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King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic CD (album) cover

LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC

King Crimson

 

Eclectic Prog

4.42 | 3247 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

tamijo
5 stars Again Crimson have gone through some major changes. Mel Collins: flute and saxes, Gordon Haskell: bass guitar and vocals, Andy McCulloch: drums, have all left the Band. Keith Tippet too. New members; John Wetton: bass and vocals, Bill Bruford: drums, David Cross: violin, viola, Jamie Muir: percussion and allsorts, a very special natural talent, who was later mentioned by members from the band to be of great influence and inspiration, in the short period he played with Crimson. Wettons vocal are perfect for Crimson, better than Haskell without any doubt, and maby the vocal that have best fit the vision's of Crimson . Bruford the best prog. drummer at the time. With no Keith Tippet on Piano and no Collins on Sax, infact no horns or flutes at all, the jazz feel from the previus recordings are gone. So what have we got instead ? We got David Cross, with his violin, able to do some stunning duets with Fripp on the power parts of the album, some eastern inspiration in combination with the super percussion backing, and some moments of classical inspired violin solo's, of a very very high quality. We now got a vocal, even though many instrumental parts, able to bring the Crimson sound to a new level, we got the best rythm group ever seen in rock music. But first of all we got a band, working together as a perfect unit.

The perfection of this "new" supergroup is most intence on the title track, split in two parts, the first at the beginning of the album, the later, as the ending piece, all together 20+ min. of instrumental prog. rock. With rock moments as heavy and wild as ever, amasingly odd and fast percussions, guitar and violin duels and soloing, complex bass riffs, but also moments of classical beauti, a very unik composition indeed. Fripp the prog. master composer and arranger. This track is a highlight in 70's Crimson and 70's prog. rock. DO NOT MISS THIS !

Two soft ballad type songs follow the title track opening, both showing Wetton to be the right singer for this type of Crimson song, both complet in composition, but ligth in arrangement, both with a classic and melancholy mood. "Book of Saturday", Fripp playing a melodic electric guitar, supported nicely by the violin. "Exiles", Fripp mainly on the accustic guitar, allthough a delicate electric solo near the end, the mellotron on this track, leads thoughts back to the first albums. Allthough a ballad type for the song parts, it contains odd breaks, great bass work, and though limited, very pleasent laid back drumming. No credit for a piano, but im sure I hear one.

The Next two tracks, very drum/percussion driven, when you got a rythm section like this one, you obviusly want to use it !, On "Easy Money" a song on the top, with a mid section of intence instrumental, the track have some good idears, but it drags a bit too long. The Talking Drum, an all instrumental, with a bass tritone as the basis, guitar and violin soloing. Starting out very quiet, and slowly getting more and more intence. Getting the listner ready for the "audio-orgasm" on "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2"

Another innovation in music, from the master(s) of Prog. !

tamijo | 5/5 |

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