GENTLE GIANT

Scraping the Barrel, 12 hours of music, compiled, cleaned and edited by dedicated Gentle Giant fan & friend Dan Bornemark between 1998 and 2004. As the title indicates, this is it, the best of the rest. The box-set contains 3 CD's and a data disc, a good solution even so my personal choice which tracks to put on the data disc (128 K/bit for the majority) would have been slightly different. Both, the 3 CD's and the data disc follow in chronological manner the Gentle Giant history with some miscellaneous tracks at the end (Kerry Minear, Gary Green Ray Shulman, John Weathers solo tracks & Shout (R.Shulman, Gary Green) and a sample archive (320 K/bit) of classic tracks. First remark, the high quality of the material, throughout their history Gentle Giant has released a great number of high quality compositions. With this boxset (and his predecessor 2CD set Under Construction ) you get the occasion to follow the evolution of the tracks. While Under Construction concentrated on unreleased and live tracks, STB presents the demo and composition sessions. My favourite tracks are on the data disc and at 128 K/bit only I would have preferred to have them in better quality on the CD part, seen the excellent source material, but that's a matter of taste. On the data disc, following the original record sessions you have long and elaborated composing / impro sessions which give an inside of the genesis of the tracks featuring strongly the compositional capacities of Kerry Minear. Some of the sessions are quite long for example 35 minutes for I lost my Head from Interview and as a non GG fan this might be boring, but then it's great music in progress. To hear Kerry Minear pass from renaissance madrigal moods to French impressionist music is awesome. Some of the early tracks are breathtaking like the vocal mixes of Three Friends and Pantagruel's Nativity, another highlight two guitar rehearsals for Memories Of Old Days by Gary Green. The overall sound quality is excellent as most of the material comes from the original recording sessions. There are a couple of live recordings among them two entire concert recordings, the first one from Torino in 1973 (medium sound board quality) and a public press rehearsal in the Pinewood studios from 1977 (good quality with some dropouts), containing hilarious comments from Derek in front of a half asleep bunch of journalists. The non Gentle Giant tracks present in majority Kerry Minear's works from 1964 to 1990. Dan Bornemark liked so much two of the demos that he initiated a 2000 minor Gentle Giant recording reunion with John Weathers, Gary Green and Phil Shulman furnishing the lyrics to one track. Gary Green's outtakes are fewer but among my personal favourites, among them two beautiful sketches he wrote after the death of his brother. A couple of tracks come from the short lived band Shout that Ray and Gary created in the beginning of he 80's in pure new wave style. On the visual part of the data disc some funny clips featuring John Weathers, a couple of promo films with John W. as The Giant in a miniature village, press kits photos and promo material. A well made 40 page booklet with interesting liner notes and pics comes along with the box-set. All in all, a must have for Gentle Giant fans, the others should try out the Gentle Giant discography and come back later eventually.

I was fooled by Amazon/myself to buy this double CD due to the "excellent value" it offered. Hah !!!

The sound quality is not worthy this band. It actually diminish the songs. The songs itself is OK, but nothing more. Their message is lost in the translation......ie the bad sound quality. This album has been released just to rip off prog newbies like myself. I even bought it before I knew the excistence of this website.

Behind the bootleg sound, the music is not bad. Their official live album "Playing the fool" more than prove that Gentle Giant is an excellent band. And so does the more unofficial live album "Experience" (which is ripped from a King Biscuit show) too. But this double CD is doing Gentle Giant no service and I almost gave up on the band afterwards. What a shame that would had been. Avoid !

2 stars

I bought this set about a year ago and I am still gradually exploring its riches. Since it contains "over twelve hours of enchanting Gentle Giant musical entertainment", mostly in embryonic form or in the shape of demos and live performances, you will understand I do not intend to enjoy all four discs from start to finish non-stop.

I've never been a particularly ardent GG fan; I first discovered the band's best music in the late 1990s when I was approaching my 40th birthday, so they never left the same kind of mark as bands I got to know much earlier. But I love anthologies of all kinds, and I love the idea of a huge set full of (almost) countless snippets from a band's workbench. Hearing many dozens of familiar passages from GG's classic albums performed on guitar and Fender Rhodes only, or by vocalists only (to give only two examples) is a fascinating experience, which only increases my admiration for this most endearing of bands.

