Unnecessary: Last 9min of KC's Moonchild

 

Couldn't agree more.  Seems like Walter (Wendy?) Carlos was inspired (cursed?) by the same "jam bug" when he did a similar moog jam cacophony on the Clockwork Orange soundtrack.  At least KC's weak jam lasted only 9 minutes; Carlos' lasts for the whole side A of the vinyl imprint of that album...

While we're at it...

 

Unneccessary: 50 minutes of each The Flower Kings disc.

 

Uh oh, time to hide away. 

 

 -- Ivan

 

As far as Red goes, I personally think it logically works its way through the chord changes & reaches a satisfying ....errmm...... climax. I've described it before as a kind of heavy metal take on bell-ringing.

 

So I listened to Epitaph, Moonchild & Court.

 

Sorry, but I still think Moonchild is a very weak piece. There were several different sorts of different on this album: the heavy metal of Schizoid; the all-enveloping sound of Epitaph, which still raises goose bumps for me (my personal Sign Of A Great Track - someone else here recently described the "2 by 4" feeling, which is perhaps a better description); the Moonchild improv; and Court's bombast. Some work; some don't - that's experimentation.

 

The two things that Moonchild reminded me of this time; bits of "Crystal Silence" on the RTF "Return to Forever" album; and bits of Fripps' guitar eructations seemed similar to some Joe Pass phrases on an album I lost years ago.

 

Thought I'd compare Moonchild with other Kc improv. So listened to "Starless & Bible Black" from the eponymous album. That's a decent enough jam, although not what I'd call great.

 

Then Fracture - different class! Starts off with 6.40 or so of a pretty good improv. I like the way the theme gets repeated on the more unusual instruments - Bruford on glockenspiel & xylophone or two such similar instruments (heck - how should I know what they are? It's a frequent occurrence for me that I can't identify the various instruments on a KC track, despite numerous listenings!), and Cross on Violin and/or mellotron. Then, a minute or so of teasing from guitar, bass & drums - odd snippets to show they're still alive. Then, WHOOMPH! at 7.40 the earth splits & the band from hell gets going! Amazing energy, on a theme already pummeled into one's brain. At 8.30 there's an audible "whoop!" from the band (Bruford ? I presume), so they're clearly enjoying themselves! You get only 3 minutes of the best (partial) improv until the end, but it's almost enough by itself to justify the price of the album. These last 3 minutes play like a race between the four instruments - guitar, bass, drums & violin - with the last one to finish afraid of being labelled a cissy.... (the discussion elsewhere about Bruford's best drumming with Yes is pretty academic once you've heard Fracture.......)

 

I still don't reckon SaBB is their best album, but Fracture is unbelievable....

 

 

 

PS Can anyone explain why after the sublimity of the track "Starless" from Red, which includes the lyrical phrase "Starless and Bible Black" (pace Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood ) , Fripp had to complicate the issue by recording a track called "Starless and Bible Black", (which as far as I can tell has no musical connection with the first one, and no Dylan Thomas lyrics) on an album called "Starless and Bible Black" - another of his jokes, or what ?

 

I have to say first off that Providence has been (very slowly) growng on me for some time. Not so's I'd give it 10/10, but edging upwards from 2/10 towards the 4 or 5 mark. (In the same way, each time I listen to the Red album, I more & more realise how good are the two tracks which I'd always thought of as filler; Fallen Angel & (especially good) One More Red Nightmare; and how powerful & irreplaceable to the album's sound is Wetton's bass.) Plus, it's only recently that I've had a decent CD player through which to listen to the more subtle bits of these improvs.

 

However, I this evening it dawned on me that the two real problems with Providence are, 1) it's not long enough (pace Moonchild, which most people reckon is too long); and 2) the guitar bits.

 

I've always been frustrated with Providence; it's 8 minutes or so long, and its only in the last minute or two that it gets going, with a bassline that reminds me of a hangover I once had after a bottle of cinzano (no mixers) between two (don't laugh - that was the seventies. It was compulsory. Just be grateful you didn't have to do that.) If it had carried on to be a 15 minute song, I'm sure it could have been a contender. As it is, there's only a short gap between it waking up, and shooting off. It's the premature ejaculator of the KC prog canon, with a bit of foreplay to cover its blushes.

 

I also think it would work much better as a threesome - drums, bass, & Cross on violin (& mellotron if necessary). Sacrilege as it may be to say so, this is one track where I think Fripp's guitar detracts rather than enhances. On Trio, a track from the previous album, Bruford got a compositional credit for "admirable restraint" (a typical Fripp funny, only comprehensible if you know the track). I suspect "physical restraints" might have been necessary here, but might have helped in the creation of a very bassy 15 minute cult classic.

 

PS Can I repeat my request for more info on the confusion of Starless's (see above) ?