INTERVIEW

After the wonderful "Free hand" album, Gentle Giant comes back with this jewel! WOW! This record is VERY lively and addictive! If you like "Free Hand", then chances that you like this one are high. First of all Gary Green put some light distortion on his electric guitar, and Kerry Minnear exaggerated it on his now VERY dirty organ. The 2 instruments still converse in a very original and extravagant way. Gary Green tries here many sound effects on his guitar: he is always perfectly timed with the rest of the music. The patterns here are slightly more repetitive than usual, but it is not irritating at all. John Weathers plays funny melodic percussions. The musicians play relentlessly. "Design" is a vocal performance, a bit less good than the ones on "Free hand", still exploring canon textures. "Another show" is a boosted clavinet and dirty organ oriented track, where Gary Green accurately inserts his delightful electric guitar notes: with the combination of crazy percussions and elaborated bass, this track is among their most loaded one. "Empty city" is absolutely a jewel: Kerry Minnear decided to float here: it is a total success: he uses a combination of delicate and subtle floating modern synth and a tender Fender Rhodes, which accompany a sophisticated and elegant acoustic guitar: one word: subtlelty! "Timing" is a loud and prog hard rock track: Gary Green plays a visceral hard rock guitar solo here, and the electric violin sounds like Jean Luc Ponty's one; there is also the VERY dirty organ which enhances the hard rock dimension. "I lost my head" is divided into 2 parts: the first one is an excellent combination of clavinet, unidentified acoustic string instrument and vocals; the second parts has a very catchy prog hard rock mood. This album is definitely more hard rock than "Free Hand".

Rating: 4.5/5