''Free Hand'' is the seventh album by British

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

band

Gentle Giant Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-inst ...

. It was released in 1975. It was Gentle Giant's first album with their new label Chrysalis Records in the UK. It is noted for its high production values, and for a less dissonant, more accessible feel than their previous album ''

The Power and the Glory ''The Power and the Glory'' is a 1940 novel by British author Graham Greene. The title is an allusion to the doxology often recited at the end of the Lord's Prayer: "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever, amen." ...

''. It was their highest-charting album in the US and the only one to reach the Top 50 on the ''Billboard'' 200. In addition to the usual stereo version, the album was also mixed in 4-channel quadraphonic sound in 1976. The 4-channel mix was not used until 2012 when it finally appeared on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

with encoding in multichannel

LPCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the am ...

, DTS and Dolby Digital

surround sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener (surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to s ...

formats.Gentle Giant: ''Free Hand'' at Discogs.com
/ref> A 1990 CD re-issue in the US by

One Way Records One Way Records was an independent record label based in Albany, New York that specialized in budget reissues of classic rock albums. In the 1990s, it gained business pressing reissues of those records that had "fallen through the cracks" in the t ...

used an alternate stereo mix. This version revealed some different details in the musical and vocal parts. However, this edition may have actually been a reduction or variation of the 4-channel mix.

Alucard Music Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-inst ...

/ EMI Records re-released the CD in 2009, "from the original 1/4-inch tapes through 24bit 96k Hi-Resolution transfer." On June 25, 2021, a new remix by musician and producer

Steven Wilson Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosi ...

was released in

Dolby Atmos Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horizontal, nor verti ...

5.1 surround sound 5.1 surround sound ("five-point one") is the common name for surround sound audio systems. 5.1 is the most commonly used layout in home theatres. It uses five full bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel (the "point one"). Dol ...

, accompanied by custom animated visuals for each track on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

. In addition, the original flat mix, original 1975 quad mix and an instrumental mix were all included in a

digipack Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case ...

CD. A double vinyl album was also released with both the original flat mix and Steven Wilson remixed versions.

Reception

''The Great Rock Bible'' described the album:

Track listing

Personnel

;Gentle Giant * Gary Green –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

(1-7), acoustic guitar (5, 7), descant recorder (2, 6), co-lead vocals (2) *

Kerry Minnear Kerry Churchill Minnear (born 2 January 1948 in the town of Shaftesbury in Dorset, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician known primarily for his work with the progressive rock band Gentle Giant from 1970 to 1980. He graduated from the R ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

(1–5, 7), Hammond organ (1, 2, 4, 5, 7), Clavinet (3, 5–7), Minimoog (1, 2, 4), synthesizer (1, 3, 6), harpsichord (2, 6, 7), Rocky Mount Instruments Electra-Piano (3, 4)

Wurlitzer electronic piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptua ...

(1, 3, 4),

honky-tonk piano A tack piano (also known as a harpsipiano, jangle piano, and junk piano) is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which objects such as thumbtacks or Nail (fastener), nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers of the instrument at the poi ...

(7), celesta (2), glockenspiel (2),

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

(1, 2, 5),

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

(2),

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

(2), harp (2),

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

(2), tenor recorder (6), lead vocals (2–5) *

Derek Shulman Derek Victor Shulman (born 11 February 1947) is a Scottish musician and singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record executive. From 1970 to 1980, he was lead vocalist for the band Gentle Giant. Career Born in the Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland, Shu ...

– lead vocals (1-4 and 7), treble recorder (6), alto saxophone (1) *

Ray Shulman Raymond Shulman (born 8 December 1949) is a Scottish musician, and the youngest of three brothers in progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Shulman was born in Portsmouth. His father was a trumpet player in a jazz band, and that was the first inst ...

– bass,

electric violin An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument intentionally made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. It can also refer to a violin fi ...

(7),

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

(7),

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

(2), co-lead vocals (2) *

John Weathers John Patrick 'Pugwash' Weathers (born 7 February 1947) is a retired Welsh rock drummer, best known for playing with the progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Early life Born in Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales, he moved to Swansea until, aged ...

– drums (1–5, 7),

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

(1, 6, 7), bass drum (2, 6), tom-tom drums (6, 7), snare drum (2),

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...

(2), cymbal (2), Woodblock (instrument), woodblock (3), cowbell (3), frame drums (7), percussion (2) ;Additional Personnel * Engineer – Gary Martin * Assistant engineer – Paul Northfield * Cover Design - Gentle Giant * Graphics - Richard Evans (designer), Richard Evans There are no instrument credits listed on the album.

Charts

Release history

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1975 albums Gentle Giant albums Chrysalis Records albums Capitol Records albums Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis