Stick Men - Roppongi

This 2-CD set sees Stick Men back at the land of the rising sun again which they were on tour this year at the time promoting their new album, Prog Noir. This is the second time they brought along a member of King Crimson. They did that with violinist David Cross on the Midori album, this year they brought Saxophonist and flautist, Mel Collins to the forefront for those performances. These were two complete shows they did recorded live on February 21, 2017 in Tokyo at the Billboard.

It’s almost as if you are going back for another round with Stick Men. Since I have a love of King Crimson’s music, Stick Men are now one of favorite bands since last year after discovering them on Sid Smith’s Podcasts from the Yellow Room. Tony Levin, Markus Reuter, and Pat Mastelotto are like a band of brothers working together as a team.

There are so many moments on Roppongi I wish I could describe on third or fourth listen, but it’s a trip to listen more of the incredible band who not only are bringing the sounds of Crimson and Robert Fripp as he described it as a Way of Doing things, but bringing in new material also. In an interview that is published right now by Anil Prasad of Innerviews: Music Without Borders, Pat mentioned they want to move forward and write their own material.

There’s a huge amount of miles for Stick Men he said that wants to be together both on and offstage and show how much has depend in their relationship between all three of them. I think in my opinion, it would be very interesting to see something like that and not just play the music of Crimson, but bringing in some new material to see if they appreciate it or not.

But when you listen to these amazing live performances in Tokyo, you can feel the vibrations of not just Crimson’s music, but their own sound, their own music, and the future. And imagine yourself being in the audience just in awe of these amazing men carrying the grocery bags they bring to the Mighty Thor hammer with them. There are of course the classics including Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part II and the snarling intensive journey into the tidal waves whilst going into the outer limits on Sailor’s Tale.

But Mel Collins on the title track, his flute and sax brings you into a journey of relaxation into the rivers and forests that show a light of hope. He gives the audience a hypnotic texture to show where he and Stick Men are about to take them into. On the second show of the second CD, Prog Noir is a dangerous live version.

This is a much better version that’s better than the studio version. And as I’ve mentioned in my review of the album last year, Stick Men carry the nod of David Bowie’s Outside-era. Now I’ll admit this, Tony Levin is not a great singer, but he does a good job describing the spiritual aspects as Mel comes back into the center stage with Shiro.

He takes his sax by bringing some echoing reverb effects and walking on a dangerous tightrope for an electronic nightmare with bits of a sonic voyage. It’s jazzy, avant-garde, and up to know when the brick walls collapse to increase the heat gage and explode at any second. Level 5 where I almost heard the squeaky mice effect and dooming brutal forces by making sure that the battle is ready to begin. It has the nightmare scenarios, goosebumps, and hitting you right in the stomach as Markus raises the temperature up to 800 degrees. Stick Men never, ever does me wrong. 

And with Roppongi which translates to Six Trees, it shows the band even more since Midori.

While it shows another second round of performances of the two shows they did in Japan in February of this year, they bring the sinister, ominous, terrifying, and hidden sounds that creep up behind you. So get ready to embark on another adventure with Stick Men’s music for the mind-blowing sounds of Roppongi.

Wingfield Reuter Sirkis - Lighthouse

I don’t see too much between The Stone House and Lighthouse which is released on the MoonJune label this year. I always consider them in my opinion to be both Volume One (The Stone House) and Volume Two (Lighthouse), but that’s just me. The album was recorded last year also in February at La Casa Murada Studios which is the same place The Stone House was recorded. Listening to Lighthouse, is like a flaming fire that grows rapidly intense ready to erupt at any second.

This one is different. Bassist Yaron Stavi is not on here, but it’s a trio. Which considers Mark Wingfield, Markus Reuter, and Asaf Sirkis. This isn’t just a Jazz album, but more of a futuristic approach of the Progressive Rock genre with a Post-Rock vibe of the 22^nd century set in a Blade Runner-sque dystopian wasteland. For me, this is another fresh intensive release I’ve listened to.

