King Crimson. There are box sets, there are super deluxe sets, and then again....

The Starless (and bible black) set:

Starless is a new King Crimson box set that offers an in-depth overview of the band’s celebrated mid-1970′s live line-up at its most exploratory.

When we say ‘in-depth’ that’s what we mean since this set will contain a staggering 27 discs, made of up 23 CDs, two DVD-As and two blu-ray audio discs.
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•19 CDs of live performance material.
•7 CDs taken from multi-track tape including 4CDs of material from the Glasgow & Zurich shows, freshly assembled & mastered in Hi-Res from the original Great Deceiver mixes by David Singleton at DGM Soundworld in 2014, the Amsterdam show The Nightwatch mixed by Steven Wilson & a previously unheard preparatory of material from the same show prepared by George Chkiantz (engineer of all live KC shows of the era & the Red album).
•11 CDs drawn from high quality stereo reel to reel soundboard tapes. 8 making their first appearance on CD with the remaining three re-mastered or drawn from new tape sources.
•1 CD presenting the performance from the ORTF Paris TV broadcast
•CD 20 features the 2011 stereo mix of Starless & Bible Black by Steven Wilson & Robert Fripp
•DVD-A 1 features the Starless & Bible Black album in 5.1 Surround, with new & original stereo album mixes in High Resolution Stereo plus bonus audio material.
•DVD-A 2 features material from Mainz (mixed by David Singleton), Amsterdam (mixed by Steven Wilson) & a later show from Pittsburgh (mixed by George Chkiantz) in quadraphonic audio & High-Resolution Stereo.
•Both DVD-A discs are region 0 playable in all areas & compatible with all DVD players & DVD Rom players

•Blu-Ray Disc 1 features full lossless audio 24/192 transfers of material from the Glasgow & Zurich shows, freshly assembled & mastered from the original Great Deceiver mixes by David Singleton at DGM Soundworld in 2014 in LPCM stereo.
•Blu-Ray Disc 1 also features the Amsterdam show The Nightwatch, mixed by Steven Wilson & the George Chkiantz preparatory mix stereo in 24/96 High-resolution stereo & a 24/96 transfer of the original David Singleton/Robert Fripp mix of The Nightwatch.
•Blu-Ray Disc 2 features Starless & Bible Black in 5.1 Surround (DTS-HD MAS & LPCM 24/96) alongside new & original stereo masters of the album, a needledrop of an original vinyl pressing + audio extras.
•Blu-Ray Disc 2 also features the Quad mixes of material from the Mainz, Amsterdam & Pittsburgh concerts.
•Blu-Ray Disc 2 also features the ORTF Paris TV footage in a new hi-res transfer from the original source files.
•Discs packaged in 8 individual 3 disc digi-packs within an album sized box
•3 additional bonus CDs of audio restored soundboard/bootlegs & audio curios are also included.
•1 further concert (bootleg quality audio) is also available via included download ticket.
•Album sized booklet with rare/unseen photos, new sleeve notes by Sid Smith, technical notes on the recordings by David Singleton, eye-witness accounts from fans who attended the gigs + memorabilia including an album print, poster, replica concert ticket, press release with folder, photos & more besides.

£150, which [i]i suppose isn't too bad considering, but still:

Oh yeah, and you also get a download link for mp3s made from an original vinyl copy.

oh great, no mono folddown, no reverse stereo, no stems. This is just bullshit.

I mean I suppose I could rip the needle drop from the Blu-Ray and then phase-invert it myself in Audacity, but still.

I've probably said this a lot but it's amazing to me how a band that only stuck around 2 years amassed a seemingly infinite amount of recorded live shows

a box set in the form of a band

As I've said on the other thread, I bought the LTIA set a few weeks ago and have been unable to stop listening to it -- the live bootlegs, the alternate mixes, the hour-plus session reel of the band, much of it featuring the band just BASHING THE SHIT OUT OF THEIR INSTRUMENTS. The sheer breadth and energy of that set is intense.

But S&BB is the record that really sold me on this era of the band. I really want this.

I love this band but kind of feel like I've already heard enough of this era after Great Deceiver/Night Watch/Road to Red

and Lark's Box and USA and the actual albums

it's easy to make fun of this band, and this box set, but i bet there is some really fucking great material on here.

someone should be a hero, buy this, and alert us to the highlights.

i hear that if you play the blu-ray audio on the right machine robert fripp actually materializes in your living room and scolds you for not setting up the surround channels to his liking

i like that they stuff the reissues with rarely-seen photographs and bootleg quality recordings but want to kick your ass for taking a picture or recording now.

