Up until this month, King Crimson were among the final streaming-service holdouts from the classic rock era. And it made sense. Robert Fripp has famously stated that his pioneering prog outfit isn’t simply a band but also a “way of doing things.” Often, that way of doing things involves resisting the obvious path sometimes at the expense of the band’s stability. The past 50 years of Fripp and King Crimson have been defined by restlessness, thanks to an ever-changing line-up and a sound that’s always searching (typically in odd tunings and time signatures). In one song, they’re a gnarly rock trio with tritone riffs; in another, they’re a gorgeous folk outfit with flutes and fantastical lyrics. Combine that tendency with their myriad spin-off projects (referred to as ProjeKcts), collaborative releases, and elaborate box sets, and you have one of the more intimidating bodies of work in rock history. But now that the majority of their catalogue has finally arrived on Spotify, Apple Music, and others, it’s never been easier to join the Court of King Crimson.
Start with these six albums, and explore the rest at your own pace.
In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
King Crimson’s debut album presents their most recognizable face. It’s there on the cover—the iconic painting by Bary Godber—but it’s also in the restless, symphonic music. Songs like “21st Century SchizoidMan” and “The Court of the Crimson King” have lost none of their paranoid energy, and ballads like “I Talk to the Wind” and “Moonchild” remain among their most memorable deep cuts.
The defining sounds of the record Ian McDonald’s Mellotron and the passionate vocals of Greg Lake would soon be phased out, as Fripp began experimenting more. But it would take years for the rest of the world to catch up to the vision of In the Court of the Crimson King.
If you like this, consider listening to: King Crimson’s 1970 follow-up, In the Wake of Poseidon. It essentially recreates the formula of this album, to varying degrees of success.
Islands (1971)
The title is fitting: These jazzy, string-accompanied tracks are somewhat disconnected from King Crimson’s larger body of work, but they’re worth a visit. Their final album to feature the lyrics of Peter Sinfield, Islands is a transitional work, showing a band on the way to a tighter, bolder sound. While this exercise in jazz fusion was a brief phase, it was also an essential one.
The album’s gorgeous story-songs, like the title track, and psychedelic saxophone parts courtesy of Mel Collins show the band at its most escapist. A minor work for King Crimson, Islands would have been the highlight of many other acts’ discographies. If you like this, consider listening to: the “Sailors Tales” box set, from 2017. It collects every existing live show from this era, building a completist shrine out of what may have seemed like a curio.
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973)
This marked the beginning of King Crimson’s most consistent line-up of the ’70s. With the assistance of bassist/vocalist John Wetton and virtuosic drummer Bill Bruford, along with violinist David Cross and percussionist Jamie Muir, Fripp was able to conjure a deeper, darker sound. “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic” spans relatively straightforward highlights like “Easy Money,” to classical-influenced set pieces like the two-part title track. With it came a period of King Crimson’s career in which composition and live improvisation shared equal billing.
Essentially, Larks’ Tongues in Aspic is the sound of a band figuring out how to incorporate the chaos around them into the songs themselves. Consider listening to: the live recordings from this era. They are just as essential and there’s no shortage of them to choose from. From the half-live follow-up album “Starless and Bible Black” to massive box sets like The Road to Red, you can hear King Crimson evolving with every performance.
Red (1974)
For an act often defined by its uncontainable adventurousness, “Red” is a window into the sleeker side of King Crimson. At this point, the band was essentially a trio Robert Fripp on guitar, Bill Bruford on drums, and John Wetton on bass and vocals and its songs were newly direct, both musically and lyrically. The title track is an instrumental proto-metal megalith, and the imagistic ballad “Starless” though 12 minutes long aims straight for the heart, with Wetton’s poignant vocal delivery and Fripp’s slow-building guitar solo. While most King Crimson albums are notable for signalling rebirths, Red is alone in feeling like a grand finale: the gripping conclusion to a half-decade of work, with not a note wasted. It’s one of King Crimson’s undeniable masterpieces.
If you like this, Fripp’s other work outside of Crimson. From his collaborative ambient masterpieces with Brian Eno (1973’s (No Pussyfooting) and 1975’s Evening Star), to the daring art-pop album he produced for Daryl Hall (1980’s Sacred Songs), Fripp’s ambition kept him busy outside of the prog world he inspired.
Discipline (1981)
After a seven-year hiatus during the second half of the ’70s, the eighth studio album by English progressive rockband King Crimson, released on September 22nd, 1981 by E.G. Records .King Crimson marked their return with a new line-up, a new sound, and, if Fripp had had his way, a new name. “Discipline” was slated to be the moniker for this endeavor, featuring new recruits Adrian Belew on guitar and vocals and Tony Levin on bass and Chapman Stick. But after an early rehearsal, it became clear that this was no mere side project it was the future of King Crimson, with a knotty, new wave sound that imagined if Talking Heads had met at music school instead of art school.
“Discipline” was the first in a trio of releases that found the band flirting, however hermetically, with the pop world in the form of music videos and dance remixes. Centered on the inventive guitar interplay between Fripp and Belew, the ever-cerebral material proved that King Crimson’s DNA could sustain even the most dramatic reinvention. Check out “Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal”. The ’80s incarnation of Crimson did their best work in concert, and this retrospective release captures their final show of the decade, held in 1984.
THRAK (1995)
“Thrak” (stylised in all caps) isthe eleventh studio album by the band King Crimson released in 1995 through Virgin Records. It was preceded by the mini-album Vrooom in 1994. It is their first full-length studio album since Three of a Perfect Pair eleven years earlier, and the only full album to feature the 1994-1997 line-up of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Trey Gunn, Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto.
THRAK succeeds by doing exactly what you don’t expect a King Crimson album to do: sound like KingCrimson. Their sole studio full-length from the ’90s is their most self-referential work (“Dinosaur” quotes the riff from 1970’s “Cirkus,” while “VROOM” calls back to the title track of Red). It’s also among their most accessible. Adrian Belew is an unabashed Beatles fan, and these songs showcase the pop craftsmanship lurking beneath King Crimson’s best work, from the quietly psychedelic “Walking on Air” to the jumpy, philosophical “People.”
Recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire, U.K. The recording presents the group in a series of unique ways. With the band consisting of two guitarists, two bassists and two drummers, the opening track begins with all six musicians in the centre of the audio mix. As the album progresses, they are split into two trios, with one guitarist, bassist and drummer heard in the left channel and the other guitarist, bassist and drummer heard coming from the right channel.
THRAK was also a structural reinvention, introducing the “double trio” formation of the group, with two of each instrument. Bigger in both sound and scope, it’s the ideal late-career prog album. Listen to: 2003’s The Power to Believe, which remains King Crimson’s most recent album of new material. It continues in THRAK’s path, led by Belew’s nervy vocal style and familiar motifs from throughout the band’s discography.
Since 2014, King Crimson has chronicled its annual tours by releasing a Tour Box that incorporates rehearsal tracks, live performance tracks, alternate tracks, and some previously unreleased live performance tracks from the past as far back as 1969. Compiled by Sid Smith for the band, the 2Cd boxes comes filled with music, photos, tour memorabilia, notes, and a lengthy essay. This has come to be expected by fans. But 2020 was unkind to the band with its constraints. However, King Crimson is resilient and non-conforming and so a 2CD Elements 2020 is now on the calendar.
On September 4th, King Crimson will release “The Elements 2020″ over 2CDs. As with previous sets, The Elements 2020 will include live performance tracks from the past previously unreleased on CD that will include some from the distant past, some as early as 1969.
The Elements 2020 will include a 24-page booklet that will include an introduction by Robert Fripp, the expected photos and memorabilia collection, and a 2000-word essay by compiler, Sid Smith.
The Elements 2020 will be housed in a DVD-style Digipak book case. The tradition continues. for fans, this is a happy moment.
The 30th Anniversary edition of King Crimson’s “THRAK” is now available to download. Released in 1995, it features the Double Trio of Fripp, Gunn, Mastelotto, Belew, Levin & Bruford and was the first full-length King Crimson album since 1984’s Three Of A Perfect Pair. “Thrak”, was the eleventh studio album from King Crimson was released 25 years ago today. Appearing a decade after Three Of A Perfect Pair an expanded six-piece King Crimson consisting of the 80s quartet of Fripp, Belew, Levin, and Bruford augmented by Trey Gunn (touch guitar) and Pat Mastelotto (drums and percussion), reconvened and set about creating Thrak.
While I didn’t love this era of King Crimson as much as the John Wetton era there was no way I was missing out on this box set. I began buying these with “The Road To Red” and although it set me back a few hundred quid I went out and got the other three (“ITKOK”, “Larks Tongue In Aspic” and last year’s “Starless”). While the price might appear hefty on the surface, the contents are a bargain, currently this box is retailing at £95 for 12 CDs, 2 DVDs & 2 Blu Rays, you do the math, it’s a steal. At the time most fans were taken aback at the unexpected appearance of the mini-album, VROOOM. in October 1994, announcing as it did, the return of King Crimson to active service. Thrak followed in April 1995 to widespread critical acclaim. Replete with a snarling metallic edge,the band could be heard taking a decisive leap forwards. The Double Trio, as Fripp dubbed them, deliver a brace of brand new Crimson classics, with the bulldozing riffs of VROOOM clearing the way. Dinosaur’s ironic, hook-laden choruses lurches into epic pop song territory, while the title track plunges deep into stormy, turbulent ensemble improvisation.
King Crimson has always had a habit of surprising its audiences. Since stepping off the stage at Montreal’s Le Spectrum in July 1984, Fripp, Levin, Belew, and Bruford had gone their separate ways. Although its dissolution had not been accompanied by the sombre pronouncement that King Crimson had ceased to exist forever as it had been in 1974, fans and observers could have been forgiven for assuming that there was little or no chance of King Crimson treading onto a concert stage ever again.
