“Do I ever feel any pressure? Only if I read comments on the internet!” jokes Kavus Torabi, singer and guitarist with Gong, the psychedelic act and later prog-rock institution founded in 1969 by Daevid Allen. Before he died – or decoupled from the physical realm, as he would no doubt have put it – Allen tasked Torabi and the band with taking Gong to the next level, wherever in the universe that might be. Of course, not every Gong fan agrees with that decision.
“Every single person who likes Gong, whether that’s old Gong or new Gong, will have their own take on what the band should be,” continues Torabi. “I’m the same about the bands that I like, so I get it. At the same time, you have to be confident about what you’re doing, and we are. Fabio Golfetti, our guitarist, has been working with Daevid since the 80s. He’s really grounded and really aware, so if Fabio thinks something is good, I know it’s good.”
Not that the new band have anything to worry about on that score. Since Allen succumbed to cancer eight years ago, Torabi and Golfetti – plus bassist is the Torabifronted band’s fourth album without Allen: even more so than its enjoyably surreal predecessors, it pays deft homage to the original Gong sound.
