HEAVY CONSTRUKCTION

To a large extent, the live tour for The ConstruKction of Light was the redeeming of the material of that album, giving the material on it the extra refinement and workshopping that the group hadn't been able to give it before the studio sessions. For that matter, the improvisation the ConstruKction lineup delivers somehow feels deeper and more emotionally resonant than the empty technical noodling that the ProjeKcts had spent much of the late 1990s wallowing in, despite using much the same sort of hyper-modern textures and instrumentation.

That said, an entire disc of nothing but improvs was perhaps too much for this set, good though these improvs are. It's telling that for the Heaven & Earth boxed set Fripp and company didn't just regurgitate Heavy ConstruKction but put together Live ConstruKction - consisting of most of the setlist from the Shepherd's Bush stop on the tour, with additional improvisations from other stops interwoven into the running order. That provides a more cohesive listening experience than this - a four and a half star one rather than a four star effort - but if the Heaven & Earth box is too rich for your tastes and Live ConstruKction doesn't see a separate release, Heavy ConstruKction might be the best one- stop taste of turn-of-the-century King Crimson.