someone Else's Food c) Jamo And Other Boating Disasters-From The Holiday Of The Same Name 8.Just C
