KING CRIMSON

Even though I've been interested in King Crimson's music for several years, I really didn't become versed in their music until five years ago. I decided to start collecting all of thier studio recordings because they were all suddenly available on CD. Of course, just like everyone else, I have my personal favorites, which Thrak was the first to become one of those. Upon the first listen, I could hear the way music of the years following this release was influenced by this album. It is very easy to hear the influence upon bands like Tool, Primus, Nirvana just to name a few. This music was ahead of it's time, but then so was all of King Crimson's music, and though it always seemed hard to appreciate this at the time, now when one listens to music from any of these influenced bands, and then listens to Thrak or other King Crimson albums, it is so easy to hear how these other great bands were inspired.

There have been many reviewers that have described each track on this album on an individual basis, and I will probably eventually come back and do the same. But as for now, I just want to say this album is very cohesive. It is also very loud, for the most part, one of the loudest for the King Crimson catalog. But even in it's loudness, it is beautiful. There are chord changes which are unconventional, meter changes which would knock even many accomplished musicians right off of their minds and experimentation that never becomes boring at all. This is a masterpiece and anyone that considers themselves a prog master or a rock historian should have this album and should be familiar with it and how it has influenced rock, whether they personally like the music or not. It is essential and without this album and the influence of King Crimson, there would be a lot fewer exceptional bands out there right now.

This is an important album. But not only that, it is a great album. And King Crimson, in my opinion, makes the rules and breaks them at the same time when it comes to Prog Rock. But they can do it and get away with it because, after all, they are the King no matter the line-up.

One of my favorite albums of all time. I've looked for things as instrumentally diverse and eclectic as In the Court of the Crimson King with very little results. King Crimson's style drastically changed, as well as their line-up, quite frequently.

21st Century Schizoid man is a wild song with an awesome guitar solo. I Talk to the Wind is such a beautiful song. The flutes are just dreamy. Epitaph is a very dark, dramatic song with great arpeggios from Robert Fripp. Moonchild is pretty great for the first few minutes, with nice experrimentation for the last 14 minutes. And In the Court of the Crimson King is the perfect end to this album, telling a great little story.

I've never connected the lyrics myself, but some say this album is a concept album/rock opera. The only prevalent theme I can imagine is innovation and awesomeness throughout the whole album. 5 stars, easy.

This double disc release deals with presenting live material from the first KC lineup and it contains extracts from various gigs like the Fillmore East and The Fillmore West (which occupy all disc 2) and BBC sessions from back in 1969. The sound quality is not always brilliant on volume 1 while the second is very good indeed, anyway the playing level from every musician is superbe. Some higlights are for sure "21st Century Schizoid Man" live at Fillmore East (on volume 1) and also the one on disc 2 live at Fillmore West, which are incredibly powerful, featuring incredible bass lines, violent guitar solos and jazzy sa :perhaps more bombastic than the one on "USA" that I personally consider out of this world, very good Epitaph from the BBC sessions and "Mars" a revisitation of Holst original piece of music...a grandious climax which starts from nothing and rise up to extremely high dynamics (with bass and drums ostinatos and disturbing dissonant mellotron lines): a sort of clichè from King Crimson later material (The Talking Drum, Dangerous Curves). If you like "In The Court Of The Crimson King" and KC first lineup generally speaking this album is perfect for your tastes. I wouldn't consider it a masterpiece due to the raw production, anyway it's amazing and most of all is the definitive live collection from this period of the band (this last particular is true also for volumes 3 and 4, which I'll review very soon).

I never thought of RED as one of King Crimson's top albums. When it comes to the Bruford-Wetton incarnation of the band, I find LARKS' TONGUES far more satisfying. It must be admitted that RED's opening and closing tracks (the title tune and "Starless") are two of KC's most memorable pieces, but the rest of the album seems a bit of a mishmash. "Providence" is a delightful improvisation which keeps getting stronger every time I play it, but it feels out of place among much poppier songs, you can tell it was only meant as album filler, it really comes into its own when you hear in in its proper context (on THE GREAT DECEIVER box set). "Fallen Angel" and "One More Red Nightmare" are fairly conventional and rather noisy rock songs, not half as charming as "The Nightwatch" or "Easy Money".

