ADRIAN BELEW

"Inner Revolution" is Belew's sixth solo album and was recorded during Belew's divorce from his first wife. The music on this one centers around poppy, accessible songs with some crazy guitar antics thrown in at various places. Belew is not a bad songwriter, but I have always found that his vocals don't fit in to well with a pop-like setting. If he is dabbling in art pop, then they tend to work better, but this album takes most of the "art" aspect out and delves into straight forward pop.

There isn't much in this album that will remind you of his days with Zappa, Talking Heads or King Crimson. There is one track, "This Is What I Believe In", that borrows from his KC years by using a Crimson-like riff and building a pop song out of it, and, granted, it is probably the most interesting track here. It is part of the first three tracks, which, while they are obvious attempts at accessible music, they are the best part of the album as Belew uses a lot of his guitar stylings making them at least somewhat interesting. However, after those first three songs, thing seem to spiral down hill as he tries to make not only his music, but his vocals fit in to the pop world.

Belew has always been fond of The Beatles and has been able to effectively incorporate that into his music at different times in his career. He does the same thing in this album. Unfortunately, he ends up sounding more like Jeff Lynne's Electric Light Orchestra trying to sound like The Beatles, especially in "Big Blue Sun" which sounds like a rip-off of ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky". Many times through the rest of the album, he takes on the ELO approach, another track that is an example of this is "Birds". But he doesn't stop there. He also takes a few stabs at copying the band Squeeze and their unique way of turning songs about domestic problems into happy pop songs as in "The War in the Gulf Between Us" and "Heaven's Bed". Of course, he uses his own domestic issues at that time as lyrical inspiration, but it's obvious that he is using Squeeze's formula, and it unfortunately doesn't work for him.

The 8 songs that make up the middle and main part of the album are quite uninteresting and even the occasional use of his guitar antics can't save these songs. They just don't have any hooks or any pop-like traits that reel you in. Only the last track is any good as he turns to a more rock-n-roll style track with "Member of the Tribe", but even if it's good, it just isn't worth wading through the last several tracks to get to it. Really, the only saving grace on this album is when he does what he does best; utilizing his guitar to create some amazing sounds. But this usually doesn't work to well with straightforward pop songs unless they swing more towards an art-pop style, which, other than the first three tracks, he doesn't even attempt.

Belew has made some great art-pop and even progressive solo albums, but this is not one of them. There just isn't that much to get excited about here. The only reason it gets a three star rating from me is his unique guitar work on a few of the songs. The rest of it is quite uninteresting and often steals directly from other bands. The best thing to do is stay away from this one and find one of his better, more experimental albums, especially if you are looking for progressive music.

Adrian Belew mostly does away with his compositional and productional quirks in order to make a more accessible pop album, but he sadly also mostly does away with the songwriting talent which he demonstrated on previous recordings and which would certainly be required to make such an undertaking a success. For my money, the only good song on here is "1967", a very well-crafted multi-part pop suite that sounds like a mutated Beatles pastiche (that's a compliment). "Oh Daddy" has some charm to it and there are a few tracks with a quasi-industrial feel to it and at least somewhat stand out for that reason (even if they don't really rouse me either) but everything else just puts me to sleep.

At the time this album was released, which is Belew's first solo album, Adrian Belew was having quite a busy career. He had been lead guitarist for Frank Zappa, David Bowie and Talking Heads but was also involved with Tom Tom Club and GaGa, but was also now the new lead singer and guitarist for King Crimson. It seems some of these tracks might have been considered for the band GaGa as many of the members were used in this album.

With all of his experience, it only made sense that Belew would want to be more recognized as an original and groundbreaking guitarist as he is extremely talented and definitely deserved more credit than he might have been getting at the time. Belew also had a love for mixing his crazy style with popular music, so doing this first solo album was an outlet for that. What he ended up doing was putting together this very entertaining album that seems to be his most loved album. It has plenty of variety, yet is cohesive as it has plenty of Belew's signature guitar sound and vocals all the way through it. The songs are fun and daring, accessible and yet enough experimental artiness to them to keep them interesting to just about anyone.

Big Electric Cat - A great solid beat kicks this song off with the rhythm remaining the same throughout, but with some cool manipulation to the instruments. Belew's vocals have a lot of effects added to keep it arty enough to not be complete pop and there are shades of King Crimson guitar antics in there also as Belew mimics cat yowling.

