LIVE IN GUILDFORD 1972

Among with now officially released 1972 live records "The Beat Club, Bremen, 1972" and "Live at The Zoom Club", this album "Live in Guildford, 1972" presents us the concerts which established the Wetton / Cross / Muir line-up of King Crimson, and also show up the birth process of their classic "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" album. When comparing to the two albums mentioned first, this album has maybe the best quality of sound of them.

The show opens with a very aggressive version of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic - part one", and that distorted tone of Fripp's guitar is just a pure killer. The two second movements after the violent main theme are here quite similar, later the bass and drum patterns evolved separating these moments as more different from each other. The number is also here longer than in the Beat Club performance, having the violin "Larks' Ascension" solo part, missing only the nightmarish coda, which ends the studio version and later performances of this brilliant avant-garde number. The violin tunes are followed with "Book of Saturday", creating a nice contrast and a calm moment to the more violent and chaotic moments. Here the song has some tambourine backing it up, usually it doesn't have much percussions played over it. The name of the song is also yet "Daily Games" according to Fripp's following polite and disciplined speech (these are in my opinion fun as they sound so different when compared to the passionate and impulsive music performed). The speech also reveals that the set should end up with "Larks' Tongues in Aspic - part two", which sadly did not get captured on this recording, as the tape ran out too quickly. The next "attack towards culture" is a freeform collective improvisation which is built up by the same principles as the long improvisation "The Rich Tapestry Of Life" from the Beat Club concert; It opens up with really loud and violent communal crashing of the instruments, and then stage is free, players presenting themes and demanding reactions from others. If you like interactive jamming and old rock sounds with Mellotrons, here's a gourmet dish of described ingredients for you. All of the moments aren't most the successful, and the longer similar jam referred on the Beat Club set is maybe little more better, but this really fine too. The record ends to the beginning of the harmonic "Exiles" rising up from the "Mantra" theme, which was used also in the 1969 concerts as an opener on other musical relations. The version here is incomplete as the tape runs out after three minutes. A really sad thing, ruining mostly motives for listening this track, but from the documentary point of view it is good to have it here from documentary perspective, as it was nice to hear how Muir colored the beginning with his bird whistles.

For me it's difficult to say which would be best of the three official live albums with Muir, but this and "The Beat Club, Bremen, 1972" are clearly better than the double-CD Zoom Club, which has lots of interesting long improvisations, but has partially very poor sound quality. If you are fond of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" album, I would recommend to try listening this one or the Beat Club CD, as they reveal a deeper insight to these magical moments of this band, which often succeeded better on the live stage than in the studio (though they often succeeded there too). Also hunting down all of these interesting concert recordings is a fun collecting hobby which could be compared to the collecting of stamps; These records are only more funnier than old postmarks in my opinion, as they have violent, neurotic, passionate and beautiful music radiating from them.

It's unfortunate that whilst we have ample soundboard recordings from the Starless and Bible Black/Red eras of King Crimson, the same isn't true of the Larks' Tongues In Aspic-era band - distinguished by the presence of Jamie Muir on percussion alongside Bill Bruford.

The Guildford tapes reproduced here are a welcome exception - a soundboard recording from what sounds like a pretty decent gig, what little we have of it. The only complete songs we have here are (99% of) Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Book of Saturdays, and an improv - but on the plus side, the improv is a truly epic affair. If we only had the full set, this might be a five star release; as it is it's a four star taster of what seems to have been a magical night.