Gentle Giant: 3 Friends on CD

Well, the Alucard edition seems to have been and gone. Has anybody heard the BGO 3 Friends/ Octopus, or know anything about it?

 

I owned it, sounds good.
I have the Japanese Mini LP Sleeves now.

 

I have the Repertoire Records edition from 2008. Sound okay to me.

 

This Alucard 2011 remaster is great, it is the best I have heard this album sound. Mastered at 96/24 from the original master tapes. I guess that's the one the OP is looking for?

Although the 2008 Repertoire mastered by Eroc was the best at the time, it came from a DAT copy IIRC, and is beaten by the 2011 Alucard.

 

Both the Repertoire and the Alucard from 2011 sound fine to me. The latter has bonustracks.

 

What are those bonus tracks please? I tried to look it up on Amazon, but as you know they lump together the reviews of the different versions, so you can't find much info from the buyers very easily.

What period of the band's history are these tracks from?

 

"Prologue" *(Bonus Track — Live New Orleans '72) 5:53 Gentle Giant Three Friends — (Remastered 2011) Rock 1
"Out-Takes" *(Bonus Track) 6:21 Gentle Giant Three Friends — (Remastered 2011) Rock 1

 

Alucard:

Prologue (live at the Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, June 1972)
'Out-Takes'
i. Peel the Paint studio rehearsal
ii. Peel the Paint alternative guitar solo
iii. Three Friends soloed vocal chorus

 

Agreed. The Repertoire was good but the Alucard is better. The bonus of the rare live "Prologue" seals the deal.

 

Sounds darn interesting! Does "Prologue" have decent SQ?

 

Well, it's at least decent-ish... I'd say it's surprisingly good, actually.

 

Yes, as you point out amazon US has it. Amazon UK seems to have sold out, inlcuding marketplace sellers. They do list a version with no label- - 'import' which isn't very helpful. Thanks for posting the .com details -- i'll check out the postage.

 

I like the Alucard and the Repertoire. But the nicest sounding is the old 1980's German Line cd.

 

I'd recommend the BGO 2fer. It might not be from the mastertape, but there's relatively little compression/limiting (if any) compared to remasters on other labels, the eq is pleasant, and there's plenty of tape hiss, so I don't think it was NR'd or anything, which I've definitely heard was used on some of the Alucard and Repertoire discs. However, I haven't heard them.

 

The BGO sounds OK but a little weak on the highs. I have the Japanese SHM-CD that you have to stay away from at all cost. The Repertoire sounds terrific but is now a little hard to get. I agree that the Alucard remaster from 2011 is probably the best sounding version available but if we're lucky enough we'll get Steven Wilson to work on it...

 

Good news update: amazon UK had the label details wrong. I emailed allyourmusic and they confirmed their stock is the Alucard edition.I promptly ordered. Thanks to all who've posted.

 

I guess I must dig up my Line and check it out for myself. Back in the 80's I remember not having been too impressed with any of the four Line GG's, so it's been quite a while since I last listened to them. However, having read all the praise heaped upon them on this forum makes me rather curious to have a re-listen...

 

My vote is for the Alucard 2011, sounds great on my system.

 

I agree with you. I have Octopus from Line and it's not even close to the Repertoire and the Alucard.

 

If they ever find the multitracks for this album...

 

What's the latest update on this front? I think I heard that maybe he'd tackle Octopus next, or is that wishful thinking on my part?

 

Bingo. Line LICD 9.00730 is your friend. Has the original cover too.

 

Unfortunately no other multitracks have been found except for the album The Missing Piece, which isn't planned to be remixed because... well, the band doesn't like it and it's the worst seller of their catalogue.

 

I wasn't too impressed with the Line CD upon first listen and used to favor the Columbia CD because it had a warmer sound. But I now think that the Line CD is the ultimate version of Three Friends, as well as for Octopus.