The moment when I put my headphones on, I knew I was about to embark on something quite mysterious and hypnotic right from the notes that Wingfield and Reuter do. I got to give MoonJune Records a huge amount of credit for making me discover these amazing musicians. Mark working with Yaron on Proof of Light, and him working with Kevin Kastning while Markus with Stick Men and Sonar, Lighthouse is album that will make you look at a crystal ball to see what the 22^nd century will look like.

When you listen to the 14-minute epic Ghost Light, you can imagine the ambient/atmosphere approaches of a deserted hotel that is in complete rubble. Markus’ touch guitar creates these chilling moments of someone lurking behind the hotel that were once beautiful turned into ashes. You can hear echoes of Klaus Schulze’s Irrlicht and King Crimson’s THRAK coming to mind.

Wingfield creates some of the most exotic landscapes on his guitar which have a Floydian tribe nearing the end of a shuttle ready to head back to Rick Deckard’s apartment. Now Asaf Sirkis’ drumming like a running man going across the landscape creating these intense grooves of a striking powder keg waiting to explode at any second with Magnetic.

He can go through those doors one-by-one with his drum kit as they open frantically to allow him to go in by welcoming him with open arms and go beyond the kit. The opener, Zinc begins by going into a travel towards the Sahara desert as the music goes into a middle-eastern King Crimson Red-era vibe thanks to both Wingfield and Reuter’s dooming notes and leading towards the dangerous tombs and seeing what lies ahead.

But I love how Wingfield creates a discovery on his guitar to letting the listener know that while all hope is lost, there is a chance of surviving. He’s making the instrument fight back tears on A Hand in the Dark. Mark is very good at this. He creates this scenery which is mysterious and spooky at the same time and the issue of a struggle to be free is a challenge.

Then, there is this chaotic tension in the last 3-minutes of the composition as he and Asaf blend in to getting out of the deep dark caves in the river and hoping to be back on the surface and for the first time seeing a full bright sun to come. This has been my second time listening to Lighthouse.

And I have to say I was very impressed from the pieces that the trio did. Wingfield, Reuter, and Sirkis brought some amazing and incredible yet haunting melodies and improvisations that is on here. It’s intense, in your face, chilling, and a dangerous adventure that shows that this experience can be worth exploring, but with a gigantic challenge to be prepared for. And it's not going to be easy.

Gilad Atzmon And The Orient House Ensemble - The Spirit of Trane

It’s been 50 years since we lost one of the influential and inspiration icons of the history of Jazz. And it would have been his 91^st birthday if he were still here creating more musical landscapes and pushing the envelope for the amazing late great, John Coltrane. He once described music as the spiritual expression of who he was. Faith, knowledge, and being. Gilad Atzmon and the Orient House Ensemble want to bring the tribute of Trane’s music by carrying his flaming torch and making it grow and making sure it doesn’t burn out.

Released on the Fanfare Jazz label, The Spirit of Trane was recorded in two days at Eastcote Studios in London of December last year. You can feel Trane’s presence between the Orient House Ensemble. To fill in for Chris Higginbottom, Italian drummer Enzo Zirilli who appeared on the Talinka album, worked with Antonio Forcione, Sarah Gillepsie, and Vittorio De Scalzi of Italian Progressive Rock group, New Trolls, comes into the forefront.

Listening to this album as I’ve mentioned before, Coltrane’s spirit fills the studio and on the album to fill in the pieces of the puzzle that match well into his work. And the six centerpieces on here, you might be prepare to bring some Kleenex with you on them. On the opener, In a Sentimental Mood, Frank Harrison’s opening classical piano brings to mind a lullaby introduction before Atzmon sends a smoothing relaxing atmosphere on his Tenor Sax to give the Sun a chance to rise up for a new morning.

The Sigamos String Quartet help out by reminiscing the new dawn and new day by nodding to the late great Henry Mancini with a late ‘50s/early ‘60s sound on the string section. Yaron’s double bass is walking on a fresh warm salt watery beach to get a glimpse of the first sign of a rainbow. And near the end, the sax is going over the area as the band delve into A Love Supreme nod.