Onto the contents, while nowhere near as exhaustive as the Wetton era sets the emphasis hear is on quality rather than quantity.There are 3 complete live shows on CD, 2 on Blu Ray and video (an upgraded “Deja VROOOM” and an unreleased show from San Fransisco, the SF show picture quality is a long way from the rumoured HD visuals but the soundtrack is superb), an expanded version of the long out-of-print “VROOOM” EP, an audio documentary about the making of the album using outtakes from the studio session reels, the original and 2015 mixes of “Thrak” (the 5:1 mix really showcases The Double Trio as it should be heard), a CD of improvs and a CD of B-sides, outtakes and odds-and-sods.
On top of that you get a full colour book, posters, postcards and other memorabilia. Giving “Thrak” this new lease of life has really opened my eyes to what an incredible and unique album it is, I enjoyed it before but it never had the same impact on me that the likes of “Red” or “Discipline” had, now it has. King Crimson are setting the standard for this format, opening the vaults for fans in a way that no other band has, roll on the next one!
Fripp’s decision to put King Crimson back together had been made in the second half of 1990 though, as he later noted, without a clear idea of what the band would look like at that point. Clarification came two years later during the period he was working with David Sylvian.
Here’s what the Thrak Box looks like when it’s unboxed…A 16 disc limited edition box set featuring studio and live recordings – many previously unreleased – from King Crimson’s mid-1990s double trio line-up.
Highlights include a new ’21st Century stereo reimagining’ of THRAK (by Jakko Jakszyk and Robert Fripp), ATTAKcATHRAK (a David Singleton edited collection of improvs), and Max VROOOM, which sees a release for the long out of print mini-album VROOOM. The second blu-ray includes concert films, a Thrak epk and Tony Levin’s Road Movies.
Much of the material is presented in new 5.1 Surround & Hi-Resolution stereo mixes.
I came to the King Crimson party a little late in my rock fandom life. I didn’t buy Court Of the Crimson King until about six years ago, and I know this will cause some to scream .Despite that initial reaction I decided to investigate the album ‘Red’ a few years ago when I heard that it had a big influence on Kurt Cobain’s sound, now that did hit the mark and I still rate it as my favourite Crimson album. Suddenly I was looking for more King Crimson and Lark’s Tongues and Starless arrived in my collection. Also, having recently invested in a new toy to play 5.1 surround sound I was buying these CD+DVD-A versions each one impressing me both musically and in their 5.1 mixes, Steven Wilson, as usual, having done an excellent job. Then last year I thought it might be time to check out a bit of later King Crimson and decided to go for Thrak, the title just suggested it would be closer in sound to Red. Those first crashing chords to VROOOM seemed to confirm that. Another good investment I thought, that is until this summer when all of a sudden we found that a new CD DVD-A version was to be released (Along with a 16 disc box set for those with large bank accounts).
The surround sound mixes have been really impressive with all the previous Steven Wilson 5.1 mixes, Crimson are perfect for 5.1 and Mr Wilson knows just how to envelope you in their sound, but of course it’s not Steven Wilson who has mixed this album it is Robert Fripp and current guitarist and vocalist Jakko Jakszyk. It seems Wilson is not the only one who knows how to do a 5.1 mix. Fripp and Jakko have done an excellent job, of course the double trio format that Robert Fripp introduced on this album suits 5.1 perfectly with six instruments spread around your room, this is great fun. Of course it’s not just the 5.1 mix we have here but also a brand new stereo mix as well. On the previous albums I had bought in this dual format I had been unable to compare the new stereo mixes as these were the only versions I had, but for the first time with a Crimson album I can compare and contrast the new and old stereo mixes (Isn’t that supposed to be half the fun). I have to say I like this new mix, it wasn’t that I had previously thought there was anything wrong with the previous mix, but all of a sudden the two drums are brought further up in the mix and all of sudden many of the tracks become so much more interesting hearing those two drummers up front, just take a listen to VROOOM to really hear it. The whole album has an even better feel to it, whether it be the grungy guitars of VROOOM, and THRAK, Adrian Belew’s attempt at Alice Cooper style vocals on Dinosaur or his Beatlesesque vocals on Walking On Air, a track that also feels like a throwback to the first album, you do feel that the new mix has improved an already impressive album.
* CD 1 JurassiKc THRAK – an assemblage of material from the recording sessions for the album – placing the listener in the studio with the band as the material was composed and recorded including seven pieces that didn’t make it onto the final album.
* CD2: Max VROOOM – features the long-unavailable mini-album VROOOM, augmented with tracks and edits from the KC Club release: The VROOOM Sessions. All material re-compiled & remastered at DGM.
* CD3: THRAK – is the 2002 remaster of the original album
* CD4: ATTAKcATHRAK (The Vicar’s THRAK) is a sort of sequel to THRaKaTTaK insofar as it’s assembled from live improvs, but is also very different. One of David Singleton’s best pieces of production, the editing process for the new improv album provides more form and function to the material without compromising the spirit of the original improvs. Unlike THRaKaTTaK, which was based on stereo board recordings, this album is newly mixed, in both stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound, from multi-track tapes.
* CD5: THRAK – is the transformative 2015 Jakko Jakszyk/Robert Fripp remix of the original album, described by Robert Fripp as a “Re-imagining of stereo in the early 21st century.”
* CD6: Byte Size THRAK – is a compilation of singles edits, live tracks from promos, a 12″ mix edit – some of which are making their debut appearance on commercially available disc and extracts from writing sessions from the final Nashville rehearsals in 1997.
* CDs7/8: Kcensington THRAK -is a newly mixed release of the band’s London concerts in 1995. Mixed from multi-track tapes by Jakko Jakszyk, and mastered by David Singleton and Robert Fripp (“To make it rock even harder”). Other than video releases, it is also the first live show from this band available in surround sound.
* CDs 9/10: New YorKc THRAK – features a complete setlist from the 1995 run of shows in the city, some material previously released on VROOOM VROOOM (now deleted) and the KC Club release On Broadway. Drawn from multi-track tapes, mixed by Adrian Belew & Ken Latchney. All newly remastered at DGM.
* CDs 11/12: AzteKc THRAK – features a complete setlist from the Mexico City concerts in 1996 – released, in part, on VROOOM VROOOM – mixed from the original multi-tracks by Robert Fripp, R Chris Murphy and David Singleton, and recently remastered at DGM.
When it was released in spring 1974, not even the record company knew that King Crimson’s ‘Starless & Bible Black’ album was essentially a live recording. Such secrecy by the band might have resulted from knowing that record labels paid a reduced royalty rate on live albums. The truth only emerged several years after Crimson had split up.
Bassist/vocalist John Wetton was proud of the results: “For me, it shows us moving into another dimension as far as being a band is concerned. We’d found our feet; we’d been on the road for the best part of a year. We knew what we wanted to do & we were getting creative. Not only is the album chronologically the bridge between Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, & Red, but it’s also a bridge in many more ways..
in 1973 King Crimson weren’t simply touring in order to pursue rutting opportunities. There was the not inconsiderable matter of recording a follow-up to Larks’ Tongues In Aspic. The album had sold well but the band were less than happy with the results of the time they had spent during January and February in Piccadilly’s Command Studios. “Collapse Studios more like – that’s what we used to call it,” shudders Wetton.
Despite the classic nature of the material and many inventive moments peppered throughout LTIA, the Crimson camp felt that whatever magic had touched them as they played in concert during the winter of ’72, the recording of the album in the New Year had quite simply failed to capture any of that power or intensity which had moved not only the band themselves, but also many commentators and fans. Putting a brave face on their combined disappointment, by the time the album hit the shops, the quartet were already on their way around the UK, Europe and, in mid-April, the USA. The Crimson that returned to the UK in July ’73 was not only tired after notching up over 60 gigs, but also in dire need of new material to refresh the setlist and prepare for a new album.
Reconvening after a three-week holiday, spirits and tempers were frayed, rather than rested. What had been a break for some turned out to be a busman’s holiday for RobertFripp, who emerged from his Dorset cottage with Fracture, The Night Watch and Lament. As the group worked on the new tunes, bad tempers flashed. According to Bill Bruford, Crimson’s writing processes were exercises in “excruciating, teeth-pullingly difficult music making. The tunes Robert has written all the way through, such as Fracture, these are good, and had there been greater output from Robert, we’d have got on quicker and faster. Robert’s always done this. He’s started off these bands with one-and-a-half tunes that point the general direction, and Fracture would have been one of them.”
“I was never given the time to write,” counters Fripp. “The band had a three-and-a-half-week holiday. I had three days. I recall on another occasion saying to the band that I needed time to write, rather than just continuing to rehearse. Bill, in a schoolmasterly and rather grudging fashion, would only agree if I really would do the writing, as opposed to what he implied was goofing off.” The gnawing antipathy that became a defining characteristic of Fripp and Bruford’s subsequent professional relationship first surfaced in these rehearsal sessions, sewing the seeds of the band’s demise a year later.
Putting their differences aside, Crimson took to the road with their newly composed repertoire and their near-telepathic ability to create complex and nuanced improvisations off the top of their heads. When they played at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, a mobile recording studio captured the band in full aleatoric flight.
Few bands of the era offered as much variety in material from night to night. King Crimson’s propensity for improvisation & fondness for playing its newest material – often unreleased on record at the time of the concerts – is legendary. Fewer bands still, whether by accident or design, recorded so many of their live shows.
Back in the UK in January 1974, and with three new tracks in the can at George Martin’s AIR Studios, the band sifted through the many live multi-tracks from the tour, choosing the best improvisations and scrupulously editing the tapes to remove any hint of audience noise or applause. It was impossible to tell what had been improvised in concert and what had been recorded in the studio.
The only songs recorded entirely in the studio were the first two tracks, “The Great Deceiver” and “Lament”. “We’ll Let You Know” was an entirely improvised piece recorded in Glasgow. “The Mincer” was another improvised piece, originally recorded in concert in Zürich but overdubbed with Wetton’s vocals in the studio ,The track was the edited-out middle section of a longer improvisation, the other parts released on The Great Deceiver as “The Law of Maximum Distress”. “Trio”, “Starless and Bible Black” and “Fracture” (the last of which Robert Fripp has cited as one of the most difficult guitar pieces he has ever played were recorded live at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Also recorded at the Concertgebouw was the introduction to “The Night Watch” (the band’s Mellotron broke down at the start of the next section, meaning that the remainder of the song needed to be recorded in the studio and dubbed in later). In all cases, live applause was removed from the recordings wherever possible (although the remains of it can be heard by an attentive listener). The complete Amsterdam Concertgebouw concert was eventually released by the band in 1997 as The Night Watch.
