THE 21ST CENTURY GUIDE TO KING CRIMSON VOLUME TWO: 1981-2003 (4CD BOX SET)

Every once in a while you will hear voices going up that any band with Adrian Belew at the helm, and calling themselves King Crimson, cannot be considered the real thing. Well, I'm sorry guys, but by now (as of July, 2007) this particular band has roamed the planet for over a quarter century, so perhaps it's time you faced up to reality. I've seen footage of both the 1972-1973 band and the 1995 band, and to all ends and purposes the classic Crimso spirit was as alive in the Nineties as it ever was in the Seventies! And for all I know, it is still going strong.

How good is this collection as a portrait of the post-1981 band, though?

To cut a long story short, the 1981-1984 incarnation has been represented fairly, but not necessarily better than on FRAME BY FRAME, an earlier box set which is still available secondhand, and which has the considerable advantage of including loads of 1960s-1970s Crimso.

Post-1994 KC has been represented splendidly as well, but one wonders if it really deserves two full CDs - the same amount of space that was allocated (on THE 21st CENTURY GUIDE, VOLUME ONE) to the 1972-1974 band, an incarnation which was historically far more important.