With Minor Thing, the ensemble does a wonderful crescendo nod to the 1965 classic introduction of Acknowledgement (Part 1). It almost sounds very close to a continuation as if Atzmon wants the opening track to be moving forward to find the inner self by knowing who you really are. There at times he brings to mind the essence of not just Coltrane’s work, but the late great Elton Dean of the Soft Machine when he hits those high notes on his sax.

The string quartet come back for another beautiful lushful morning introduction of Soul Eyes. You can close your eyes and imagine being in a black-and-white film in the streets of Paris, France set in the late ‘50s/early ‘60s as if they were directed by both Louis Malle and Jean-Luc Godard. This piece of music has this setting of a scenario like something straight out of a documentary-sque feel of Paris in the night time.

I got this nod in which the Orient House Ensemble are not only paying a nod to the master but the essence of the music of Wes Montgomery also. Meanwhile, the band take you into an amazing 5-minute ride as they take on Trane’s finest work, Blue Train. Atzmon and Stavi follow each other as Gilad blares out incredible improvisations with some intense solos and making sure it would get John’s gigantic stamp of approval.

Frank’s Piano and Enzo’s drumming do this incredible duel while Frank really goes into the tunnels and seeing where his hands take him. Enzo’s drumming is not just staggering, but he around the area by a complete circle showing his influential touches between Philly Joe Jones and Elvin Jones.

Naima is a romantic ballad which appeared in Coltrane’s fifth studio album released in 1959 entitled, Giant Steps is named after his ex-wife Juanita Naima Grubbs. The string quartet and Gilad create this rich and exuberant beauty and making your heart tug at the exact moment to end of saying how much love of this person you want to be with for the rest of your life.

Then there is of course, Giant Steps. Here, this is a mid-slow walking take of the composition. Yaron Stavi does this ballad walking line on his double bass. He comes into the front of the stage to get a chance in the light and he goes into the styles of Paul Chambers and Charles Mingus and believe me, Yaron knocks it out every time whether he plays both electric and double-bass, he goes throughout those sections and knowing where his fingers on the string will hit next.

Say It (Over and Over Again) closes the album to give the listener a fond farewell as they head to the next bus stop to see where it will head next. Frank gives the nod to let everyone know it's to pack it in and head onboard the next station and see where The Orient House Ensemble will lead into next. Before Gilad's sax cries off into the night, the Bus drives into a new beginning also as the sun sets off into the west as Atzmon brings a wonderful romantic improvisation to close the curtains.

I’ve been an admirer of Coltrane’s music since re-discovering his work when I was in College twelve years ago, and with The Spirit of Trane, it’s one of the most emotional, beautiful, and touching tributes to the master that Gilad and the Orient House ensemble brings here. As he once said again about music, “I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of people.”

Pete Levin - Möbius

Pete Levin has been around performing and recording music along as a sought-after musician by recording both in the Jazz and Pop world from Paul Simon, The Brubeck Brothers, Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus, Annie Lennox, Judy Collins, and the late great Miles Davis. This year, he’s released his ninth studio album entitled, Möbius. The album was recorded live in the studio for two days as Pete captures the spirit and essence of Gil Evans.

Now I first became aware of Pete Levin after he and his younger brother Tony did the Levin Brothers album which was released three years ago on the Lazy Bones Recordings label and I was completely blown away how much the two brothers work well together not just as band members, but as a family by working one-on-one. Now with Möbius, Pete wrote eight original compositions and there are two covers which include one by Thelonious Monk and Tony Williams.

Not only Pete and Tony Levin are on the album, but it’s almost the who’s who that are on the album. You have guitarists Jeff Ciampa an Kal David (John Mayall), drummers Lenny White (Chick Corea) and Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, and Security Project), Erik Lawrence on Baritone Sax, Alex Foster on Tenor & Sorpano Sax, and Chris Pasin on Trumpet to name a few.

