The King Crimson studio album poll

big thanks for the comps...enjoying them immensely. quite a lot of stuff I know already, albeit sometimes in other forms, but they're very nicely put together and sequenced.

Volume 3: The Law of Maximum Distress (1974)

1. Red from Red (1974)
Issue: DGM 40th Anniversary Remaster CD

2. Asbury Park from USA (rel. 1975, rec. 28 June 1974, Asbury Park NJ)
Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster

3. Improv: Is There Life Out There? from The Great Deceiver (rel. 1992, rec. 29 June 1974, Penn State University, University Park PA)
Issue: Discipline/Caroline CD

4. Improv: The Savage / Doctor Diamond from Live in Mainz, (rel. 2001, rec. 30 March 1974, Mainz Germany)
Issue: DGM KC Collectors Club CD

5. Improv: A Voyage to the Center of the Cosmos* from The Great Deceiver (rel. 1992, rec. 30 June 1974, Providence RI)
Issue: Discipline/Caroline CD

6. One More Red Nightmare from Red (1974)
Issue: DGM 40th Anniversary Remaster CD

7. Fracture from Live in Central Park, (rel. 2000, rec. 1 July 1974, Central Park, New York City)
Issue: DGM KC Collectors Club CD

8. Starless from Red (1974)
Source: DGM 40th Anniversary Remaster CD

Cap.Lorax if I get to a bonus round I promise to include a live Starless on there. Here I felt it was important to end with the final statement from the band.

dang, the epic 20+ minute jam on vol. 2 sounds almost exactly like Dark Magus-era Miles! Love it.

Listening today to an early version of The Sailor's Tale (Plymouth Guildhall '71)--it's within striking distance of the Arkestra.

I'd like to hear live versions of Sailor's Tale just to find out how RF approached the guitar solo -- the studio version was pulled out of someplace in his psyche that I don't think he ever approached again. (possible exception "Swastika Girls")

the studio version was pulled out of someplace in his psyche that I don't think he ever approached again.

Exactly so. I think it was that tune that really cemented my love for KC. From what I understand, he played the solo with a detuned banjo(?) I'd like to find some solid info about how that came about.

Also none of the live versions of the song get close to it, so far that I've yet heard.

He's written a little bit about he was stressed out enough by the sessions, but also was having to write the orchestrations in the free time that he didn't have, getting by on almost no sleep, and when the time came to record the solo, all his terrors + bad vibes + exhaustion just splorted out at once.

Cool, thanks for that. Islands is such a weird record. I hope in the 40th anniversary redo they'll make the bass actually audible.

this series just keeps getting better! vol. 3 is the best one yet ... some of it sounds way ahead of its time.

I'm pretty close to finishing up Vol. 4: Requiem (1981-on). It's been the hardest one to complete for reasons I can't quite articulate. Much like Vol. 1 (though to a greater degree) it goes into material I don't really like that much, but can't be dismissed either.

One thing I have done is listened to waaay more live material from the THRAK band as well as the later Bruford & Levinless quartet than I ever thought I needed to. As a result I've found myself enjoying some songs that I was long sick of just by way of being overwhelmed by the intensity of the performance. The LA Wiltern show, the final date of the '95 US tour, bears this out.

OK, here it is--VOLUME 4: REQUIEM (1981-on)

http://www.mediafire.com/?jyidnogvyd2

Great news for this Friday!

Track 9, "Dinosaur", is damaged in my download. Can anyone confirm this or is it just me?

I'll check it out.

Awwwwesome. I think I've been listening to King Crimson more than anyone else in the past month or so, thanks to this series. I also bought Red!

Here's Dinosaur again-
http://www.mediafire.com/?iq0rzmjdzjo

And the tracklist...

Volume 4: Requiem (1981-2008)

1. Frame by Frame from Discipline (1981)
Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster HDCD

2. Thela Hun Ginjeet from Absent Lovers (rel. 1997, rec. 1984)
Issue: DGM CD

3. Discipline from Discipline (1981)
Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster HDCD

4. Sartori in Tangier from Beat (1982)
Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster HDCD

5. Waiting Man from Live at Cap'd Agde (rel. 1999, rec. 26 August at Cap D'Agde, France)
Issue: DGM KC Collectors Club CD

6. Sleepless from Three of a Perfect Pair (1984)
Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster HDCD

7. Larks Tongues in Aspic, Part III from Three of a Perfect Pair (1984)
Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster HDCD

8. Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream from THRAK (1995)
Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster HDCD

9. Dinosaur from Live at the Wiltern (rel. 2005, rec. 1 July 1995 at the Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles CA)
Issue: DGM KC Collectors Club CD

10. THRAK from VROOOM VROOOM (rel. 2001, rec. between 2-4 August 1996 at the Metropolitan Theater, Mexico City)
Issue: DGM CD

11. Improv: München from Heavy ConstruKction (rel. 2000, rec. 4 June 2000 at Circus Krone, Munich)
Issue: DGM CD

12. Level Five from The Power to Believe (2003)
Issue: Sanctuary CD

13. Indiscipline from Live at Park West (rel. 2009, rec. 7 August 2008 at the Park West, Chicago IL)
Issue: DGM Digital Album

I went back and checked, I didn't find anything wrong with Dinosaur, but I did re-up it as a separate file. Any other problems, webmail me or whatever.

