| Shapeshifter | |
| Type: | studio album |
| Artist: | Daevid Allen's Gong |
| Cover: | Gong Shapeshifter fr.l.jpg |
| Released: | 1992 |
| Recorded: | Sep 1991 – Jul 1992 |
| Genre: | Psychedelic rock, progressive rock, folk music, space rock |
| Length: | 66:00 |
| Label: | Celluloid, Lightyear |
| Producer: | Dino Watkyn, Nigel Gilroy |
| Prev Title: | You |
| Prev Year: | 1974 |
| Next Title: | Zero to Infinity |
| Next Year: | 2000 |
Shapeshifter is the ninth studio album released under the name Gong and the sixth album by the Daevid Allen version of the group. It was released in 1992. It is the first proper album from Daevid Allen's Gong since You from 1974. It is the first album from the original group without founding member Gilli Smyth. Didier Malherbe and Allen are the only two returning performers from the previous album. Pip Pyle, who performed on Continental Circus and Camembert Electrique also returns.
With main character Zero the hero, the album continues the Gong mythology, the central part of which was formed with the Radio Gnome Trilogy of albums,[1] comprising Flying Teapot in 1973, followed by Angel's Egg, 1973, and You in 1974.
Over the years since 1992, there have been different releases of the album with different numbers of tracks. On "the original as it was planned",[1] the Gong website lists #12: "Là Bas Là Bas" and #13: "I Gotta Donkey" - these are not found on the 1997 Lightyear release. That release has a closing bonus track titled "Goddess Invocation Om Riff", recorded live at Ynys Witren at summer solstice 1992.
Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock assessed that "The amalgam of trance-beats, crude sampling (dog samples for 'Dog-o-matic' et al.) and rowdy guitar splurges was among the most complete reintegration of Progressive ideology and cutting-edge contemporary music since the 1960s."[2]
"Goddess Invocation Om Riff" (Allen, Blake, Hillage, Howlett, Smyth) − 12:58
In the Allmusic review of the 1997 release, additional personnel is listed: