Search - Gentle Giant :: Edge of Twilight/Best of

NICE COMPILATION

04/21/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Editorial review has been re-written from the sticker to this Polygram 2CD compilation released only in Europe. And the sticker has a mistake. Nothing previously unreleased ! This is a comprehensive compilation (digitally remastered) where each of their original albums released between 1970 - 1975 represented more than a half of each. All 31 songs were previously available on CD. That's almost all any prog rock fan need to know about this excellent British band with the exception of die-hard fans. But I had to take one star off only because not a single track from their 1974 IN A GLASS HOUSE album is here. And IN A GLASS HOUSE still remains the only GG original album unavailable on CD due to copyrights problems but will be soon released. Buy this plus IN A GLASS HOUSE once it will arrive and enjoy ! It contains only STUDIO recordings and in my opinion this is by far better than their live recordings."

EDGE OF MOTT

Kim Fletcher | Pattaya, Chonburi Thailand | 10/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gentle Giant were one of the first bands to manage to successfully merge medieval madrigals with snippets of classics into some of the most unique sounding progressive rock.
They created a style of almost traditional sounding early English music that seemed to hop around, taking in all their influences, from verse to chorus. Gentle Giant have been labeled as one of the most complex groups of any age.
?In Britain it?s not been low profile, it?s been no profile?, that?s how Derek Shulman once summarized the career of Gentle Giant, one of progressive rocks best kept secrets. There is no other band quite like Gentle Giant, held in the highest esteem by their fanatical fans, but meaning little to all else.
What accounts for this strange inconsistency? When the Shulman brothers, Derek, Ray & Phil decided to reinvent themselves after an unsatisfying two hit career as ?Simon Dupree & The Big Sound? (their biggest success coming with 1967; U.K. top ten hit ?Kites?) as the nucleus of ?Gentle Giant?, whilst adding the superb Gary Green on lead guitar & the classically trained keyboard player Kerry Minnear (drummers came & went during the first four albums)
Vowing to go their own way, they signed with the prestigious vertigo label, home of many great progressive rock outfits of the era.
They decided to concentrate on compositional quality, rather than use clichés & flashiness to please the masses. As a result they created a strange & wonderful music that may not appeal immediately to the ear, but like fine wine, sits in the soul & slowly ferments into something pleasureful. This turned away potential fans who did not have the time to listen closely.
?Edge of Twilight is a double C.D collection concentrating mainly on their first four C.D?s of uneasy listening which basically invited the listener to ?Take us or leave us ? something that was certain to get up the rock presses collective nose.
That they remained an underground cult band for most of their eleven year career from 1969 ? 1980 was due to the antipathy of the music press which steadfastly refused to grant them column inches despite their burgeoning reputation at fan level.
The secret of Gentle Giant longevity is in the variety, depth & beauty of the music. Their influences spanned rock, jazz, blues, renaissance, 20th century classic music, & the just plain outright bizarre. Between them they played over 30 instruments, even in their live shows, adding strings, brass, woodwinds harpsichord, & homemade percussion to the usual rock line up. All band members sang. (which is finely shown on the song ?Knots?, where their voices is all they use forsaking all instruments) with lead vocals mainly shared between Derek for the hard rock songs, Kerry for the ballads, & Phil for the inbetweenies.
Of the four albums this compilation brings together ?Gentle Giant? was a strong debut album, tinged with elements of blues & 1960?s British soul, the music is strikingly original ranging from rock ensemble to string quintet. ?Acquiring The Taste? was perhaps Gentle Giants most experimental album. The liner notes state that the bands goal was to ?expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music? which sounds a little pretentious now in 2001.
?Three Friends? encompasses many styles as it follows the lives of three school friends, and was Gentle Giants first concept album, the title track, in my opinion represents their most beautiful work. ?Octopus is a harder rocking album (with the addition of hard bashing drummer John Weathers) the many stand-out tracks on this album, make it a favorite of most fans.
?Edge Of Twilight? gives you over two & a half hours of Gentle Giants unique sound, so is excellent value, especially with the excellent 16 page booklet that comes with it. (...)
Mott the Dog."

Some of the Best of One of the Best Bands Ever

B. Niedt | Cherry Hill, NJ United States | 06/03/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Brit prog-rock outfit from the 1970s was unique in their blending of rock, jazz and classical influences, with incredible multi-instrumental talent, tight (even madrigal) vocal harmonies, literate lyrics (how many rock bands have taken their inspiration from Rabelais and R.D. Laing?), and mind-bending creativity with melody and time changes. This collection is about the best compendium so far of their earlier, and better, work. It includes substantial chunks of their first four albums ("Gentle Giant", "Acquiring the Taste", "Three Friends" and "Octopus") and all of their sixth album (and their closest to a commercial success), "The Power and the Glory". For licensing reasons, their fifth release, "In a Glass House", was not included, which is a pity because it is probably their greatest album. But this collection is rich with their best work. It's not a chronological collection, but it is very well remastered. Gentle Giant's creative peak began with "Octopus"? and continued through their eighth album, "Interview" (an underrated album, I think, even among GG fans). After that is was, unfortunately, a downhill slide. So this is what you do: buy this collection and "In a Glass House," and after that the 2-on-1 CD release "Free Hand/Interview". Then you will have all the Gentle Giant you really need."