However, all Crimso freaks will find the 2009 "40th Anniversary Edition" of this album an essential purchase, for at least two reasons:

1. Two of the bonus tracks, the so-called Trio Versions of both "Red" and "Fallen Angel", sound incredibly powerful and pure. These stripped-down versions have never been released elsewhere, and I assume they were used as base for the official album recording, but you can hear Messrs. Fripp, Wetton and Bruford far more loudly, crisply and distinctly than ever before. It's as if the three of them (without cellos, this time) are laying down "Red" right in the middle of your living room. Flabbergasting!

2. The 1974 French TV footage (included in the second disc) may be in mono, but it offers you something many of you will have longed to see: Fripp, Cross, Wetton and Bruford performing all of "Larks' Tongues pt. II", "Lament" and "Starless" absolutely live in the TV studio, and with great gusto. ("The Nightwatch" is there as well, but it is spoiled a little by primitive video trickery.) It's a pity the French cameramen mainly focus on Cross and Fripp, especially during the first half of the performance. They must have thought: "Who cares about rhythm sections?" But during "Lament" and "Starless" you at least get to see Wetton singing (and what a magical vocalist he is!) and it finally dawns on the cameramen that Bruford, too, is someone they'd better keep an eye on.

Anyhow, strongly recommended!

I took a bit of gamble on this one. I had only ever heard "In The Court of the Crimson King" before I stumbled upon The Power to Believe in the discount bin at the local record store. I immediately picked it up, charmed by the interesting cover and lured in by the promise of dark progressive rock at its finest. What I got was not far off what I expected. The Power to Believe is a truly interesting and thought provoking listen full of Frippy goodness and sonic experimentation.

I won't go through each track, because some like "The Power to Beleive" parts I-IV strike me as nothing more than filler. "Level Five" kicks things off with a gut busting dark instrumental full of guitar mastery from Robert Fripp. An obvious nod to Larks, Level Five proves that Crimson not only still have the goods, but that technicality alone can set the tone of what is essentially a dark album. "Eyes Wide Open", "Facts of Life" and "Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With" are more conventional rock songs, Belew's vocals are decent without being outstanding, and to be honest, these songs feel slightly out of place on the album. "Happy With What..." is the only song I would remove from the album, it doesn't really work for me, and blemishes the overall flow that the album creates. "Elektrik" and "Dangerous Curves" again are two wonderful instrumentals, showcasing not only the technical ability of the band, but the typical Crimson experimental nature. "Dangerous Curves" is one the most interesting instrumentals I have heard in a while, and one of the more comprehensive compositions on the album. The album closes with yet more filler, albiet neatly wrapping the album up with a solitary mechanical vocal section.

There are more than enough moments in this album to constitute a deserved listen. Most of the instrumental tracks develop a nice mood and tone that seems quite unusually heavy (almost metallic in parts) and dark. Although, some of the more conventional songs detract from this progression with questionable lyrics and themes. There are also some seemingly pointess filler sections that don't harm the album, but just seem overly extraneous. Critiques aside, The Power to Beleive is a good album, and proof that King Crimson still has the power to create, surprise and most of all, entertain.

For sure "Ladies of the road" offers a great snapshot of the "Island" period live material and every KC fan should be saying "thank you" to DGM for releasing it, since the only previous record dealing with that was the horrid "Earthbound", one of the worst produced albums ever. The performance smells very strongly of jazz, being this lineup one of the mostly jazz-oriented in all KC history, proceeding on the same path started with "Lizard", their most complex album ever. The musical level is quite high, personally speaking I'm no huge fan of this KC incarnation, however the version of "Cirkus", even starting weakly, turns quickly into somewhat apocaliptically good...absolutely stunning; not to mention the intriguing "Groon" and the interesting "Get thy bearings. I found myself pretty confused about "21st century schizoid man", for sure not the best version of the song (Boz Burrell's bass playing and vocals are not even comparable to John Wetton or Greg Lake), however it's for sure different, as I said before more jazzy in the attitude and slightly slower. I found the second disc quite useless: a mix up of different live impro on "21st century schizoid man", with a quite bad sound quality. Very funny a 50 seconds BLUES (!) version of "The court of the Crimson King". As I pointed out earlier I'm no HUGE fan of this KC period, however this is useless in terms of this review, since "Ladies of the road" is an excellent live album and I strongly suggest it to every prog lover.