The Momur - A smoother and faster beat and a song that sounds like a cross between Talking Heads and King Crimson. Vocals are more straightforward here without enhancements. Very fun song.

Stop It - Life living in a suitcase is what this song is about. There is a wry sense of humor to the lyrics and the sax is a welcome addition to add variety to the album. There is enough avant-ness to it all to keep it interesting, but also accessible.

The Man in the Moon - Straightforward beat backs up a slower melodic line, again with echoes of KC in there. Belew's guitar's whine follows the vocal melody, which is a bit more complex here.

Naïve Guitar - Belew offers up some guitar experimentalism/improvisation here in this instrumental. It might be easy to just sort of brush this off as noodling around, but listen to it closely as the tones and phrasing that he gets out of his guitar is quite amazing. Nice, atmospheric, anti-melodic and definitely progressive.

Hot Sun - Weird, percussive noises and guitar atmospherics weave around together for a short, instrumental track.

The Lone Rhinoceros - We're suddenly back into a more accessible sound with a steady mid-tempo beat and with Belew's guitar making rhino sounds. There is some nice piano and bass accompaniment here. He matches his vocals a bit with his guitar, but mostly sings straightforward. Another great song that is arty enough to be interesting, yet accessible enough to attract the ears of most listeners. There is that sense of humor as he describes the life of a zoo creature from the rhino's point of view. It ends with Belew's guitar roaring out in rhino frustration.

Swingline - Brass and guitar play against each other in a frantic sounding track before finally coming together to assemble a catchy rhythm and a cool song with parts for background singers and such. He allows the brass to belt out some interesting harmonies before taking the song to a more arty style with screaming guitar effects. Even the bass and piano get to show off a bit before fading out.

Adidas in Heat - Nice jazz style track with multiple Belew vocals mixed but singing mostly a single tone at first. Again, there is that cool, arty sense to the song that still manages to be accessible too. More great guitar work here and some fun with the other instruments as the song makes fun of sports advertising.

Animal Grace - A uptempo beat with squealing guitar/animal effects before it goes into a nice guitar solo, and then Belew brings in another art-pop melody. Vocal and guitar effects play against each other well in some sections.

The Final Rhino - Adrian is joined by his 4-year old daughter Audie (on piano) for this short closing track. Adrian set up a recorder secretly while Audie played around on the piano. He later added the guitar line.

I really love this album and highly recommend it to anyone want to get to know Belew's solo music and how his style influenced not only bands that he was a part of, but other up and coming artists. It is mostly quite upbeat with a few experimental songs to keep the listener challenged, but not to the point that would make it un-listen-able to the masses. While it's true it is not exactly hard and heavy progressive music, it is still very interesting and artsy enough to attract those that love more challenging music. It ends up being one of Belew's best solo albums and is a great collection of music that should appeal to most everyone.

Adrian Belew's album "Here" was released in 1994. In Belew's musical history, it falls into place while King Crimson was still on hiatus, before they reformed and released "Thrak", and after his stint with the art-pop band "The Bears", the members of which would continue that band and open for and be the back up band for Belew's solo tours. Thus, taking a lot of these influences, he released this mostly pop-style album which still contains some entertaining tunes that also reflect some of his experimental and King Crimson styles, but focuses more on song writing than on progressive style.

This album sees Belew focusing on his love of The Beatles and 60's style pop music, while giving it an updated feeling using his electronics and guitar effects to give them an experimental, up-dated feel. Belew performs everything on this album. This is immediately evident as the first track "May 1, 1990" starts up with atmospheric sounds which soon morph into a conventional beat and an infectious piano riff, settling into Belew's unique voice and an accessible song that still manages to avoid falling into any major pop music cliché types. Unpredictable enough to not be standard fare, yet accessible enough for anyone to instantly like, this album continues to focus on these melody heavy, song oriented tracks.

His love for The Beatles shows through on tracks like "I See You" and psych-60's mid-eastern influences as in "Survival in the Wild" all the while keeping things accessible. But his experimental years don't go wasted on this album either as you often hear Belew's signature guitar styles come through on instrumental breaks and in forming individual song structures, one of the most obvious is the use of his guitar looping in the introduction of the mystical "Fly" or even some crazy guitar work in "Never Enough". Yet he still finds time to add in a few tracks like "Peace on Earth" that would have fit easily among the mellower section of King Crimson's "Thrak".

