Fragmentation Balm

This article was originally published in 1998.

Gentle Giant: In A Glass House
WWA 002 (LP)

Earl, Perkins, Jones, Smith: Eye to Eye
Audioquest Music AQ-CD1043 (CD)

These days, my life at home is so-so-so fragmented. I can barely do anything without being interrupted. Living with a wife and two kids with seemingly inexhaustible energy and inexhaustible demands on Mommy and Daddy (not that I'd have it any other way), it's the rare occasion when I can, say, have a conversation, work around the house or watch TV show without having to change gears (or diapers) at some point. (When the kids go to sleep? So do I!) Listening to a record uninterrupted? The rarest occurrence of all in the Doris household! Sometimes, it's like my listening concentration is being constantly shattered by the sound of breaking glass. Bump-ba-dump-ba dump..."Daddy!" Crash! Dum-de-dum-de-dum..."Frank, It's for you!" Crash! Ahh, now to settle into a little Bill Evans..."Ding-dong!" CRASH!

In fact, I could swear that I'm hearing the sound of breaking glass from my turntable right now!

In fact, I am hearing the sound of breaking glass from my turntable right now! That's how In A Glass House, from the amazingly virtuosic and versatile Gentle Giant, begins—serving notice that even before the first note is played, you're about to hear an album that shatters all your preconceived notions about rock music. Never mind that the album was recorded in July 1973—it still sounds utterly unique today, and when I first heard it back then, it was almost impossible for my then-innocent and tender mind to comprehend. (Yeah—and the segue into this review was uncalculated and spontaneous.)

Maybe some rockin' elders besides me remember the much-ballyhooed Progressive Rock movement of the era—the label given to bands that ventured beyond the boundaries of guitars-bass-drums-vocals rock and roll by incorporating more varied instrumentation, experimenting with more complex song structures, arrangements, harmonies and time signatures, and writing lyrics that went beyond the usual "my baby loves me"-"I love my baby"-"my baby doesn't love me" sentiments. The most well-known of the time were bands like Yes, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull, who, while guilty of some of the most wretched musical excesses of the Seventies, also created some of the most brilliant music ever recorded. Along with these bands were lesser-known contemporaries such as Can, Van Der Graff Generator, Hawkwind and Gentle Giant.

Who, for my two zuzim, were the best of them all.

The band was composed of five men of remarkable vocal and instrumental virtuosity, who could play and sing-simultaneously—incredibly ornate, complex, interlocking and interwoven musical lines in unison, harmony counterpoint and everything in between. They could play passages on acoustic instruments with the most refined delicacy or rock out like the mythical Juggernaut. Their melodies were full of unexpected and delightful twists and turns, yet always memorable. Their songs seemed to occupy some strange mythological world unto themselves, the musical equivalent of Through the Looking Glass or The Hobbit.

In a Glass House is an astonishing musical and sonic tour-de-force. The music exemplifies the band's remarkable range, from the densely-orchestrated drama and power of kaleidoscopic tracks like "The Runaway" to the mutated, inside-out rhythms of "Experience" and the dreamy reverie of "A Reunion." The album credits tell much of the tale: Derek Shulman, vocals, alto and soprano sax and recorder; Gary Green, 6 and 12-string guitars, mandolin, percussion, and alto recorder; Kerry Minnear, keyboards, tuned percussion, recorder and vocals; Ray Shulman, bass guitar, violin, acoustic guitar, percussion and vocals, and John Weathers, drums and percussion. The band mixes myriad combinations of all the above with seemingly infinite imagination, often within the same song.

Wonder of wonders, the incredible music is served with nothing less than incredible sound, in fact, as close to sonic perfection as I have ever heard from a multi-tracked pop recording. Every voice and instrument is recorded with utter clarity, with no grain, glare or gratuitous sonic flaw. The tonal balance is ideal, with taut, clean bass, a midrange that is neither too plump nor too lean, and upper midrange and highs that are airy and detailed without being etched or drawing attention to themselves in the slightest. Instruments have exemplary presence and solidity, with the drums occupying a convincingly real space in the realistically-scaled soundspace, rather than being spread out all over as is the case with so many multi-miked pop recordings. Transient response and instrumental decay are phenomenal, and give the LP that quality that distinguishes a recording from the merely excellent from the truly extraordinary.