“Trio” was notable for being a quartet piece with only three active players – John Wetton on bass guitar, David Cross on viola and Robert Fripp on “flute” Mellotron. Bruford spent the entire piece with his drumsticks crossed over his chest, waiting for the right moment to join in but eventually realized that the improvised piece was progressing better without him. His decision not to add any percussion was seen by the rest of the band as a crucial choice, and he received co-writing credit for the piece.
When it was released in that spring, not even the record company knew that “Starless And Bible Black” was essentially a live recording. Such secrecy by the band might have resulted from knowing that record labels paid a reduced royalty rate on live albums. The truth only emerged several years after Crimson had split up.
Starless and Bible Black offers an in depth overview of one of the era’s most significant bands in its most celebrated live line-up. John Wetton is proud of the results: “For me, it shows us moving into another dimension as far as being a band is concerned. We’d found our feet; we’d been on the road for the best part of a year. We knew what we wanted to do and we were getting creative. Not only is the album chronologically the bridge between LTIA and Red, but it’s also a bridge in many more ways. We were getting more experimental, trying different recording techniques, really screwing with the system, removing applause from live tracks so they sound like studio tracks – the exact opposite of what people do today where they add applause to a studio track and pretend it’s live. We’d removed the audience because that was the only way we could get the atmosphere we were after. Before Red, we could never recreate that kind of power in the studio – it just wouldn’t happen. You’re in a sterile environment, whereas on stage you’d got all that air and people and you’d got energy.” The bassist looks back on the period in which the album was made with real affection
Autumn 1973: As King Crimson’s second lengthy US tour of that year was coming to a close, a short series of UK concerts for the end of October, followed by a more extensive European tour in November was already planned. Three of these concerts Glasgow, Zurich & Amsterdam were recorded as full multi-track recordings, with material from the Amsterdam show being used as core material for the January 1974 recording of “Starless & Bible Black”. From mid-March to the start of April, the band was on the road in Europe again, promoting the album with their final European concerts of the decade, prior to undertaking a further US tour. A number of these concerts were recorded on stereo reel to reel machines, fed directly from the signal as sent to the PA system on the night of the performance. These soundboards are often referred to as “The Blue Tapes”, named after the outer colour of the original tape boxes & are especially valued for both the quality of recording & performance.
This boxed set presents eighteen CDs of live concert performances, seven of them mixed from the 1973 multi-track tapes and a further eleven presenting the complete run of “The Blue Tapes” for the first time. CDs of the ORTF Paris TV performance & the 2011 stereo mix of Starless & Bible Black also feature. Two DVD-A discs & two Blu-Ray discs contain concert & studio recordings in stereo, quadraphonic & full 5.1 surround sound – all presented in high-resolution audio.
19 CDs of live performance material.
7 CDs taken from multi-track tape including 4CDs of material from the Glasgow & Zurich shows, freshly assembled & mastered in Hi-Res from the original Great Deceiver mixes by David Singleton at DGM Soundworld in 2014, the Amsterdam show The Nightwatch mixed by Steven Wilson & a previously unheard preparatory of material from the same show prepared by George Chkiantz (engineer of all live KC shows of the era & the Red album).
11 CDs drawn from high quality stereo reel to reel soundboard tapes. 8 making their first appearance on CD with the remaining three re-mastered or drawn from new tape sources.
1 CD presenting the performance from the ORTF Paris TV broadcast
CD 20 features the 2011 stereo mix of Starless & Bible Black by Steven Wilson & Robert Fripp
DVD-A 1 features the Starless & Bible Black album in 5.1 Surround, with new & original stereo album mixes in High Resolution Stereo plus bonus audio material.
DVD-A 2 features material from Mainz (mixed by David Singleton), Amsterdam (mixed by Steven Wilson) & a later show from Pittsburgh (mixed by George Chkiantz) in quadraphonic audio & High-Resolution Stereo.
Both DVD-A discs are region 0 playable in all areas & compatible with all DVD players & DVD Rom players
Blu-Ray Disc 1 features full lossless audio 24/192 transfers of material from the Glasgow & Zurich shows, freshly assembled & mastered from the original Great Deceiver mixes by David Singleton at DGM Soundworld in 2014 in LPCM stereo.
Blu-Ray Disc 1 also features the Amsterdam show The Nightwatch, mixed by Steven Wilson & the George Chkiantz preparatory mix stereo in 24/96 High-resolution stereo & a 24/96 transfer of the original David Singleton/Robert Fripp mix of The Nightwatch.
Blu-Ray Disc 2 features Starless & Bible Black in 5.1 Surround (DTS-HD MAS & LPCM 24/96) alongside new & original stereo masters of the album, a needledrop of an original vinyl pressing + audio extras.
Blu-Ray Disc 2 also features the Quad mixes of material from the Mainz, Amsterdam & Pittsburgh concerts.
Blu-Ray Disc 2 also features the ORTF Paris TV footage in a new hi-res transfer from the original source files.
Discs packaged in 8 individual 3 disc digi-packs within an album sized box
3 additional bonus CDs of audio restored soundboard/bootlegs & audio curios are also included.
1 further concert (bootleg quality audio) is also available via included download ticket.
Album sized booklet with rare/unseen photos, new sleeve notes by Sid Smith, technical notes on the recordings by David Singleton, eye-witness accounts from fans who attended the gigs + memorabilia including an album print, poster, replica concert ticket, press release with folder, photos & more besides.
King Crimson
Robert Fripp – guitar, Mellotron, devices, Hohner pianet, production
John Wetton – bass, vocals, production
Bill Bruford – drums, percussion, production
David Cross – violin, viola, Mellotron, Hohner pianet, production
Recorded in the aftermath of King Crimson’s implosion in 1969, when two of its founding members unexpectedly quit the band, “In the Wake Of Poseidon” is an eclectic and experimental mix of bone-crunching riffs, Beatles-ish pop, tender ballads, soaring mellotron-drenched anthems and inscrutable atonal episodes. Highlights include Fripp’s savage guitar throughout Pictures Of A City and Greg Lake’s stunning vocal on the title track – his last with the group before his departure to form ELP. Thanks to the success of their 1969 debut, when In The Wake Of Poseidon was released in May 1970 it peaked at No.4 in the UK charts with one journalist proclaiming “If Wagner were alive today he’d work with King Crimson.”
47 years ago this album was, King Crimson’s second album, In The Wake Of Poseidon was released. Recorded in the aftermath of King Crimson’s implosion during their US tour in 1969, In The Wake Of Poseidon is the sound of an idea that simply refused to quit in the teeth of extreme adversity and apparently insurmountable odds. Understandably, the shock departure of half of the group had dented the confidence that had characterised King Crimson’s demeanour during much of the previous 12 months. Yet in a remarkable display of personal and artistic determination, Poseidon meets the challenge of retaining and developing the fierce originality of ideas that helped fuel King Crimson’s debut album. Whilst Court Of The Crimson King had been a truly collective endeavour, it was undeniably moulded to a large degree around Ian McDonald’s writing and musicality. With Fripp now in sole command of King Crimson’s musical direction, there’s a move into harder-edged, less rock orientated territories which would be expanded upon further in later Crimson records. Despite a superficial resemblance to Court, caused largely by a decision to sequencing the tracks in a way which mirrors the dynamics of side one of Crimson’s debut, In The Wake Of Poseidon deserves to be judged on its own merits and not merely as an adjunct of its more famous predecessor.
Without a working band, Fripp asked Greg Lake, then biding his time until the newly formed ELP could start work, to stay on as guest vocalist whilst also recruiting drummer Michael Giles (along with his bass playing brother, Peter) to return as session musicians. This was a solution that was practical as it was pragmatic. Having lived and worked together as Giles, Giles & Fripp during most of 1968, the core team responsible for laying down the tracks for the album had a proven track record of working quickly and efficiently. The pressure to maintain the commercial momentum of In The Court Of The Crimson King produced a surprise single release. Cat Food (backed with Groon) was issued in March 1970 was about as far removed from the debut album as it was possible to get. The anarchic mood of the song occasioned by Keith Tippett’s freewheeling piano and Greg’s mid-song laughter (caused by Fripp dropping his trousers whilst Lake was singing) made this one of the most unlikely single releases of the year.
Despite these factors, not to mention Peter Sinfield’s satirical lyrics, King Crimson’s profile at the time was such that the band were asked to lip-sync a performance of the song for the BBC’s prime time TV show, Top of the Pops. Perhaps unsurprisingly it failed to catch the ear of mainstream pop-pickers. Nevertheless, it signalled to critics and fans that Crimson was a going concern, and just as importantly, their ability to turn heads remained undiminished.
The haunting melody of Peace – A Theme (whose music dates back to 1968) opening and closing the album, provides a delicate and simple frame into which all kinds of stunning musicianship, dramatic themes and turbulent motifs, jostle and compete for attention. Pictures of a City is brimming with numerous guitar overdubs, a tour de force of densely- wrought picking. Here Fripp gathers the implications of Schizoid Man’s fast running lines, and constructs them into hurtling force in with his trademark dexterity and love of bone-crunching power chords is brilliantly harnessed. The heavyweight nature of Pictures is enhanced still further by guest sax player Mel Collins’ additional firepower. At the time of recording, Mel was still a member of Cirkus – a band which had shared the bill with Crimson and Keith Tippett’s group as part of the Marquee’s New Directions series of gigs the previous year. His work on this track, and in particular the sublime flute on Cadence and Cascade, ensured his recruitment to a new incarnation of King Crimson.