While it's true that Belew has often interspersed pop-style albums in between all of his experimental albums, this is one album that tends to be likable throughout, and is even one of his more cohesive pop endeavors. He keeps it all fresh by adding in nice little surprises and cool little unique sounds. In the end, you get a bunch of art-pop style songs that are effective in stretching the boundaries of popular songwriting. You also get a nice, cohesive album that ends up being much better than "just a bunch of random, unrelated songs. There might not be a lot of prog here, but there is a nice bit of pop experimentation that keeps this album fresh. This is definitely one of Belew's best pop-oriented albums.

This interesting album is a way of showing just how the electric guitar can be a multi-dimensional instrument. All of the compositions on this album are written by Adrian Belew and they are written as modern-classical pieces written for orchestra and, from what I hear on this album, a lot of piano. Belew uses his many toys to help arrive at the sounds that are on this album, toys like guitar synthesizers, processors, digital compressors and whatnot.

Many times on this album, you could almost swear you are listening to orchestra and not just guitar. But the main instrument that is mimicked here is the piano. You could swear that it is a piano, except the sound does have that somewhat processed feel, so it's not quite perfect in it's mimickry. Yet, the album is still amazing when you think all of the sounds are performed by an electric guitar. Some reviewers claim that the music is too similar sounding to be enjoyable, but I don't get that. Instead, to me, it is quite a mix of textures and sounds that sometimes come off quite beautifully, while at other times it can also be a bit off-putting. I don't expect everyone to get a lot of enjoyment out of it, though, as the tracks are more classically based as hinted at by the description of the album.

Now, being a classical style album, keep in mind also that the music is more of a contemporary classical meaning that it is not so much built around melodies as much as it is textures and abstract expression, more along the lines of "Frank Zappa style" classical music. However, the music is also not "synclavier" music as is the case with some of Zappa's classical music, but it is quite a bit warmer than this with more of a variety in sound, but comparing it to Zappa's style, you might get a clearer picture of what to expect.

Some tracks are more interesting than others, namely "Laurence Harvey's Despair", the 7+ minute humorous "Seven E Flat Elephants....", the mysterious and spooky strains of "If Only..." and the lovely, orchestral "Alfred Hitchcock's 'Strangers on a Train' " which could easily be thought of as a soundtrack from a high suspense movie.

The biggest weakness of the album is the apparent lack of dynamics, which may be a bit hard to obtain with the tools that Belew has to work with. This is also a problem with Zappa's synclavier albums. But, like I mentioned earlier, this is a much warmer sound than Zappa's synclavier pieces, and that may make it more tolerable. It's going to be tough for many to listen to this, however, and it can be one that you may only come back to once in a while. The only time I find myself re-playing it is when I feel like being amazed at what can be done with instruments and technology. It would be interesting hearing these tracks played with the real instruments and a real orchestra, but, for now, we have this. It's good, but will probably only appeal to those that understand instruments and technology. Otherwise, it's a bit hard to listen to as entertainment.

Adrian Belew continued on his quartet of albums released between 2005-06 with 'Side Three' on which he continues to explore his eclectic and experimental side quite well. This is the Belew we all hoped would develop after years with King Crimson. While he took the sound and expanded on it, KC would choose a different path that Fripp said Belew would not be right for. So he started generating his own music by forming his own Power Trio, working with Nine Inch Nails, developing his FLUX apps, and so on. These 'Side' albums were the bridge to these new projects (along with the amazing 'e' album that would come later).

As on the other albums in the series, Belew provides most all of the instrumentation, but, as on 'Side One', he also utilizes many of his friends to help bring in more depth to the tracks. The album starts with 'Troubles', a strong, strutting track with a catchy hook bringing in the listener, and then an almost rap-like preaching spoken word section from 'The Prophet Omega'. Sounds weird, but it works, in a funny kind of way. This track not only shows Belew's creativity to make a catchy song, but also highlights his sense of humor. 'Incomplete Indifference' goes for the funky, guitar scratchy vibe while Belew does some spoken word 'poetry' himself, again another catchy strut-style rhythm brings the listener in. Belew later sings, and includes his low and heavy voice in a sing-song style that we have heard previously in King Crimson and Zappa tracks, again utilizing a playful feel to describe someone's woes with technology. Great stuff.

