Daevid Allen Bananamoon Obscura Series and other archival must-haves

[JKL2000]

I recently ordered all the disks from the Daevid Allen Bananamoon Obscura series that Wayside has on blowout sale ($9 - it's a good price!), and just now I ordered copies of all the rest of the series from a few different sources (Amazon, Discogs, and eBay). IMO this is a great series, and personally I can't get enough Daevid Allen recordings. Somehow, I find everything he's involved in to be worth hearing, and owning if possible. (Hasn't our own Violin Cyndee appeared on recordings with Allen? How cool!) IMO he's a living legend. I would love to be able to meet him and talk to him. CTTOI, did he do a signing session at NEARfest? If so I missed it. Damn!

Anyone else here enjoy this series of CDs? Right now I'm listening to disk #1, which is final rehearsals with Euterpe for the 1977 Gong Reunion gig in Paris, recorded in Majorca. Come on, I must be the only person on the planet listening to this recording right now! And it's excellent.

I really love having and listening to rare archival recordings like this. I also look forward to passing them on to my sons. Yes, they will probably be able to find these recordings on the Internet and download them at will, but the real rarity will be knowing about Daevid Allen and knowing that these recording exist. Since this set was limited to 1000 copies, fairly soon they'll all be gone. I guess I think of my collection like a card catalog and the material itself combined. The people who release these recordings are doing the real hard work, and we're completing the next step which is to help disseminate the recordings in the form that's hardest to ignore - cold, hard CDs.

I just put on #5 - University of Errors Live in Chicago, 2000. Excellent!! Daevid Allen spacily reciting Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" with spacy musical backing. Maybe it's just me, but stuff like this is crucial.

What rare or unusual archival recordings do you feel like you're hoarding and preserving for future generations? I know, anything we like matters - our grandchildren might not know what Styx was and it's up to us to help them find out! So it doesn't have to be rare stuff - whatever you most wish to preserve for future generations. My ginormous Klaus Schulze collection is another treasure trove in my collection. I plan to make sure my grandchildren (after they arrive) appreciate the fine art of laying on a couch and listening to Klaus Schulze for a couple of hours at a time.

[Udi Koomran]

I can't get enough Daevid Allen recordings. Somehow, I find everything he's involved in to be worth hearing, and owning if possible. IMO he's a living legend. I would love to be able to meet him and talk to him.
Anyone else here enjoy this series of CDs?
What rare or unusual archival recordings do you feel like you're hoarding and preserving for future generations? .

Being the Gong freak that I am for nearly 40 years now... I can add my 2 absolute favorite archive releases by Daevid / Gong
Je Ne Fume Pas De Bananes
Camembert Eclectique

there are many many more but these are for me the absolute essentials
btw - I have dozens of Daevid / Gong lps and cds but somehow Obscura series didn't grab me
Might be the sound quality or maybe the minimalistic art and linear notes
dunno

[strawberrybrick]

I'm not so sure that anyone needs to worry about the Bananamoon Obscura series will vanish too soon, I bought them over the years, and I still find them, albeit cheaper and cheaper and cheaper... (ah well, money doesn't make it)

Udi's two recommendations are spot on - two essential releases.

Also take a look at what I've listed on my site, including Glastonbury Fayre 1971, Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions, Gong Continental Circus (Italian pressing with the bonus tracks), Daevid Allen The Death Of Rock & Other Entrances (Voiceprint CD).

I'd also pop over to Youtube and download as many as the Gong/Allen videos as you can find. Who knows, maybe one day they won't be up there (like the INA clips), but then again, maybe one day future generations won't know what to do with .flv files!



And finally, here's hoping that GAS/Gong/Whomever would start releasing archival material again. There is a "second mix" of Allen's Bananamoon listed on the GAS site, as well as the expanded Gong Live Etc. Plus all those ROIO recordings that are available... Rotterdam 1974, etc (just google hal's progressive rock blogspot).

[Cats On Glue]

there will never be another artist quite like Daevid Allen. i feel like the posters above, anything i have by him will be cherished

[calyx]

Daevid has entered his 3rd quarter of a century and still shows no sign of slowing down - I'm seeing him late this month in Paris with a band which also includes his namesake (but definitely not related) Marshall Allen, late of the Sun Ra Arkestra... More details in the concerts section at Calyx - http://calyx.club.fr

[Udi Koomran]

Here is are a couple releases of great historical value
Musically they are not so captivating but from a historical perspective very interesting
gong031.JPG

300266071374.jpg

http://www.planetgong.co.uk/bazaar/v...aming_12.shtml

[spacefreak]

Here is are a couple releases of great historical value
Musically they are not so captivating but from a historical perspective very interesting

I think that the second (unreleased) album of Princess Flower & the Moon Rays "Voyage to Nebadon" ( influenced by Ira Cohen & Angus MacLise's work) is an essential listen for those into ethnic influenced cosmic/trance drone music. Far better and consistent than the one they did in Paris with Allen/Smyth.

[Udi Koomran]

I think that the second (unreleased) album of Princess Flower & the Moon Rays "Voyage to Nebadon" ( influenced by Ira Cohen & Angus MacLise's work) is an essential listen for those into ethnic influenced cosmic/trance drone music. Far better and consistent than the one they did in Paris with Allen/Smyth.

