Search - Gentle Giant :: In Glass House

Review for the Alucard 2010 reissue-"In a Glass House" sound

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 02/08/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gentle Giant survived losing a key member (Phil Shulman the oldest of the Shulman brothers in the band) after "Octopus" and went on to pull together making one of their most challenging sounding albums to date. "In A Glass House"demonstrated that the band could rise from the ashes and floursih.



First up--some comparisons. This version on Alcuard sounds less harsh than either the first Alucard and the DRT. The 2005 DRT actually sounded harsher to my ears (your mileage may vary on this particular point)than the 2002 edition. Detail was better for both of those editions than previous ones as well as clarity which you can chalk up to the master tapes or digital copies being used for both of these. There is limiting applied as well as some denoising (at the request of the band) but it isn't as obtrusive as I thought it would be. The best comparison I can think of is that this shares a lot of assets and drawbacks as The Beatles remasters.



Band bassist Ray Shulman and mastering engineer Fred Kervorkian went back to the original 1/4 master tapes to assemble this edition. Be aware that while this sounds better than either of those previous editions with a smoother sound (at least to my ears), some selective band compression was applied. I should note that it was fairly tastefully done and this doesn't have the overwhelming bad qualities of most modern remasters. The reason that Kervorkian used the selective band compression was to give the album a slightly more "modern" sound and he does succeed at doing this without betraying the overall sonic quality of the album. Dynamic range is comparable to the 2002 edition of this album.



There are a few drawbacks. The 2002 had two live bonus tracks and while they weren't essential to enjoy the album for those who didn't see the band in their prime these two tracks gave a nice hint as to how they sounded. The two live tracks (which are listed here as being part of this remaster at Amazon.com) are NOT part of the Alucard edition. The single bonus live track which was carried over from the 2002 edition for the DRT is NOT included here either.



You get the original album, the lyrics and the album graphics reproduced for this edition. That's it. The 3D style cover is not faithfully reproduced here if that matters to you.



This IS one of Gentle Giant's finest most challenging and complex albums yet it remains melodic and creative. The upside to this remaster is that the 1/4 master tapes were used to create this and that it sounds pretty good overall balancing the sound of the orignal album and a more "modern" sound.



The drawbacks are that we don't have the two bonus tracks. Detail and clarity are better here (to my ears) than some previous editions and because of the use of selective band compression as well as some of the e.q. choices, there some additional details buried in the mix that are evident on this edition.



Recommended although your mileage may vary."

Fantastic

Marco Antonio Olivo | São Paulo,SP Brazil | 03/23/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In my opinion the "in a Glass House " is one the best album from Gentle Giant"