In March of 2015, the life of The Soft Machine co-founder and Gong founder Daevid Allen came to a end. The man The Daily Telegraph called “the court jester of hippie rock” had then just completed one more record and earlier this month Elevenses dropped, a parting gift of quirky music by one of the last of the original psychedelic rockers that will likely never again be done with the astonishing depth, breadth and wit that came naturally to Allen.
Even at near the end of his seventy-seven years, Allen’s music carries a childlike wonderment and humor amid complex arrangements that often suggests where his much-lauded contemporary Syd Barrett could have achieved had he kept it together. Whereas Barrett’s absurdity was his torment, Allen reveled in his in a happy-go-lucky character he lived to its fullest as an artist and a person, the two of which were inseparable.
Elevenses is credited to the “Daevid Allen Weird Quartet,” who recorded as “Weird Biscuit Teatime” for its prior set of recordings DJDDAY from a decade earlier. But putting ‘weird’ in a band name that also includes the words ‘Daevid Allen’ seem redundant, and the music will sure seem that way to many. Whatever the Allen-led group might be called, it also boasted Don Falcone (Sprits Burning), Michael Clare (Allen’s University of Errors), Trey Sabatelli (The Tubes) and Paul Sears (The Muffins)
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CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
Australian beatnik Daevid Allen was a founder member of Britain's earliest psychedelic band, Soft Machine.He departed from the band after the release of their first classic single Love Makes Sweet Mus..
Australian poet and musician Daevid Allen, born in 1938, moved to Europe in 1960, inspired by the writings of the ‘Beat Generation.’ After a year or so in Paris he arrived in the UK in 196..
Whichever way you look at it, Daevid Allen is one of the most interesting and enigmatic characters in modern music. An Australian, he was working in a Melbourne book shop when he discovered the writin..
Read on...
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
Australian beatnik Daevid Allen was a founder member of Britain's earliest psychedelic band, Soft Machine.He departed from the band after the release of their first classic single Love Makes Sweet Mus..
Australian poet and musician Daevid Allen, born in 1938, moved to Europe in 1960, inspired by the writings of the ‘Beat Generation.’ After a year or so in Paris he arrived in the UK in 196..
Whichever way you look at it, Daevid Allen is one of the most interesting and enigmatic characters in modern music. An Australian, he was working in a Melbourne book shop when he discovered the writin..
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