| McDonald and Giles | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | McDonald and Giles |
| Cover: | McDonald and Giles album cover.jpg |
| Released: | [1] |
| Recorded: | May–July 1970 |
| Studio: | Island Studios, London |
| Genre: | Progressive rock |
| Length: | 46:04 45:23 (2002 reissue) |
| Label: | |
| Producer: | Ian McDonald, Michael Giles |
McDonald and Giles is an album released by British musicians Ian McDonald and Michael Giles in 1970. The album was first issued on Island Records (ILPS 9126) in the UK and Cotillion Records (SD 9042), a division of Atlantic Records, in the US. (The album was released on Atlantic itself in several countries.) The album was recorded at Island Studios between May and July 1970. Although McDonald and Giles remains popular among King Crimson fans,[2] its commercial success was limited. The duo did not record a second album, but Giles did contribute drums and vocals to "Demimonde" on McDonald's solo album Drivers Eyes.
Ian McDonald and Michael Giles were members of the original King Crimson line-up, and were featured performers on the band's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969). Both left the group at the end of its first United States tour in early 1970,[3] although Giles agreed to play on the second King Crimson album, In the Wake of Poseidon (1970).[4] [5] Two other King Crimson members also worked on McDonald and Giles: Peter Giles and Peter Sinfield.[6]
The music on McDonald and Giles emulates many of the pastoral and musically complex elements of King Crimson, while generally avoiding that band's darker tendencies.[7] The song "Flight of the Ibis" has a melody and rhythm similar to King Crimson's "Cadence and Cascade," with different lyrics.[8] The album contains a guest appearance by Steve Winwood, playing organ and piano on "Turnham Green". Winwood's group Traffic were working on John Barleycorn Must Die at Island Studios at the same time.[9]
Michael Giles' drum solo in "Tomorrow's People – The Children of Today" has been sampled by a number of rap and hip-hop artists, most notably the Beastie Boys, on the track "Body Movin'", from the album Hello Nasty.
The first CD edition was released in Japan in the early 1990s. It came in both jewel box and paper sleeve versions. This version was the same as the original vinyl but was mastered from a tape copy several generations removed from the original master. In 2002 the group members authorised a revised version of the CD with improved sound. The revised version can be recognised by the use of green lettering on the cover instead of pink. A phrase near the beginning of "Suite in C" has slightly different lyrics. Some of the tracks of the 2002 edition have very minor editing. There are a few slightly different segues in the song "Birdman" and the sections of this song are marked as separate tracks on the CD.[10]
Fred Dellard gave the record a perfect score of "50 : A" in Hi-Fi News & Record Review, indicating a "top class recording" "of special merit". He wrote that Giles and McDonald "take the best of King Crimson and turn it into a highly personal series of sketches that stun with their pure majesty. If Debussy had been working within the confines of modern pop music perhaps he would have produced something like this." A reviewer in Cash Box called the two sides of the record "gentle complex music that moves from one important statement to another with free-wheeling grace", comparing it to the albums of Mountain, Elton John and Emerson, Lake & Palmer in that Giles and McDonald "create their own musical world that is the mark of rock in its highest and purest form".[11]
Record World was less enthusiastic, writing that the duo "specialize in a kind of pretty-rock that, at its best, is reminiscent of Beatles–Bee Gees ballads, and, at its worst, is reminiscent of Muzak".[12] A review in The Guardian Journal opined that "one can't help wishing [Giles and McDonald] would employ a little more discipline and a little less self-indulgence in their work" despite the duo's "undeniable musical accomplishments". In particular the reviewer thought that, with "Birdman", "moods are created and then snatched away just as they begin to develop, and the effect is often patchy". The reviewer singled out "Turnham Green" and "Flight of the Ibis" as the album's best tracks.[13] Writing retrospectively in AllMusic, Steven McDonald wrote that the main draw of the record "is really the performances turned in by McDonald and the Giles brothers—they all sound fabulous, even when waffling musically, while Michael Giles has a unique drum tone that never has been duplicated".
From the liner notes:[14]