EXPERIENCE

Gentle Giant played music far beyond the scope of an ordinary progressive rock band. In particular, the extremely complex four part vocal arrangements gave to the band their unique and unusual musical character, with each part functioning independently rather than forming simple harmonies. By the other hand, the instrumental parts were extremely complex, often featuring interlocking musical parts, often in odd meters, all backed by a very solid drum work. Kerry Minnear's complex and beautiful arrangements featured many musical elements present on both, the medieval polyphony and the twentieth century composition. Cello, violin, recorder, saxophone and vibraphone, all handled by the band's members, figure prominently in the musical arrangements in addition to Minnear's keyboards.

"Experience" is one of the many Gentle Giant's live albums and that was released in 2002. Even thought there are many versions of live recordings the band has released, each new live version is always very interesting bringing to us some amazing moments. And "Experience" isn't an exception. This is a short live album with about 45 minutes. The booklet has no details about the recording date and place, but the material is almost the same as their other live album called "King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents", released in 1998. In reality, it features the same tracks but in a different order.

"Experience" has only seven tracks. The first track "Knots" is a live version of a song released on their fourth studio album "Octopus". The second track "Proclamation" is a live version of a song released on their sixth studio album "The Power And The Glory". The third track "Experience" is a live version of a song released on their fifth studio album "In A Glass House". The fourth track "Funny Ways" is a live version of a song released on their eponymous debut studio album "Gentle Giant". The fifth track "The Advent Of Panurge" is also a live version of a song released on their fourth studio album "Octopus". The sixth track "So Sincere" is also a live version of a song released on their sixth studio album "The Power And The Glory". The seventh and last track "The Runaway" is also a live version of a song released on their fifth studio album "In A Glass House".

This live concert captures Gentle Giant at the top of their form and at the peak of their fame in the USA. As I mentioned above, the track list includes "Proclamation" and "So Sincere" from "The Power And The Glory", "The Runaway" and "Experience" from "In A Glass House", "Funny Ways" from their first album and "Knots" and "The Advent Of Panurge" from "Octopus", all performed in pretty intense fashion on stage. Anyway, everything on this release is available on the 1977 Gentle Giant's live release, "Playing The Fool". But, this isn't to say that if you have already "Playing The Fool", you should not get this release. Although the live album, "Playing The Fool" is a more comprehensive package, this single album is a welcome addition to peg the strengths of the band as they continued to advance and perfect their live instrumental dexterity unmatched in rock. The band's sound surges forth alternately in massive sheets and elegant little percussive flourishes and forays into classical guitar. The seven songs seem paltry next to "Playing The Fool", but the band plays with great spirit, actually manic energy, they played pretty ferociously here, precisely two years earlier in the band's history. It's true that "Experience" presents Gentle Giant with a live performance that comes in just under 45 minutes. Surely this is very short for a CD release, but perfect for a vinyl release if it had been released in the 70's or in the 80's. As in addition, some exhaustive liner notes written by John Bungey characterize the band near to their zenith.

Conclusion: As I wrote before, "Experience" is a live album with the same live tracks of "King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents", but with a new and different musical alignment. However, for me is totally irrelevant the difference of the musical alignments on both albums. I sincerely like of both. "Experience" is, without any doubt, a great live concert with an excellent sound quality and a beautiful live ambience. I really think, that despite the quality of the live show on "Playing The Fool" be better than the live show on "Experience", the sound quality is much better on "Experience". The selection of tracks is absolutely irreproachable. However, all tracks on their first six studio albums are so great that is indifferent the choice of them. All those albums are masterpieces or very close to it. However, not all of those albums were represented here. So, on "Experience", there are no tracks from their second studio album "Acquiring The Taste" and no tracks from their third studio album "Three Friends". So, "Gentle Giant" has only one track "Funny Ways", "Octopus" has two tracks "Knots" and "The Advent Of Panurge", "In A Glass House" has also two tracks "Experience" and "The Runway" and "The Power And The Glory" has once more two tracks "Proclamation" and "So Sincere". So, we can say that "Playing The Fool" is a better release than "Experience" is. However, the new musical arrangements on "Experience" are enough different and equal excellent, which make of it a worthwhile live compilation to be checked.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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