HEAVY CONSTRUKCTION

But HEAVY CONSTRUKCTION _is_ an awesome live set by a band that has always been better live than in the studio. Since it came out I haven't even played THE CONSTRUKCTION OF LIGHT; every track from that album is represented here, and with the possible exception of "ProzaKc Blues," where the vocals are a bit strained, the live versions kick the studio versions' pale white backsides. It's as if the studio versions were sketches and these tracks are the paintings.

The THRAK-era material is good, but I find myself missing the denser sound of the "double trio," especially on "VROOOM" and "Dinosaur." That very denseness made the mid-'90s band sometimes hard to listen to, but the difficulty was paid off with rewarding music.

The 2000 band is different. Lighter in sound, each player has room for what he does best, and they all do what they do best very well indeed. The four members are all masters of their instruments, playing with colleagues they trust and like, and the result is music that might have been generated by one mind, eight hands.

The two instrumental epics - "FraKctured" and "Lark's Tongues Part IV" - feature some of the most ferocious guitar work Robert Fripp has ever put on tape, plus a Belew solo that's almost painful it's so good.

The encores are just a hoot: Belew's solo acoustic interpretation of "Three of a Perfect Pair," the only pre-THRAK repertoire on the album; the other three turning in a powerful, moving 'Deception of the Thrush"; and the full band kicking around Bowie's classic song "Heroes" (for which Fripp created the famous guitar lead, whcih Belew played on the subsequent tour).

But the real treat is the improvs. Improv has been a major strength of King Crimson from the legendary Fripp-Lake-Giles-MacDonald-and-Sinfield incarnation on, and the latest incarnation is no exception. Plenty of Crim improvs have been recorded before, from tracks like "Trio" and "Providence" to the ProjeKcts box set. The THRAKATTAK album might lead one to wonder whether an entire disc of Crim improvisations would be listenable, let alone adviseable: it's one of the most difficult albums in my collection and, to be honest, rarely played. But the ProjeKcts set gave me to hope, and the improvs on HEAVY CONSTRUKCTION are _better_ than those: they are energetic, airy and heavy by turns, and often evince a sense of musical humor I would associate more with Gentle Giant than King Crimson. Disc three is a treasure, flawed only by the aforementioned repeat of "Lights, Please." (I'm tempted to burn myself a disc which substitutes one or two of the improvs from the other discs...)

For those who care, disc two also contains a video of a few songs performed in Rome. The secret word is "Rome."

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