THREE FRIENDS

Gentle Giant released to excellent albums in 1972 and I find "Three friends" to be a better one because of its soundscape, it is very experimental and no signs of compromising yet. It also has longer compositions to immerse in than "Octopus". "Prologue" has an ominous start and reminds a bit of King Crimson and Magma but no way ripping anything off, the rhytm is very irregular, the bass sets the tension and keyboards greatly fill the space with Hammond/synths/moog. "Schooldays" brings alteration with medieval vocals and jazzy keyboards. How they managed to combine this masterfully with the evil seemingly unrelated piano chords is beyond my understanding. The third part of the composition is a venture into a fast honky-tonky territory. Incredible amount of ideas. "Peel the paint" is one of the most successful GG hard rock composition, but don't think of a few-second riff, this one has a complex and long hook, I also love the raw guitar and intensive drumming. "Three friends" is a beautiful symphonic composition with semi-church organ/melotron and excellent vocal harmonies. It has a majestic chord sequence that Focus wouldn't be ashamed of. Excellent GG album, once again.