ROBERT FRIPP

Underrated comes short. A masterpiece from A to Z. Mostly proccesed electric guitar far opposite to what was happening at the time (1980), and of course this is the King himself, back in form to explore the future. Track 1: A bridge between the first project (Exposure), track 2: Fast tranced-dance pioneer,( if not the first ), that dissolves into the world of Frippertronics (Track 3 to 6). Somehow I´ve found that die-hard Crimsons are the main detractors. Just let yourself go, the music will do the rest. 5 Stars without blinking. PD; the original vinyl starts with Under Heavy Manners end with 1983.

The debut of Robert Fripp still has some recognizable aspects of King Crimson's Larques Tongues - Red period. Exposure is the bridge between this period and the later King Crimson. Many great guests were invited to work on this record like Peter Hammill and Peter Gabriel. Still this ain't no masterpiece, because the songs/ compositions don't have the great atmosphere of King Crimson and most of them are based on some small themes and don't have the song progression that we were used to.

The record contains Rock'n Roll, Crimson alike riffs, ballads and Frippertronics. And one thing is for sure: the songs have over the top vocals except the last song sung by Gabriel which is a gentle one. Peter Hammill and the woman vocalist Daryl Hall give themselves totally and reach a certain level of craziness.

This is a quiet divers record with some nice songs, and I quess Fripp and his fellow musicians had some joy during the recordings. This record is enjoyable and a nice addition for King Crimson or Peter Hammill fans. Prepare for the more crazy side of Fripp! Three stars.

2012-04-10 Robert Fripp - God Save The Queen / Under Heavy Manners Copy reviewed LP.

In Fripp's Drive To 1981 this 1980 album may represent the real building block upon which Disciplined, later to rename themselves King Crimson would be built upon. Fripp had developed his system of Frippertronics, playing guitar through one tape recorder, recording it and improvising against that recording to be recorded on another tape recorder. Probably his most successful and popular album was No Pussyfooting' (1973) recorded with Brian Eno. However this album ? effectively a compilation of two EPs sees further resurrection of Frippertonics on the first side, spacey bleeps and drones.

While the spacey technical approach would feature in Fripp's music thereafter it is Under Heavy Manners that really features the building blocks of King Crimson. The title track features the vocal input of Talking Head David Byrne, a contemporary colleague of Adrian Belew (yet to join Discipline.) The sound of the two has often been remarked as similar something to which Fripp probably saw to his advantage. Fripp wrote the lyrics of Under Heavy manners and the content and approach may form the nucleus of the new Crimson album called Discipline. E.g. 'Jurism, tourism, neologism, imperialism' could be later seen as the basis for Elephant Talk and the later Neurotica with its word play and manic delivery. It has a new wave / accented offbeat approach that is really primitive compared to later sophisticated arrangements. The Zero of The Signified is the track with rhythm. Fripp alludes and distances himself at once from the notion of "Discotronics" or "Roscotronics". One way or another the rhythmic aspect of the future King Crimson might have had it's genesis on this track. Perhaps Fripp's work with his project (1981) the League of Gentlemen may have had influence on his newer technical approaches to the nascent neo-Crimson. The track is dominated by bass guitar, drums and guitar with Frippertronics added. Really this could also be seen as a prelude to the near Crimson work undertaken with David Sylvian. Note Sylvian had recently emerged at this time with British punk art pop band Japan. The effect of this album is one of two distinct ideas that would receive later development, and frankly, improvement ? but one has to start somewhere. This is electronic experimental music with the emphasis on experiments as a process. The overall effect is that of transition as Fripp's Road to 1981 still had a few miles to travel. But the kernels of the new King Crimson are here. I've not seen this on CD yet and not sure it will happen. It's probably not a great album, essential for Fripp students, interesting for King Crimson (1981 ? 1984) students and okay for anyone else interested in experimental music that is in it's primitive way quite good. The most interesting feature of the so-called discotronics is the guitar arpeggios which are used as the basis for the early '80s King Crimson compositions. It is most certainly not funky as King Crimson were not particularly funky either, more complex driving over a simple rhythm (which would later be well developed by Bill Bruford).

