What does it sound like?:
The ubiquitous Steven Wilson is on hand again to do the remixing honours on Gentle Giant’s 1972 album.
The CD gives us a brand new 2015 remix of the original album, plus 15 minutes of excerpts from a live performance of some of the material taken from a 1976 show.
The DVD presents a 5.1 mix of the music on the CD plus some interesting and unheard instrumental versions of five of the pieces, together with a flat transfer of the album from the original master tapes.
This is an album that concentrates on shorter songs and is a subtle mix of prog and more conventional rock music.
As with the previously issued The Power and The Glory album, Wilson has done a super job on the remix, producing remarkable clarity and separation of sound which perfectly exhibits the simplicity and complexity of the music, both of which are consistently in evidence throughout these rewarding pieces.
What does it all *mean*?
Gentle Giant are often overlooked and their work neglected in favour of their better known contemporaries, but this album shows precisely why they should not be forgotten when the history of prog is one day written.
Goes well with…
The usual suspects in this genre – Tull, Crimson et al.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
If you’ve not investigated the band’s catalogue previously then now is the time to take the plunge – and what better place to begin than with this beautifully produced gem of an album!
Thanks for the review Bargey. I loved Gentle Giant in the 70’s and saw them twice in quick succession probably in 1976 when the live performance was taken. Both gigs at Birmingham Town Hall. Have wanted to get back into listening to them for a while and looked at a couple of compilations but the mostly cover the latter half of their career which interests me less. Think I will probably go for Octopus, Interview and Power and the glory however I don’t have a blue ray player – why don’t they stop doing this and just release audio content or at least give us an option. Not interested in watching music, more interested in listening to it.
They have – https://www.burningshed.com/store/progressive/product/522/6952/
Thanks Yorkio – duly ordered
Just to clarify, as pointed out below there is a cd only version, but the dvd does not contain any visual content to watch – it’s just the format used for the various other mixes, 5.1 sound and other audio content.
Their finest hour. There was for some years a video of ‘Think of me with Kindness’ which was married to a scene from Coppola’s Dracula – they went together surprisingly well but sadly it seems to have been taken down.
It’s a lovely song which even non prog lovers can appreciate (perhaps)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjHwQbBm8n8
… reprise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjHwQbBm8n8
Thanks, Mr Bargepole….very reassuring…..this will be the next music that buy, when funds allow.
Another band which, at the time and in my circle of friends, I believed I was the only one to hear and enjoy hearing.
From ‘Sight and Sound In Concert’ is this, with a good mixture of their stuff;
I think it may have been their last appearance in the UK.
I remember this! I taped it off the telly, using a cassette player with a built-in condenser mic…..
Mine arrived this week and the sound is astounding. I was very surprised – I hadn’t heard this album for probably 35 years or more yet I remembered every track as if it was last heard yesterday. Considering how complex the music is I was quite astounded by that. Well happy with this purchase.