CIRCLING ROUND THE GENTLE GIANT

Gentle Giant was, for many, including myself, one of the best prog rock bands ever. The Shulman brothers Derek, Phil and Ray in addition to the keyboardist Kerry Minnear and the guitarist Gary Green made up the core of the band. All of them were highly talented musicians, multi-instrumentalists and composers who knew just how to express this through a series of outstanding albums that remain some of the best and most essential progressive rock albums ever made.

"Circling Round The Gentle Giant" is a compilation album of Gentle Giant which was released in 1981. This is a strange and uncommon compilation of Gentle Giant. Usually, the compilations of Gentle Giant are bigger than this one is. In reality, this is a relatively short compilation that only covers two studio albums of them plus a track of a live album. So, it only covers two tracks from their seventh studio album "Free Hand", released in 1975, three tracks from their eighth studio album "Interview", released in 1976 and a track from their debut live album "Playing The Fool", released in 1977.

Thus, "Circling Round The Gentle Giant" has six tracks. The first track "Just The Same" was originally released on their seventh studio album "Free Hand". "Just The Same" is a track with one of the traditional beginnings of some Gentle Giant's tracks. It opens with fingers snapping and curiously ends in the same way. It's a slow rock song with a good keyboard work that has also some jazz influences. This is a great song to open that album. The Second Track "His Last Voyage" was also originally released on their seventh studio album "Free Hand". "His Last Voyage" is the most peaceful piece on that album. It's probably one of the most beautiful songs ever created by the band, in my humble opinion. It has good keyboard and guitar works, with particular emphasis to the way how Kerry Minnear sings it. It perfectly makes us feel the departure of someone to his last voyage to the afterlife. This is really an amazing piece. The third track "Empty City" was originally released on their eighth studio album "Interview". "Empty City" is a song with a sumptuous moody number featuring some excellent and lovely acoustic and electric guitar works and some spacey keyboards. It's also very well accompanied by a very strong vocal work as well as a nice sexy sax work from Derek Shulman. It's a piece of music that changes very often. However, and in the end, it's a very calm song. The fourth track "Interview" was also originally released on their eighth studio album "Interview". "Interview" is obviously the title track song on that album. This is a very experimental track and represents an excellent song. It's quite experimental, yet quite listenable, hard rocking, startling and played to the perfection. It's hard to single out one instrument for praise in this song, since they are all played so proficiently. But, Kerry Minnear's electric piano is simply outstanding on this track. The Fifth track "I Lost My Head" was another track originally released on their eighth studio album "Interview". It starts like a medieval styled ballad that then goes into the main part where the riff is first played in a very Eastern like style, but quickly turns into a powerful hard rock riff as a true classic Gentle Giant's track. This is a great close to that album, indeed. The sixth track "/Octupus) The Boys In The Band" is a live version that appears on their debut live album "Playing The Fool" released in 1977. It includes some excerpts from their following pieces: "The Boys In The Band", "Raconteur Troubadour", "Acquiring The Taste", "Knots", "Ocean Bridge" and "The Advent Of Panurge". The extracts of "The Boys In The Band", "Raconteur Troubadour", "Knots" and "The Advent Of Panurge" were tracks that were originally released on their fourth studio album "Octupus". The extract of "Acquiring The Taste" was originally a track that was originally released on their second studio album "Acquiring The Taste". The excerpt of "Ocean Bridge" doesn't appear on any of their studio albums. It only appears as an excerpt on "Playing The Fool". This is a 15 minute medley of their album "Octopus" released in 1972. It was a version partly and strongly rearranged of parts from that record. It opens with "The Boys In The Band" that goes into acoustic instrumental versions of "Raconteur Troubadour" and "A Cry For Everyone" before going into "Knots" and the highlight of the medley, "The Advent Of Panurge". The latter one has been extended by a recorder part in the middle that further strengthens the song with a real medieval feel, indeed. This live track, "Excerpts From Octupus" was originally recorded live by the band in Paris on October 5, 1976.

Conclusion: I've nothing against compilation albums, even if they're about progressive rock bands. However, for me, a compilation must have some characteristics. It must be very representative of the band's career, the selection of the tracks must be the high quality level and finally it must have some musical standard. But, for me, on this compilation not all of these things were entirely respected. About the quality of the tracks chosen to be part of it I've nothing to oppose because all tracks are representative and have quality enough to be selected. However, this compilation album is far of being well representative of the band. It only covers tracks from two of their albums and a live track. I can't see any interest in compilations like these, except spend money on them. I can't recommend this compilation to anyone.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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