In the world of Progressive Rock, a few bands are usually credited for originating a type of sound or approach that influenced many bands from the late 60s right up until today.  The Moody Blues are cited as bringing mellotron and symphonic rock to the fore; King Crimson hopped on board with that style and incorporated jazz and fusion; Genesis brought the pastoral and English folk approach; Emerson Lake and Palmer (and The Nice before them) tackled the fusion of Rock and Classical; and Yes introduced elements from all these musical types and created something uniquely “Yes”.  I’m sure you can think of many others that have contributed to the evolution of Progressive Rock in all its sub-genres.  All of these bands started threads of exploration by countless other bands, many of them sounding so much like their mentors it sometimes could be hard to separate them from the originators. 

And then there was Gentle Giant.  No one had heard anything like them before.  A mixture of old English madrigal singing like something out of the court of Henry VIII with complex percussive time signatures further mixed with blues/rock guitar?  Come on, are you kidding?  But it was true.  When their first album hit the stores in 1970, it was so refreshing and different that unfortunately it became more of an instant cult album rather than one that should have been right up there with King Crimson or Yes.  And back to my original point – many bands took off from their starting point and never looked back.  

Each Gentle Giant album sounds like a Gentle Giant album – there is no mistaking their signature expert technical playing, their impossible time signatures and the multiple instruments that they all play.  There are no session musicians on Gentle Giant albums; they don’t need them.  Between the five members, who I will get to in a moment, they play saxophones, recorders, violin, cello, guitars, mandolin, keyboards, tuned percussion, bass and drums.  In addition, among them they have three excellent singers.  And speaking of that, most of the vocal parts demanded of their lead singers are extremely difficult to sing, something you might expect considering the complexity of the music.  With all this classical, ancient and jazz-tinged music swirling around you, it was a stroke of genius that they added to the mix a solid rock/blues guitar sound.  This tended to anchor the proceedings, pulling the listener back to earth at times just to keep it real so to speak.

From 1970 until 1980, Gentle Giant released 12 official albums, 11 studios and one excellent live recording.  They are (years in brackets are the recording years):  Gentle Giant (70), Acquiring the Taste (71), Three Friends (72), Octopus (73), In a Glass House (73), The Power and the Glory (73/74), Free Hand (75), In’terview (76), Playing the Fool Live (74/76), The Missing Piece (77), Giant for a Day (78) and Civilian (79).  Since their demise in 1980, a great number of live recordings have surfaced, and some are of excellent quality, especially the BBC recordings.  In my opinion, though I do have my favourites, they did not make a bad album during their decade of recording.  The Gentle Giant label (Alucard – named after a track on their first album and is Dracula spelled backwards) has received the rights to reissue all of the albums from Free hand to Giant for a Day.  Civilian, the last one, has never been remastered and is now hard to obtain.  I have not been able to find out its status yet.  The first four albums are available in Germany on the Repertoire label, remastered by Eroc (the former drummer of Grobschnitt) and, in my opinion, the finest remasterer (is that a word? – I guess not but I like it) in the business today.  As a quick aside, go to the Rep website and have a look at the beautifully crafted packaging and the older recordings listed – fantastic stuff).   

And so, beginning with the release of their fifth album, In a Glass House, a new series of remastered albums come from Gentle Giant.  Since finding the best sound quality I can of my favourites is one of my passions, I welcomed the announcement late last year that Gentle Giant had obtained the rights to a majority of their back catalogue and would begin a series of reissues in the new year.  The first three, In a Glass House, The Power and the Glory and Free Hand, have arrived and I have listened to them and compared them to my other copies.  To say it quickly, I think the new editions have better sound overall.  To be clear, there was nothing wrong with the 35th Anniversary DRT remasters from five years ago; but these new issues have a warmth about them and a more succinct lower register that improve the overall listening experience.

In a Glass House has an interesting history.  Back in the vinyl days, the powers that be at the time decided not to release In a Glass House in North America, which enraged fans who immediately had to start importing copies from Europe.  The album cover was a beautiful work of art as well: a transparency over negatives of individual band members performing – like looking at them through a window.  With the coming of CD, all of the GG albums were released eventually on different labels in North America and Europe.  The rights for Glass House at some point reverted back to Gentle Giant, who reissued it on their own label in 2000.  This CD remastered reissue was an exact replica of that wonderful vinyl cover, including the grainy feel and transparency.  The sound was a huge improvement over the standard CD issued sometime in the early 90s (it is still available at their website).  In 2005 DRT reissued Glass House as part of their GG 35th anniversary remastering program.  I, for one, thought the sound was an improvement yet again, though it was standard CD packaging.  And now we have Alucard back again with what I would call the definitive remaster, taken from the original ¼ inch tapes and lovingly restored (I’ll be keeping my vinyl replica of course!)