The album features the beginnings of early '80s Crimson and a fair bit of Frippertronics as well as David Byrne providing the approach for vocals in the yet to form Discipline. Belew would however be so less annoying, managing to deliver his lyrics with melodic aplomb, something missing from Byrne's experimental approach.

Overall three stars. It's good, perhaps essential, to have if you are a Fripp / Crimson scholar but it is no substitute for the early '80s King Crimson, a good signpost for the road ahead.

Robert Fripp's year 2000 collaboration with Jeffrey Fayman was a natural extension (and in many ways the conclusion) to his groundbreaking experimental work alongside Brian Eno in the early 1970s. But don't mistake the album for the sort of New Age ambient background doodle designed to cure insomnia. This is a powerful, ecstatic apotheosis of pure sound, unlike Eno's tranquil minimalism meant to be played as loudly as possible. Crank this sucker, and then watch as the walls begin to shimmer with radiant energy.

Yes, there's a definite, deliberate monotony built into the foundation of the music...all the better to stimulate the primitive brain stem and induce a state of heightened awareness, allowing the listener a glimpse of infinity. Pardon the dime store mysticism, but it's hard not to recognize the album for what it is: a huge, musical mantra, expressing more undiluted divinity than the entire discography of (insert the name of any born-again Neo Prog fundamentalist here).

The CD sleeve actually credits Fayman with 'tranceportation', and he obviously knows his craft. The erstwhile drummer uses the phrase 'lucid dreaming' to describe the effect, best heard on the two longer selections, slowly rolling juggernauts of oceanic motion ("The Pillars of Hercules") and atmospheric depth ("A Temple in the Clouds"). Don't expect much in the way of variation, but attentive listeners will find a lot of detail hidden within the awesome, unchanging ebb and flow of each track. A pair of shorter interludes is drawn from more traditional Robert Fripp soundscapes, but the entire album blends organically together into a single rich, symphonic, all-enveloping tapestry.

The title itself offers the perfect description of an album sounding like something from a Tibetan monastery high in the Himalayas (the original guitar tracks were supposedly recorded in a Buddhist temple). For a point of reference closer to these Archives, imagine the 1971 Florian Fricke devotional noisefest "Vuh", updated to our digital millennium and re- interpreted by the same guitarist responsible for the nouveau-metal math rock of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part IV".

Strange, that a mild-mannered Protestant like Robert Fripp should create such a magical racket. But there's something almost deliriously pagan in the way the album taps into the spiritual essence of music making, to such a degree that even a committed non-believer like myself can't help but respond to it.

Robret Fripp goes punk.

So here is Bob Fripp's debut solo album, recorded in collaboration with many widely known progressive rock musicians such as Peter Hammill, Tony Levin, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel & Phil Collins and called by some critics the 'Sgt Pepper of art punk'. Indeed, it sounds very strange for ears of those who remember good old Fripp's work as a guiarist of King Crimson, the living gods of art music. But the time is changing and the music cannot stand still in 1974, so Fripp recorded a much more modern-sounding album full of raw punk energy, mystic Frippertronics and weird avant-garde production.

'Exposure' is the third (and the best) part of so-called MOR Trilogy (the first two parts are Daryl Hall's 'Sacred Songs' and Peter Gabriels' second album): all those albums were recorded with Robert Fripp's presence, and so both Hall and Gabriel appeared on 'Exposure'.

The cover art depicts a photo shot at the auditions for never filmed Amos Poe's remake of Jean-Luc Godard's classic movie 'Alphaville'. Robert Fripp was going to play secret agent Lemmy Caution and Debbie Harry of art punk/new wave band Blondie was intended to play Natacha von Braun. I can't say if it was a good idea to give Debby a role performed in original by Anna Karina, but Robert Fripp shurely would be a superior Lemmy!

'Exposure' have three different editions: the first one was released in 1979. In 1983 it was remixed, some songs were replaced with a different takes and released in 1985. In 2006 the album was remixed again, and it caused appearance of the third edition.

The album starts with "Preface". This track contins Brian Eno's speech which is interrupted with strange samples of choir and phone ring.