One of the last songs to be completed in the sessions, Cadence and Cascade like POAC, dated from 1969. Substantially revised in the Poseidon sessions, it quickly becomes one of Fripp and Sinfield’s most memorable collaborations. With Lake now off to ELP, he was unavailable for the final recording and his place on this track was taken by Fripp’s old friend, Gordon Haskell. Echoing both the sombre aspect of Epitaph and the hymnal qualities of Court, In The Wake of Poseidon is nevertheless an outstanding track in its own right. Its magnificent mellotron-driven chorus, inspired acoustic guitar interventions, astonishing drumming throughout, and the fragile beauty of Libra’s Theme contained within, is one of Fripp’s most heartfelt melodies every bit as equal to the yearning romanticism found in Peacock’s Tale (Lizard), the title track from Islands and the main instrumental melody from Starless.
When the album was released in May 1970 it was well received in the press, giving rise to the classic Melody Maker headline “If Wagner were alive he’d work with King Crimson”. Thanks to an irresistible combination of anticipation sparked by the runaway success of the debut, along with an overwhelming curiosity to find out what King Crimson would do next, Poseidon actually outsold Court in the UK album charts where it reached No.4. Poseidon was one of the King Crimson albums Steven Wilson was especially looking forward to remixing for 5.1. However, he was disappointed to discover that the multi-tracks for the Devil’s Triangle no longer existed. “Because it’s a bit of a soup, being able to go in and bring out some clarity and detail might have really helped it. As with so much other Crimson stuff, it has got a sense of ‘otherness’ that transcends so many of the other experimental pieces of the same era which haven’t dated well. Harmonically it’s very bizarre but it’s also a kind of prototype of the kind of thing they would try on Lizard in terms of its density and use of free-jazz piano. So there’s basically 12 minutes in the second half of the record where we’re having to rely upon the original stereo master. I think we have to count our blessings that we’ve been able to do what we’ve done so far because to go back and hope to find and work with tapes that are 40 years old is a tall order.”
Robert Fripp guitars & Mellotron, Michael Giles drums, Peter Giles bass Greg Lake vocals with guests MelCollins saxes & flute, Keith Tippett piano, Gordon Haskell vocals. Appears on In The Wake of Poseidon
On the evening of Monday January 13th, 1969, King Crimson formally began rehearsals in the basement of the Fulham Palace Road Cafe. After hauling their equipment down the stairs into their cramped rehearsal room Greg Lake, Ian McDonald, Michael Giles, Robert Fripp plugged in their instruments, and with Peter Sinfield operating lights and sound, played and worked on material for the next hour and a half.
King Crimson’s debut album, “In The Court Of The Crimson King”, was released. The recorded entered the UK charts and later, the US charts and catapulted King Crimson from underground cult act to mainstream success.
It was Fripp’s idea to subtitle the album “An Observation By King Crimson”, which had the effect of framing the five pieces within an implied concept of sorts. Fripp also his suggestion that there be no print anywhere on the exterior artwork. John Gaydon, Crimson’s co-manager at the time recalls Island Records were worried about objections from retailers who would be confused about the lack of information on the sleeve. “Fripp said, well, it’ll be the only record in the shop without anything down the spine on it, so they’ll know which one it is. Which was brilliant when you think about it.”
Housed in its distinctive cover painted by Peter Sinfield’s friend, Barry Godber, it remains the most widely recognised album by King Crimson.
This is the “Ur” record of progressive rock. It is by turns jarring and aggressive, lush, gorgeous and ethereal, depending on the track. It is an essential album because, even if you don’t think you like “Prog Rock,” it has such a variety of sounds, styles and moods, there is bound to be something you’ll find appealing.
Writing in the booklet accompanying the Epitaph box set Robert Fripp recalled “The cover was as strange and powerful as anything else to do with this group. Barry Godber, and Dik the Roadie, was not an artist but a computer programmer. This was the only album cover he painted. Barry died in bed in February 1970 at the age of 24.
The cover was as much a defining statement, and a classic, as the album. And they both belonged together. The Schizoid face was really scary, especially if a display filled an entire shop window.
Peter brought the cover into Wessex Studios in Highgate during a session. At the time Michael Giles refused to commit himself to it, nor has he yet. But Michael has also never agreed to the name King Crimson. We went ahead anyway.
The original artwork hung on a wall in 63a, Kings Road, in full daylight for several years. This was the centre of EG activities from 1970 and remains so today, albeit in its diminished and truncated form. For several years I watched the colours drain from the Schizoid and Crimson King faces until, finally, I announced that unless it was hung where it was protected from daylight, I would remove it. Several months later I removed it and it is now stored at Discipline Global Mobile World Central.”
In 1969, Rhett Davies, who would come to work with King Crimson on Discipline in 1981, was then employed in the Liverpool Street branch of Harlequin Records in London. He ensured that Crimson’s debut album occupied a whole window of the store. “I phoned up the label and asked them to send me over twenty album sleeves and I stuck a joint in one of the mouths!”
Rarely had an album sleeve so accurately echoed the shock-and-awe reaction which this extraordinary music produced in its listeners. Even the advent of the CD and the jewel-case has done little to dilute its iconic power.
Reflecting on the factors surrounding the making of the album, Fripp said “Any group working together has to have a common aim. The ‘69 band’s common aim was to be the best band in the world, whatever we understand by that, but that was the shared aim. Not the most successful band in the world, not the most famous band in the world – the best band in the world. And while you share that aim, and that is your primary focus together, things might happen.” Things certainly did happen for Crimson and at a dizzying speed. Just days after Lake, McDonald, Giles, Fripp and Sinfield began rehearsing in January 1969 in the basement beneath a Turkish cafe on the Fulham Palace Road, record companies were being invited down to listen to their hybrid mix of folk, rock, jazz and symphonic-hued compositions. As word began to spread about the group’s extraordinarily audacious abilities, one early interested party were The Moody Blues who fancied King Crimson might be the first outside signing for their soon-to-be-established Threshold label. “One or two of them came down with their producer Tony Clarke and we played two or three songs and they were impressed” recalls Fripp. A few days later the entire band came to see Crimson play at The Speakeasy. “They hadn’t heard the heavy stuff such as Schizoid Man or Court at that point. We were meant to be going to out on tour with them but they came and saw us live.” After that, Crimson were dropped from the support slot. “They knew we’d blow them off stage” concludes the guitarist.
The association with the Moody Blues continued however with Clarke as the would-be producer of Crimson’s debut album. After only a few sessions however, first in Morgan Studios and then Wessex Studios, Crimson found themselves increasingly dissatisfied with the results, opting to produce themselves. Given that they still had only a handful of gigs under their collective belt, one can’t help but think that this band must have had balls of steel to tell one of the best-selling producers his services were no longer required. “It wasn’t balls of steel it was just this wasn’t right. Look at it a different way; this has to be right. It wasn’t right. I believe we had a meeting in the EG Volkswagen Beetle and the decision was taken: if we produce ourselves we’ll make mistakes but they’ll be our mistakes and not someone else’s. Tony Clarke would get me strumming rhythm chords to I Talk To The Wind for hours through the night. Well, through the night is not my best time for working. Strumming lots of chords is not the best use of me as a guitar player. In other words, he didn’t see these artists; he didn’t see this band. Not really. He saw what he obviously thought was a good band at the very least and it would be good for him as a producer and he probably gave it his best shot, but it wasn’t the production for us. That’s not a criticism of him as a producer. It was just a mismatch between producer and artist. I saw him a few years after that at Heathrow. I can’t remember exactly what was said but there was an edge there. There was something not resolved for him. He seemed to have a bit of attitude about it. For me it was clear he wasn’t the producer for this band. It doesn’t mean the band’s bad or wrong or the producer; it’s just not the match.”
In the years that have followed its release the self-produced album has been widely regarded by many as having kick-started progressive rock. By July of that year, the band was performing in Hyde Park on the same bill as The Rolling Stones to an audience of up to 500,000 people. By October, the debut album: “In the Court of the Crimson King” was in the Top 5 of the UK album charts, shortly followed by a top 30 position in the US album charts and a No 1 slot – replacing Abbey Road – in the Japanese international chart. By December, following a series of US concerts finishing at San Francisco’s Fillmore West, the band’s first line-up had imploded.
1001 Albums You Must Here Before You Die cites Scizoid Man as “perhaps the first alternative anthem, featuring a gargantuan main riff,squalling sax and apocalytic visions.”
Mojo said “The intense brew of classical melodies, jazz and hard rock, matched with fantastical lyrics – and housed in an intriguing, lurid sleeve – created the template for progressive rock. All the more remarkable, then, that the music was created in a week.”
That’s a view that Steven Wilson, who remixed the album in 2009 shares. ”For me this the birth of progressive rock. Yes, there were other albums before that; you could say Sgt Pepper or The Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed have a claim to laying down a blueprint of progressive rock, but In the Court.. really is the first time you have such technical prowess allied to musical experiments, great songwriting and a conceptual feeling all tied together in one record.”
While fans will argue the pros and cons of such an argument there’s no disagreement that Court represents one of the most coherent, cohesive and collectively powerful debut albums of the era.
As new generations of fans discover the album, barely a month goes by without an online reassessment of the record and barely a day goes by without it being cited as one of the most significant and influential rock albums to emerge from the 1960s.
Here’s how some of the music papers of the day reacted to In The Court of The Crimson King.
Melody Maker:
This eagerly-awaited first album is no disappointment, and confirms their reputation as one of the most important new groups for some time. It gives little idea of their true power on stage, but still packs tremendous impact especially the brutally exciting “21st Century Schizoid Man” and the eerie title track, with its frightening mellotron sounds. It’s not all high power stuff though – there’s some nice flute from Ian McDonald on the beautiful “I Talk To The Wind” and “Moonchild” is pretty, though too long. The vocals are clear and controlled and the instrumental work can hardly be faulted. This is one you should try and hear.
Disc:
The first LP from the group heralded by those who know to be the most exciting discovery of the year. Get over the most horrific cover of the year and you’ll find the pundits are not wrong. A brilliant mixture of melody and freakout, fast and slow, atmospheric and electric, all heightened by the words of Peter Sinfield.