The SCRAPING THE BARREL tracks list provided by Progarchives is highly detailed (I wonder which brave soul typed it all out?) and the single review this set has so far received (by Agemo) gives you an excellent impression what this four disc set is like. All I will add is that the sound quality of most of the music is excellent, so if you're a true GG fan, don't worry, you're going to L-O-V-E this. A lot!

I originally felt inclined to rate SCRAPING THE BARREL two stars (collectors/fans only), but since such a rating is usually interpreted as meaning: "so bad only dedicated fans will enjoy this", I'll give the set three stars instead, meaning: "good (provided you're fan of this kind of music) but non-essential".

I've decided to post my review even though I've not yet heard a single note from the third disc (which includes post-GG material by various ex-members of the band), because all the tracks I HAVE heard were highly enjoyable, life-enhancing even, and I felt SCRAPING THE BARREL finally deserved a recommendation from one of Progarchives' regular reviewers. I solemnly promise I will expand my review as soon as I have heard all 12 hours in their entirety...

For me Gentle Giant is one of these bands that have the minimalistic sound that others wants to find... progressive pop rock ballads quite rhythmic, soft, sour, smart, very minimalistic and simple , sounds and melodies that are linked on... The album traverses upon a mix of genres like folk, jazz and guitars, mandolins, flutes, violins, bassoons, trumpets, the sound of moog synthesizer, the organ in church, the voices in chorus, harps, all that is Acquiring the Taste, with a sense of epic, mysterious and long intrumental parts Gentle Giant offers one of the best albums you listened to eclectic minimalist prog.

The congealing of a style in a rock band can be a very satisfying thing to behold. It's the stuff signature albums are made of. The stylistic congruency of _The Power and the Glory_ is complete, with none of the fishing around characteristic of virtually all of this band's other albums. Instrumental color comes from a refined palette chosen for clarity and versatility and is captured with sparkle due to the band's extraordinary studio finesse. The most convoluted passages are laid bare with scientific objectivity.

Minnear sings more on this album than any other, with two songs in a row featuring his lead vocals and another featuring his voice significantly in the "middle 8."

The high quality of each riff and the perfect placement of musical ideas inspires an admiration that can only come from witnessing something truly magisterial. Without succumbing to the pointlessly experimental, the music is consistently daring and edgy. Linearity rules, and the vertical is likely to be kind of harsh when one happens upon it.

The political theme that forms the backbone of the album is executed thoughtfully and without venom. The story charts the rise and fall of a man in power, whose two-dimensionality prohibits him from seeing past his tenets and assessing the damage of their ensuing actions.

One thing a person must learn is when to stop, until a couple of weeks I hated GENTLE GIANT, despite the fact I tried for decades, there was nothing I could rescue from this band, but the miracle happened, when I listened "Three Friends" and "Acquiring, the Taste", liked both albums and even reviewed them with high ratings....I should had stopped there, being that I was already familiar with the rest of their discography.

But then I believed it was the moment to listen again their 1970 debut, all the problems that made me dislike the band previous to the last two releases I reviewed returned, I can't find head or feet in almost any track, some ate boring and tedious, others are faster but with no coherence, seems that GENTLE GIANT forgot the meaning of melody when releasing most of this album.

Maybe this guys wanted to revolution the music and made an extremely complex album, but they also required a quota of sense and feeling, the album is cold, lack of expressiveness and boring from start to end.

"Giant" opens the album with energy, but I believe they didn't knew what they wanted to do, every section is contradictory with the previous, the vocals are so extremely dissonant that seem created for another song, but what is worst, they go nowhere, when I believe they are playing a Hard Rock, they loose the path and play some sort of Jazz hybrid, simply can't stand the track.

If the previous track lost me after a couple minutes, I lost the interest for "Funny Ways" after a few seconds. in very few opportunities I heard a less melodic violin and such a boring singing, when Derek seems to be getting somewhere, he starts to wander around the universe except where he should be, not even when a good piano is added they succeed, because the rest of the instruments are playing something that seems to be another song.

"Alucard" has an interesting start, a contrapuntist duel between keyboards and winds is worth to listen, but when the choirs enter, any good start is forgotten, this is complexity for no reason, I can't find any rational structure or idea, by this point I want to put the CD in the box and sell it, something very hard in my country where few people know or care about GENTLE GIANT...The psyche Hammond performance is magnificent, but not even penicillin can save this song.