Well, altough this album's been recorded back in 1970, it still sounds extremely progressive and innovative. It is playful, dark, melodic, lyric, spooky, adventurous, grandiose, meandering. It has an avant-guard felling all over it and it is more jazzy and symphonic (in the classical way) than any other KC album. The performances and sound are excellent and, as time passes, the music becomes deeper, while you can hear a great number of acoustic and electric instruments building an enormous sound canvas. The guitar playing is very characteristic, the mellotron reigns and McCulloch's style on the drum kit is brilliant and very personal. Now, if you add the amazing painting on the cover, you have an essential piece of musical art, not only in progressive rock's territory, but in contemporary music's too.

A study in despair

A view from someone that does not know a lot about King Crimson is probably an exemption in this site. Pure coincidence has led this ambiguous album to my possession and I have always had unclear views about its quality and objectives. The obscurity of KC's music has not yet 'clicked' for me but I have given this record a fair amount of spins (required) to form a relatively rounded opinion.

What is interesting for someone to observe is the 'division' of TOAPP in two parts: side 1 deals with more vocals and relatively structured (for KC standards...) forms, while side 2 is a completely bizarre expression of musicianship in the form of obscure synths and amorphous compositions. The main points of interest lie in the opening title track and the experimental closing track. The former is definitely the more attractive and melodic composition and its vocal lines and guitar patterns are undoubtedly memorable, even if the track bears an aura of simplicity. Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part III is the most complex moment in the album that shows challenging riffs and large amounts of improvisation.

The influence of pop music is apparent throughout side 1 of the album, while a few interesting melodies can be retrieved particularly in Model Man and Man With An Open Heart although the majority of the compositions can be described as monotonous. Nuages and Industry reveal Tony Levin's aspirations in synths and bass guitar respectively; dark atmospheres and repetitious tunes comprise these rather dark and 'cold' tracks. Vocals in side 2 return only in Dig Me in a bizarre fashion of industrial sounds and minor touches of melody in the refrain.

Probably not the best reference in KC's music, this effort could be a genre of its own: obscure eclectic pop-prog. Although not really a bad album, I would not really strongly recommend it apart from the magnificent opening track. While it could potentially be heard pleasantly, the combination of several uninteresting moments and unnecessary minutes of instrumental music makes me rate it with no more than 2.5 stars.

Lizard witnessed a fairly dramatic change of direction from King Crimson, rather than simply being a reproduction of the previous album as had largely been the case with In The Wake Of Poseidon. The sound here is geared more towards avant-garde and the album features several guest musicians drawn from the jazz world. Brass and woodwinds dominate the aural landscape along with Keith Tippett's pianos. On the whole, Robert Fripp's guitar is fairly restrained although there is some sublime acoustic work during the first half of the album. He also makes liberal use of Mellotron throughout the album and lyricist Pete Sinfield even gets in on the act, adding some interesting synthesized effects.

Fripp and Sinfield were still the principle members of KC at this point and had written all the material for the album. Reeds-man Mel Collins remained from ITWOP, with Gordon Haskell and Andy McCulloch joining as full members. McCulloch proved to be a more than adequate replacement for Michael Giles; his drumming is excellent and sounds similar in style to his predecessor. However, bassist and vocalist Gordon Haskell's singing is a sore point for me. In my opinion he can't sing; or rather, he doesn't sing. His vocal range is narrow while his delivery lacks articulation and falls somewhere between his speaking voice and a drone. If this criticism seems harsh, you only need to look to the fact that Jon Anderson was employed to sing the lead on Prince Rupert Awakes. On the subject of Jon Anderson, I've always felt that his voice sounds incongruous on a KC album; that and the handclaps make this song far too dainty for my liking.

The opening track, Cirkus, is arguably the main highlight of the album and features a menacing Mellotron that calls to mind The Devil's Triangle from ITWOP. The song itself is a curious hybrid of styles, alternating between the band's heavy and symphonic sides. The song ends in a cacophony of saxophone, brittle guitar, braying cornet and clattering drums. Indoor Games and Happy Family are a couple of quirky songs with hedonism and The Beatles as their subject matter respectively. Both these songs feature treated vocals; experimentation, or further evidence Haskell wasn't up to the job? Track 4, Lady Of The Dancing Water, features a lovely playful flute by Collins along with some trombone. This song is a throwback to I Talk To The Wind and Cadence And Cascade from the two previous albums. I'm surprised that KC continued to produce this type of song, and in fact would go on doing so after Lizard.

