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> Login to your account > RegisterGENTLE GIANT Octopus
From page 73 of Classic Rock Magazine July 2007
Cover of July 2007 issue.
Repertoire
A load of tentacles.
By their fourth album in 1972 Gentle Giant had moved beyond standard prog rock conventions and were testing their own stylistic quirks to the limit.
Octopus is brief but intense. Despite the jazzy, staccato riffs and obscure melodies there is a medieval undercurrent largely down to the clever instrumental combinations – violin and wah-wah guitar, reed organ and strings, as well as Moogs and oscillators.
Lyrically it ranges from the philosophy of Albert Camus to the psychology of R D Laing. But Gentle Giant fans would expect nothing less and even the Roger Dean cover has an unaccustomed abstract feel. But how the band ever managed to keep their road crew after writing them a
song called Dog’s Life is a complete mystery.
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Hugh Fielder