International Times:
The Ultimate Album. There is little one can fault with it: the arrangements make masterful use of multi-tracking, compressing and reducing, the standard of playing almost defies belief at time, the vocals are merely excellent and the numbers are brilliantly and excitedly written.
I don’t like one of the numbers, despite my total commitment as a Crimson-Bopper, which is ‘Moonchild’ and is too long. Otherwise a gassy, jazzy, heavy, complex, smooth and totally magnificent album: written, arranged, played and produced by the most original group since …….. (fill in your answers to Apple Ltd., Saville Row, London., for instance.
NME
Long-awaited first album from the remarkable King Crimson, a group which manages to provoke either loathing or fanatical devotion but which is undoubtedly capable of building for itself a sizeable reputation. This stunningly-packaged LP provides a varied selection of King Crimson’s style, although it lacks some of the drive of the stage performances that have made their name. Nevertheless as a first album it is extremely good.
Daily Sketch
If you want to know where pop is going in the 70s listen to this. It is magnificent.
Finally, the American edition of Rolling Stone had this to say:
“There are certain problems to be encountered by any band that is consciously avant-garde. In attempting to sound “farout” the musicians inevitably impose on themselves restrictions as real as if they were trying to stay in a Top-40 groove. There’s usually a tendency to regard weirdness as an end in itself, and excesses often ruin good ideas.
Happily, King Crimson avoids these obstacles most of the time. Their debut album drags in places, but for the most part they have managed to effectively convey their own vision of Desolation Row. And the more I listen, the more things fall into place and the better it gets.
The album begins by setting the scene with ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’. The song is grinding and chaotic, and the transition into the melodic flute which opens ‘I Talk to the Wind’ is abrupt and breathtaking. Each song on this album is a new movement of the same work, and King Crimson’s favorite trick is to move suddenly and forcefully from thought to thought. ‘Epitaph’ speaks for itself: “The wall on which the prophets wrote/Is cracking at the seams…Confusion will be my epitaph.”
‘Moonchild’ opens the second side, and this is the only weak song on the album. Most of its twelve minutes is taken up with short statements by one or several instruments. More judicious editing would have heightened their impact; as it is, you’re likely to lose interest. But the band grabs you right back when it booms into the majestic, symphonic theme of ‘The Court of the Crimson King’. This song is the album’s grand climax; it summarizes everything that has gone before it: “The yellow jester does not play/But gently pulls the strings/ And smiles as the puppets dance / In the court of the Crimson King.”
This set was an ambitious project, to say the least. King Crimson will probably be condemned by some for pompousness, but that criticism isn’t really valid. They have combined aspects of many musical forms to create a surreal work of force and originality.
Besides which they’re good musicians. Guitarist Robert Fripp and Ian McDonald (reeds, woodwinds, vibes, keyboards, mellotron) both handle rock, jazz, or classical with equal ease. Bassist Greg Lake and drummer Michael Giles can provide the beat, fill in the holes, or play free-form. While Dylan and Lennon are still safe, lyricist Peter Sinfield does show a gift (macabre as it may be) for free association imagery.
How effectively this music can be on stage is, admittedly, a big question. The answer is probably not too well. Still, King Crimson’s first album is successful; hopefully, there is more to come.”
At the time of its release in the States, the track that seemed to get the most play was “21st Century Schizoid Man” a disturbing piece of sonic violence. But, there’s “I Talk to the Wind,” a guileless song with harmonies that remind me of sixties soft pop. “Moonchild (including the Dream and the Illusion)” is a narcoleptic study of contrasts, a mix of sparkling cymbal play over Ennio Morricone -stylized string parts (played, as best I can tell, on a Mellotron), transitioning to a series of softly ringing vibraphone sounds, discordant jazz guitar, keyboards, drum rattles and cymbal swells. In short, there is something for everyone, if you are willing to take the trip.
Pressings: there’s lot’s of controversy and some degree of mystery here. The early UK pink labels have matrix information showing A2/ B 2 or 3 or 4; there are even earlier copies with at least an A1 side and some that apparently share an A1/B1 matrix. (My copy is an A3/B3).
Then there’s the legend of the missing tape; the misaligned tape heads and the nasty distortion on the original mix down tape. (I always thought that was by design on Schizoid Man). My UK pink rim, with “U” designations has quieter surfaces than the earlier pink label, but doesn’t really sound any better. There’s a George Peckham (‘Porky’) mastered version floating around (I think those are all pink rims, not pink labels, so they shouldn’t bear a heavy price tag). There are multiple reissues, most of which I haven’t heard.
I did buy the 2010 vinyl re-do, re-mastered digitally and taken from the “missing” first generation mix tapes that had been re-discovered. That “re-do” sounds flatter and less full-dimensioned than either the pink label or pink rim, but that’s most apparent on the “soft” tracks; however, when I switch to the pink label, where I can get more “dimension,” I’m also hearing more distortion and surface noise, particularly on these softer tracks. If you are going head-on with Schizoid Man, it’s a toss up- a biting, nasty piece of work at best.
The Steve Wilson remix, which is offered in a variety of formats (I have yet to see or hear a vinyl version of that), with alternate tracks, apparently relieves some of the distortion. If you are into obscurities, the album was originally released in New Zealand as a Vertigo Swirl!
Which one(s) would I buy? Probably an early Island UK pink rim if it is cheap enough. The sonics of this album are challenging, but it is worth having a copy when you are in the mood, and possibly, even when you are not.
24-disc box set featuring CDs, blu-ray and DVD-As • Combo CD+DVD-A sets of two studio albums also available
King Crimson will release another one of their mega box sets in May. Heaven & Earth is the seventh in their ongoing series and focuses on the period from December 1997 to August 2008. This box set features 18 CDs, 3 x blu-ray audio, one blu-ray video and two DVD-Audio discs. The first three CDs are devoted to enhanced version of the studio albums The ConstruKction Of Light (2000) and The Power to Believe (2003). The former has been remixed (by Don Gunn) and features all new drums by Pat Mastelotto and has a new moniker The ReconstruKction Of Light. The Power to Believe is featured as an extended/enhanced stereo mix and includes the studio version of Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With and Level 5.
The next four CDs feature the instrumental/improvised ProjeKcts, er, projects, described as “research and development” by Robert Fripp. These are all new to CD and each ‘ProjeKct’ each CD features a different line-up.
A further 11 CDs feature live recordings (several new to CD, with some material previously unreleased) from the 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2008 tours.
Of the three blu-ray audios:
Disc One contains the complete recordings of ProjeKcts 1, 3, 4 & 6 – every single concert plus additional material the ProjeKcts released, it features the complete albums: ProjeKct 1– Space Groove, The ProjeKcts – 4CD box, ProjeKct 1 – Jazz Café Suite, ProjeKct X – Heaven & Earth, BPM&M – ExtraKcts & ArtifaKcts and Rieflin/Fripp/Gunn – Repercussions of Angelic Behaviour
Disc Two contains the complete recordings of ProjeKct 2 (every single concert). More than 30 shows plus an album’s worth of rehearsals.
Disc Three contains The ReconstruKction Of Light – the album in stereo and 5.1 mixes with the drums completely re-recorded by Pat Mastelotto – stereo mixes by Don Gunn, 5.1 mixes by David Singleton and the original album in hi-res stereo, The Power to Believe – expanded/enhanced 2019 master (2 tracks with additional elements plus 3 extra tracks assembled/mixed by David Singleton) and 5.1 surround mixes by David Singleton – all mixes executive produced by Robert Fripp – plus the Happy With What You Have To Be Happy WithandLevel 5 mini-albums, the 2000 show from London, the EleKtriK live album from 2003 and a video of a tour of the KC studio/live equipment setup from 2002.
There is also blu-Ray video disc of Europe 2000 – The Bootleg TV tour, which features around 10 hours of audio/video mostly never seen/heard since the concerts with versions of selected songs and improvs (usually two per night of each) from almost every show. Includes footage and music from 20 performances.
Finally, two DVD-As (compatible with all dvd players) feature The ReconstruKction of Light (new stereo/5.1/original stereo mixes plus ProjeKct X – Heaven & Earth) and The Power to Believe (2019 stereo/5.1/original master mixes plus Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With mini-album).
A detailed track listing will be available soon, but you get the general idea! As with the previous sets this box comes presented in a 12-inch box with booklet, memorabilia and new sleeve-notes by Sid Smith and David Singleton.
Heaven & Earth will be released on 31st May 2019 via Panegyric Recordings. If the big box is just too much you can opt for CD+DVD-A combos of The ReconstruKction Of Light and The Power to Believe.
On this date 45 years ago a new incarnation of King Crimson released the album “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic”. The album marked a radical departure from everything they’d previously done. With guitarist Robert Fripp as the only survivor from the original line-up, the new line-up featuring the heat-seeking work of ex-Yes drummer BillBruford and the virtuoso bass work of ex-Family bassist John Wetton, who also took on vocals, presented a breath-taking tour of killer riffs, jaw-dropping dynamics, and poignant ballads. Featuring pastoral Vaughan Williams-style interludes from violinist David Cross, this line-up embraced a spikier sound that was both willing to rock out as well as explore and experiment with unorthodox textures and atmospherics thanks in part to eclectic percussionist Jamie Muir.
John Wetton helped lead King Crimson away from their influential early prog sound into more free-form areas, as band leader Robert Fripp addedmusicians David Cross, Jamie Muir and former Yes co-founder Bill Bruford to form the group’s short-lived fifth incarnation. The intro to “Exiles” is actually adapted from a piece of music that dates back to shows played by the original 1969 Crimson lineup, but almost nothing about the rest of this song – a great example of this lineup’s ability to move from one eruptive musical texture to another, and then to another still – could possibly be confused with any other era. Over the next two albums, Muir and Cross departed.
When Boz Burrell, Mel Collins, Ian Wallace and Robert Fripp walked off the stage of the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama on April 1st 1972, another chapter in King Crimson’s frequently turbulent history had come to an end. With Burrell, Collins and Wallace staying on in the States to form Alexis Korner’s band, Snape, even before the guitarist returned to London there was speculation as to what the guitarist might do next. “Fripp & Hiseman May Form Band” ran the headline in the New Musical Express.