In Fripp's mind it all hinges on authorization. An authorized live recording is OK, an unauthorized one isn't.

More accurately, if the audience makes a recording, it's his release.

I love this band but kind of feel like I've already heard enough of this era after Great Deceiver/Night Watch/Road to Red

and Lark's Box and USA and the actual albums

If I bought any of these, it'd be LTIA because of Muir. Also, because it's my second favorite (after Red.

SABB has never totally knocked me out for some reason.

More accurately, if the audience makes a recording, it's his release

Has he ever made an official release out of an unauthorized audience recording, though? I'm not keeping track but I'd be surprised if he has.

picture of the thing (a link as it's quite large)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/918Doibtl6L._SL1500_.jpg

I heard that if you EQ the Blu Rays right, you get an uncanny feeling of what it's like to be Toyah.

Wow that picture. Interesting that the "and Bible Black" part of the title seems to have been expunged for this release.

From the Wire interview:

Some may roll their eyes at the idea of monumental box-sets hyper-inflating the importance of certain albums by bulking them up with concert material, most of which will be made available as downloads from the DGM website, if they haven't already been released as live CDs. For his part Fripp claims that he is not a completist. "I would like to hear the key performances of Miles Davis with Tony Williams, for example. I don't need to hear everything he ever did, although there is value in that."

In fact, there is a sound logic to DGM's archive mission, as Singleton explains with reference to a particularly impressive King Crimson show in Mainz, West Germany in 1974, previously documented in their Collectors Club CD series. Recently he mixed together the previously available 'sterile' board recording with an audience bootleg to great effect in both surround sound and stereo versions.

"The recording you will get in this box-set is much better, as the box-set has a budget and therefore allows us to present all twenty shows," he explains. "So you end up with a fascinating box for completists, but it also has the best versions of the nuggets. For the box-set I have a licence to clean up the very good shows, like Mainz and the Concertgebouw. But a budget for just the Mainz show would not justify doing that."

It's funny how Miles Davis always gets cited as justification for these sorts of overkill boxes.

Actually, the ground zero to me is the Stooges "Fun House" box. Had that also included a bunch of live material ...

Yeah, Miles was cited for that one as well.

I remember the question "Who wants to hear the entire session tapes? " was posed and Henry Rollins replied it, on the box sesion booklet as "I would!"

I did see an interview later with himself saying "I wish I hadn't"...

Sometimes I feel like if I just kept up with all the Miles, all the Dead, all the Crimson, and the occasional Numero release, I'd be all set.

Of course, I'd also have to find a second job.

You wouldn't have time for the first job.

One of the few perks of working for Warner Music Group for 3 years was getting a copy of the Stooges Fun House box (second, "unlimited" edition) for $10 at their annual charity sale. I've never listened to it, but I feel like it'll make a great weapon against annoying neighbors one day. "Oh, you want to play merengue on a Sunday morning? Here, have 22 versions of 'Loose' in a row, fuckers!"

ah, I got sent it free by Rhino, twice, for some reason.

(the first edition) I think it was to make up for a duff Wild Man Fischer set I sent back.

Wow that picture. Interesting that the "and Bible Black" part of the title seems to have been expunged for this release.

As for the title, I think it has less to do with any revisionist history and more to do with the fact that, like the "Road to Red" did for the band's work up until that release, this is designed to sum up this era of the band.

If I bought any of these, it'd be LTIA because of Muir. Also, because it's my second favorite (after /Red/.

Muir is why I bought it as well. As much as I love Red, I felt less urgency to pick up the box given my familiarity with those last several gigs.

If you were to buy all three of these sets, I am assuming The Great Deceiver would be redundant.

Wow. Better get a Blu-Ray player.

Heaven and Earth is the most comprehensive boxed set in the series to date, covering just over a decade in King Crimson’s extensive history.

It presents the most complete account of the ProjeKcts series with concerts by P1 – 4 & the sole studio recording of P1 in addition to a huge selection of ProjeKct albums and related recordings.

When the Double Trio line of Fripp, Belew, Levin, Mastelotto, Bruford, and Gunn wanted to develop new material at the end of the THRAK-era in 1997 they broke down into smaller groups, a process which Fripp dubbed fraKctalisation.