'Water Turns to Wine' brings in his fellow Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp playing a flute guitar. That most definitely has to be a Fripp invention. This one is more experimental, but still maintains some accessibility and is surprisingly smooth and mellow. It's a nice sound and even with the unique sounds here, it still is easy to digest even from the first listen, and, of course, Fripp amazes. 'Crunk' is a short track with a heavy beat and crazy Belew guitar antics. 'Drive' is a lovely, atmospheric and almost ambient track that is in a more experimental style, with even more guitar tricks. 'Cinemusic' is another short track that starts with a chord drone, then slips into music-box and noisy weirdness. Cool.

Now Belew brings back Les Claypool and Danny Carey (they were both guests on 'Side One') for the next two tracks. Starting with 'Whatever', the three musicians establish a funky, yet quirky groove. Belew does a sort of call and answer style vocal with one voice trades back and forth with layered voices, almost like a conversation of sorts while the crazy guitar/bass/drum trio continues to play noise funk behind it all. The trio continues on the next track with 'Men in Helicopters v4.0' which uses a moderate march rhythm accented by strings and Belew's singing. This one is totally unexpected considering the musicians involved, and it turns out to be a nice surprise.

'Beat Box Car' is a nod back to 'Side One's' 'Beat Box Guitar'. An automatic percussion and guitar loop provides the foundation while synths and Belew's guitar spread out a smorgasbord of sound to a catchy beat and a sudden appearance on the second half or Mel Collins playing a sax that matches the wild carefree attitude of the track. There is a short track called 'Truth Is' which features an acoustic sounding guitar that has a sort of 'Clavier' sound to it, some flute by Collins, and some deep lyrics. So much packed into a short track. Then along comes 'The Red Bull Rides a Boomerang Across the Blue Constellation', which is an interesting, experimental soundscape of beastly noises, African drums looping a rhythm and electronic and organic textures and noises. It is experimental, yet strangely engaging noise rock. The last track here is '&', again a nod back to 'Side One' as the first track there was 'Ampersand'. It takes the rock n roll riff from 'Ampersand' and twists it all around, to make it a new version, even including Belew's lyrics. It's an alternate version, but so different form the original that it almost makes it new. It makes a nice bookend track that surrounds the entire project nicely. Yes there is a 'Side Four', but it is a live album that takes tracks from this series of albums and also brings in some King Crimson tracks and older Belew tracks, all performed by 'Adrian Belew's Power Trio', the original one with the extremely talented Slick siblings. That album is also worth checking out.

So, 'Side Three' in my opinion, is the strongest of the series with a great variety of songs that somehow still come out more cohesive than ever. This time the album manages to make it to 40 minutes, which is another big plus, and the songs seem more complete and finished that ever, even the short tracks. Where 'Side One' was overall, a louder album heavy on guitar and KC styles, 'Side Two' showed the more electronic version of Belew as he messes around with newer sounds and 'Radiohead' style tracks, 'Side Three' on the other hand, brings it all together, mostly coming out less complex, but still eclectic, but more on the mellower side, I suppose. Don't let that scare you away though, this is still the strongest (an most creative) collection of the three. This series of albums is a definite must for those that want to hear Belew at his best, but also for those that love that era of King Crimson. All of the albums ended up with 4-star ratings, even though Side Three is the best of them. The main reason is because of them being so brief. Together, however, the series makes up a masterpiece and is one example where the whole is greater than the separate parts.

"Side Two" of Adrian Belew's series of albums after his last stint with King Crimson sees Belew handling everything on his own. All instruments and vocals are performed by him alone. Also, where "Side One" concentrated more on the raw energy of actual instruments and very little electronic enhancement, "Side Two" sees more use of electronic use, though there is still a generous helping of Belew's tasty guitar antics. The lyrics are not as extensive as on the previous album either, the words are fewer and written more in a "Haiku" style.

