THE POWER TO BELIEVE

Amazing album. I see people and reviewers tend to state that Fripp repeats himself. Well in general he harks back to what he's done before, recycles riffs, reuses melodies, and does the sort. But I personally find nothing wrong with this. I don't think it means the man's not creative. Just listen to the album. It's ALL but not creative. It links back to previous efforts, developing on ideas already built. When I think of this actions of poets such as T.S. Eliot, García Lorca or Pablo Neruda and of artists such as Kandinsky, Guayasamín, Warhol, Picasso or the sort come to mind: they develop an intertextuality between their works that links their oeuvre as a whole. KING CRIMSON links from beginning to end, even if at a first listen the music from the 70's, the 80's, the 90's, and the 00's seems absolutely dissimilar. In this case: EleKtriK would be the third Fracture (FraKctured being the second): adding the interlocking guitars and a modern-classical- avantgarde a la Dinosaur intro and outro, Level Five is both Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part V and THRAK II (as a matter of fact, in the Intergalactic Boogie Express (1991) release by FRIPP & THE LEAGUE OF CRAFTY GUITARRISTS there's a song called "Larks' Thrak" that reminds greatly of Level Five; and the descending diminished melody in the guitar solo appears in the THRAK jam in the Deja VROOOM DVD), Eyes Wide Open bears a certain resemblance to Waiting Man and One Time at some points, yet it also has the interlocking guitar gamelan so famous during the 80's Crimson era going on quietly under the vocals (and not necessarily such stupid lyrics if you were to listen carefully to them), Facts of Life is kind of ProzaKc Blues II (the lyrics are a little questionable here, but whatever: the song is nevertheless a very enjoyable hard rocker/dirty prog blues a la old Crimson style --reminiscent of Pictures of a City with new and exciting technological features), Dangerous Curves is, like someone mentioned, a rebuild of Gustav Holst's Mars (or The Devil's Triangle in the ITWOP release) and of The Talking Drum in the LTIA album, and TPTB pieces set all over the album both remind of the Peace pieces in IWOP and TPTB III and IV come straight out of the ProjeKcts.

Now is this really artistic intertextuality or did the man and the band just run out of ideas? The answer to this question is not in the style of his playing nor in the impression that the music gives us. Listen to the melodies and the riffs. They are fresh with creative energy all over the album. That 7/4 destructive crunch with precise and circular polyrhythmic drumming along with the neverending and ongoing aggressive- aggressive/neurotic/plain evil vibe in Level Five, the chromatic percussion interlude at the middle of TPTB II (along with the interplay between vocals and instrumentals at the exhilaratingly spiritual climax of the song... which by the way bears absolutely no resemblance to The Sheltering Sky--as someone stated above--neither in structure, mode, chord progressions, style, rhythmics, feel, etc. except in the fact that at a point a somewhat similar effect is used in the lead guitar), the descending chromatism in the diminished chord chorus of Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With, the collective rubatos in TPTB III (extremely impressive communication between the musicians), the incredibly ad hoc drumming throughout (Mastelotto stands right next to Bruford, for real: see Level Five, Eyes Wide Open, TPTB II, and Facts of Life for prime examples), the climactic and neurotic Dangerous Curves with its build-up riff that takes us to the most hellish car chase in pictoric music ever, and the incredible journey the album itself takes you through once you spin it and close your eyes. Incredibly cohesive, extremely tightly played as usual, with amazing communication between the musicians at all times (all instruments complement each other impressively: Fripp & Co. are playing for the detail), bursting at the seams with creativity and new ideas yet still linking this work of art with the rest of their oeuvre: this album gets 5 stars right next to In the Court of the Crimson King, LTIA, Red, Discipline, and THRAK.