Although that partnership failed to go beyond an exploratory discussion between the principals, Fripp busied himself during the Summer of ’72 sifting through the cassette tapes of what would become Earthbound, and sounding out potential collaborators. One name suggested to him by Melody Maker writer Richard Williams was Jamie Muir. The drummer and percussionist had been working primarily with the Music Improvisation Company alongside Evan Parker, Hugh Davies and Derek Bailey, had also been a member Pete Brown’s Battered Ornaments. Fripp and the percussionist got together as Muir observes “to see if there was a basis for us working together. I remember I was playing some really fast and furious blow-outs, from a drummer’s perspective it was the Tony Williams / Billy Cobham type of thing. It was fairly energetic stuff and I think we enjoyed ourselves. He didn’t say right then and there ‘OK you’re in’ but I think he said he’d give me a ring.”
Although Fripp and Bruford had discussed working together since Crimson supported Yes earlier in February in Boston, it wasn’t until May that the pair undertook some exploratory jamming at Bruford’s house. “We went into my music room and Robert said: ‘If I played this what would you play?’ Apparently I must have done the right thing because eventually he suggested that we do some more!” recalls Bruford.
“I hadn’t up until that time thought of asking [Bill] because as we all know, he had a good gig with Yes” Fripp told NME’s Tony Tyler. At this stage it was by no means certain the King Crimson would be resurrected. Yet it was while a guest in the Bruford household, and sitting in the bath no less, that the notion of a two-drum line-up came to Fripp. “I suddenly thought ‘Well, Bill’s a lovely drummer but he’s perhaps a little too straight for some things…Then I thought of this nut Jamie Muir whom I’d just met, and I thought, well Jamie’s a great drummer but he’s not really straight enough for some of the things I’d like him to do. Now, while I was sitting in the bath…I suddenly had this vivid idea to use the two of them…and it seemed so right.”
The next piece of the Crimson jigsaw was Fripp’s old friend, John Wetton, who’d been previously asked about joining Crimson when the Islands-era band were coalescing in 1971. It hadn’t felt right back then but after several months with Family the bassist was ready to move on. “One day the phone rang and Robert said ‘I’m round at Bill Bruford’s (he lived around the corner from me in Redcliffe Gardens) and we’re discussing the possibility of doing something. Do you want to pop around?’ So I did. I remember Bill came to the door with a carrot in his hand! I thought it felt good as soon as we started talking and so we put the ball in motion. I was actually in the studio with family still working on Bandstand and Bill had been working with Yes doing Close To The Edge. It wasn’t a jam or anything. We just sat and talked about what we wanted to do.”
For Fripp, a new venture offered the possibility of traversing the musical divide which had opened up after the break-up of the ’69 line-up. With Bruford feeling he’d gone as far as he could with Yes, it was a chance to extend his creative vocabulary. As far as Wetton was concerned there would finally be an opportunity to develop as a singer and composer, a role he was firmly denied as a member of Family.
Until now, the only visual record of Muir performing has been a short extract of the band performing Larks’ Tongues In Aspic” for the Beat Club programme in Bremen. However, with the full session now released for the first time as part of this release we can at last see this Crimson in full flight. Muir stalks around his exotic percussion rig, an avant-garde court jester ferrying the sounds and sensibilities of free jazz to the world of the rock band. “I always remember I had an urge to get Robert to let his hair down because he was very controlled in the way he played” says Muir. “At the TV gig, I really tried and tried to provoke him.”
It’s interesting watching the complete video how much eye contact plays a part in determining the force and direction of the music. “I was an absolute nervous wreck during that TV recording” admits Cross. “I can remember thinking ‘well, I’m going to be found out now’. Looking somebody in the eye means you’re furiously sending messages out and receiving them back. It can be quite terrifying for some people to do that kind of improvising, and you need a certain degree of mutually shared experience and be quite comfortable with the people in order to be able to do that. Somehow it was safer to look John Wetton in the eye than it was to ignore him and be out on your own.”
Returning to the UK, the band announced a huge UK tour that kicked off on November 10th in Hull and ended at Portsmouth’s Guildhall on December 15th. Never before had Crimson undertaken such an expansive domestic tour taking in 27 towns and cities, with only five days off. With Earthbound, released in June on Island’s budget label imprint HELP being the most recent but hardly the most representative album, when the tour began, none of the audience could have been prepared for what they saw and heard. With nearly half of the set given over to extended exploratory work outs, this new King Crimson was undoubtedly the most challenging and uncompromising line-up to date. Opening their concerts with the then-unreleased Heavenly Music Corporation (recorded with BrianEno just two months previously) playing over the PA, the five-piece Crimson took the audience on a dramatic tour of some of rock music’s most extreme environments. Blasted with slabs of skull-crunching riffs, raked with hybrid polyrhythms, taunted by abrasive bouts of atonality and occasionally soothing ballads, audiences were frequently stunned by the encounter. On top of the musical assault, Jamie Muir’s visual theatrics compounded the wonderment so many experienced. It wasn’t just the punters who were shocked by Muir’s performance art-antics of throwing chains about the place and spitting blood whilst glowering at the audience. “Jamie’s onstage persona never manifested itself in rehearsals” recalls Cross. “I could have died when I first saw him start his antics on stage for the first time. I thought it was wonderful but we had no idea he was going to do it – it was completely out of the blue.”
The only familiar point of reference was the inclusion of 21st Century Schizoid Man on the set list, delivered as an encore, almost as a reward to the audience’s patience and trust. This was a radical risk-taking Crimson that during the course of a single concert opened so many portals to diverse and different destinations. Critical reaction to Crimson’s return to the live stage bordered on the ecstatic. The NME’s Tony Tyler described the “spiritual impact” of the group as being comparable to the first Crimson, predicting that this time the potential which Crimson had always had within its reach would at last be grasped. Ian Macdonald wrote in the same paper in December that Crimson produced at least half an hour of the most miraculous rock he’d ever heard, while Melody Maker’s Richard Willams extolled the virtues of their “90-minute barrage of phenomenal creativity”.
Inevitably perhaps, the real challenge facing this Crimson, as it had been for previous line-ups, was somehow bottling all that ferocious energy generated during the course of a concert and getting it down in a recording studio. After an initial stab at recording the quintet at Wessex studios Fripp notes that “fairly quickly it became obvious that it wouldn’t work, particularly for a double drummer configuration. Wessex couldn’t find a drum sound whatever they did. And Command was always available at short notice!”
The band were in Command Studios in London’s Piccadilly Circus on Wednesday January 1, 1973, much to JohnWetton’s chagrin. “ In command is one thing you definitely were not in that studio! Things were constantly blowing up, or they were losing bits. We had the engineer, God bless him, who’d never done an edit before. We were talking away over a cup of tea and he had instructions to take a certain amount of footage out of the front of EasyMoney so we could move the first beat of the bass drum up. So we were sitting there and every now and then would ask how the edit was going. There he was with a razor blade in his hand and then after a while he told us he’d never done an edit before. We were like ‘Fuck! Put that razor blade down!’ (laughs) Every day there was something going wrong like that.”
Interviewed during the mixing of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Bruford offered his thoughts views on the frenetic activity undertaken by the band to date “We specifically wanted to tour before making an album having only just met. For example I knew of Jamie Muir’s position in contemporary music but I’d never met him…it was Robert’s idea to have Jamie and myself play together, and representing percussion through the ages…We’re all still getting to know each other. We’ve learnt to play together on stage, now we are learning to play in the studio.” Looking towards the future, Bruford offered “ There’s a Crimson way of doing things you know. And it’s a fairly intense emotional relationship in the band…It’s exhilarating to be part of and could produce magical music that will change people.”
With work on LTIA finished, the band played two nights at London’s Marquee Club. After the first live performance of 1973, on February 10th, Jamie Muir unexpectedly quit. Faced with the band’s gruelling tour schedule for the months ahead, Muir concluded a path to spiritual enlightenment was preferable. Leaving the group to follow his interests in Buddhism (something he’d been nurturing prior to Crimson), he informed EG management of his decision. Despite offering to serve a period of notice he was urged to leave immediately.
The story put out at the time was that the percussionist’s absence followed an injury sustained on stage. “That was nonsense about my having injured myself” says Muir. “I think I slightly sprained my ankle but then I did that nearly every night when I played. When I heard about what they’d said, I wondered why would anybody do that — what advantage could there be in not saying what actually happened? It didn’t seem to make any sense to me at all, but then there were a number of things which that management did which didn’t make any sense except perhaps to themselves.” Though Muir’s departure marked the end of a brief but intensely fertile period, it also helped usher in the birth of another remarkable chapter in the band’s story.
Steven Wilson recalls the first time he heard the album. “I was in my mid-teens and I’d borrowed it from a friend. My first reaction was that it was one of the most dynamic records you could ever hear. Within the first five minutes you been through every extreme of volume.”When it came to remixing the album Wilson was mindful of the criticism by the band that the original recording never quite captured what they were capable of in concert. “Although the music itself is extraordinary I approached things slightly differently than say the way I’ve done with previous Crimson records. I was a little bit less faithful to the original recording in the sense that I knew there were some things we could do to toughen the sound up a bit to give the album a bit more balls if you like.”
Perhaps because of their general dissatisfaction with the sound achieved at Command, none of the musicians who recorded Larks’ Tongues In Aspic are especially comfortable about the finished results. “I look upon it as part of the journey to Red if you like” says Wetton. “It didn’t really capture what we could do live. As I see it, there’s a very natural progression from Larks’ Tongues to Starless And Bible Black, which stretches out a bit sonically. By the time you get to Red it’s all in full flight.”
Echoing the meteoric trajectory charted by the 1969 incarnation, in just five short months five musicians from different backgrounds and influences distilled their collective experience to create a rock band that stood out and, largely, stood alone in the musical landscape of the day. “I think the music that came out of Crimson was purely a result of people being prepared to listen to each other even though they didn’t come necessarily from the same branch of the tree” says David Cross. Jamie Muir puts it like this “The essence of it was that we were still five musicians carrying with them their qualities and gifts and still trying to find a way of welding it all together into one distinct personality.”