What Pete does on here, is to take his keyboards into unbelievable territories. Levin’s music is like walking on a different triangular section of the Rubik’s cube and it’s almost a trip to see where he, Tony and his band members go into those various sections of the doors that are ready to be opened with six highlights on here that are enduring and mind-blowing.

The opener, Promises begins with the Electric Piano going into a stereophonic mode going left and right then getting into the styles of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters-era meets Steely Dan’s Aja-era. The horn and sax section go into a workout mode plus some funk-rock rhythm guitars while Tony Levin channels a different perspective of the riff on Chameleon.

Pete then goes into the Rhodes city laying down some improvisational sun rising textures that makes it an excellent piece to start things off. Before the take of Monk’s I Mean You, Pete wishes Thelonious a happy 100^th birthday and gives him his regard and saying “Hi!” to Gil for him. There is this walking dance mid-beat tempo between the Clavinet and the Electric Keyboard before the Horns and Guitar do a melody that rises up and down.

Tony then walks fast as the sax’s do a solo improvisation to give Monk the appreciation he deserves. When you listen to I’m Falling, at first you think it sounds like a film score that this almost a nod to the golden-era of the 1970s Blaxploitation films as you can imagine Richard “Shaft” Roundtree walking into the next building and following the crime scene for the next batch of clues which he would consider his last case before retiring.

But then, the mood changes into a lukewarm evening for the sax going into a pin-drop momentum as Pasin’s trumpet sets the blare by giving a Miles-sque surrounding in the nighttime sky before dawn approaches. Then, the 10-minute title track starts with the synth notes going up and down the stairs.

Tony brings his upright bass and gives Pete a helping hand. The Rhodes, Sax, and Trumpet along with the guitars going into some essence of Allan Holdsworth and Richard Pinhas’ exercise. Instruments do a thunderous roar as they take part in the melody before Percussionist Nanny Assis creates this intense/dramatic duel between him and the drummers.

While Pete and the band members rise up, up, and up before the guitar does a little bit of feedback, Tony comes into play through the strings and go around, under, and in. The last few seconds come to a dooming end from the synth and it hits a “BLLAARP!” note. Their tribute to Tony Williams with his cover of There Comes a Time, Pete goes back into the driver’s seat of the electric piano and works out more of his magical moments to give a nod up to Tony Williams up in heaven.

I imagine there’s more walking alleyways that Pete gives the band heading into those halls for another adventure with a bluesy twist. But it’s the guitar and Tony’s bass sharing the same alleyway near the last two minutes on the melody share structure as it ends with him and Pete closing shop. But it’s Way Down Yonder where Pete brings everybody into a circle.

Everyone gets ready to drive down into the highway one last time to drive off into the sunset as they are back in 1972 of Herbie Hancock's golden-era, but with an interesting twist of the harmonica and jaw harp style done by Rob Paparozzi. Pete heads into the Organ and plays some Blues/Soul style on the instrument as if the recording was done inside a church and laying down the gospel.

Pasin meanwhile goes into a plunger trumpet mode and bringing to mind of the late ‘30s style of swing at the end. Not only it’s a closing number, but it shows that Pete and his teammates are having a whole lot of fun. While as I’ve mentioned this album was recorded in only two days, Möbius is not only Pete Levin’s finest, but he brings the entire house down.

It is a well solid release that made my ears go up of how much accomplishment this is on as they jammed, relaxed, and creating wonders to see what Pete Levin will think of next.

Talinka - Talinka

Supported by Robert Wyatt, Talinka is one of those releases that will make you tug your heart of beautiful, soft, and gentle releases that is very deep, distinct, and efficient that MoonJune Records have released. Back in August of 2015 in my review of Gilad Atzmon and the Orient House Ensemble’s The Whistle Blower, I once described Tali Atzmon’s vocals was a nod to Combustible Edison’s Miss Lily Banquette on the closing title-track which showed their sense of humor. Listening to Talinka, it’s different.

