Whilst the music immediately hits you between the eyes, once you start concentrating you realise there is subtlety and tone in here which is both intriguing and mesmerising. Created by the 3 Shulman brothers, Giant are an unusual story in themselves. For a band who released 12 LP’s in 10 years during the height of the prog rock wave in the 70’s, hardly any of the band went on to create further music commercially, beyond them disbanding in 1980. Very unusual. Maybe they weren’t ‘career’ musicians or maybe they just liked prog rock, for which there has been little appetite since.
Released on the ubiquitous Vertigo label, – has there been a better logo, I mean, ever? – whilst prog rock was the categorisation, there is more than a little ‘gentle’ melodic folk / arty / minstrel elements which stand out as captivating passages in a maelstrom of sound. Certainly ‘Nothing at all’ encapsulates the band in a lengthy heartbeat, including a quite unusual subtle drum passage, the likes of which I haven’t really witnessed before. Well, how often have you heard drum solo and subtle in the same room? And it opens up into a valley of daylight towards the end of the track almost as if they didn’t want the world to end after all.
It also leads beautifully and seamlessly into ‘Why not? I think you would have to go some distance to hear a better side of prog rock music than which Side 2 offers. Ignore ‘The Queen’. Surely, please, not influenced by Hendrix the year before? A mistake. Otherwise, it is compelling and in its entirety helps massively to allow you to forget the day is now almost over, before it has really begun. Only one thing left to do. Down the pub… ah Sunday’s past.