Forty years on the music contained on their sole studio album, alongside their live legacy combines to provide a compelling testimony to the group’s breadth of ambition and startling originality. By the time that three-way conversation had taken place in Redcliffe Gardens, Fripp had already been invited to see a band called Waves rehearsing in the basement of the cafe on the Fulham Palace Road at the behest of David Enthoven. Although the band failed to catch EG management’s attention, violinist David Cross was invited by Fripp to do some playing. “Robert said he was interested in doing what he called an Indian type album and asked if I’d be interested in playing with him and Jamie Muir” recalls Cross. “The first time I met Jamie was when I turned up at his flat to play and we spent a couple of hours there having a jam, trying some ideas with just guitar, violin and percussion.”
On Wednesday 19th July Bruford and Wetton broke the news of their decision to quit Yes and Family. “We had to co-ordinate the whole thing” says Wetton. I remember calling Bill from Olympic Studios to wherever he was and agreeing to tell our respective bands. London was like a village then and everyone knew everyone else and if something happened in a recording studio, like in Olympic where I was recording, it would very quickly get to Advision, where Bill was recording. So we had to do things at the same time.”
David Cross also received a call from Fripp. “He said he was setting up another session but this time with Bill and John and he asked me to come along and he wanted to see what would come out of that. It was that afternoon that the project became King Crimson. There was a discussion as to what it would be called but eventually by the end of the day it was agreed that we’d call it King Crimson.”
“King Crimson was the ideal for me because it was a rock band and it had more than three brain cells” recalled Jamie Muir. “I was very much more an instrumental style of musician rather than being song based and there weren’t many other bands that I would have been any good in. I was extremely pleased and I felt completely at home with the Crimson.” On July 22nd the new line-up made front page news of Melody Maker. Yes Man To Join Crimson ran the headline. “The New King Crimson rehearsed quietly this week – with Yes’ Bill Bruford on drums alongside leader Robert Fripp”
It wasn’t until the end of August after Fripp had completed his work as producer of Matching Mole’s Little Red Record that the new Crimson started working in earnest. Wetton recalls that the early rehearsals outlined the bones of tracks such as Easy Money and Book Of Saturdays (then called Daily Games). Fripp also ran the bare bones of an idea that he’d first tried out with the Islands-era line-up, and which would be later titled Larks’ Tongues In Aspic – a phrase coined by Jamie Muir but appropriated by Fripp.
There was a conscious decision to break away from the old Crimson repertoire. Whereas Boz, Mel and Ian had to a certain extent been hobbled by the necessity of playing material fashioned by previous line-ups, this version of Crimson carried no such baggage. Although groups such as The Mahavisnu Orchestra and Can integrated improvisation into their set lists, it’s hard to think of any other rock band operating at the time who took that blistering mixture of calculated risk and blind faith as far as it could go. “There were long stretches where anything could happen and frequently did” laughs Wetton. “A lot of the time, the audience couldn’t really tell the difference between what was formal and what wasn’t because the improvising was of a fairly high standard. It was almost telepathic at times. You’d automatically know what the other person was going to do and when they were going to do it. Extraordinary. Those kinds of things don’t happen very often.”
Robert Fripp guitar & Mellotron, John Wetton bass & vocals, Bill Bruford, drums & percussion, David Cross violin, Mellotron, electric piano, Jamie Muir percussion & allsorts. Appears on Larks’ Tongues In Aspic
King Crimson czar Robert Fripp has long treated his music as a crown jewel something so precious, it can only be sold in its original form, as a physical product. Until a few years ago, Fripp wouldn’t allow any of KingCrimson’s recordings to be bought on iTunes and, even then, he made only a limited number of their albums available. He had an even stricter attitude towards streaming. He wouldn’t let a single song be experienced in that form.
But now, his policy has changed—or at least amended. in June, the latest King Crimson releases showed up on the major streaming services, in the process easing what had been one of the longest hold-outs by a major artist in the most popular current form of music consumption. Fripp only granted permission for two releases to stream, and both are live works released in the last year. Luckily, nearly every song on them comes from deep within Crimson’s canon, including many of the band’s most desired pieces. The music features dazzling fidelity, as well as smart interpretations from Fripp’s latest erudite incarnation of the band. The band’s line-up includes early Crimson member Mel Collins (sax/flute), longtime ally Tony Levin (bass), plus second guitarist/singer Jakko Jakszyk, augmented by three , Yes three drummers. Together, they deliver over three hours of music, contained in sets titled and . No fewer than 14 of the streamable songs come from Crimson’s prime era—’69-’74—plucked from the seven impeccable albums released during that period.
The song, which kicked off the band’s debut album, In The Court Of the Crimson King gave fans a shudder, and a thrill, when it appeared in October of 1969. The full ‘Court’ album is considered by some to be the most influential prog-rock work ever released, but that’s too confining, and loaded, a tag for such a set. “Schizoid” alone combines heavy metal, proto-industrial music, classical influences, jazz, and sheer noise to create something that still sounds startlingly new nearly half a century after its release.
The new take on “Schizoid,” recorded live in Japan, has its own tough textures and alarming dynamics. They’re informed by the use of two guitars, manned by Jakszyk and Fripp, who interlock seamlessly on the serrated riff that slashes through the vocal, and the burning solos that whip out of the chorus. Jakszyk also sings the song and, while his voice lacks the authority of the original recording of frontman Greg Lake, he channels more than enough of the cut’s essential menace. “Schizoid,” the sole piece that has never left Crimson’s live set, finds fresh appeal in this version through two elements. First: a long sax extension from Collins that runs from cool jazz to hot dissonance. Secondly a nearly three minute solo break from the drum trio. Instead of simply pounding away, the players use crystalline cymbals, tribal tom-toms and a wide range of percussion devices to give the rhythm an orchestral richness. The cataclysmic result not only sounds like the end of the world but also like the start of a new one.
The title track from Crimson’s debut hinges on what could be the best-known mellotron riff in modern music. Certainly, it’s the loveliest. In contrast to the hell of “Schizoid,” has a hallowed elegance. The version here, more terse than the original, retains the unique drum patterns created by original stick man Mike Giles, but given a newly holistic reach through the percussion trio. An elegant flute solo from Collins greatly extends the original filigrees Ian McDonald forged in ’69. It’s echoed by Tony Levin’s bass line, which lends the song a new sensitivity amid the dystopian overtones.
One of the most beautiful tunes Fripp ever penned provides a respite amid this often harrowing set. Then again, the song’s lyrics couldn’t be more discouraging. The live version draws special empathy from the sax, shading the mournful mellotron.
In the wake of their well-received debut, Crimson suffered a potentially lethal blow. Three of its four members left, including Greg Lake (who ran away with Keith Emerson to form ELP) and McDonald and Giles (who departed to record a lovely joint album). Luckily for leader Fripp, two key players—Lake and Giles—agreed to appear as guests on the second Crimson album, “In the Wake Of Poseidon”, released in May of 1970. Meanwhile, Collins stepped in to replace McDonald, adding a jazzy new energy. Unsurprisingly, the album often sounds like a retread of ‘Court’, though it does boast its own distinctions. The tranquil interlude appears in three different guises on the album, providing the disc’s connective tissue. In the new version, Jakszyk sings the first verse in Japanese, both to acknowledge the setting of the concert and to embody the theme of cooperation in the lyrics. The delicate new take offers a serene set-up for the severity that follows.
In many ways Pictures functions as a sequel to “Schizoid.” Both tracks boast a similarly snaking riff, a ruthless, stop-start mid-section, as well an overall dedication to darkness. This time, however, the riff has more sleazy swagger. While Levin’s harrowing bass envelops the bottom of the song, there’s a free jazz play to Collin’s mid-section solo. Better, the two guitars ricochet off each other, intensifying the song’s harsh resonance.
Sadly, the new set features no material from Crimson’s third album, Lizard, which appeared at the tail end of 1970. Happily, two pieces appear from the band’s inventive follow-up, Islands, issued one year later. Much took place in Crimson-land between the two albums. Each featured a different line-up, excepting Collins and Fripp. While ‘Lizard’ stands as the most avant-garde, and amorphous, of the band’s early works, ‘Islands’ hardly lacked for daring or variety. “The Letter”, which appeared on ‘Islands’, infuses a hushed ballad with two metal-jazz freak-outs. Pete Sinfield’s lyric tells the morbid tale of a woman who has a relationship with a married man, which she reveals to the wife in a letter. The live version lets Collins expand on his original sax break-down, enabled by more-frantic-than-ever guitar stabs from Fripp and Jakszyk. The violent sections in the music mirror the reaction of the wife who, in the end, sends back a letter of her own: a suicide note.
One of Crimson’s most energetic jazz forays opens with a fierce bass line and tantalizing cymbal work. Together, they spur a meeting between Fripp’s quavering guitar and Collins‘ glistening sax. The mid-section centers on an eruptive fusion solo from Collins. Later, Levin’s walking bass line sets-up a Fripp riff that sounds like a buzz saw cutting through your skull, culminating in mellotron work that suggests the remains of a city after it’s been carpet bombed. They did another total tear-down on their sound, surrounding main member Fripp with entirely different musicians. Only this album featured the eccentric percussionist Jamie Muir, who played gamely off the band’s brilliant new drummer, Bill Bruford, whom Fripp had just poached from Yes. The swishes and clicks created by Muir, which open the song, provide an ideal showcase for the new album’s drum trio. Together, they set-up a guitar assault that sounds like a swarm of bees darkening the sky with murderous intent. The double guitar attack in the new version amplifies the threat, exploding with charging riffs and soaring solos. It’s incredible how many parts make up this piece. The guitars keep morphing, as does the beat, along the way embracing music from Africa, Eastern Europe and Britain, with injections from the world of musique concrete along the way. Levin’s bass plays a thrillingly disruptive role, while Collins subs his fluid flute for the violin parts provided in the original by David Cross. However chilling sections of Larks Tongue may be, the piece resolves in a melody that shimmers.