"Dead Dog on Asphalt" starts it off, and it also reflects the artwork on the cover which was painted by Belew from inspiration he had after accidentally hitting a dog while driving his truck. The sound is less chaotic than the first album, but no less experimental and not anymore accessible. The tone is a bit frosty, still sounding much like the work he did with King Crimson, and even, at times, sounds a bit like Radiohead. The first track has some great guitar work pared with keys and electronics, but "I Wish I Knew" is much darker (strangely enough) and heavier on the use of loops and etc. "Face to Face" once again pushes the tempo up, but staying with a more automatic tempo, more straightforward than on the previous album, this track could have almost got away with being radio friendly, but it's still catchy and interesting, plus, never fear, Belew's guitar work is still here.

As on the previous album, the tracks are not very long, and even though there are 10 tracks this time, the overall timing is the same. "Asleep" takes the prize for being the longest track, but stays safely within the 5 minute boundary. This track is based around a sneaky, repeating bass line, but is surrounded by Belew's unique phrasing on his guitar, adding a bit of glitchy-ness to the sound his "bow-like" playing. The last half of this track slips into a bit of experimentalism, losing the beat in the middle for a while as there is some free-form atmospherics, but then later returning to the repeating riff and vocals, and this time what sounds like some violin. "Sex Nerve" goes for a smoother sound with more repeated electronic effects, but still leaving time for freedom on the guitar, and somewhat sultry singing and lyrics. "Then What" goes full-on "Kid A" mode with crazy electronics and tortured guitar. Being a Radiohead fan, I mean this as a complete compliment. It doesn't sound so much like he is trying to copy their sound, it sounds like he helped them invent it.

"Quicksand" sounds similar somewhat to King Crimson's "Man with an Open Heart", but with a bit more of the electronics added in among swashes of guitar. "I Know Now" is a short, somewhat harsh sounding guitar free-for-all played over programmed percussion. "Happiness" is another short track that sounds like bright happy instruments that have been warped by an evil entity with dissonant music box sounds and such. The album ends with "Sunlight" with more Radiohead style percussion and loops overlayed with a more complex improvisation, but light and airy sounding. Vocals start after a minute.

This album is a bit more cohesive then "Side One" that was pretty strong up until the last few tracks and then lost focus. It isn't as loud and chaotic as the first one, and that might disappoint some people, but it is still pretty good, and it stays more even throughout. However, its main fault is the same as "Side One", its too short. As with that album, I also say with this one, the two should have been put together into one album, and then it would have been worth a 5 star rating. Alone, however, also like its predecessor, it is 4 stars.

Adrian Belew took a break from his solo career after 1996 to continue his work with King Crimson. However, after KC released 'Power to Believe', that band went on hiatus again, and Belew went back to releasing solo albums. His 13th solo album was released in 2005 and was the first part of a trilogy of albums, this one entitled 'Side One'. This is the album that is notorious for featuring Les Claypool and Danny Carey (Tool) on the first 3 tracks. The placement of these tracks as the first three make for an easy transition from Belew's King Crimson days as the carry the same style of loud, almost abstract playing, very eclectic with heavy grooves.

The beginning trio of tracks start with 'Ampersand', a hard and heavy, complex rocker with the involvement of top-notch musicians. There is a rock n roll foundation that definitely stands out even with the heavy guitar, bass and drum layers, and layered vocals on top of it all. The ending is quite chaotic and noisy. 'Writing on the Wall' gets funky and effectively combines the weirdness and brashness of Belew's guitar with the punch of Claypool's bass and Carey's solid, complex drumming. It makes you wish this was a supergroup, but alas, the lineup only lasts for 1/3 of the album. The track is crazy, cool and tasty. 'Matchless Man' ends this dream trio with Carey mellowing out using a tabla, Belew making his guitar sound almost violin-like, and Claypool adding an almost jazz-like bass. Mysterious and a bit bizarre, very KC-like.

