THE CHEERFUL INSANITY OF GILES, GILES & FRIPP

"The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" is the debut full-length studio album by UK pop/rock act Giles, Giles and Fripp. The album was released through Deram Records in September 1968. The history of the band began in August 1967 when brothers Michael Giles (drums) and Peter Giles (bass) recruited guitarist Robert Fripp. Although the trio were clearly skilled composers and gifted musicians, they only managed to release a couple of singles and "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp", before disbanding as a consequence of a lack of commercial success. Maybe disbanding isn´t the correct word to use though as Giles, Giles and Fripp more or less just sequed into being King Crimson with the departure of Peter Giles and the addition of Ian McDonald (keyboards, reeds and woodwinds), Greg Lake (vocals, bass) and Peter Sinfield (lyrics, illumination).

Today most listeners probably seek out "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp", because of 2/3 of the lineup subsequently becoming founding members of King Crimson and playing on the iconic debut album "In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)", but of course "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" deserves to be reviewed on its own merits and without comparisons to what some of the members would do a year down the line.

Stylistically the core of the material is British 60s pop/psychadelic pop and of course contemporary The Beatles are an obvious reference. When that is said there is a quirky, silly, and at times even avant garde tinged edge to much of the material, which makes the title of the album very appropriate (and references to early naive Pink Floyd valid). It´s an extremely eclectic album featuring elements of both pop, jazz, proggy ideas, spoken work sections, and psychadelia.

The tracks feature mellow and pleasant vocals and pop orchestral backing (strings), but as mentioned above the album is quite eclectic, and the elements from other genres and musical styles pop up frequently. The tracks are well written and relatively memorable, but for all its genre blending and eclecticism, "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" ultimately doesn´t come off particularly unique. Sure some of the guitar chords and melodies used by Fripp are not standard fare on late 60s pop/rock albums, but it´s not so different from the experiments of other contemparies that it´s a standout album from that time.

It´s a well produced, very well performed, and cleverly composed light psychadelic pop/rock album though and it could well apppeal to a lot of listeners, who enjoy mellow and slightly psychadelic 60s pop/rock, with a few silly and quirky moments. It´s no wonder the band didn´t experience major commercial success with the release of this album though, as it probably was too mellow and pop oriented for the rock audience and maybe a bit too odd for the pop audience. Personally I find it a nice relaxing listen, which can be used for both background listening, but also for more in-depth listening sessions (there are definitely enough lefturn ideas for that). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.