"You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette" is the first real song here. Singed by Daryl Hall, it is a kind of fastened rock'n'roll punk with piano played by Hall. Not a bad beginning.

"Breathless" starts with Frippertronics and then rolls into guitar solo which is actually a remake of King Crimson's "Red". Not a bad thing if you love instrumental heavy metal, not very original though.

"Disengage" starts again with Frippertronics accompanied with some conversation's samples, and then falls onto very heavy punk territory. Peter Hammill's voice (as always) is very rough, screaming and shrieking. Being one of the loudest tracks here, it ends with ear-piercingly loud guitars. On third edition (renamed to "Disengage II") Hammill's voice was replaced with Daryl Hall's. Hall is trying to be rough here, but he still sounds much more softer.

"North Star" provides us some surprising slowness and calmness. A ballad full of quiet Daryl Hall's singing, Eno's synths and, of course, Frippertronics.

"Chicago" opens with a heavy bluesy beat and pianos. Peter Hammill's voice is a bit less unleashed here than on "Disengage". On second edition the second half of this song was performed by Terre Roche, who is trying to sing as raw as Peter. On third edition all vocals here are performed by Daryl Hall, which are making this song ways more softer than before.

"NY3" starts like a snippet of what King Crimson would become later in 80's and even in 90's. Then heaqvy guitars are braking through, and we hear loud family argument. A very paranoid track here originated musically from "NYCNY" song from Daryl Hall's album "Sacred Songs". Argument was also replaced with Hall's singing in third edition (renamed to "New York, New York, New York").

The first side ends with "Mary", a beautiful sad ballad with mellow vocals performed by Terre Roche of all-female folk band The Roches (Fripp later produced two Roches' albums, other guys from King Crimson were also there!). Not the thing you would normaly expect from heavy-and-mechanical Robert Fripp, but one of the most memorable here. On second edition lead vocals were replaced wtih Daryl Hall's singing, which actually makes the record much weaker.

"Exposure" starts with Frippertronics, we hear the sample of someone's saying "It's impossible to achieve the aim without suffering", and then we hear Terre Roche's roughly screamings of just one word, 'exposure', throughout the wholesong. This track is originated from Peter Gabriel's second album, and Gabriel's version was, ehm, much more softer. Roche's vocals were replaced with Daryl Hall on the seond edition.

"Hååden Two" is a strange guitar solo with samples played over it. At the end we can hear chat that was was cutted out from subsequent remixed editions.

"Urban Landscape", originated from Daryl Hall's "Sacred Songs", is just a two and half minutes long instrumental with ambient Frippertronics.

"I May Not Have Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You" is where we return to the where we've started. It's a fast punk song with vocals by Peter Hammill and Terry Roche. It shares the same music as "NY3", originated from "NYCNY" from Hall's "Sacred Songs".

"First Inaugural Address To The I.A.C.E. Sherborne House" is just a four seconds long noise oddity.

"Water Music I" is a beautiful Frippertronics-filled ambient instrumental, which segues into 'Here Comes the Flood", a piano ballad sung by Peter Gabriel. Slow, sad, dark and apocalyptical, this is the highlight here. Peter's voice is as beautiful as ever. This song was originally released on Gabriel's debut solo album, but this is a major rework that lacks anthemic sound of original and replaces it with a very sad and intimate sound.

After "Here Comes the Flood" we hear "Water Music II", the second part of this ambient instrumental, as good as the first.

And then the album ends with spoken track "Postscript", in which Brian Eno tell us that "so the whole story was completely untrue, a big hoax".

So in general, the album is fantastic, especially the original version (second and third editions seem to me much weaker). It might not be the essential work every progressive rock fan ought to listen to, but it's definitely a fine record. Robert Fripp is as witty as always, so if you love King Crimson, you'll definitely like this album.

8,5/10

Did you know this one really existed?