You can feel Tali’s presence on Talinka’s sole self-titled release as if she’s singing right behind you as if you are walking through a ghost town as the pin dropped at the exact moment. Her vocals reminisce of the late great Peggy Lee. The album is this combination between Jazz, Folk, Tango, and the Great American Songbook. There are moments that the music is haunting and ominous at times with a chilling atmosphere at times.

With the album cover in which Tali did the image for, it’s very much a nod to Black Sabbath’s sole self-titled debut release in 1970, alongside Tali’s vocals, it considers Jenny Bliss Bennett on Viola de Gamba, Violin, Flute, and Vocals; Frank Harris on Piano; Enzo Zirilli on Percussion; Yaron Stavi on Double Bass; and Gilad Atzmon on Bass Clarinet, Soprano Sax, and Accordion. He also produced the album as well.

The album was recorded last year at The Fish Factory Studio in London in November last year and mixed there also in December of that year. You can close your eyes and imagine it’s either 1939 or 1942 in the smoky nightclubs and it’s something straight out of the movies between Casablanca or Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy, Tali is hypnotizing the audience of her singing and it fascinates the crowd and giving her a big stamp of approval.

Not to mention the six highlights on here that just made listeners open the doors more and more opened than ever before. Invitation begins with this haunting introduction by Gilad’s bass clarinet followed by Stavi’s Brazilian bossa-nova bass line along with Jenny’s violin and Enzo’s brushes on the percussion. The accordion makes you walk along the sandy beaches in the Northwestern part of Brazil in a place called Bahia as the team follow Tali right behind her.

Losing Vision is a response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis that happened last year. Gilad’s bass clarinet and Jenny’s Viola de Gamba create this mourning loss as you can hear the cries and whispers and knowing the struggle of a cry for a change, is going to be a gigantic long and winding road. Gilad and Jenny make you walk into an empty street from an aftermath that just happened that was once peaceful, turned into rubble.

The chilling short instrumental Heimat is an eerie composition with crying vocalization and into the deep waters of classical-avant-garde jazz while the menacing tango vibrations of the Jazz standard, You Don’t Know What Love Is gives my arm-hairs go up at the right momentum as if they strike you like thunder crashing down towards the small little town with powerful notes.

When You Are Gone is a nod to Bali H’ai. It’s a sad and beautiful song that Tali does. You can close your eyes and imagine walking through a sad-and-lonely club of people who lost their loved ones through tragedy and sympathizing with what they had to go through and the struggle to move on, is hard and slow baby steps. The accordion, violin, and double bass set the scenario of what is happening.

The characterization of this person is coming to an end after what has happened to them. The music on here, I got this feeling that is this nod to perhaps one of the most amazing bands to come out of the Rock In Opposition movement thanks to Jenny’s improvisation on her violin, is a band called Univers Zero. And then there’s Baroque Bottom.

You have this soaring soprano sax and the flute delving into the bright clouds and hope there is a new day. The vocalizations set this characterization of a person at being at the lowest low, knowing as I’ve mentioned a second ago, there’s a new beginning and a new chapter for them.

Talinka’s self-titled release is a return to real good music and real Jazz music. For me, listening to this album, is like a breath of fresh air and knowing that there is some good music who want to keep the flaming fires of the genre of the sound of Jazz, Classical, Folk, and Tango alive and well. Talinka has done that. And I hope they will continue to do more in the years to come.

Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius - Guilty of Innocence

I’m new to the bandwagon when it comes to new bands and artists. And one of them has suddenly landed on my lap which is Joe Deninzon and Stratospheerius. They are a New York based band that formed 16 years ago and they have released their fifth studio album released on the Melodic Revolution Records label this year entitled, Guilty of Innocence. This is one of their frenzied and exaggerated releases I’ve listened from top to bottom and they’ve hit the erupt button in a big gigantic bang.

They’ve opened for artists such as Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre, Alex Skolnick of Testament, and Mickey Hart to name a few. While Joe’s vocal arrangements are brilliant, alongside his electric violin comparing to Curved Air’s Darryl Way, Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Jerry Goodman, and Frank Zappa alumni Jean-Luc Ponty, they take inspirations between Zappa, King Crimson, Yes, and Muse. Stratospheerius won the John Lennon International Songwriting Competition, The Musician’s Atlas, and the Independent Music Award.

