Customer Reviews

Free Hand

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's difficult to pick one desert island Gentle Giant album, they all are unique, and all studio releases except "Giant for a Day" are must haves. With numerous time changes and intricate musical passages Giant is not for everybody and may challenge most listeners. But this challenge can have great rewards because the talent this band has is amazing... all musicians are proficient at multiple instruments, the songwriting skill is superb, and the tunes are timeless. For the novice to Gentle Giant, this CD would be a good starting point.

We begin with "Just the Same" a great upbeat-syncopated rocker... one of those tunes where the chorus sticks in your head and you sing it all day. "On Reflection" showcases great vocal work with a powerful instrumental jam at the end. "Free Hand" is stunning! Great piano intro that turns into a full-out rocking tune slowed down briefly by a wonderful intricate middle section only to blast back into the awesome verse. "Time to Kill" shows once again the power this band has... what a grooving tune, great bass line, great vocals, great interaction between musicians, great everything. "His Last Voyage" is the mellow track on the disc, similar to what can be heard on "Acquiring the Taste", complete with a very juicy guitar solo. "Talybont" is a short instrumental with sort of an Irish jig feel. "Mobile" begins beautifully with a violin and guitar intro only to transform into another great rocking tune. Finally, the bonus track is an unreleased version of "Just the Same". Good version, bad mix (kind of sounds squished/over-compressed).

The Free Hand remix sounds wonderful! After living with the atrociously muddy One Way Records mix for decades I can only say WOW... GREAT JOB! Unfortunately the CD does not give credit to the person who remixed this or from what source it was.

It's a shame that Giant hasn't released a full-length studio project since the 80's, cause if they did, they would probably blow most bands out of the water.

Gentle Giant got a one-two punch to the gut; the oldest of the Shulman brothers Phil left the band but the band carried on as a five piece and produced one of the finest albums they ever made "In a Glass House" only to find their record label wouldn't release it. With "Free Hand" they regrouped producing one of their most confident, melodic and complex albums. This remaster improves on the DRT remaster from five years ago and is only flawed by not having the bonus live track that release had.

As for the mastering engineer Fred Kervorkian did what's called "selective band compression". Yeah, there is selective band compression applied but the album sounds surprisingly good and isn't brickwalled More importantly, detail and clarity are an improvement over previous editon of the album. There is limiting applied as well as some denoising (at the request of the band) but it isn't as obtrusive as I thought it would be. The best comparison I can think of is that this shares a lot of assets and drawbacks as The Beatles remasters.
This edition does sound better than the DRT.

Why no bonus tracks? I suspect it has to do with the fact that the GG label Alucard will be releasing these reissues on vinyl later this year (2010) and that the band wanted the CDs to reflect the original albums and the forthcoming reissues. "Free Hand" along with "In a Glass House" and "Octopus" represents GG at their finest.

This reissue bests the DRT in terms of sound with much smoother e.q. choices. Recommended.

This has never been one of my favorite GG albums--that would be "In a Glass House" or "Octopus", depending on my mood--but after hearing this remaster I may have to reconsider. The new remastering is so good I feel like I've never heard it before, with a wonderfully warm low end, plenty of high end sparkle, and all the details in between.

If you're a GG fan and you're wondering if you need to buy it, because you already have it on CD or vinyl, well, YOU DO, believe me. Me? I'm buying ALL the reissues in this series myself!

Gentle Giant Lives!!!

So you think you've heard Free Hand before? No, you haven't! An unbelievable mastering job, and there are 6 releases scheduled for this year (hope they can eventually re-master & re-release them ALL). There goes my allowance! Worth it for one of the most amazing bands ever, who TRULY deserve 21st century remastering to bring out the sounds and musical imagery they created.
p.s. Check out Porcupine Tree's In Absentia.

This is my favorite Gentle Giant album, and probably one of my favorite albums period. If you aren't familiar with Gentle Giant, they are a progressive rock band from the 70's. I really can't compare them to any other band, because there is no one else like them. Its just great music.

'Free Hand' has always been my fave GG release, but I've had to live with a rather shoddy sounding One Way CD reissue that has diminished my enjoyment of the music. That is until now. These 35th Anniversary remasters are all supervised by GG vocalist Derek Shulman with loving attention to detail.

