ISLANDS

King Crimson

Eclectic Prog

3.85 | 2171 ratings

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TenYearsAfter

"The Quirky Factor Rules!"

Here my final review in the 40th Anniversary Serie of the early King Crimson albums, this time their fourth album entitle Islands, from 1971. Again changes in the line-up, this time a new rhythm-section, a wide range of guest musicians, only prime mover Robert Fripp, Mel Collins and Pete Sinfield are the familiar musical faces.

Well, the gradual changing of the musical direction from 24-carat symphonic rock to more experimental since their second album is now a kind of Different Category Extravaganza, incredible, what a variety of styles in the six compositions: free jazz, avant-garde, classical, symphonic rock, rock and blues, the Quirky Factor rules! Like in the track Sailor's Tale featuring fiery guitar and powerful saxophone with soaring Mellotron, it could have been a Red composition. While the long titletrack delivers majestic Mellotron violins in the vein of ITCOTKC, apart from work on the cornet, very special, to say the least.

From the six bonus tracks the composition A Peacemaking Stinr Unrolls is previously unreleased: it sounds as music in the future, like the 1973 LP Larks Tongues In Aspic (when King Crimson started to turn in a tight unit): propulsive with fiery guitar, in combination with sweeping drum beats and heavy saxophone work.

The DVD contains 3 versions of the 6 studio songs from the Islands album: DTS 5.1 Digital Surround, PCM 2.0 (24/48 and stereo (16/48) featuring a serie of special versions, like a 'rehearsal/outtake' from The Letters, a 'rough mix' from Formentera Lady, 'live' versions from The Letters and Sailor's Tale and a special version from the titletrack, labelled as 'fragment: Robert Fripp reference cassette ? Mellotron on vibes setting, really unique!

The usual Sid Smith booklet delivers again very interesting information, nice pictures and a Sid Smith story.

TenYearsAfter | 3/5 | 2019-2-17

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