Gentle Giant, the excellent progressive rock band with an excellent run from 1970 until 1980, produced a series of great and enduring albums for several labels. In fact, over the years, the fan-base has been as strong as if the band still recorded, and played live on a consistent basis. And, over the years, there has been a series of remasters and repackaging of the best works (that could be acquired).
In 2005, a series of reissues were revisited by Derek Shulman, an original member of the band to celebrate the band’s 35th anniversary. And those were well received.
However…
Enter Steven Wilson.
As you are all too familiar with, Steven Wilson’s remix cred is impeccable. When he likes a project, he can deliver the definitive audio version of that album.
On September 8, Alucard Records, with the distributing muscle of Universal US, will reissue the 1974 Gentle Giant title, The Power And The Glory, as a Steven Wilson remix. There will be several versions of the album. One version will be a CD set, another a Deluxe CD/BD, as well as a Deluxe CD/DVD set. For fans of vinyl, there will be a new vinyl LP.
The standard CD-sized issue will contain the expected original tracks, as remixed by Steve Wilson, with the added bonus of two extra tracks that include “The Power And The Glory”, and an instrumental outtake of “Aspirations”. The Deluxe editions that include CD/DVD, and CD/BD, will offer several different configurations (see below). Finally, the vinyl LP set will add in the original eight, plus the bonus track of “The Power And The Glory”. It will be released as a 180g-weight LP, and housed in a gate-fold jacket.
The Power And The Glory is, like many of Steven Wilson remixes, an album that will be hotly anticipated, especially for its 5.1 Surround mix.
DVD/CD EDITION IN DIGIPACK
DVD:
Album with Videos
Audio Formats:
48/24 Stereo LPCM
DTS 96/24 5.1
Dolby AC3 5.1
Proclamation
So Sincere
Aspirations
Playing the Game
Cogs in Cogs
No God’s a Man
The Face
Valedictory
Bonus Track:
The Power and the Glory
Original 1974 Studio Mix
Transferred flat – 96/24 LPCM
Proclamation
So Sincere
Aspirations
Playing the Game
Cogs in Cogs
No God’s a Man
The Face
Valedictory
BLU-RAY/CD EDITION IN DIGIPACK
Album with Videos
Audio Formats:
96/24 Stereo LPCM
DTS 5.1 Master Audio
Proclamation
So Sincere
Aspirations
Playing the Game
Cogs in Cogs
No God’s a Man
The Face
Valedictory
Bonus Track:
The Power and the Glory
Instrumentals
Album with screen saver
Audio Format:
96/24 Stereo LPCM
Proclamation
So Sincere
Aspirations
Playing the Game
Cogs in Cogs
No God’s a Man
The Face
Valedictory
Bonus Tracks:
The Power and the Glory
Aspirations (out-take)
Extra
Original 1974 Studio Mix
Transferred Flat – 96/24 LPCM
Proclamation
So Sincere
Aspirations
Playing the Game
Cogs in Cogs
No God’s a Man
The Face
Valedictory
The audio is excellent and in my opinion, the best-sounding version on CD yet (and I believe I have had them all at one time or another). Another interesting thing, when listening to it on DVD (or BluRay), the lyrics appear on the screen as if they were closed captioning – I don’t know if I like it, but there are no lyrics included in the packaging. Since this has become my personal definitive edition, I scoffed some lyric sheets from an older edition. If you are a fan go GG, this is the one to get.
When are “Octopus” amp;”In a Glass House” getting the Steven Wilson treatment? Both are far better albums than “Poweramp; Glory”
Rodney
Perhaps SW will remix them at some point, but if you don’t have it, I would highly recommend the Repertoire Octopus card sleeve replica (REP 5098). It was a limited edition of 3000, but I think you can find them if you hunt around. The sound is amazing and the packaging is beautiful. I doubt, unless you are specifically looking for the 5.1 mix, that the stereo will ever be better than this one (though with SW, you can’t be sure). I would want to hear the 5.1 anyway.