"Isn't it Quiet and Cold?"....No, I believe it's silly, monotonous and boring, I wonder why everybody criticise songs as "The Sheriff" or "Harold the Barrel", but are afraid to say anything about this anodyne attempt of being versatile....QUEEN played similar songs years later, but with class, intelligence and taste.

"Nothing at All" has a beautiful melody, not even the vocals ruin it, but the problem is that we're talking about GENTLE GIANT, an icon of Progressive Rock and you should always expect something innovation, in this track the band goes to the opposite side of the musical spectrum, if the previous songs are too weird and complex, this one is nothing special....Hey there's a drum solo....But as the name says "Nothing at All", at least nothing special, but in their defence, can be listened.

The album is closed with "Why Not?, some sort of Bluesy Hard Rock that morphs into a Medieval Folk song, but again they get lost in their own contradictions and unnecessary complexity, despite this, "Why Not?" is the best track in the album for me.

After this experience I decided to stay with the second and third GENTLE GIANT albums which I enjoy a lot and forget the rest of their discography...I was tempted to give 1 lonely star to the album, but being that the two final songs are pretty decent, I believe that 2 stars is the perfect rating......For me of course.

Impressed by the good impression that "Three Friends" made on me after years of being unable to understand what people see on this band, got "Acquiring the Taste", the other GENTLE GIANT release I was missing, placed it on my car's CD Player with great hope, but even when I don't believe it's remotely as good as the next album, has some great tracks.

In a couple of songs from their second release, GENTLE GIANT abuses of the excessive complexity with little melodic support and tries endless "variations on the same themes" that after two or three repetitions bores me, no matter how many different arrangements they make, the central theme seems too limited to repeat it so many times.

"Pantagruel's Nativity" starts promising, with a beautiful introduction that leads to a delightful melody with very interesting vocals, for a couple of minutes this is enough to keep my interest specially for the use of wind instruments and a distorted guitar section, but then, they come over and over to the same theme with some variations, but the lack of energy and the monotonous melody makes me want to skip to the next song to see if the seeds of "Three Friends" can be found in this album.

With great hope I start listening "Edge of Twilight", sadly I can't say anything better than in the previous track, again the song seems lack of enthusiasm, what makes it boring, yes, it's obvious all the members of the band are very skilled and the music is well elaborate from a technical perspective, but the guys seem to play by inertia, and never transmit any form of energy.

"The House, The Street, The Room" starts mysterious and a bit haunting, but at last I find some intention of transmitting something to the audience, the Baroque instrumental sections are rich and interesting, while the vocal and choirs are impeccable, even the weird parts make sense in the context of the song, and the guitar is simply outstanding...A very high point.

When I read the name "Acquiring the Taste" I believed that the title song had to be one of the best.....I believe I was wrong, this short interlude with Medieval atmosphere has no head or feet, hank God it only lasts 1:40 minutes and is followed by the good "Wreck", again the band shows enthusiasm and a good balance between melody an experimentation, the vocal works and the violin are just perfect, yes it's dissonant, but it's coherent and the instrumental passages are explosive, another good moment.

The first half of "The Moon is Down" is so repetitive that I was ready to press the skip button, but suddenly the Jazzy instrumental begins and we are fore a different reality, the perfect musical sense, rational changes and the unpredictable structure make of this song worth to listen.

"Black Cat" reminds me of MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA (at least during the intro), a good reason to follow it with interest, when the vocals enter seems like it will be another repetitive and boring song, but I'm wrong, I must say it's not my cup of tea because again they lost me in the complexity of the track, but at least they are not boring, the violin saves the song.

The album is closed by the best song, "Plain Truth" sounds like a fusion of JEAN-LUC PONTY and VAN DER GRAFF GENERATOR with Blues and a touch of Hard Rock, the fluid violin based Jazz sections and the energy similar to Hammill and company are blended with great skills, despite both styles could seem contradictory, something only excellent musicians can do. This guys saved the excellent material for the end.

As I said on the review I made of "Three Friends", will never be a fan of GENTLE GIANT, because their music doesn't make produce the same emotion I feel with other bands, but I can't do less than admire the skills of this members or deny I enjoyed most of this album.

Now, it's not easy to rate this album, because despite some songs are brilliant, others make me want to turn off the stereo, despite this facts, I believe "Acquiring the Taste" is above the average, but not enough for 4 stars, so I will have to go with 3 that would be 3.5 if the system allowed it.

