'This LP was recorded during full moons of May, & June & September, 1971, chez Michel Magne at Strawberry Studios, Herrouville, France.'
This album was the final release to appear on the French BYG / Actuel Series label.
Original pressing from France: - Disc has black labels. - Heavily laminated gatefold sleeve. - Early copies included two inserts that were drawn by Daevid Allen and is the only place in which the names of Eddy Louiss (also called "Eddy Lewis") and Constantin Simonovitch are also credited for this release.
The lyric inserts are printed on two LP-sized pieces of blue card that are intended to be folded into an 8 page booklet.
Code-barres et autres identifiants
Code de prix (circled): T
Société des droits d'auteur: SACEM SACD SDRM SGDL
Informations sur la matrice (Runout side A): BYG529353A Rasputin
Informations sur la matrice (Runout side B): BYG529353B Robespierre
...the greatest anarcho rock you can ever imagine. powerful, loud & excentric, a perfectly mix of futuristic rock, punk & free jazz-"madness". amazing syd barrett-alike guitar-work by daevid allen & erotic space whispers by gilli smyth, the most charismatic couple of that time beneath yoko & john. when i started to understand this music i stopped listening to frank zappa for 15 years... (january 2006)
I have Virgin's original pressing. That's excellent media condition, a good sound, and my gem for a long time. Now, I finally get BYG pressing. Even though it has some surface noise, astonishingly, BYG pressing is more powerful and vivid. Especially, the sound atmosphere is different. Awesome! BYG pressing was quite expensive for me, but it was worth getting.
My old friend Gary introduced me to this band around 1972, and I couldn't get my head around it. Just too hippy, crazy, too foreign, and in other words, too odd. Still, on the same day, he also played me early Kevin Ayers, and that too was a challenging listening experience for me. Decades later, either out of boredom, my jet-lag sensibility, I purchased this album at Rockaway Records in Silver Lake. Now, as I listen to Gong's "Camembert Electrique" I think it's a masterpiece.
Daevid Allen started the group (if memory serves me correctly, I was put off by the spelling of his first name as well as disliking the album) and somehow ended up in France. A band, a cult - I'm not sure. There is for sure a thought that they live on a planet called 'Gong,' but a world that had instruments, that's certain. Still, the music is brilliant. Hypnotic, melodic, and in places, reminds me of David Bowie of the Ziggy period. There is also touches of The Soft Machine, which should be no surprise because Allen was a founding member of that band.
The other voice beside Daevid is Gilli Smith, who has a sinister whisper and adds a certain intensity to the mix. For a bunch of French/British/Aussie Hippies, they are very tight and focused. It's psychedelic for sure but has a robust rock approach to their overall sound. This is my first entrance into the rabbit hole that's Gong.
The first Virgin release was Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, in 1973. 1971 was the original release of Camembert Electrique, the French pressing on the BYG/Actuel label. Richard Branson also ran a record store (which later morphed into Virgin Megastore, naturally), and Gong's Camembert Electrique was apparently popular with many of the buyers (along with the two albums Faust did on Polydor, and Tangerine Dream on Ohr, issued on Polydor in the UK), and he decided to start a label when he discovered no other label wanted to take Mike Oldfield on. The Virgin issue of Camembert Electrique obviously came when Gong was signed (Flying Teapot was Virgin's second release). BYG had apparently went under by then, meaning the title was no longer available, so it was nice to see Virgin make it available again, and easier for UK buyers to buy it, as it was a domestic pressing.