When i saw it i couldn't believe it , fripp , wetton and collins?? how did that happen? all three members are in the top of their game that year , and what to come out of this session should be a monster jaming! but actually it isn't that amazing , and does not match the expectations i had . what you get here is an earlier version of 'disengage' out of the 'exposure' album by fripp , as you can see he had the idea for the song earlier and tried to jam with it. it's like a raw loose version , but actually i prefer the one on exposure with the vocals. you get 4 versions of the song , all are pretty much the same. as great as the playing goes after those 13 minutes of an EP are finished you feel like you swallowed enough of 'disengage'.

All members playing is great , i always liked wetton's bass with that slight distortion , collins is fantastic , and fripp is just carrying the line of the song without taking a lead too much. they really have that intricate rhythm under control , and collins is the only one really improvising on it . i wish they would jam some more , i'm sure they did but it was never released. i found a few more minutes on the internet that they are playing something else, also good.

This one should appeal to anyone who likes good jaming but for fans of KC mostly , more because of historic value than the material presented. KC fans don't miss it for the world even though wetton era material is superior to this.

I hate to give it 3 stars but that's what it is!

The Robert Fripp String Quintet saw the once and future Crimson King working alongside his trusty sidekick Trey Gunn and the California Guitar Trio, alumni of Fripp's Guitar Craft seminars (and not actually from California, as this Pacific Coast expat was disappointed learn after seeing them open for the double-trio Crimson in 1995).

It was a short-lived but vital entity, as their 1993 album (the Quintet's one and only) convincingly demonstrates. In the booklet for the compact disc DGM engineer David Singleton writes: "I realized at the time that my job was to convince him [Fripp] that this album too...could be a major piece of work." But, judging at least from the scant number of reviews here at Prog Archives after eighteen years, it sort of fell between the cracks after the subsequent high-profile reformation of KC shortly afterward.

Too bad, because there's a lot here to admire, from the soaring beauty of "Hope" to the jaw- dropping distorted baroque frenzy of "Chromatic Fantasy", one of three J.S. Bach pieces in this set, and proof again that Mr. Fripp remains one of Rock's best and most distinctive guitarists. (I'm guessing this particular track is not unlike a typical morning warming-up exercise for him, and the best of luck. Kids, do not try this at home...)

Other highlights include the nervous energy of "Ka-Non Power" (a distant nephew of sorts to the classic Crimson "Larks Tongues in Aspic" cycle), alongside the more upbeat, toe- tapping melodies of "Yamanashi Blues" and "Bicycling to Afghanistan", not a recommended leisure activity these days. The backing tracks were all performed live, with discreet studio overdubs added afterward, typically featuring an acoustic California Trio accompanied by Fripp on electric guitar, with Trey Gunn playing the ubiquitous Chapman Stick. A lot of the music builds on the model designed a decade earlier by the "Discipline"- era King Crimson, with a similar interwoven gamelan of mathematic guitar notation.

The album's epilogue, and by far the longest selection on it, is the Frippertronic showpiece "Threnody for Souls in Torment", which sounds exactly like its title. From what dark corner inside the otherwise mild-mannered psyche of Robert Fripp does music this extreme spring from? Play it loud, and watch how well it frightens away your unwanted houseguests.

In the end it may not be entirely essential, but the album is still one of the hidden gems on the crown of the greater Crimson King.

From those Robert Fripp's solo soundscapes I have heard, this record returns again to the finest celestial spheres I found earlier from his divine "The Gates of Paradise" album. The music focuses again more deeply to the mystic feelings and religious experiences. These solemn relations in the musical context are underlined with use of both church bell and pipe organs resembling sounds, which create beautiful contrasts with very low-pitched and vast humming, associating with echoes of infinity and most profound human questions. The descending and ascending motives form waves summoning forth a powerful sacred spiritual experience, full with melancholic solemnity with presence of hope. These tides on the sea of soothing peacefulness sail to both hypnotic calm phases and cross-picked guitar mantras. Some of the synthesized sounds are quite realistic, some having more artificial characteristics. There are also some fine guitar solos, where the instrument's sound is not so much processed.