Testament's Alex Skolnick, Renaissance’s Rave Tesar, and The Fringe’s Randy McStine appear on the album to lend Joe and the band, a helping hand to show support and knowing they’ve got their backs. Alongside Joe Deninzon, it considers; Aurelien Budynek on Guitar and Backing Vocals, Jamie Bishop on Bass and Backing Vocals, and Lucianna Padmore on Drums.

The five highlights on here are enduring and make you imagine as I’ve always say, “A movie inside your head.” Face has this essence of Gentle Giant’s Acquiring the Taste and Octopus-era on the introduction as the crashing waves hitting the sailing ships as Joe is almost the captain fighting the waves and thunderstorms hitting the boat as his bandmates make sure the ship is steady and try to make towards the surface and not plummet 5,000 fathoms below their sinking doom.

Their take of Muse’s Hysteria from their third studio album in 2003, Absolution is spot on. I love how they do this Spaghetti-Western nod to Ennio Morricone’s Man with No Name trilogy before it goes into interstellar. Jamie’s bass sets forward the space ship into the cosmos as Deninzon’s vocals honors Matt Bellamy with a nod to Frank Zappa thrown into the time signature mixes.

The spaghetti western comes back into the blender of adding the tension thanks to Lucianna’s drumming between Joe and Aurelien getting ready to draw their instruments as weapons in the hottest part of the afternoon of wah-wah violins and guitars for dueling riff at the O.K. Corral on a Game of Chicken while they head to the mothership with a funky groove of a reminiscing intro of David Bowie’s Stay with the Affluenza.

The lyrics deal with the issue on being betrayed and the real person who is doing the hurting is almost as if they are looking in the mirror to find out what kind of worst enemy or the monster they have finally become and knowing that their time is nearly up. Then, we come to the finale of the 12-minute epic, Soul Food.

It makes this jump to light-speed as the first six minutes of epic is part Supertramp’s Crime of the Century-era to Rush’s golden-era from 1975 to 1977. Alex takes center stage to lend Stratospheerius a helping hand as he takes the ship home back to Earth. Then the last five minutes becomes this classical, folky aftermath of coming home. It transforms into this piano concerto that Rave Tesar does that essence of Tony Banks at times.

It suddenly transforms into a rising melody with a nod to Queen II. The vocalizations near end is not only fantastic, but it’s almost as if they are cheering and supporting by throwing confetti for the heroes return for a job well done and then everything screeches at the last 30 seconds for this twist of thunderstorm and wind fade out.

Again, I’m new to Stratospheerius and Joe Deninzon’s music, but Guilty of Innocence is right in my alley. I have to say I was very impressed the moment I put the CD on my old portable CD player. It was like a breath of fresh air all over again and going back and finding out some of the bands and artists to watch out for rather than watch some fail on American Idol. Guilty of Innocence is not only great, but one of the most hectic and heart-stopping albums I’ve listened to.

Gentle Giant - Three Piece Suite

By now, you’re probably know for my love of Gentle Giant since 2002. With Steven Wilson handling the new mixes and 5.1 mix he’s done with The Power and the Glory back in 2014, Octopus in 2015, and now this year the release of the Three Piece Suite, it’s going to be quite a very interesting experience to discover these 10 tracks that cover the first three albums when Phil Shulman was in the band before departing to start a family after the release of their fourth album, Octopus.

The first three albums (Gentle Giant, Acquiring the Taste, and Three Friends) were originally released on the Vertigo label from 1970 to 1972 and the band formed out of the ashes of Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. The band wanted to move away from their pop/psychedelic sound into something that was complex, multi-part vocal arrangements, heavier, classical, and different time signatures.