Now it might be a good time to introduce the musicians on Glass House.  Lead vocals are performed by Derek Shulman, who also plays recorders and saxophones; Gary Green plays guitars, mandolin, percussion and recorders; Kerry Minnear plays all keyboards, tuned percussion, recorder and vocals; Ray Shulman is on bass, violin, acoustic guitar, percussion and vocals; and John Weathers takes care of drums and percussion.  If you have a chance to see any of the live DVDs available or for that matter hear their live albums, you will know that incredibly they do not need to overdub – most of their albums could be live in the studio. 

The first track, Runaway, opens with breaking glass, switching from one speaker to the other, while chords in the background begin to swell, eventually drowning out the smashing glass when the main melody kicks in.  The song itself, though played with more time changes, reminds me a bit of the middle parts of Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick.  But only for a time, because as with most Giant songs, they take left and right turns to divert you to solos, slower rhythms, faster cadences, and just about anything else, with vocals dotting the landscape.  It is hard to describe music at the best of times, but if you can imagine a solid rock beat enhanced with overlaying instruments, perhaps in some cases like Zappa’s Hot Rats, then you get the idea.  In other words, a whole pile of stuff to sink your teeth into – you never know what’s around the next corner.  But the thing I’ve always liked about Giant is the way they always incorporate beautiful melodies throughout – always pulling you back to more familiar territory so it isn’t overindulgence. 

Track two, An Inmate’s Lullaby, begins with beautiful vibe work and percussion, indeed a lullaby of sorts with a gently treated vocal.  A few bars of this and then of course they change it up and the vocals swell and become the stars of the piece.  This surge gives way to more gentle percussion and the piece abruptly ends.  Often, Gentle Giant vocals take on the characteristics of a cappella while being accompanied – a contradiction of terms for sure but that’s the way they are presented if that makes any sense.

Next, Way of Life is a driving piece of great rock and roll, done in their abstract style and all the musicians take turns soloing along.  Gary Green and Kerry Minnear take centre stage here, trading riffs.  Then the song suddenly changes and you are at an old English church service, with recorders and an organ playing an English folk song with Derek Shulman’s voice sounding like it could be on the soundtrack for The Tudors.  They leave this to go back to their driving rock once more, but this time they incorporate the middle section and make it faster, blending the two styles together. The church organ comes in again at the end and plays a mournful, repeated refrain as the song fades.

Experience features very difficult vocal patterns sung brilliantly by Kerry Minnear, the melody rolling around Keith Emerson-like keyboard runs in a face-paced piece.  It then develops into some fierce Clapton-like guitar leads which suddenly fall into a minor pattern, then the keyboards again come in and the bass is very loud in the mix.  The piece comes back to another wicked solo by Gary Green.  Special mention also should be made here of Ray Shulman’s heavy violin work as the song fades away.

A Reunion is a beautiful ballad with the violin beautifully interlaced with light and tasteful vocals once again by Kerry Minnear.  And this piece actually begins and ends like a ballad!

The album finishes with In a Glass House.  If you like Dixie Dregs, then you’ll like this – Steve Morse and company must have been listening to Giant!  This powerful rock song, with the instruments taking on a strong repeating riff (with the usual pauses and change-ups) has a decidedly country flavour in places with fiddle and acoustic slide guitar.  But as with most Giant songs, they never let it be for long and the song concludes with the same strong riffing.  Just when you think the song is over and faded away, it comes back with broken glass and fast samples of bits of the songs you’ve just heard, laced together for a few seconds, then broken glass once again, then a final fade. 

If there is one thing I was surprised about in this first set of reissues was the lack of extra tracks.  I had been under the impression that some additional songs, live and studio, would be coming.  I also read that later in the year there would be box sets of some kind on the way – perhaps that’s where the extra tracks will appear.  On a positive note, these bare-bones reissues are a very reasonable price – check them out.