Major theme of the album are several variations of "Evensong" from the Fripp & Eno album "Evening Star"; In Tallinn the descending notes of referred track are audible in the tingling background layers, in Viljandi the overall humming sound presence and in codas quiet bells, then in Haapsalu session the dark motives behind solo guitar along with the serene coda details. The wind chime sounding quiet bells dominant on codas of these "Evensong" prayers are very beautiful, chanting with piety their minimal cycles. These entities are segmented with two tranquil phases titled "At The End of Time", and the final "Evensong" is reached through powerful deep sounds of "Future Shift", offering visions from more atonal ethereal planes. The last phase of the album has very sorrowful progression with electronically treated solos, reaching later more hopeful yearning to its flight, before escaping to most blissful bells fading to the void of celestial harmonies.

The composition of the record is built successfully from the church concert recordings, which were captured from a small tour in England and Estonia, reaching a solid thematic album from the emotional logics of the sacred sounds. In the CD booklet there are links to DGM Live web shop, from where one can purchase flac/mp3 downloads of five whole concerts from which this album was built. Robert also shares his memories from the tour and contemplations about his musical career and philosophical views.

I believe this music is relying mostly on the feeling of sounds, not containing very complex musical content. The performances must have been extraordinary events in the churches, if one should be open to peaceful spiritual experiences. Though I do not accept any dogmas of religions preached by men correct, but I see wisdom in William Blake's words "all religions are one". I think the urge to search answers to spiritual questions is a fundamental part of human existence. Though the answer might not be possible to be found, it is possible that search itself is more important, and I refuse to accept the conflict of secular scientific and spiritual faith based views of world - a clash that I have noted to be strong in the segment of society being visible to me. For those who are doing this search or just like beautiful ambient-oriented music, I would certainly recommend this extraordinary album.

Robert Fripp transforms from Crimson King to prophet of the New Wave. Featuring guests ranging from Daryl Hall (on a varying number of tracks depending on which edition you're listening to) to Peter Gabriel (who contributes a fantastic version of Here Comes The Flood - superior to the one on his first solo album) to Peter Hammill (whose own experiments in fusing prog and punk at the time meant that his musical interests and Fripp's were aligned like never before in 1979), this accomplished solo album runs the whole range from bouncy rock and roll to advanced courses in Gurdjieff and Frippertronics.

I feel like Robert Fripp's life between the 70's and 80's incarnations of King Crimson would make for a surprisingly interesting documentary or biopic. Imagine this pitch: a famous guitarist breaks up the band where he's been the de facto center for several years, just as the kind of music that band played is falling out of fashion with the general musical community. After a little dinking around, he quits the music industry completely and joins what some might consider a cult (The Fourth Way, originally conceived by a man named George Gurdjieff). After leaving this "cult" and taking some gigs, he moves to New York (Hell's Kitchen) and works to rebuild his career from scratch, doing support work for a musical movement that was, in part, a rejection of the type of music that had brought him fame in the first place. Incredibly, he becomes a mainstay of this new growing musical community, and eventually starts a new band (with the same name as the one he ended) that's basically a bridge between the music he left behind and the music that had come to embrace him. I don't know about you, but I'd definitely be interested in watching this once or twice.

In the midst of this stretch, which found Fripp doing groundbreaking work in support of Talking Heads, David Bowie, and less likely acts such as Blondie and others, he found himself involved in a trilogy of sorts where he would serve as producer and a collaborator across all three. One of these was Peter Gabriel's second album, which kinda made sense: Robert and Peter were in somewhat the same boat, former prog rock gods trying to carve out a new niche, and Robert had appeared on Peter's first album under an assumed name. One of these was a collabaration with Darryl Hall of Hall and Oates, which didn't seem to make sense: RCA was so freaked out by the relatively non-commercial nature of Sacred Songs (which, as of writing, I have not yet heard, though I'm curious) that they refused for two years to release the album, though it ended up being regarded well once it came out. And the third was Exposure, which not only features Hall and Gabriel on vocals (as well as Peter Hammill, yet another ex-prog rock leadman trying to force a niche in a post-prog rock world) but also has some crossover in actual song material (albeit in different versions). The title track would appear on Peter Gabriel 2; "Urban Landscape" (as well as "You Burn Me up I'm a Cigarette" and "North Star" among the bonus tracks) would appear on Sacred Songs; and "Here Comes the Flood," from Peter Gabriel's first album, would appear here in a very different form from the version on that album.

