Acquiring The Taste

Gentle Giant's 1971 sophomore album sees a U.S. pressing on CD for the first time in nearly 40 years with remixed and remastered audio. Recorded at Advision and AIR in London in the first months of 1971 and produced again by Tony Visconti, the record arrived barely seven months after the debut and pushed the band further out. It's liner notes state the intent plainly: each piece was written so that it should be "unique, adventurous and fascinating."The eight tracks move between hard rock, chamber writing, medieval counterpoint and early electronics, with a string quartet on "The Moon Is Down," Moog programmed by Chris Thomas, and the five members again trading off dozens of instruments - guitars, bass, violin, viola, cello, saxophones, clarinet, trumpet, mellotron, harpsichord, vibraphone and more.It is also the last Gentle Giant album to feature founding drummer Martin Smith. This edition presents the album in a new stereo mix drawn from the original multitrack tapes, housed in a digipak.