Despite its title, The Talking Drum anchors on the bass. Levin’s instrument seems to stalk the song, repeating a maddening line that gallops under a grinding sax solo. It’s a similar dynamic to the one that fired “Sailor’s Tale,” but with its own sense of urgency. Levin’s bass has the focus of funk but the feel of threat.
The second part of “Lark’s Tongues In Aspic (Part II)” contained on the 1973 album of the same name, hits even harder than the first. Bass lines scurry, beats brutalize, while a heavy-ass guitar slashes and burns. It’s a scourge as much as a song, a brutalist symphony in hell.
On Easy Money Jakszyk does an incredible job of mimicking the timbre of the song’s original singer, JohnWetton. But the herky-jerky guitars that surround him in the new take have their own sense of disquiet, and the newly added sound effects convey an original whimsey. Fripp’s lunar guitar finds yet another fresh texture while the mellotron lurks in the background like a predator circling its prey.
While the new set lacks any tracks from the band’s tumultuous 1974 album, “Starless and bible Black”, it does feature a run at a like-named track which first appeared on the “Red” album, released six months later. The song’s first half boasts one of Crimson’s most beautiful melodies, which Collins extends through his ruminative sax lines. The second half of the track uses Levin’s anticipatory bass, the percussionists’ pithy asides and metronomic guitar notes to capture Crimson’s favorite state: panic.
“Red” The final album from King Crimson’s classic phase hardened the sound more than ever, suggesting a whole new form of art-metal. ‘Red’ focused on the core threesome of guitar-bass-drum, though Collins‘ colorful sax adds a brighter contrast to the new take. As many leavening as the sax provides, ultimately the track loses nothing in energy or punch.
“One More Red Nightmare” The percussionists sprawl all around Fripp’s architectural guitar in a third track included from ‘Red’. There’s a surprising catchiness to the melody. Even the song’s fierce instrumental section has a rapturous quality, aided by Collins‘ painterly sax. The ‘Red’ album so perfected Crimson’s mission that Fripp wound up putting the brand on ice afterwards, not to revive it for another seven years.
Along with the 14 tracks the new set includes from the classic era, it adds eight re-thought pieces covering material from incarnations of the band that popped up in the early ’80s, the mid-’90s and the early aughts. Highlights include “The Hell Hounds Of Krim” , and “Devil Dogs Of Tessellation Row” , which each give free reign to the percussion, and “The Construkction Of Light” , which finds Levin’s bass creepy-crawling around like a black widow spider. As the title suggests, the ‘Heroes’ EP features areverant take on the Bowie Classic, which includes one of Fripp’s most indelible leads. Best, though, is the title track of ‘Radical Action’, a new, 10 minute opus that proves the guys still have it.
The Band:
Mel Collins: Saxes & flute, Robert Fripp: Guitar & keyboards, Gavin Harrison: Drums, Jakko Jakszyk: Guitar & voice, Tony Levin: Basses & stick, Pat Mastelotto: Drums, Bill Rieflin: Drums & keyboards.
King Crimson aren’t so much a band as a series of bands, all featuring and led by idiosyncratic guitarist Robert Fripp. With a demeanour that resembles a University professor more than a rock star, Fripp’s plotted an erratic course for his band. The group formed in London in 1968, but their ninth album, 1982’s Beat, was the first time the band’s lineup remained the same for two consecutive albums.
While the term “progressive rock” has come to mean a specific style of music that’s symphonic and complex, KingCrimson’s shifting lineups, fondness for improvisation, and changes of musical direction mark them as truly progressive. This daring approach can make for some difficult listens, but makes them constantly interesting – their discography is a wild ride, especially in the early 1970s as Fripp struggled to replace the mighty lineup that created their stellar 1969 debut, In The Court of The Crimson King.
A look through King Crimson’s studio discography is absolutely huge but here are five favourite albums, but you should bear in mind that a lot of their live material is also universally acclaimed albums like Epitaphfrom the initial lineup or Absent Lovers from 1984 are considered key parts of their discography.
Starless and Bible Black (1974)
I actually bought this album at the time because I loved the sleeve artwork, And of all King Crimson’s line-ups, my favourites and because of John Wetton’s vocal, the mid-1970s iterations of the band, featuring John Wetton on bass and vocals and Bill Bruford on drums. Starless and Bible Black is less coherent than the two albums that bookend it, as it’s largely formed around live improvisations, but it’s still full of highlights like the complex, heavy instrumental ‘Fracture’ and the beautiful ‘The Night Watch’.
Released in March 1974, the bulk of Starless And Bible Black is a live album with all traces of the audience skilfully removed. Coming between the startling inventions of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, and the far-reaching repercussions of Red, Starless And Bible Black is a powerful and experimental album mingling live recordings with stand-alone studio tracks. Brimming with a confidence borne out of the band’s increasing mastery of the concert platform as a basis for inspired improvisations, the sparse, pastoral beauty of Trio, the impressionistic, sombre moods of the title track, and the complex, cross-picking rhythmic brilliance of Fracture all stand testimony to the musical ESP that existed between Cross, Fripp, Wetton and Bruford. A classic and compelling blast of KingCrimson as you’re likely to hear.
Discipline (1981)
After breaking King Crimson up in 1974, Robert Fripp rebooted the band in 1981, retaining Bill Bruford from the previous lineup, and adding guitarist and vocalist Adrian Belew and Tony Levin on Chapman Stick and bass. The new lineup’s extreme virtuosity is impressive, a unique blend of new wave, progressive rock, and world rhythms.
After seven years away from the public King Crimson returned in 1981 with a brand-new incarnation. Joining Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford are ex-Zappa/Bowie guitarist, Adrian Belew and ace session and Peter Gabriel bassist, Tony Levin. Incorporating sounds reminiscent of the resonant chimes of ancient gamelan music and the sleek, clear lines of modern minimalism,this Anglo-American combination forged a startlingly different musical vocabulary. Frame By Frame, Thela Hun Ginjeet and the album’s title track in particular, showcase Belew and Fripp’s dovetailing guitar parts and Levin and Bruford’s cyclical grooves, forming a mesmeric sound unlike anything heard before on any previous King Crimson albums. The shimmering, hypnotic textures of The Sheltering Sky and savagely raucous Indiscipline provide aleatoric counterweights to the album’s tightly-controlled complexity.
Larks Tongues in Aspic (1973)
After a few unconvincing albums in the early 1970s, Fripp replaced his entire band, bringing in Wetton and Bruford along with percussionist Jamie Muir and electric violinist David Cross. The record is split between complex instrumentals, like the two parts of the title track, and strong songs like ‘Exiles’ and ‘Easy Money’, featuring Wetton’s gritty vocals. King Crimson’s 1973 album marked a radical departure from everything they’d previously done. With guitarist Robert Fripp as the only survivor from the original line-up, the new line-up featuring the heat-seeking work of ex-Yes drummer Bill Bruford and the virtuoso bass work of ex-Family bassist John Wetton, who also took on vocals here, presented a breath-taking tour of killer riffs, jaw-dropping dynamics, and poignant ballads. Featuring pastoral Vaughan Williams-style interludes from violinist David Cross, this line-up also embraced a spikier sound that was both willing to rock out, as on the unhinged complexities of LTIA Pt2, as well as explore and experiment with unorthodox textures and atmospherics thanks to eccentric percussionist Jamie Muir.
In The Court of the Crimson King (1969)
King Crimson immediately made an impact with their debut, with Fripp sharing the limelight with Greg Lake on vocals and bass, Michael Giles on drums, and Ian McDonald on woodwinds; McDonald contributed a lot of the song-writing to the album. It’s not perfect, as ‘Moonchild’ drags, but it’s a landmark of progressive rock, effectively defining the symphonic prog genre with highlights like ’21st Century Schizoid Man’ and ‘Epitaph’. This remains King Crimson’s only gold record – they never capitalised on its success, as the initial lineup disintegrated – Lake went on to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Described by The Who’s Pete Townshend as ‘an uncanny masterpiece’, King Crimson’s debut was released in October 1969 becoming an instant chart hit on both sides of the Atlantic – not bad for a band who only got together less than ten months earlier. 21st Century Schizoid Man showcases the band’s ability to blend music that had the brutal attack of a claw hammer yet wielded with the skilled precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. Consisting of a visionary blend of gothic ruminations, anthemic Mellotron-laden grandeur, ornate arrangements and introspective folkish abstractions, the album was a huge influence on bands such as Yes and Genesis and countless other acts on the ‘70s rock scene. The albums distinctive sound is as fresh, bold and as startling as when it first appeared.
Red (1974)
Gradually whittled down to a trio over the previous couple of records, the dominant sound on Red is the hard, complex rock of the title track and ‘One More Red Nightmare’ from Wetton, Fripp, and Bruford. But it’s the majestic closing ‘Starless’ that’s the gem of King Crimson’s oeuvre, a twelve minute epic that builds to a triumphant, unforgettable climax. Starless is one of King Crimson’s most popular songs came when the view counter for the video of the song performed by the Radical Action team tipped over the 3 million mark.
The song which originally closed off the ’70s incarnation of the band was reinstated to the KC setlist in 2014, 40 years after it had last been performed, and has stayed there ever since. The version posted on the King Crimson Youtube Channel is taken from 2016’s Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind. In case you’re not one of the three million people-plus to have watched it,
Recorded at the end of two lengthy tours of the USA in 1974, the final album of the 1970s finds King Crimson in an raw and uncompromising mood. Consisting of Crimson founder guitarist Robert Fripp, bassist and vocalist JohnWetton and drummer Bill Bruford, the trio serve up a sound that’s metal-edged, gritty and powerful. Opening with the classic bulldozer instrumental title track, the album contains a typically eclectic mix that includes the jazzy rock of Fallen Angel, the punchy attack of One More Red Nightmare, the unsettling but dazzling near-telepathic improvisation of Providence and the stirring anthem, Starless whose opening ballad section gives way to a moving and emotional climax that is frequently cited as the ultimate King Crimson listening experience.
The Fat Angel Sings 