Tarnation – Gentle Creatures

Remix albums often can be cynical exercises, lacking even tacit approval from the original bands in question while hired hands spin out boring extended versions for little more than the money. Happily, Hybrids takes a much different approach. As Doug H. of Hydrogen Dukebox, the coordinator of the project, puts it in the liner notes, screening who wanted to participate was simplicity itself: "If they couldn't sing 'Mad-Eyed Screamer' down the phone, I hung up." Assured of actual fan participation and a willingness to really get creative work, the Creatures gave Doug H. the go-ahead and this is the truly entertaining result. Tracks all come from the Creatures' late-'90s work on Anima Animus and Eraser Cut, and while some tracks seem to use only Sioux's vocals instead of Budgie's drums, the end results generally make a fine adjunct to the original recordings.

Astonishingly daring debut album, not as focused or overpowering as King Crimson's first but still crashing down barriers and steamrolling expectations. The mix of medieval harmonies and electric rock got stronger on subsequent albums, but the music here is still pretty jarring…

Scraping the Barrel, 12 hours of music, compiled, cleaned and edited by dedicated Gentle Giant fan & friend Dan Bornemark between 1998 and 2004. As the title indicates, this is it, the best of the rest. The box-set contains 3 CD's and a data disc, a good solution even so my personal choice which tracks to put on the data disc (128 K/bit for the majority) would have been slightly different…

Edge of Twilight is a thorough overview of Gentle Giant's years at Vertigo Records, containing nearly every highlight from each of their early records. As a result, it's not only a perfect introduction to the strange, provocative world of Gentle Giant, it could be all the Gentle Giant most prog-rock fans need.

Deluxe 29 CD + Blu-Ray boxset authorized by all band members with signed photo. Includes a lavish 136-page coffee table hardback book and 96-page tour history book. Highly regarded in the prog-rock world for the 12 albums they released between 1970 and 1980, this comprehensive set sees the band's catalog augmented by 15 new concert albums: seven never previously released, seven never previously officially released and one never previously released on CD…

This concert captures Gentle Giant at the top of their form and the peak of their fame in the United States, coming off of a Top 50 U.S. chart placement the previous year for The Power and the Glory…

Giant Steps… The First Five Years: Compilation album featuring tracks from 'Gentle Giant', 'Acquiring the Taste', 'Three Friends', 'Octopus', 'In a Glass House' and 'Power and the Glory'.

UK four CD collection from the British Prog Rock band that rounds up all of their Chrysalis albums with bonus tracks including John Peel sessions, 7" mixes, live tracks, 'B' sides and more. Gentle Giant was born out of the ashes of Simon Dupree & the Big Sound, a successful UK rock and R&B-based outfit led by the Shulman Brothers. In 1970, the brothers founded Gentle Giant. Derek was lead vocalist and played alto sax and bass, Ray sang and played bass and violin, and Phil handled the saxophone and added vocals. Kerry Minnear, on keyboards, came straight from the Royal Academy of Music, and Gary Green became guitarist. John Weathers joined the band in 1972 and was the drummer for two albums. Gentle Giant's utilization of complex classical chord and time patterns, together with hard rock, blues, jazz and even medieval melodies, set them apart from other "progressive" groups of their time or since.