If there's a band that has always given me problems is GENTLE GIANT, unlike most cases when I simply avoid the bands I dislike, I tried repeatedly to appreciate this band, but when I listen the voice of Derek Schulman creating such dissonances that seem like singing a different track, I just can't take it.

As any normal Prog fanatic, I like complex music with coherence and melodic base, if this wasn't the case, I would be listening any other genre, but when I listen albums like "Octopus" or "In a Glass House", I feel that this guys avoid any logic or coherence and just want to be the most complex band over the face of the earth, and that really turns me off.

But, a few weeks ago while watching DVD's with a couple of pals, they told me to listen "Three Friends", insisting hat that this album would probably make me change my opinion. I didn't believed them, but this guys started to send me mails and even call me to ask if I had already bought the album, so in order to stop this friendly harassment, went to the store and got a copy, and must say that even when my opinion hasn't changed about the band in general terms, I found "Three Friends" a good and coherent release, in which the complexity goes hand to hand with musicality, and it's a pleasure to listen it.

It was enough to listen the first noted of "Prologue" to discover this album had something different, incredibly the music is so catchy that I found myself humming the central melody after the album ended. Even when the band builds dissonant passages, they never cross the limits of rationality an believe it or not I found Derek's vocals absolutely interesting, mostly because the multi-layered voices enhance the listening experience......Excellent opening.

Not in the level of the previous track, but "Schooldays" didn't disappointed, it's true that the long vibraphone intro is not my cup of tea, but the excellent vocals by Derek save that section because he creates a haunting atmosphere when he fuses his voice with the instrument, when the rest of the band starts to join the song gains more coherence, and even the contradictory piano passage helps to maintain the interest of the listener.

"Working All Day" was another surprise, the magnificent lead vocal and choirs caught me from the beginning, but when the Sax blends with the Hammond organ I was really fascinated, sounds like some sort of Psychedelic nightmare blended with VAN DER GRAFF GENERATOR, another high point.

The first couple of minutes of "Peel the Paint", made me believe that the previous tracks were only a mirage and that GENTLE GIANT had returned to the futile complexity I dislike, but as soon as Ray Schulman joins with the violin, it was like magic.

As the song advances, it keeps getting more and more interesting, the dissonant passages morph into Jazzy sections in such a way that even a non fan like me has to surrender before the skills of the musicians, and the frenetic finale in the vein of Hendrix meets KING CRIMSON is the point when I decided to give the band a new chance.

"Mister Class and Quality" is a elaborate mixture of Prog, Jazz, Celtic Folk and Blues , with amazing organ and violin performances, not a single moment to rest, the guitar and Hammond solos are out of this world.

The album ends with the short but exciting "Three Friends", the pompous choirs at the beginning are fantastic and the way in which they combine with the organ made me forget that I'm before a band I never liked, again delightful.

I'm sure I will never be a hardcore fan of GENTLE GIANT, because albums like "Octopus" will not captivate me, but I would be absolutely dishonest if I don't accept that I loved "Three Friends" from start to end..............Four solid stars for a great album.

This is the perfect example of how progressive rock started. Given a rock-blues band basis, adding experimentation, and there you have one creative little band. With a debut album.

Gentle Giant has both the blues, the experimentation and, why not say, classical music experience (both XVIII th century and modern). And with some medieval - court music - elements... This album is very interesting, altough for some kinda hard to digest. The opening song is very very prog indeed, superb song. I also like, "Why Not" , a bit more rockish, but still the musicianship is very good.

Overall the album is a fairly good one, though, the follow ups were much better.

The first four albums were all extremely close to 5-star masterpieces, "In A Glass House" finally broke through that frontier! "The Power And The Glory" on the other hand did an even more difficult job of maintaining that ground! This was another concept album which dealt with some really universal topics that are just as important today as they were 100, 1000 or 4000 years ago! The main attraction is still the great song-structural work that is maintained here and on the next release, although some might argue that the band was slipping onto thin ice with this release. I basically love each and everyone of these tracks, although "No God's A Man" may lose it's charm after a a couple in-a-row repeated listens.

The concert: the reunion concert gave us only a brief taste of this album with "Playing The Game", still it was probably the third best highlight of the evening. Want to know the other highlights? Then read my other GG-album reviews. :)

***** star songs: Proclamation (6:48) Playing The Game (6:44) Cogs In Cogs (3:08) Valedictory (3:19)

**** star songs: So Sincere (3:49) Aspirations (4:38) No God's A Man (4:26) The Face (4:11)

Total rating: 4,54