This is one of those recordings that gives pleasure simply from the sheer beauty of the sound, whether the mallet percussion and timpani on "An Inmates (sic) Lullaby," the electric guitar and keyboard ensemble textures on "The Runaway," the swooning strings on "A Reunion," the rich, solid electric bass on "Experience,". . . actually, the sonic laundry-list thing is kind of pointless here. After the introductory breaking-glass thing clears your head, every sound on the LP is an unbridled delight. The only sand in the Vaseline—the LP is almost impossibly hard to find. It took me years of serious searching at record shows and perusing issues of Goldmine. (I haven't heard the import-only CD. Thank the stars this is available on CD at all!) Don't let that stop you from looking—there must be more copies of the LP out there, and this is, make no mistake, one of the truly great ones.

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As long as I can take advantage of this gratuitous literary device for another few words, how about another jarring transition? Audioquest Music, as I've said in the past, is one of the too-few "audiophile" labels that actually produce recordings of great music as well as great sound. The relatively-recent (1996) Eye to Eye is a stone killer blues album, featuring long-time AQ artist Ronnie Earl on guitar, along with legendary blues titans Willie "Pinetop" Perkins on piano and vocals, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones on bass and vocals, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on drums and keyboardist extraordinaire Bruce Katz on an honest-to-goodness Hammond B-3 organ.

As is often the case, when I first heard this disc I just glanced at the cover and popped it in the CD player, without even looking at track listings, let alone liner notes or anything else. Well, it was apparent to me from note one that this album was A Good One, and that the guitarist could Play The Blues. I connected with the guitar playing immediately; being one myself, it's usually automatic—and was struck by Earl's emotive touch and phrasing, beautiful clear Strat tone (sounds like a maple-neck '57 re-issue model to me), and playing and licks that, while rooted in the blues tradition, had an individual flavor and feel. His slide playing—hair-raising. (Blues guitar playing can be a tricky thing—go too far "outside" and it don't sound like the blues no more, but stick too much to blues-approved clichés and the playing sounds boring and derivative.) Clearly, Earl was The Real Thing, unlike some of the new generation of young-boy wannabees who, for the life of me. . . well, I just don't get it. They just aren't good enough to be on the cover of all the guitar magazines!

One look at the liner notes confirmed my feelings—Ronnie Earl has paid his dues after years struggling with the twin demons of drugs and alcohol, and Perkins (as I knew), Jones and Smith (as I didn't—maybe I should read the liner notes in my album collection more carefully) had been part of Muddy Waters' backup band for years. And man can these guys play, and does this album positively resonate with mojo blues vibe! Not the incendiary intensity of, say, Muddy Waters at Newport or any number of Albert Collins albums—it's more a controlled, smoldering feel, with the musicians just groovin' and gettin' off on one another's playing, singing and feeling. Perkins, in particular, is awesome; listening to his playing on Eye to Eye is like taking a master class in blues piano playing. (Well, actually, it is a master class in How Blues Piano Is Played.) Every track, every time, from uptempo shuffles to slow grooves, these guys get it.

Hey, I also thought when I first heard this, it sounds like they just got the guys together in a room, pushed the record button and said, "Roll 'em!" Whaddya know, right again. Eye to Eye was recorded direct live-to-two-track analog on a Studer A-80 at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock (except for "minimal overdubbing" on "Take it Easy Baby"), multi-miked using high-end microphones. As a result, the recording ambience is remarkably natural and life-like, with each musician occupying a solid place on the stage—this is one of those recordings where the cliche, "it sounds like they're playing in the room," really does apply. Tonal balance is excellent, just a shade light on the bottom end but with a warm midrange with plenty of presence and punch and a relaxed, extended high end. Transient and detail resolution are first-rate, and overall clarity is superb. (Don't be alarmed by those crackles in "Anna Lee"—it's not your system, it's the guitar cord!) Occasionally, an instrument or vocal may get a little too loud or too soft, but that's to be expected in a live-to-two-track recording, and it's amazing to me that the album is in fact as well-balanced as it is. Ultimately, you don't hear or pay attention to any of this—the music just is, in your room. Man, there's nothing better in this world than sitting back, putting on some great music and digging the tunes. . . . ahhh. . . .

Okay, okay, Eli, I'm done with the computer; you can play the "Mooky Takes Manhattan" CD-ROM now. . . can you turn off the TV! Thanks. . . what honey, you're going out shopping with Lilah; okay, see you later. . . what, I should beep you if anything comes up. . . okay. . . is the cat in or out? Daddy, can you turn the music off now. . . Daddy, what are you doing on the computer. . . Daddy, let me help you. . . No, no, don't touch the keyboard, not nowwwww!!!!

See you all next time. . . gotta go now. . . .