DISCIPLINE

When this album came out, it did not really attract me, and it disappointed me because gone were the styles of early King Crimson sound of the seventies. I thought the kind of this music was more of a new wave type of music so I did not want to listen into deep. I put the cassette at my rack and never played it anymore. I blame the new guy under the name of Adrian Belew. My prog mate` in Bandung (at the time I was still in Bandung), Ian, tried to infuse me with good points about the album. Nah, am not interested - too new wave stuff.

Things changed significantly when couple of years later I saw the laser disc (LD) of King Crimson LIVE IN JAPAN - which later in the 2000 the label re-launched the show in the form of DVD set "Neal and Jack and Me" with other live set, Frejus. Because I never purchased the video of KC finally I bought the LD considering that I like Fripp and Bruford works. It blew me away at first sight because I did really enjoy the show - and in fact I like the Belew's guitar and singing style. You know what I like most about the show? The track titled "Indisciplned" which its studio version I usually called as an "unstructured" song because it's basically no melody. I was wrong. In fact, this is the best track from this album. I like the unusual time signatures especially when Bruford drum starts the song off and its further drum fills. Really marvelous.

In this newly reformed group King Crimson - after Jamie Muir (who inspired Jon Anderson to create Yes "Tales From Topographic Ocean) left King Crimson during "Lark's Tongue in Aspic" - composed new material which reflect the new direction. New line up with new music. All songs are great songs combining those with relatively complex composition such as "Indiscipline" as well as melodic one like "Matte Kudesai". All were composed in the same vein of music where bass lines by Tony Levin are so tight (which later appear in the group like Red Hot Chilli Pepper), jaw dropping drum work of Bruford. All were overlaid with two distinctive guitar styles with Belew at rough edge and Fripp using synthaxe which sounds like a keyboard. "Elephant Talk" was once my favorite as well.

Overall, this is the return of King Crimson with new music direction and well crafted composition. Nothing is similar with its previous work - that's why King Crimson is truly a progressive band. Highly recommended. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW