Gong : Robo-Warriors

Last time I posted two robot songs by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard; a band I've been listening to a lot of in recent months, but it took me a while to realise that they'd done a handful of robot songs (I really must pay more attention when listening to music).

This time I'm posting a robot song by a band I've been listening to for the best part of thirty years, and I've only just noticed that they've got a robot song tucked up their sleeve... and they only released it eight years ago! Gong mostly sing songs about pixies and teapots and all sorts of new-age stuff and apart from Mother Gong's Robot Woman LPs, proper Gong just don't do robots... or so I thought.

Gong formed in the fields of northern France in the late nineteen-sixties and despite numerous line-up changes, splits, reformations, disbands, rebrands, reunions and far too much mortality, they're still going strong. Gong are arguably my favourite band of all time, and it's only a handful of their early albums that keep me going back to them. My big brother introduced me to Gong in around nineteen-eighty-eight, and I was happy in nineteen-eighty-nine when Gong (under the banner of Gongmaison) came to play in Morecambe of all places, and the tickets were a mere £3. As mentioned, they've been my favourite band ever since, although their output after the Gongmaison album has (in my mind) not been great. The Shapeshifter album (1992) disappointed me on so many levels so I wasn't expecting much from their next release; Zero to Infinity (2000). It sounded like a poor impression of themselves. They'd long lost the spark that they once had way back in the early seventies, and only frontman, founder and driving force Daevid Allen remained from their classic line-up. I'd briefly listen to subsequent recordings but never returned for a second listen until I heard 2014's I See You, which was by far their best LP since Gongmaison (1989). Daevid Allen died aged 77 in 2015, and I guess I was just as surprised and bewildered as anyone when it was announced in early 2016 that Gong would continue.

In September 2016, Gong released Rejoice, I'm Dead! which far exceeded my expectations. It's arguably their best LP since 1989 and along with I See You, is the only one since Gongmaison that I've given repeated listens... which explains why it's taken me so long to discover their robot song.
Robo-Warriors is tucked away on their 2032 LP, released in 2009. After several disappointing albums, I'm not sure if I ever gave 2032 a proper listen before today, and it's actually quite good.