So I know we must have had a thread on PE about this album at some point, but it was today when I pulled it out, feeling like I needed some tasty seventies fusion, so I thought I'd start a new one now. When I first heard it about three years ago, I thought it was decent, but not as earth-shattering as the Allen version of Gong, or even Pierre Moerlen's "Downwind."
But today everything clicked for me. The "hippy-dippiness" is still somewhat present in "Wingful of Eyes," but it's still a fairly solid song, one of the two songs to have some kickass guitar work from Hillage. On the other hand, you have some really punchy fusion in "Chandra" and "Shamal," and a preview of the tuned percussion banquet of Moerlen's Gong in "Mandrake." Honestly, it's got a bit of everything, and it feels more like a multitude of musical ideas coming together and giving each other room.
Is it perfect? Eh, I think Didier Malherbe's contributions, while decent, are still a little loose and weird in the old Gong way, which I suppose is fine, but considering how tight everything else is, they feel a little out of place. Only a smidgeon, though. You can also clearly tell this is not Hillage's natural environment; his work is great, but it's only on two songs and it's obvious there's no way he could squeeze his style into the rest of the material.
This is clearly a transitional record, but I almost wish they'd kept this dynamic up. Except for "Downwind," Moerlen's obsessiveness over tuned percussion takes away from the diversity of later albums. This was a lineup of musicians that could have created a musical smorgasbord if they'd stayed together; as it happened, everyone drifted off into their own projects and that was that. Therefore, I'm calling it: "Shamal" is an underrated, once-in-a-lifetime record. It hinted at possibly being everything, but in the end, it couldn't take a permanent foothold.
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