THE CHAMPAIGN-URBANA SESSIONS, 1983

Unlike most King Crimson Collector's Club releases, this isn't a live album - instead, it's the work-in-progress studio sound of King Crimson trying to figure out where to go next after Beat. We all know where they ended up - Three of a Perfect Pair - and the occasional musical motif or idea from here ends up on there - but this is rawer, wilder, and often more experimental than that album, with the band ranging from the sort of avant-garde material which would ultimately make up that album's second side to funk workouts. The sessions unfolded over two weeks in January of 1983 and boil down here to just under an hour's worth of highlights, and I have to say that they sound pretty good.