FREE HAND

I've only recently got into Gentle Giant. In fact they're probably the best new band I've heard this year. Oh well, I'm just 25 years too late! The important thing is that it sounds fantastic and fresh even in 2009. In a funny way it reminds me of the way the 'Cardiacs' construct their songs. Gentle Giant are one of the few bands I can listen to very carefully and think to myself 'how the hell do they keep that together with so much stuff going on?. A right clever bunch they were and very experimental. I've heard their first eight albums now and this one is right at the top along with 'In a Glass House'. Free Hand is extremely complex, with frequent changes in tempo and really odd time signatures - sometimes sounding like there's two different beats being played in the same tune! They also make use of vocal counterpoint (contrapuntal to Classical music folk) - where two voices sing two different tunes at a different tempo in the one song! This is the kind of thing that was big in 16th Century Renaissance Europe!