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Gentle Giant satirize the media with "In'terview" solid soun

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 02/24/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Gentle Giant member Ray Shulman once remarked that "In'terview" was the beginning of the decline for Gentle Giant. That may be but if so the band checked out with one of its most challenging works. Derek Shulman came up with the concept for "In'terview" after having to endure one too many inane questions from the media where he was asked to define the sound of the band and, he felt, the media were trying to find an easy slot so as to categorize the band.



The "In'terview" remaster sounds less harsh than the DRT reissue of 5 years ago and, quite honestly, I feel it's an improvement over many of the previous issues (including the reissue on One Way). Shulman and mastering engineer Fred Kervorkian elected to use some compression here (selective band compression)and while this has, perhaps, less dynamic range than the earliest incarnations the duo worked from better source tapes (the original master tapes)which hadn't been used on the earlier reissues (except for the DRT). "In'terview" sounds pretty good for a modern remaster some audiophiles won't be pleased I'm sure but this isn't brickwalled and the compression that has been used isn't overwhelming. If you liked The Beatles stereo remasters I suspect you'll like the sound on these CDs as well. Ray Shulman and Kervorkian tried to make them sound as "modern" as possible without completing sacrificing the "feel" of the original album.



We get the original liner notes from the previous DRT edition on CD but no notes on the making of the album nor do we get any bonus tracks (the DRT although it sounded slightly more harsh than this version did have bonus tracks all of which were soundboard recordings of performances the band did of the material from this album). If you can live without the bonus tracks that were on the previous edition (the digital download version of this album does have bonus material that Kerry Minnear went back and did some overdubs to finish it--two alternate versions of the "Intro" piece and it is reasonably priced but you do have to buy the whole album to get them)and are unhappy with the previous issues this is a good choice for this fine album.



If "In'terview" marked the decline of Gentle Giant at least they were going down with a cheeky sense of humor and challenging sounding music. Recommended."

GG Interview

Philip Schultz | 03/20/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, thanks to Wayne for the recommendation. I think the remaster is an improvement from the DRT version in that it sounds much warmer and has more punch. Although Ray Shulman has not spoken fondly of this album, this brings back wonderful memories for me. Specifically, the tour of 1976. I think Interview conveys the band's energy and tightness from that time.



I had the priviledge of seeing GG many times between '75 and '77, mainly at the Calderone Theater in Hempstead, NY. However, I thought GG was at their peak duing the tour of '76, which featured the Interview album. Although I did see them on 7/3/76 at the Calderone show, which has some live tracks featured on two of the DRT CDs, my favorite show was around the same time in Central Park."