'Just The Same,' 'On Reflection,' 'Free Hand' - this is a masterpiece of creativity & artistry. In their day, GG was untouchable by all other prog bands (and they still are!). The vocal & instrumental counterpoint of 'On reflection' can finally be heard as it should be. I am left breathless by it. If you are a GG fan, then you should make it imperitive to buy this CD (and all the remasters) right away. If you are just a casual aquaintance, or curious about all the fuss, then this is as good a place as any to experience the majesty that was Gentle Giant-all hail the power and the glory!!! ©Michael Bettine

As far as I'm concerned, nobody did that celtic/medieval/re-
naissance music thing better than GENTLE GIANT. JETHRO TULL did
the same thing on SONGS FROM THE WOOD, tho' I think GG did it
much better! Tis a shame this album didn't sell as well as SONGS!
FREEHAND was GENTLE GIANT's most popular album, at least in the
U.S. and there's no doubt that GG were at the height of their
powers around this time. FREEHAND is full of catchy, yet very
complex songs. JUST THE SAME has a slightly funky feel to it;well
as funky as GG could get and has a great vocal from DEREK.KERRY
MINNEAR gets in some of his best singing on ON REFLECTION; a
beautiful little song with some very typical GG vocal rounds and
a very sweet poignant vocal from MINNEAR. I never cared for their
live presentation of this song with all them recorders! The title
track is another solid hard rock/pop song, with more of MINNEAR's
electric piano and/or clavinet playing. The celtic/medieval in-
fluence shows up the strongest on the instrumental TALYBONT.
HIS LAST VOYAGE has another nice vocal from MINNEAR and also some
nice interplay between GARY GREEN's guitar and RAY SHULMAN's
bass; this little interplay was one of GG's trademarks.
The mix on the ONE WAY RECORDS cd is slightly different than the
mix on the original album; this is most apparent on TIME TO KILL,
especially in the vocal tracks.
FREEHAND is not my favorite GG album, tho it is an album I would
start people off with as an intro to GENTLE GIANT.

Like Mr. Paul Minot (yesfansrule) this was never my favorite giant album. not because it was too poppy or anythign but because the songs simply didn't stick with me at first listen. Maybe it wasn't poppy ENOUGH hahaha.
but, when i got the remaster and listened man oh man. This is tied for their greatest album with octopus. Like that album, complex playing melodies and arrangements smash into pop hooks in a way that makes this album completely and utterly original fresh and fun. On Reflection is the best, but every song rules. A must for all prog fans, and the remaster helped prove that to me.

Use it to load up that CD player multiple times and hit the repeat button cause you're in for a ride that you won't be able to stop. Seriously though, this album just is that good. Starting with quite possibly the most original opening to an album ever, the snapping of fingers, and going strong from there, this album delivers without slowing down at all.

Just the Same is the albums in your face opener with great guitar, bass, and synth interplay. It seems like a fairly standard prog-rock song, but being from Gentle Giant, there is just an added dimension of awesomeness that I can't quite explain. They mix the complex with the simple in such a way that it sounds unique in ever manner possible.

The second song, On Reflection, is just about as a capella as you can get on a rock album, with a cool xylophone part running throughout the entire course of the song. In the middle of the song, things change pace with a beautiful ballad and accompanying flute.

Free Hand is probably the biggest song on the album, in terms of sound and the attack the song brings to the listener.

Time to Kill represents another one of the albums harder-rocking bass-driven songs. Don't get me wrong though, there is plenty of great guitar and synth worked out through the mix. This is probably my favorite track from the album. It usually ends up bringing me to a smile on careful listens, basically from its unique blend of bass behind powerful vocals.

His Last Voyage morphs itself from another beautiful ballad into a screaming, emotion-filled guitar solo, back into a ballad without sounding the least bit forced, it flows marvelously.

Talybont sounds like a quaint little Celtic or Gaelic (I don't know for sure) instrumental track. It flows right into the next track which is...

Mobile. Which features great vocal work with a now more upbeat Celtic/Gaelic sound behind it (which the obligatory awesome bass and drums).

Overall, this album amazes me more than just about any other rock album ever put out. It's not as strange as Gentle Giant's earlier works, but is no less complex and wonderful. Overall, the mix is perfect. Vocals, guitar, bass, drumming, synth all mix together seemlessly and one never overriding the other. A true tour-de-force showing what you can do with a little talent and imagination put forward in a very original way.

I have to note that although I've heard drummers just as good as the one in Gnetle Giant, I've never quite heard a bass player with such a thunderous, yet, in a way, gentle, sound. But when you combine the two together, it makes for one hell of a rythm section that could rival just about any I can think of. (And don't get me wrong, the drumming is still fantastic. I think today's music would be a lot better in the instrumental department if there were more drummers like the one from Gentle Giant.)

I listened to this album throughout an entire summer one year during a significant breakup. Interestingly, the entire time I hadn't made the connection. It could just be my interpretation, but from start to finish this album seems like a clear, objective view of the end of a relationship, accurately describing the varying reactions and eventual acceptance. This and The Power and the Glory are easily two of my favorite albums.