The question is, can the rest of the album live up to the supergroup feel provided on the first 3 tracks? 'Madness' follows with Belew unleashing his mean and heavy guitar sounds while he provides his own bass and drums this time on this instrumental. The track takes part of its inspiration from Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian with its complex instrumental lines, noise and dissonance. The rhythm is provided by the slow and steady pounding of a solid, moderate beat, chunky bass and angry guitar. The longest track on the album, it almost reaches the 7 minute mark. Belew proves he can be a supergroup all by himself on this sonic jam. 'Walk Around the World' uses Belew's unique combination of his vocals, funky guitar and complex sounds. The one man band is helped out on this one by Gary Tussing on cello and Peter Hyrka on violin, but Belew provides everything else. The sudden addition of strong bass is a welcome sound to keep the track fresh. 'Beat Box Guitar' is the last of the tracks making up the middle third of the album. This track was nominated for a Grammy for 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance' in 2005, but lost to Les Paul and Friends. This track is a cool, effects-heavy track with a nice accessible beat, record static backing up snappy guitar riffs and effects and tinny percussion until the last section where the drums become fuller and the guitar bursts with personality. It is quite a brilliant piece of work.

The last third of the album is by far the shortest third with three tracks that average under two minutes each. 'Under the Radar' is a neat, little atmospheric track with a psychedelic sounding vocal melody, 'Elephants' starts with the BBC announcer Ian Wallace, and then Belew using his guitar to imitate an angry elephant and some spoken word field recording peppered among the plodding sounds, and the 'Pause' ends the album with spooky sounding effects followed by some violin/guitar playing, then fading.

The last three tracks are okay, but almost seem to be tacked on to the end of the album in order to make it reach the 33 minute mark so that it could be considered an album, not an EP. This is the biggest fault of the album, as up to track 7, it sounds very much like a 5 star album, but then the short experimental tracks don't really fit in with the rest of the album making it feel like a bad extension. The album is too short as a result of this. It feels like a strong album and then is let down by the short, experimental ending tracks. It still comes out as a 4 star album, however, but maybe Belew should have combined 'Side One' and 'Side Two' to make one album.

When Adrian Belew and his Power Trio created the album "e" in 2009, he expressed a desire to eventually do it with an orchestra. When the original and extremely talented line up of his Power Trio went their various ways (though Julie Slick would return as bassist when Belew expanded the Power Trio in 2019), he put that dream to a reality and in 2011, self- released the orchestral version of the suite.

This time around, Belew put his soloing guitar in front of the "Metropole Orkest" with Jules Buckley conducting this 52 member ensemble. This time around, the album would be split up into 5 distinct tracks that would easily separate the 5 suites which were still named after the first 5 letters of the alphabet.

As Belew begins playing his guitar solo pretty much the same way as the original version, you start to wonder if this guitar/orchestra combo is just going to end up being a pretentious show-off album for Belew, but when the brass echoes his initial theme, you get the feeling that this album is going to have a lot more depth than that. As the first track continues, you know it is more than just Belew repeating his parts as the orchestra tried to copy the layers of loops that accompany the original version, as the orchestral parts take over the main lines at times and at others, Belew comes to the fore, but not as just the main artist here, more as part of the orchestra, and this turns into a veritable and amazing Electric Guitar Concerto.

The music continues to be as complex as it was on the original version, but the orchestra just brings in even more atmosphere, dynamic, depth and even excitement, giving what was already an amazing performance a new life. You can hear the recurring themes that were apparent in the original version, and you know this is definitely a composed and concise work by Belew, and not just an improvised work. Interestingly enough, it still retains its King Crimson attitude with its complex arranging, and if you are familiar with the original album, then these themes will be familiar, but with the added treat of being interpreted by an orchestra. But Belew just doesn't bring in his experience with KC to this composition, now that it has the orchestra involved, you can hear his time with Frank Zappa is also quite apparent. Take a mix of both, and you will get an understanding of what this sounds like.

This album might be a bit tougher to find than the original "Power Trio" version, but being able to have both is well worth the search. If you were impressed with the original, then you should be impressed with this version also. You still get plenty of Belew's experimental style, but with the dynamic of an orchestra. You might not have the amazing work of the Slick siblings on this version, but this version doesn't take away from that, nor does it reside below that version. Both of them are great and this composition should be recognized as the masterwork that it is.

Adrian Belew formed a group to perform and record music that could be grouped apart from his solo works. This group was called 'Adrian Belew Power Trio' and consisted of Belew on guitar, Julie Slick on bass and her brother Eric Slick on drums. Belew was impressed after seeing them perform with the Paul Green School of Rock and formed the trio for the purpose of touring and performing his solo material along with King Crimson and Frank Zappa material.

