Random Album Review: Octopus by Gentle Giant

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When one thinks of British progressive rock, probably the first two names to come up will be Yes and Genesis.  Both are excellent examples of the genre, with nods to classical and jazz music, extended song cycle compositions, deft instrumentals, long solo passages for nearly every instrument, psychedelic, story-telling lyrics and cerebral, challenging, concept-oriented subject matter.  But there is one band that very few living people still recall, their records buried in discount bins and their dynamic sonic prowess all but forgotten.  I am talking about Gentle Giant, one of the most original and talented bands to emerge from England in the 1970's (and that's saying something.  Lotta great stuff from that time and place)
It seems like it was an unspoken tradition of 70's prog that your fourth album had to be a self-styled masterpiece.  Yes had Fragile, Genesis had Foxtrot, ELP had Brain Salad Surgery (if you don't count Pictures at an Exhibition, which I don't because it's a live album of the band covering a classical piece), and Gentle Giant had Octopus.
Octopus was the unquestioned pinnacle of their career.  It consists, appropriately, of only 8 songs, each wildly different from the next.  I came across this band and this album in my days with Soulseek, a now-defunct P2P file sharing program, and this album has endured as one of the staples of my listening rotation, even as the haze of marijuana has cleared from my mind since college.  Each song could have been performed by a completely different band, and each could have been that band's magnum opus.  For Gentle Giant, it was but a milestone on a career that contains no less than 8 albums of this quality (and 2 that are decidedly lower), however, Octopus  remains the most immediate and accessible of these.
The album begins with "The Advent of Panurge" , a sort of sequel to a previous song "Pantagruel's Nativity".  It is a subtly creepy song about a demon who bewitches the title character from the previous song, becoming his friend.  It features dense, stunning keyboard and bass interplay underscoring the dynamic, operatic vocal.
The album then moves on to "Raconteur, Troubadour", a song that whimsically recalls medieval musicians with violins, asymmetrical drum work, and jazzy interludes that sounds like they're backing up a montage of travelers on horseback.
The band then brings out their classically informed take on muscular hard rock with the guitar-led "A Cry For Everyone"  The guitar and keyboard attack of the main riff would have made Deep Purple proud, but Deep Purple could never have pulled off the busy solo interludes with such flair and subtlety.
Things rocket into the stratosphere, however, on the next track "Knots".  The song centers on a dense, knotted interplay of acapella vocals whose impenetrable lyrics serve to enhance the message of emotional confusion.  In all the history of music, I have never heard a single song like this one.  It simply has to be heard to be understood.  [audio:http://peterambles.blog.com/files/2013/02/04-Knots.mp3|titles=04 Knots]The brief instrumental passages are masterful in their restraint, and devilish in their uncommon arrangement.  The song creeps you out, confuses you, and makes you bang your head all at once.  And the xylophone solo cooks.  Who does a xylophone solo right before a heavy metal breakdown?  Only Gentle Giant.
The only way to follow such an left field masterpiece is the side two opener "The Boys in the Band"  The song begins with a burst of laughter, as if to say that the titular "boys" were just having a bit of fun on this track.  However, Gentle Giant's idea of mucking around for fun on their instruments ends up being a song whose complexity is unmatched in the annals of rock and roll.  Yes has done things this intricate, but never so memorably.
The album takes a much welcome step back at this point for the quiet, violin led "Dog's Life" a picturesque fairy-tale about man's best friend.
From there, the band moves into almost radio friendly ballad territory with "Think of Me with Kindness"  The chord progression in this song could easily have made a hit for the likes of Billy Joel, and the sincere, heart-felt lyrics soar above driving piano and bass work.  People who know me well have been very surprised that I count this among my favorite songs, being that I generally gravitate towards more aggressive or complex music.  But this song takes the typical ballad and recreates it with such artistry that it becomes something totally different.
Album closer "The River" is nothing if not a jazz-rock masterpiece.  (I realize that's the third time I've used that word in this article.  I can't find another word that even comes close to describing these songs)  It rocks and sways like a canoe on the rapids, with ballsy guitar work and ethereal jazz keyboards as it's oars.  The guitar solo towards the middle could easily have been Pink Floyd in the Dark Side days.  The longest song at nearly 6 minutes, this one never gets less interesting, even for a second.  (6 minutes is positively short for prog rock.  How this band was able to pack so much variety into so little time is dumbfounding)
I also have the pleasure of owning a DVD of a live performance by the band during this era.  Every member, even the drummer, plays 3 or more instruments over the course of a 40 minute set, and each instrument seems like it's their primary one.  Quite simply, Gentle Giant are virtuosos at everything, from instruments, to composition, to arrangement.  And as insanely talented as they are, they never feel like they're showing off.  The music never feels overwrought or flashy.  It's just fun for the thinking man at a very high level of ability.