Customer Rating :
List Price : $9.98 new Price : $3.71
List Price : $9.98 new Price : $3.71
we have pleased to offer you to Gentle Giant Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful 
The Mighty Gentle Giant, August 24, 2003 By This review is from: Gentle Giant (Audio CD) What do you get when you cross the madrigal, folk-rock of Jethro Tull with the avant-garde, experimental leanings of King Crimson, and you add a dash of classical influences for extra measure? You get Gentle Giant. Always sitting next to Genesis in the music store bins, but never achieving the massive success of Genesis or other well-known progressive rock groups, Gentle Giant were certainly an acquired taste, but for the progressive rock fan who's open to the band's complex time signatures, arrangements, and vocal harmonising, there is great music aplenty to be found in their work, as the band recorded 11 studio albums (plus one live album) between 1970 & 1980. The group, led by vocalist Derek Schulman & keyboardist Kerry Minnear, were a terrific progressive rock outfit that deserved much bigger success than what they got. They never rose above cult status (and they're one of the few progressive bands to never make a comeback, either in the 1990's or now), but their... Read more
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful 
An impressive debut, promising much, August 18, 2000 By This review is from: Gentle Giant (Audio CD) What would you think of a band that has three different lead vocalists, plays up to 30 different musical instruments (not only in the studio but live on stage!), and mixes elements of blues, jazz, Baroque, rock, and madrigals in its compositions?Gentle Giant was that band. A challenging quintet that put out 11 studio albums and one double live between 1969 and 1980, the Giant developed a considerable following on the European continent, and fanatical but small fan bases in the U.S. and their native Britain.
This was their auspicious debut. A bit rough around the edges, it features many of the distinctive styles that would coalesce and blossom so impressively on their fourth through eighth albums in the mid 1970s: cello and multi-tracked violin under a bittersweet ballad with a jazzy vibes solo ("Funny Ways"), heavy blues rock with delicate Baroque-style bridges on keyboard and recorders ("Why Not?" which resembles the later "Peel the... Read more
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful Nice debut from one of prog rock's greats, October 30, 2003 By This review is from: Gentle Giant (Audio CD) You can think of Gentle Giant's 1970 debut like you can Genesis' Trespass or the first two albums of Yes: just dipping their feet in the waters of the prog world, with a sound maybe not totally living up to their full potential, but definately worth having, after you get a few of their following albums. Prior to Gentle Giant, the Shulman brothers (Phil, Ray, and Derek) were in a band called Simon Dupree & the Big Sound. Of course there was no one named Simon Dupree (Simon was actually Derek Shulman). They released an album in 1967 called Without Reservation and had a hit with "Kites". Being from 1967, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't expect much of that GG sound here. As I hadn't heard that album, I'm sure it's more of a historical curiosity. Of course the Shulman brothers wanted to pursue something more ambitious (especially after King Crimson gave us In the Court of the Crimson King), and formed a band with guitarist Gary Green, keyboardist/vocalist Kerry Minnear, and drummer Martin... Read more
› See all 23 customer reviews...
| 15 of 15 people found the following review helpful The Mighty Gentle Giant, By This review is from: Gentle Giant (Audio CD) What do you get when you cross the madrigal, folk-rock of Jethro Tull with the avant-garde, experimental leanings of King Crimson, and you add a dash of classical influences for extra measure? You get Gentle Giant. Always sitting next to Genesis in the music store bins, but never achieving the massive success of Genesis or other well-known progressive rock groups, Gentle Giant were certainly an acquired taste, but for the progressive rock fan who's open to the band's complex time signatures, arrangements, and vocal harmonising, there is great music aplenty to be found in their work, as the band recorded 11 studio albums (plus one live album) between 1970 & 1980. The group, led by vocalist Derek Schulman & keyboardist Kerry Minnear, were a terrific progressive rock outfit that deserved much bigger success than what they got. They never rose above cult status (and they're one of the few progressive bands to never make a comeback, either in the 1990's or now), but their... Read more 15 of 16 people found the following review helpful An impressive debut, promising much, By This review is from: Gentle Giant (Audio CD) What would you think of a band that has three different lead vocalists, plays up to 30 different musical instruments (not only in the studio but live on stage!), and mixes elements of blues, jazz, Baroque, rock, and madrigals in its compositions?Gentle Giant was that band. A challenging quintet that put out 11 studio albums and one double live between 1969 and 1980, the Giant developed a considerable following on the European continent, and fanatical but small fan bases in the U.S. and their native Britain. This was their auspicious debut. A bit rough around the edges, it features many of the distinctive styles that would coalesce and blossom so impressively on their fourth through eighth albums in the mid 1970s: cello and multi-tracked violin under a bittersweet ballad with a jazzy vibes solo ("Funny Ways"), heavy blues rock with delicate Baroque-style bridges on keyboard and recorders ("Why Not?" which resembles the later "Peel the... Read more 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful Nice debut from one of prog rock's greats, By This review is from: Gentle Giant (Audio CD) You can think of Gentle Giant's 1970 debut like you can Genesis' Trespass or the first two albums of Yes: just dipping their feet in the waters of the prog world, with a sound maybe not totally living up to their full potential, but definately worth having, after you get a few of their following albums. Prior to Gentle Giant, the Shulman brothers (Phil, Ray, and Derek) were in a band called Simon Dupree & the Big Sound. Of course there was no one named Simon Dupree (Simon was actually Derek Shulman). They released an album in 1967 called Without Reservation and had a hit with "Kites". Being from 1967, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't expect much of that GG sound here. As I hadn't heard that album, I'm sure it's more of a historical curiosity. Of course the Shulman brothers wanted to pursue something more ambitious (especially after King Crimson gave us In the Court of the Crimson King), and formed a band with guitarist Gary Green, keyboardist/vocalist Kerry Minnear, and drummer Martin... Read more |
› See all 23 customer reviews...
No comments:
Post a Comment