By the time of Magick Brother, the debut Gong album, Daevid Allen had serious form: hanging out at the Beat Hotel, spending time with Burroughs, living in Mallorca, then forming Canterbury prog gang Soft Machine with Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Mike Ratledge. Relocating to Paris, he then formed Gong with partner Gilli Smyth; they also ended up being involved in the city’s counterculture, taking part in the May ’68 protests. Magick Brother is less loopy than some of the later Gong albums, and you can hear the way Allen pulls on various generic threads here, from the home-baked psychedelia of “Glad To Sad To Say,” through the prog-pop of “Rational Anthem.” Signing with the BYG/Actuel label meant access to France’s free jazz scene, too, and they’re joined on a few songs by Barre Phillips, Burton Greene and Earl Freeman, who give the album expansive heft. But the joy of the thing, ultimately, is the free-wheeling spirit of Allen’s songwriting, a gentle kind of everyday surrealism.