The title track consists of a 23-minute multi-part suite, beginning with the aforementioned Prince Rupert Awakes. This first piece is very much in KC's trademark symphonic style and features a lyrical electric guitar lead and Mellotron-laden crescendos. During the final verse a marching snare-drum beat joins in, which exquisitely heralds the forthcoming Bolero section. The initial cornet and piano of Bolero are soon joined by oboe. Reed and brass instruments then head into an improvised section, throwing in occasional motifs from the standards repertoire, underpinned by Tippett's manic piano. Fripp has been conspicuous by his absence so far in this section, but waves of Mellotron arrive during the reprise of the main theme. A distant cor anglais then introduces the lengthy Battle Of Glass Tears, which features dramatic contrasts of dynamics; another trademark of the KC sound. The brief Big Top closes the album, and along with the opener Cirkus these two songs nicely ring-fence the entire album.

Lizard has the reputation of being a difficult album, mainly as it is quite different to other early KC discs. It's certainly an album that requires repeated plays in order to fully appreciate its complexities. Despite the issues with the two vocalists highlighted above, it's an otherwise fine album and is worthy of a solid 3 stars.

Lizard - King Crimson (3.67 stars) Original Release: 12/11/1970

Songs:

Cirkus including Entry of the Chameleons (4 stars) Creepy, psychotic circus music with a great instrumental chorus with mellotron that sounds like a horn blown by Poseidon himself. The bass comes in underneath with a malevolent swagger and the acoustic guitar flows around it like a manic feather boa. This sound also has good mellotron and saxophone instrumental section. Overall great mix of instrument, mood and drama. This song ends with a sound effect like that one that ended "The Devil's Triangle" on their previous album; a kind of shimmering light sound.

Indoor Games (3 stars) I am unable to get much understanding out of the lyrics on this song. Their is a confusion of guitar around the vocals and a bemused sax melody. Strong strums on the acoustic guitar accent the brief chorus. The instruments are numerous and complex but syncopated.

Happy Family (3 stars) This song has the same light tone as the previous song and is connected to it by the vocalist's laughter. The instruments also, similarly, are played like a controlled avalanche around the vocals. I've read that this song is about the Beatles' break up; perhaps, if I knew more about the Beatles I might be able to recognize this in the lyrics. Otherwise the lyrics are just strange like some Ringo Starr song.

Lady of the Dancing Water (3 stars) There is excellent flute playing on this slow, quiet song. If I'm not very much mistaken this is actually a love song; I can't think of another love song that King Crimson has done.

Lizard: Prince Rupert Awakes, Bolero: The Peacock's Tale, The Battle of Glass Tears: (Dawn Song, Last Skirmish, Prince Rupert's Lament), Big Top (4 stars) Given that there is seemingly a story behind this song, I imagine that the lyrics are penetrable but I have not been able to make too much sense of them. This is King Crimson's only epic length song. I think the band has turned down the complexity a slight notch for the most part in favor of more straight-forward instrumentation. Jon Anderson's mystical voice climaxes in the first part of the song with a passionate mellotron in the tradition of King Crimson's album-titled songs so far. The mood is anticipatory and calm until this first climax is reached. Then starts a beautiful instrumental, a bolero, with a succession of elegant woodwind and brass instruments that play slight variations on the main theme. The instruments include trumpet, clarinet, oboe, saxophone and trombone together, then all these instruments join together with a piano, often played like a harp, in the background. The mellotron comes in at the end like a backing string section. After this bolero the oboe plays an ominous song of the dawn before a battle. The regular vocalist returns to sing and after this the mellotron kicks in with bass beating the drums of war. Then the saxophone sings a war march. Further sounds emulate the chaos and violence of war until a further climax resolves into a kind of funeral lament with the bass plucking deep notes and the guitar screaming someone's agony. After this misery fades away the sounds of a big top fade in and then as soon fade away again as the pitch and tempo slowly increase, suggesting a kind of madness. Also, this theme may have been an effort to tie the album's beginning and ending together conceptually.

Album: This album has a more cohesive sound than its predecessor "In the Wake of Poseidon". I sense that the mellotron is gradually loosing ground in successive King Crimson albums, but it is still being used effectively. Woodwind and brass instruments often get to shine on this album and are not always lost in an effort to create a crazy cacophony. This is one of the highlights of this album's style, to showcase the talents of the musician's individual efforts.

MP3 recommendation:

Four stars (4 stars) 1. Cirkus (4 stars) 2. Lizard (4 stars)