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I've had Octopus for a while, and enjoy it a fair bit whenever I remember to put it on, but it hasn't quite clicked with me yet.
It's a lovely album! I think both me and Comus clicked with the album after initially listening to it and then suffering from earwigs from it later on - which of course can only be remedied by playing the album more. It don't think all of it's appeal is immediately appearant, but after a couple of spins, something might happen. Interestingly, Wikipedia says this :
Quote:
From the start, Gentle Giant was a particularly flexible band due to the exceptionally broad musical skills of its members. One Gentle Giant album listed a total of forty-six instruments in the musician credits, all of which had been played by group members, and five members of the band sang.
.. yet it does not say which album it is. It might be Octopus, though, at least it has 5 members singing on it.
Some old members of Gentle Giant are still playing concerts by the way. Gary Green and Malcolm Mortimore (drummer on "Three Friends") formed the band Rentle Giant which they played with until they also picked up old Kerry Minnear and changed name to Three Friends. They play old Gentle Giant songs, though sadly still without the Shulman brothers.
To get some vids rollin', here's their song "Funny Ways" from their debut!
My second favorite group of all time, sandwiched right there between King Crimson and Yes.
As great as Octopus and some of their later works are though, I consider their debut and Acquiring The Taste to be special due to the somewhat bluesy quality they have on some of their tracks, which was later shed in favor of a more medieval approach.
As great as Octopus and some of their later works are though, I consider their debut and Acquiring The Taste to be special due to the somewhat bluesy quality they have on some of their tracks, which was later shed in favor of a more medieval approach.
I'm playing the debut now for the first time and noticed that it's more bluesy or maybe even more straight-forward than the later stuff that was more medieval, as you said...though I still hear some of that here ("Isn't It Quiet and Cold" is on now). The oldest one I'd heard up till now was Octopus.
Hybrid Mode