Gong – Pulsing Signals – Double Vinyl Record

Description

Gong – Pulsing Signals – Double Vinyl Record

Pulsing Signals documents Gong as a working, evolving band rather than a group merely preserving its own history. Recorded during the 2019 tour for The Universe Also Collapses, the album draws from performances at The Wardrobe in Leeds, The Cluny in Newcastle and Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. The lineup of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had already developed a strong collective identity, and these recordings show how naturally its members could move between written themes, rhythmic changes and open improvisation. The result is nearly ninety minutes of live psychedelic rock with the scale and continuity of a full concert.

The opening side moves quickly from the scene-setting collage of “What We Was” into two substantial performances. “You Can’t Kill Me” reconnects this incarnation of Gong with Daevid Allen’s writing, but the treatment belongs unmistakably to the musicians onstage: guitars interlock rather than simply duplicate one another, the rhythm section keeps the long form in motion, and Ian East’s reeds add a bright, restless countervoice. “Rejoice!” follows with a different emotional lift, balancing celebration and intensity. Those pieces establish the album’s central strength, which is the way familiar Gong characteristics remain audible without limiting what the current lineup can do.

Side two sharpens that contrast. The compact “If Never I’m and Ever You” and “Kapital” provide concise structures before the band stretches out on “Master Builder.” That sequence makes the long performance feel earned rather than excessive. Cheb Nettles’ drumming and Dave Sturt’s bass give the group enough stability to take risks, while Torabi and Golfetti trade textures, accents and lines across the stereo field. The music can sound tightly organized one moment and close to spontaneous combustion the next. Instead of treating improvisation as an interlude between songs, Gong uses it as a way to reveal new shapes within the material.

The second record is dominated by pieces from The Universe Also Collapses. “Forever Reoccurring” occupies an entire side, allowing its recurring ideas to gather weight over more than twenty-two minutes. “My Sawtooth Wake” brings another extended arc, built from a memorable guitar figure and a series of controlled surges. The closing “Insert Yr Own Prophecy” leaves the program in an appropriately exploratory place. These performances make a persuasive case for the 2019 material onstage: themes that were carefully developed in the studio become springboards for interaction, changes in density and the physical momentum of a live room.

Pete Wibrew made the multitrack concert recordings, Frank Byng mixed them at Snorkel Studios in 2021, and Andy Jackson mastered the album at Tube Mastering. The gatefold double-vinyl format gives each long performance room to unfold, with one complete piece occupying side three and a well-balanced two-record sequence overall. Pulsing Signals works both as an introduction to this era of Gong and as a substantial live chapter in the band’s catalog. It preserves the particular chemistry of the longest-running modern lineup at a moment when its connection to Gong’s past and its own forward movement were equally clear.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Track Listing

Side A
What We Was (Intro)
You Can't Kill Me
Rejoice!

Side B
If Never I'm and Ever You
Kapital
Master Builder

Side C
Forever Reoccurring

Side D
My Sawtooth Wake
Insert Yr Own Prophecy