DISCIPLINE

Initially called Discipline, this quartet featured influences from new wave, post-punk, and funk, and was starkly different from every prior King Crimson incarnation. The act was eventually rebranded as King Crimson, however, and an album called Discipline was released in late 1981.

The album opens with Tony Levin's unique rubbery bass on "Elephant Talk". (It may be a Chapman stick, a two-handed, tapped hybrid bass/guitar that is a specialty of Levin's.) The guitars clearly draw a lot from new wave, both in style and tone. The lyrics are quirky, with each stanza containing different words for talking that start with the letters A through E. It's groovy and fun, and the occasional big, bent guitar note calls to mind elephants trumpeting.

"Frame by Frame" has a high-energy opening riff that evokes images of film frames flying by on rapidly-spinning reels. The verse is mellower, and Tony Levin's backing vocals add a nice level of warmth.

What follows is my least-favorite song on the album. "Matte Kudasai" is a slow, schmaltzy '80s ballad, and that's simply a style I don't find enjoyable. King Crimson has no shortage of good slow songs in their catalog, but this is one of very few King Crimson songs to sound like a product of its time in a bad way.

"Indiscipline" is the most typically-Crimsonian song so far, and it features a great, dark, twisting lead guitar line over a heavy, plodding beat. The vocals are spoken over a backing of primarily bass guitar, and it works. This song is all jagged edges and tumbling rhythms, and that swirling chaos works beautifully.

My favorite song on Discipline, though, is "Thela Hun Ginjeet". (The title is an anagram for "heat in the jungle," a reference to urban crime, the topic of this song.) Belew's vocal performance is dramatic, and the rapid, anxious strumming helps cultivate a tense atmosphere. The spoken-word segments consist of Belew talking about experiences while walking around New York City trying to get other field recordings. Fripp's lead guitar is often stretched out, and there's a strange catchiness to it all.

"The Sheltering Sky" is a mellow instrumental track. Bruford's percussion is electronic but reminiscent of woodblocks. It adds a relaxing vibe to the track, along with the laid-back rhythm guitar and the gentle throb of Levin's bass. Fripp's lead guitar synthesizer has a less-pleasant tone to it, and its whining and squealing grows tiresome rather quickly. There are some good ideas here, but this is the one place on Discipline where Fripp's love of improv hampers things.

Discipline ends on its title track, an instrumental cut that is a great distillation of the album's overall sounds. Clean guitar lines tie knots around each other, and Levin and Bruford give the song a nice bit of funk.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2024/04/15/deep-dive-king-crimson/