HiRez Poll Gentle Giant - THREE PIECE SUITE [Blu-Ray Audio]

[DuncanS]

I was moving some discs about today wondering what I had in the pile I was in the mood to listen to, when buried at the bottom I saw the Gentle Giant, unopened !

Ok I'm a huge GG fan (but as far as I can remember I never managed to see them!), so its a 10 for the music. I think the surround mixes are great, really suits the music, so a 10. The sound quality is excellent better than the original stereo, just shows what you can do with ancient multi-tracks, a 10. So as if by magic that adds up to a solid 11

 

[edisonbaggins]

So as if by magic that adds up to a solid 11

I counted 30!

 

[DuncanS]

I ran out of fingers!

I counted 30!

 

[sjcorne]

It's a 9 from me. Not a big GG fan (I'd actually never heard of them before I joined the forum ), but this is a stellar surround release. It's amazing how much material they've included on the Blu-Ray for such a low price. As others have said, it'd be fantastic to see similar releases from other groups with missing multitrack situations (XTC, Steely Dan, Styx, etc).

Musically, I'm finding this to be generally less of a challenging listen than The Power & The Glory. So far, my favorites are the side 2 tracks from the debut album: "Nothing At All" has lovely vocal harmonies spread around the room (and an epic swirling drum solo!), and "Why Not?" is a great rock number with awesome guitar work. Though it's not the most accessible material out there, this music is perfectly suited for surround mixing and SW has totally delivered with one of his most active mixes to date.

As with TP&G, the animations that play along with the songs are really cool and add a fun visual element to the listening experience.

"Nothing At All":


"Why Not?":

 

[himey]

It's a 9 from me. Not a big GG fan (I'd actually never heard of them before I joined the forum ), but this is a really cool release. It's amazing how much material they've included on the Blu-Ray for such a low price. As others have said, it'd be fantastic to see similar releases from other groups with missing multitrack situations (XTC, Steely Dan, Styx, etc).

Musically, I'm finding this to be generally less of a challenging listen than The Power & The Glory. So far, my favorites are the side 2 tracks from the debut album: "Nothing At All" has lovely vocal harmonies spread around the room (and an epic swirling drum solo!), and "Why Not?" is a great rock number with awesome guitar work. Though it's not the most accessible material out there, this music is perfectly suited for surround mixing and SW has totally delivered with one of his most active mixes to date.

As with TP&G, the animations that play along with the songs are really cool and add a fun visual element to the listening experience.

"Nothing At All":
View attachment 41815

"Why Not?":
View attachment 41817

I had exactly the same experience with both the band AND this album...

 

[SmcAustin]

I give it a 9. The surround is entertaining (let me echo the praise for the swirling phasey drums) and the mix makes the polyphony even clearer. The music is new to me; if you like this you'll probably like Chris Squire's solo album, too.

The original recording isn't perfect but serves the music. My Marantz NR1402 freaked out on the DTS-HD layer after a few tracks so I'm listening to LPCM. The package is a great value with the inclusion of GG's first three lps as well as a stereo cd of the new mix.

 

[artwwweb]

I've been compiling the tracks into album order, inserting 5.1 when possible. It made me realise that although more than half of the tracks are stereo-only (12 out of 22) there is actually more surround content (1.02.10 in 5.1 and 53.42 in stereo.)

 

[riskylogic]

I've been compiling the tracks into album order, inserting 5.1 when possible. It made me realise that although more than half of the tracks are stereo-only (12 out of 22) there is actually more surround content (1.02.10 in 5.1 and 53.42 in stereo.)

I did that for Three Friends only - 2/3 of the album is 5.1. However, the songs don't segue correctly.

 

[JediJoker]

Finally got around to this one after the first album from the box set. In a word: glorious!

Mix: Interestingly, the three tracks from the first album are some of my least favorite mixes on that Blu-ray and this one alike, although "Nothing At All" and "Why Not?" do have their moments. The rest, however, are slam-dunks. "Pantagruel's Nativity" gave me chills. The dainty fugue-like sections of "The House, The Steet, The Room" are spread beautifully around the surround field. "Schooldays" starts off with vibes front left and guitar rear right, so you know you're in for a treat. "Peel The Paint" rocks even harder than in stereo, helped by improved dynamic contrast during the crescendos of the opening, quieter section. The "Mister Class and Quality?/Three Friends" finale is appropriately exciting, bombastic, and room-filling. The bonus "Freedom's Child"—while a decidedly less complex and inferior song to anything else on this compilation—is a surprisingly clean and discrete mix, easily outshining the three first album mixes. 2.

Fidelity: As I addressed in my Gentle Giant review, the fidelity of that album is neither great nor terrible, and the three tracks here are exactly the same. The tracks from Acquiring The Taste and Three Friends, however, have generally excellent fidelity. The one thing that stood out to me was the sibilance of the group vocals on "Three Friends," which I don't recall from the original mix. I have a feeling it was a choice by Steven Wilson to improve the intelligibility of the lyrics over the loud, thick instrumental. "Freedom's Child," while not as hi-fi as the preceding six tracks, is at least as decent as the tracks from the first album (if not, somehow, slightly better). 2.

Content: It's a real shame that the original multitracks for so much of these first three albums are lost (probably forever). At least the first album multis were transferred to (standard res) digital around the time Under Construction was compiled; understandable that whoever in the band once knew forgot about that, but strange that they apparently neglected to contact Dan Bornemark when searching for these multis this time around. Regardless, I'm thankful they decided to move forward and opt for a compilation, as Acquiring The Taste and Three Friends contain some of my favorite Gentle Giant music, a portion of which is represented here with fabulous surround mixes. The accompanying videos are a nice bonus, and in the case of "The House, The Street, The Room" and "Peel The Paint," quite well done and entertaining! 3.

Packaging: In contrast to the first album, which is currently confined to a big box, this is thankfully an affordable standalone CD/Blu-ray release. It's housed in a nice digipak complete with an essay/interview from one of the best in the business: Anil Prassad. The "remixed" sleeve art is... Questionable, but gets the job done while making a cheeky visual joke. 1.

TOTAL: 8

 

[NYMo]

Beautiful music by a fantastic band with a beautiful mix from Steven ..10 !