As the various band members in different groupings sought to road test ideas in front of audiences the projeKcts, as they were called, often played in small clubs and away from large scale venues. As a result, this hugely creative undertaking was often unseen and unheard by the more general broader audience and to that extent the ProjeKcts can be said to represent ‘The Unknown King Crimson.’

Four CDs and two Blu-rays detail this risk-taking era in comprehensive detail.

When the individual players regrouped as King Crimson the band was now a double duo consisting of Belew, Fripp, Gunn, and Mastelotto with Tony Levin & Bill Bruford leaving to fulfil other recording and touring commitments.

The next period of KC activity resulted in two studio albums, a heavy touring schedule, a studio mini-album & a number of live releases on CD/DVD/download & ran to 2003.

The two studio albums are presented here for the first time in 5.1 surround mixes.

2000’s The ConstruKction of Light has undergone the most radical change of all KC albums thus far.

The loss of the original recordings of the electronic drums allowed Pat Mastelotto to completely rerecord the material on his current acoustic/electric kit making for a virtually completely new album of familiar material.

2003’s The Power to Believe has also benefited from additional sonic seasonings from the original recording sessions discovered by mixer/producer David Singleton & woven into the surround mix.

They are accompanied by a series of live recordings presented across 11CDs of live recordings taken from the various tours including a US show with Tool and a specially construKcted 3CD set from 2000 which interweaves improvs & the London concert to produce a very different, very powerful imaginary KC setlist.

Every night of the 2000 European tour was also filmed by DGM off-shoot company, Bootleg TV style. This had the advantage that the crew filming became equally familiar with the setlists, for example knowing when to get closer to particular musicians at key points, working out how best to film the improv sections and going with the flow of the gigs.

Most live concert films are precisely that: a film of a single performance or a couple of nights at a single venue.

With Bootleg TV filming evolved to match the band and this Blu-Ray details a very different approach to live filming, with over ten hours of live video footage as proof of concept.
It's also just one example of why, at one point it was thought that this era would have to run across two boxed sets but by utilising the full capacity of every disc included the entire history of the band in this era is presented, as it should be, in one place.

With King Crimson again off the road, in 2006 Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp became ProjeKct 6 and four of their concerts feature on Blu-Ray Disc 2.

Finally, CDs 17 and 18 present an idealised set-list drawn from the New York run of gigs from King Crimson’s 2008 US tour which saw the band playing live after an absence of five years. Following Trey Gunn’s departure, Tony Levin rejoined the band and with drummer Gavin Harrison making his debut with King Crimson both he and Pat Mastelotto foreshadow the elements that would make the three drummer set-up of the present-day incarnation of King Crimson so spectacular.

Eleven years, numerous ProjeKcts, dozens of concerts, complete studio recordings of the era, with re-recordings in new stereo & 5.1, and over 10 hours of live video footage, Heaven and Earth is the most extensive account of this part of King Crimson’s ongoing story.

This 24 disc - 18 x CD, 4 x Blu-Ray and 2 x DVD-A - set represents the most comprehensive collection in the series to date and covers the period from December 1997 to August 2008.

Contents (Presented in a 12” box with booklet, memorabilia and new sleeve-notes by Sid Smith and David Singleton)

* 3CDs feature a re-imagining of The ConstruKction of Light, an extended/enhanced stereo mix of The Power to Believe and the (studio) Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With and Level 5 mini-albums.

* 4CDs feature ProjeKcts 1 - 4 (new to CD) with 1 CD allocated to each line-up.

* 11CDs feature live recordings (several new to CD, with some material previously unreleased) from the 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2008 tours.

* 3 Blu-Ray audio discs:

Disc One contains the complete recordings of ProjeKcts 1, 3, 4 & 6 - every single concert plus additional material the ProjeKcts released, it features the complete albums: ProjeKct 1- Space Groove, The ProjeKcts - 4CD box, ProjeKct 1 - Jazz Café Suite, ProjeKct X - Heaven & Earth, BPM&M - ExtraKcts & ArtifaKcts and Rieflin/Fripp/Gunn - Repercussions of Angelic Behaviour

Disc Two contains the complete recordings of ProjeKct 2 (every single concert). More than 30 shows plus an album's worth of rehearsals.