The ten tracks came from the limited availability of the surviving multi-track tapes that Steven worked on by using Logic as the software and Universal Audio plug-ins while cleaning up the sound of bringing some clarity and information from the instrumental pieces that are on here. I’ve mentioned this many times, Steven is not trying to re-write history, but to honor and stay true to the original mixes as much as he can while bringing a different perspective on them.

Not everyone is going to like what he does on the classic albums on the 5.1 mixes, but it gives a sight on what was buried in those multi-tracks. You have the opening track Giant which begin with the lyrics “The birth of a realization/the rise of a high expectation.” It gives Derek’s vocals coming in front as he sings after the rising organ sound from Kerry Minnear, rumbling bass by Ray, and the booming drums done by Martin Smith.

The piece has this nod to Frank Zappa as if he was watching them just being in awe of what they’re accomplishing by doing a stop-and-go moments from the beginning and in the end section where it comes to an abrupt halt. The mysterious melody tones between, guitar, bass, and piano on The House, The Street, The Room is very clear in the remix as the song deals with scoring drugs while the nod to the story of The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel on Pantagruel’s Nativity, Minnear’s vocals shine followed by the Mellotron and the vocalizations between Derek’s haunting momentum and Gary’s riffs send a chill down my spine along with the xylophone and tambourine which is very clear, is mesmerizing.

Schooldays which almost as if it was recorded during the One Size Fits All-era, paints a retrospective looking back at the time the band remember their days as young man in school as both Phil Shulman and Kerry Minnear’s reverb vocals go back and forth followed by Calvin Shulman’s cameo vocals in the second half of the story. Gary Green for me, he’s been overlooked in the history of the Progressive Rock movement during its golden-era. He never gets the recognition he deserves.

When you listen to the 12-bar blues shuffle at the end section of Why Not? He mixing both Jazz, Classical, and the Blues rolled into one. From its rocking riffs with a Blackmore-sque style to the climatic end to delve into the Blues Rock momentum with Kerry’s organ in hot pursuit, he is powerful and the band give him a chance to come in front to deliver the goods from Wilson’s remix on the track along with the reverb midsection part of classical turned hard rock effects of Peel the Paint. 

Three Friends is a symphonic ending of the suite which you can imagine on their third album comes full circle. It has some of the King Crimson-sque vibes between Malcolm Mortimore’s drumming, Gary’s guitar, Vocalizations, and the Mellotron coming to bring everything to know that the road to moving forward is not always easy, but remembering the good times that you had as a youth.

The bonus track contains Freedom’s Child which originally appeared in the 2-CD set, Under Construction 20 years ago, has not only a ballad, but with a country, soul, and touching composition that Minnear wrote. It is not only a beautiful song, but you could tell that the Shulman brothers already went through that passage through their Simon Dupree years and wanted to do something to move beyond the singles. And the 7-inch edit that Wilson did on the acoustic eerie reflection turned mind-blowing composition, Nothing At All.

The liner notes are done by Innerviews: Music Without Borders writer Anil Prasad including interviews with the band, Steven Wilson, and Tony Visconti who produced the first two albums. Anil has also done the liner notes for the 2015 reissue of Octopus and of course Levin Brothers, but I’m off-topic. It’s a great history covering the first three albums and it shows how much appreciation they had working on these albums.

The DVD/Blu-Ray contains short films of the ten tracks which include the construction of a building in New York on Giant done by Yael Shulman, Noah Shulman doing an amazing animated storytelling with Peel The Paint, Lior Wix’s animation of a young woman looking at the river of reflecting back with Nothing At All, The pictures of the adventures of Gargantua and Pantagruel from the Pantagruel’s Nativity lyric video that I could imagine Terry Gilliam would one day do a film of, and pictures of the band members as they were young reflecting on Schooldays.

It also contains the first three albums in its original mix with a flat transfer and instrumental versions of the songs. You could tell watching these animated and live action music videos is almost as if Gentle Giant were carrying the torches of Disney’s Fantasia and bringing it to life done the right way possible. Let’s hope next year Steven does a 5.1 mix of their seventh studio album, Free Hand. And in the words of Francois Rabelais, “I go to seek a great perhaps.”