Interview

Gentle Giant's 8th studio album, "Interview", from 1976, lays claim to being the band's most underrated. A superb follow-up to "Freehand", the album showed the band's progressive ambition undiminished and introduced a grittier, more direct edge to the music as well an interview and band life conceptual thread, with Sounds’ writer Phil Sutcliffe as the interviewer.

The CD contains the 2023 Steven Wilson remix, while the BluRay additionally offers the Dolby Atmos, 96/24 Stereo LPCM and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, 96/24 5.1 mixes, plus instrumental versions and the original 1976 Quad Mix, DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 96/24 4.0 LPCM.

Gentle Giant had completed a year of nonstop touring throughout Europe and North America promoting "Freehand". Despite having no real down time, the band felt inclined to write and record the follow up without having any time to reflect on its success. This may have influenced both the direction and attitude of the album, hence its somewhat cynical concept. The band recorded "Interview" in its favored Advision Studios, where in addition to the usual stereo version, the album was also mixed in 4-channel quadraphonic sound. It poked a little satirical fun at the state of the music industry and dissected the way a group’s relationship with the rock press could either help or hinder their career.

Chrysalis Records, July 7th, 2023.