Disc Three contains The ReconstruKction of Light - the album in stereo and 5.1 mixes with the drums completely re-recorded by Pat Mastelotto - stereo mixes by Don Gunn, 5.1 mixes by David Singleton and the original album in hi-res stereo, The Power to Believe - expanded/enhanced 2019 master (2 tracks with additional elements plus 3 extra tracks assembled/mixed by David Singleton) and 5.1 surround mixes by David Singleton - all mixes executive produced by Robert Fripp - plus the Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With and Level 5 mini-albums, the 2000 show from London, the EleKtriK live album from 2003 and a video of a tour of the KC studio/live equipment setup from 2002.

* Blu-Ray video contains Europe 2000 - The Bootleg TV tour, which features around 10 hours of audio/video mostly never seen/heard since the concerts with versions of selected songs and improvs (usually two per night of each) from almost every show. Includes footage and music from 20 performances.

* 2 DVD-As (compatible with all dvd players) feature The ReconstruKction of Light (new stereo/5.1/original stereo mixes plus ProjeKct X - Heaven & Earth) and The Power to Believe (2019 stereo/5.1/original master mixes plus Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With mini-album).

a re-recorded TCoL actually seems nice...the drums were what really put me off that release in the first place. It sounded like he was beating up a dumpster in an empty gym. I have a 3-disc live album called Heavy ConstruKction where he plays on a normal kit and the songs actually sound alright. Can't help some of Belew's lyrics, but still.

that said I am like 4 boxsets behind with these guys

I am kind of on the fence on this. In a fit of interest in this era a few years ago, I bought the ProjeKcts box, Xtracts and Artifacts , ProjeKct X, and Space Groove, and Heavy ConstruKction. I might have wanted to pop for this had there been more 5.1 material here beyond the two albums (which are available separately). But as it is, it feels like mostly more ProjeKct live shows and videos that are (at least for now) mostly available on DGM’s YT channel.

Still, an underrated era in a lot of ways. There’s a ton of improvising and textural experimentation, which is right up my alley.

I haven't listened to a lot of this era in a long while, but iirc to my tastes too much of this era was V-drums and triggering and Fripp sounding like a xylophone or whatever. I know I saw one of the ProjeKcts live, and it featured Below exclusively on (electronic) drums! At the time I thought, um, that's OK, I guess, but it was weirdly close to Mannheim Steamroller or something.

Still, an underrated era in a lot of ways. There’s a ton of improvising and textural experimentation, which is right up my alley.

otm. I loved the ProjeKcts at the time, v-drums notwithstanding

on the one hand it seems like an awful lot of work to do just to get bill bruford out of your band

on the other hand this era does represent the absolute peak of king crimson as an improvising unit - the projekcts could be pretty wanky but by the time they got back together as a band they could improvise as a unit better than any previous lineup of the band

only 1 of the projekcts had bruford in it, correct?

i believe so - the first

Yeah, I think it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I don't think Bruford and Pat were exactly a match made in heaven. I'm a big Bruford fan but in retrospect I think P1 was probably the weakest of the ProjeKcts

it's the one I've listened to the least. I saw P4 in a tiny nightclub. I remember it being fun overall. They closed with a super sloppy run-through of VROOOM. at the time I thought they were really struggling to play together, but in retrospect I see that was the point.

on the other hand this era does represent the absolute peak of king crimson as an improvising unit

yep - the 73-74 band was pretty good but the 2000 group felt so much tighter and groovier. the THRAK era improvs were a real mess, in my opinion

the redone ReConstrkction of Light is very good althouygh the new drums are a bit heavy. Album still has two terrible tracks on it (prozakc blues and world is my oyster) but other than that it's an improvement.

I've always just avoided the album altogether in favor of Heavy Construkction.

The Thrak era didn't have proper improvs! They'd just improvise for like two minutes in the middle of one song and then they crammed all those improvs together and released it as an "improv album" with a fake parental guidance sticker threatening the purchaser with a free poster. Not surprisingly it didn't work out so good. I mean the record, though the poster was no great shakes either.

I just got the live album too. And then I ripped my favorite tracks off it and just listened to that CD-R because three hours was still a little much...

Looking forward to this latest 5,000 CD box set!

I was hot on thrakattakk because I had just really gone OTT on Crim fandom, and couldn't believe that I was experiencing the rebirth of such a storied band. Anyhow, I spent $17 1996 dollars on it, which at the time was a lot of dough -- even put up the poster.... and maybe listened to it twice.