I find Exposure a little less stellar now than I did the first couple of times I listened to it in full, but I still think it's pretty remarkable. It's a fascinating span of the kind of music that held Robert's interest at the time: the album has boogie-rock, instrumentals in the vein of "Red," cacophonous screamer rock, dreamy ballads, tweaked blues rock (what else could I call "Chicago?"), cutting edge experiments, lots of soundscaping and lots of effective uses of sampling. The two tracks with Hall on vocals help make the choice of Adrian Belew for the next version of Crimson all the clearer; Fripp apparently thought Hall was the best vocalist he'd ever worked with, and seeing how Belew was basically a (maybe slightly inferior) dead ringer for Hall vocally, this made his selection all the easier. "You Burn Me up I'm a Cigarette" (coming after "Preface," a silly introduction sampling Fripp saying he's come up with material that might have commercial appeal, and some processed layered Hall vocals) does "Boogie Rock ... from the FUTURE" proud, and it's a blast to hear Robert knocking out lines like this over fun piano. "North Star" is basically an eerie precursor to "Matte Kudasai," right down to having Tony Levin on bass (and Phil Collins on drums! Not quite Bruford, but pretty close), and Fripp's guitar is just as dreamy here as there (though with a little less in the way of soundscaping).

I'm also very fond of the tracks featuring Peter Hammill on vocals. In addition to the menacing, bluesy "Chicago," "Disengage" and especially "I May Not Have Had Enough of Me but I've Had Enough of You" feature some absolutely pummelling riffage, and it's fun to hear Peter in full- blown "What are those horrible things you're doing to your vocal chords??" mode. "I May Not ..." also contains some very excited, noisy vocals from Terry Roche of The Roche Sisters, who makes an impact in a couple other tracks. "Mary" is another ballad loosely in the "Matte Kudasai" vein (albeit with Terry sounding like Joni Mitchell to me), but Terre's main showcase is definitely on the title track, a slow rhythmic soundscaped pounder (with a voice repeatedly spelling out the name of the track and another voice, I would assume Fripp, intermittently intoning, "It is impossible to achieve the aim without suffering") with her doing HORRIBLE things to her voice as she sings the title over and over. When people affix the "avant-punk" description to this album, I feel like the title track is the main reason for it.

The instrumentals are of mixed quality. "Breathless" is a terrific bridge between, say, "Red" and "Larks III," and "NY3" (which has a goofy organ and an indecipherable argument in the background) features some lines that definitely hearken back to "Larks I," but "Haaden Two" (with some more intermittent random vocal samples, including one of Robert saying, "What a dismal, pathetic chord sequence") is a bore, and "Urban Landscape" is just a fillerish drone whose main benefit is luring me into enough of a stooper that "I May Not ..." startles me when it starts up. The instrumentals that provide the most impact, though, are "Water Music I" (a brief soundscaped introduction to "Here Comes the Flood," featuring a voice talking about an impending ice age) and "Water Music II" (a lengthy soundscape following "Flood"), which provide an appropriate atmospheric bookend to the album's greatest highlight. "Here Comes the Flood" here is miles above the Peter Gabriel I version: while the original was overproduced and bloated to the point of ruining the song, this one is stripped down to Peter on solo piano and vocals, Robert playing some quiet atmospheric guitar lines, and Brian Eno contributing a smidge of synthesizer here and there. The end result is breathtaking, uncovering a marvelous melody and an emotional heft that had no chance to break through the orchestrations of the original. I have a longtime love and adoration for the piano-only version of the song on Peter's Shaking the Tree compilation, but this one has to take the prize of the best official version of the track.

And that's your album. Maybe it's not close to perfect, but it's extremely remarkable as both a collection of ideas and as a statement of purpose, and it shows that Robert had enough going on in his head that a new version of King Crimsom was pretty inevitable. I should note that the 2006 remaster contains two versions of the album: the original, and a 1982 version that's mostly just a remix but also has some lineup differences (like Daryl Hall singing "Disengage" instead of Peter Hammill).