Just ordered it !

[PeterG]

The only DA I've got is Good Morning! on vinyl - and it's the first Virgin pressing no less.

[flytomars]

Being the Gong freak that I am for nearly 40 years now... I can add my 2 absolute favorite archive releases by Daevid / Gong
Je Ne Fume Pas De Bananes
Camembert Eclectique

there are many many more but these are for me the absolute essentials
btw - I have dozens of Daevid / Gong lps and cds but somehow Obscura series didn't grab me
Might be the sound quality or maybe the minimalistic art and linear notes
dunno

These 2 recommendations are out of print, as far as I know?
I have the entire obscura serie and would love to get those 2 and the death of rock..

[spacefreak]

Just ordered it !

Wished they did a two separate disk release. Honestly Udi, I would have skipped the "Dreaming The Magic of Your Maya" Paris one and got the second (Pataphysician Orchestra -Voyage to Nebadon).

[JKL2000]

I just received a couple of the Bananamoon Obscura series that I was missing, and one of them, #15 Solo at The Axoim, is for some reason in a jewel case instead of the little black and silver paper sleeve. The insert is sort of light blue and black. I'm wondering if this is really the way Voiceprint produced this release, or if it's some kind of illegal copy. Flytomars, perhaps you can confirm this since you have the whole series?

Here's an image of it I found online, but some of the other images I found are only silver and b/w, but I can't tell if perhaps those are just cropped copies of the cover without the blue part.



Hmm, this was ordered direct from Amazon.com (not a third party seller), but I see the description includes:

"This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply."

WTF? For a limited edition of 1000?

[JKL2000]

^ Update:

I emailed Floating World, which owns Voiceprint, and someone emailed me right back saying it was very odd and to let him look into it.

I'm getting Amazon in trouble, I'm getting Amazon in trouble....

[strawberrybrick]

Yeah, that sounds quite fishy

[JKL2000]

I came across another CD that I bought in 2011 that's the same, although I never noticed before - it's Gong Global Family Live in Brazil. I've emailed Voiceprint to rat out Amazon on that one too.

[Steve F.]

Jed,

Amazon don't make 'discs on demand' without getting hard permission from someone.

[JKL2000]

Steve, I just started a separate thread about this because I thought no one would see it here and I wanted to know what's going on - just a heads up. BUT, I'm sure and hope you're right. But isn't it odd with a CD that's supposed to be a limited edition? It looked to amateur that I didn't even unwrap it, and contacted Voiceprint right away. I'm pretty bummed, and am planning on returning it.

[JKL2000]

The guy from Floating World emailed me again and said Gong Global Family Live in Brazil is part of their "core catalog," and Amazon isn't supposed to be selling CD-Rs of it. Interesting, yet not surprising that screw-ups like that would happen. I doubt communication between a label like that and the Amazon empire is terribly well coordinated.

[tom unbound]

Buy from the Band, Amazon doesn't need the money, Daevid does !!!!! Support the musicians -- not the exploiters.

http://www.planetgong.co.uk/bazaar/releases/bmo.shtml Big Sale Now ! Ask for Jonny !

[JKL2000]

Buy from the Band, Amazon doesn't need the money, Daevid does !!!!! Support the musicians -- not the exploiters.

http://www.planetgong.co.uk/bazaar/releases/bmo.shtml Big Sale Now ! Ask for Jonny !

Wow, I would have if I'd looked beyond those first three bundles, which wouldn't have worked for me since I already had some that were in each bundle. Sorry I didn't see that before I bought most of what I just bought!

[flytomars]

Hi JKL, sorry for not responding, I only saw your post now.
The cover you attached is indeed the cover that I have (cardboard sleeve like the rest of them).
I also bought from planet gong and it is highly recommended (I did buy it one by one, you can always ask Jonny if he has some leftovers).
RE amazon selling illegitimate CDrs- I saw some dodgy releases there (ie the classic rock VDGG DVDs etc), but never a bootleg CDr- though I wont be surprised if something like that flew under their radar...
Also, I am not sure how much control they have over the different sellers in the amazon marketplace- somewhat like the control ebay has over its sellers.

[JKL2000]

Now I've received a used copy of Obscura #16, Gong on Acid, and the disk itself has the Obscura logo and the number 11. If anyone has Obscura #16, can you perhaps look at the disk and see if it has the number 11 on it? It also has a background of little Gong logos (the multicolored pyramid thingy with the eye).

[spacefreak]

^^^

It has multiple planet Gong logos and No 11 below the obscura logo. A single 68 mins mixed track.

[Udi Koomran]

I am pretty thorough Daevid & Gong collector but somehow this series is not my cup of tea
I must say it feels a bit cheap - the packaging is uniform minimal and as I said cheap and the sound quality on most of these leaves a lot to be desired
I do wish at one point one of the labels would come up with a quality archive release that would consolidate all his early experiments and tape works

[spacefreak]

I am pretty thorough Daevid & Gong collector but somehow this series is not my cup of tea
and the sound quality on most of these leaves a lot to be desired

Don't have any opinion as I own only 003 and 016 but from the descriptions I've been afraid that what you describe should have been the case, so I restrained myself from buying some more...