To be released on July 4, 2025, available to preorder now.
The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp (The Songs)
200gm vinyl (DGMLP8) pre-order vinyl
CD (DGM5027) pre-order CD
The first standalone release of the songs from Giles, Giles & Fripp’s 1968 debut album, now with spoken word sections removed.
New 2025 remaster by David Singleton.
While 1967 is rightly remembered for an abundance of classic albums, there were also quieter debut LPs emerging, signalling popular music’s imminent changes to a more rock-oriented, musician-centred approach. It was also the year that Robert Fripp applied for a ‘singing organist’ role advertised by brothers Peter and Michael Giles, despite having no experience either as a singer or organist.
Experiencing a few challenges and disappointments on the way, the year was an exciting one for the trio, who recorded a series of demo tapes which eventually led to them being offered a record deal with Decca Records.
In 1968, The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp album was released, bringing a mix of folk and psychedelic pop interspersed with Goon-ish humour, a slightly confusing cocktail of seriousness and comedy but nonetheless an album showing some beautiful harmonies and fine guitar playing.
For all its lack of commercial success, the album has been reissued on several occasions – though never in an edition that focuses purely on the songs.
For this updated 2025 remaster, the somewhat dated spoken word/humourous interludes have been removed which has allowed for the songs to flow as an album revealing it as a charming, sometimes whimsical example of late British psychedelic music.
While 1967 is rightly remembered for an abundance of classic albums, there were also quieter debut LPs emerging, signalling popular music’s imminent changes to a more rock-oriented, musician-centred approach. It was also the year that Robert Fripp applied for a ‘singing organist’ role advertised by brothers Peter and Michael Giles, despite having no experience either as a singer or organist.
Experiencing a few challenges and disappointments on the way, the year was an exciting one for the trio, who recorded a series of demo tapes which eventually led to them being offered a record deal with Decca Records.
In 1968, The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp album was released, bringing a mix of folk and psychedelic pop interspersed with Goon-ish humour, a slightly confusing cocktail of seriousness and comedy but nonetheless an album showing some beautiful harmonies and fine guitar playing.
For all its lack of commercial success, the album has been reissued on several occasions – though never in an edition that focuses purely on the songs.
For this updated 2025 remaster, the somewhat dated spoken word/humourous interludes have been removed which has allowed for the songs to flow as an album revealing it as a charming, sometimes whimsical example of late British psychedelic music.
A Selection from The Brondesbury Tapes
200gm vinyl (DGMLP9) pre-order vinyl
The Brondesbury Tapes
CD (DGM5028) pre-order CD
200gm vinyl (DGMLP9) pre-order vinyl
The Brondesbury Tapes
CD (DGM5028) pre-order CD
Giles, Giles & Fripp’s 1968 demo home recordings, newly remastered by David Singleton. A must-have collection for King Crimson fans with some early indication of the band’s sound / repertoire. CD includes all 21 previously released tracks from the Brondesbury Road tapes. 200-gram superheavyweight vinyl and digital release picks 13 of the best quality recordings from the tapes.
Moving into 93a Brondesbury Road in 1968, Peter Giles, Michael Giles and Robert Fripp’s North London flat soon became a centre of creative activity for the trio.
Feeling energised after the frustrations they’d experienced while recording The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp at Decca, they soon established their living space into a home studio (consisting of one Revox reel-to-reel tape machine) which was frequently visited by ex-Fairport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble, a then unknown Ian McDonald and, later in 1969, by Greg Lake.
The musical output from that period is often mentioned as providing King Crimson fans with a glimpse into the early incarnation of the band’s sound and composition.
The popular Crimson ballad I Talk To The Wind appears here in two early versions with one featuring Peter Giles on vocals and the other with Judy Dyble on vocals.
Parts of Fripp’s Suite No.1 would later be transformed into Prelude: Song Of The Gulls and his Why Don’t You Just Drop In became, with new lyrics, The Letters for 1971’s album Islands.
The Fripp-composed Passages of Time is also of interest, consisting of a driving bolero rhythm and a middle-eight section that would later find its way onto King Crimson’s In the Wake of Poseidon as Peace - A Theme.
Although the audio quality is limited in places due to the original source, the 2025 remastering by David Singleton has improved the sound significantly compared to previous issues.