The album that is simply entitled 'e' is the project's first album and was released in 2008. The album has 11 tracks, but is actually made up of 5 mini-suites, each one named after each of the first 5 letters of the alphabet. The music is created by adding layers of loops playing over each other, and then adding parts and solos over the top of the loops. The album itself was made live while in the studio.

'a' starts off the album and is a 3-part suite that makes up the first three tracks. The first part is a quick guitar solo at moderate speed, but the 2nd part brings in the entire trio with the layers soon kicking in and quickly sounding very cool and experimental, not unlike King Crimson, yet definitely unique. All 3 performers are quite amazing, Julie plays a tricky desending bass riff that starts and stops its descent in unpredictably, but constantly moving while the drums play complex rhythms that are also completely astounding while Belew plays his quirky, sometimes harsh, but always intriguing style. Rest assured that if you are afraid this sounds more like the less-accessible Projekcts from King Crimson, then you have nothing to worry about. It is more of a style inbetween the Crimson most people know and love and the experimental side of Belew. The 3rd part continues on falling into a more of a pattern, with Belew's improvisation swinging, groaning and sailing over the amazing support work of the Slick siblings.

'b' is also made up of 3-parts, the first part being almost longer in and of itself than the preceding suite. This one is a bit chunkier with a hard riff and contrasting guitar layers. Underneath it all, the amazing bass flies around performing tricks that are almost as crazy as Belew's own playing. The Slick's were both quite young when they started out, Eric only being 11 when he was brought in as the regular drummer for the Paul Green School of Rock, and Julie was only 13 when she started playing bass, quickly becoming an amazing bassist. Just listen to this and you'll understand how awesome they are, then consider the fact that they are doing this live-in-studio. This suite pounds along quite impressively for a while, but in the 2nd part, it becomes more laid back, but with guitar notes cascading down from the stars, but soon the music builds tension as Belew throws in some of his phrasing, connecting his notes almost like a steel guitar and making them wail against the repeated notes that build tension atmospherically, and then ending with a rapid fire track that has each instrument playing counterpoint while the drums show off a bit themselves.

'c' is only a single part, but lasts over 6 minutes. The percussion on this one is a little more regular and steady while the guitar and bass slowly build becoming more intense as the track rolls on. 'd' is divided up between 2 tracks. It starts off with layers of Belew's playing along with a repeating subdued staccato playing underneath. Stylistic and almost symphonic sounding percussion comes through intermittedly, but halfway through, it everyone kicks in creating a complex and exciting sound, again intense and heavy. Belew has expressed that he would love to hear this music performed by an orchestra, and upon listening to this and the complex lines, it is easy to see why that would be an intriguing idea. After a section where the guitar almost sounds like a flute, the 2nd part returns to a more linear sound, but builds even quicker, almost becoming like a condensed version of the first part. 'e' is also divided up into 2 parts, the 1st one being rather quick at under 1 minute and featuring Belew improvising pensively and the 2nd part being over 7 minutes. The 2nd part sounds like a syncopated chromatic scale ascending and desending quickly, the drums push it along and then the bass is forced in. A melodic line is played where the guitar sounds more like a synth, and then the trio plays off of the ascending and desending scale, improvising and creating quite a cavalcade of thematic elements and using them against each other, most of these done from Belew's layering, while the bass and drums even get some time to show off. The coolest thing is the piano-sounding line pounding and twinkling along while the bass thrums out a rhythmic pattern. Very cool.

In 2010, Eric was recruited by the band 'Dr. Dog' and is still the drummer for them, and Julie later released some solo work and also participated in the 'Crimson ProjeKct' tour, Marco Minnemann replaced Eric temporarily for the 2010 tours, and then Tobias Ralph took over as a permanent member of the band. Fortunately, we have this recorded document that attests to the talents of Adrian, Julie and Eric, but it is a shame that it has mostly been ignored, especially from the King Crimson and Projekcts crowds, because this music is just as amazing as anything else put out by the different KC incarnations at the time. Highly experimental, but surprisingly very enjoyable and more accessible than you might think. It is all instrumental, but it is music of the highest caliber and deserves to be considered one of the best KC albums that isn't a KC album. After hearing this, you know why both Zappa and Fripp brought Belew into their bands. Highly recommended for real KC lovers, Eclectic Prog lovers and those that love excellent and innovative guitar music.