Oh yeah, I see I have some track info missing as well. Thela Hun Ginjeet was recorded 11 July 1984, and released in 1998. The concert on Absent Lovers is the final performance of the 80s band, and more-or-less essential, perhaps moreso than the albums proper in my view.

thanks so much for these. great stuff!

I note there's nothing from construkction of light on here -not a fan of that one?

Well, that was a tough one. I debated trying to add something from it to touch all their studio albums, but I have some strong reservations about that record--I think it's easily their worst, with Beat running up behind. TCOL has something to dislike about every single track I think: the plodding, waaay over-processed drum sound (which is probably its consistently worst element), overstuffed production and suffocating digital effects, generally weak songwriting and some of Belew's most head-shakingly bad lyrics of his entire career.

They sound like a band at cross-purposes on that record: they're trying to keep it interesting for themselves by writing more complex songs to play, while at the same time just rewriting old material--FraKctured is the key example of this--the tune goes on and on without building to anything interesting, it just repeats and ends. The magical thing with the original Fracture is the way it just breaks into a boogie after endless fingerpicking...all these years later it's just all tension and no release.
So I ultimately just left it off in favor of the same band performing music that I find alot more intriguing--in fact I like most all of the improvs I've yet heard from that phase of KC...Heavy ConstruKction is a more satisfying listen all around there are alot of interesting moments, and you get all the songs from TCOL, though why they thought anyone would want to listen to ProzaKc Blues (absolutely their worst song ever) a second time is beyond me.

In any event I've had a hell of a lot of fun making these. I can't seem to let go, though and have already assembled an all-live megamix cutting across time and space, with at least a second volume ready after that.

3. Discipline from Discipline (1981)
Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster HDC

- would have put on 'Neal Jack and Me' or 'Three of a Perfect Pair' instead. 'The Sheltering Sky' is another good 80's song but it is long and would be hard to fit on. You put on 'Sartori in Tangier' which is great. There's just so many good 80's tracks... 'the howler', 'lark's tongue part III',

For albums THRAK onward, I doesn't really matter so much what you pick. I enjoy hearing songs like 'Into The Frying Pan', 'Coda: Marine 475', and 'The ConstruKction of Light'. I don't think 'Level Five' (aka Lark's Five) has as good of a solo as the end of 'Larks Tongues In Aspic Part IV' (one of Fripp's best solos) which leads into 'Coda: I Have a Dream' (sweet short bit) but as a whole song 'Larks IV' is meh.

man i kinda wish i woulda voted for wake of poseidon just so that would have a vote

glad you're doing the live comp as well -- I think my fave things from these sets have been the stretched out improv jam things.

re: 90's onward

'Frakctured', 'Elektrik', 'Level 5', 'Dangerous Curves'... might sound fine but they only remind me that King Crimson sort of got into a funk where their original stuff is variations of older songs like 'The Talking Drum', 'Discipline' and 'Lark's'.

And the singing gets worse the farther you get

the funny thing about how all the music starting to sound the same is that I think Fripp has over disciplined himself

xp I've said it before, but CoL is my favourite crimson album, even with belew's awful lyrics (not that I really pay attention to lyrics anyway) and the drum sound. in fact, it's the ONLY crimson album that I can listen to from start to finish without skipping anything. it's so relentlessly heavy and uber-technical that I can't help but give in and drool. that ping-pong guitar thing that threads throughout the album, i.e. belew and fripp playing alternate notes in complex riffs, is really distinctive and disorienting, for one thing.

I know what you mean about the rewrites... larks tongues part IV, anyone? but for me that's not a problem, it's more about the refinement of those old ideas into more pure forms.

I did note that the climactic riff from the title track appears in the improv you'd included here. interesting. and very cool.

thanks again for your efforts...

slightly ot but this clip of pete sinfiled backed by john wetton & mel collins is kinda lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WerDAfRbINM

i have been lurking and just wanted to thank u sparkle motion for the comp -- it's awesome. gonna take me a while to digest it all, but i am excited about it.

At the time, 80s King Crimson got lots of airplay on my college radio station along with other post-punk stalwarts of the day. Certainly in my circle of friends, they were included in the pantheon of music we were listening to. It felt like they were one of the few late 60s/early 70s bands that had reinvented themselves and were just as relevantl and inspired as the rest of the underground. Was that the common perception at the time?

I think a lot of that respect was down to Fripp's New York period in the late 70s when he worked with Talking Heads, Blondie etc. Also of course the collaborations with Byrne, Eno and Bowie.

whoops, strike that second Byrne from the list

C. Lorax: I couldn't eliminate Discipline from the tracklist! That track means so much to me, even after all this time. I remember hearing it and being captivated by how it sounded so alien to my know-nothing ears, and how not-rock-n-roll it was. I loved both of those notions, and probably was ultimately responsible for letting me get into repetitive Terry Riley-esque stuff and more experimental music in general as the years have gone on...

I did have Three of a Perfect Pair on there, but I didn't want too many album tracks from that record, and live versions of same have never really held up to it. Anyway I did want to be fair to later work.

As far as the 90s and onward bands, it's a bit of a mixed bag, and most of the opinions about them expressed previously comport with mine. I still think THRAK is a pretty good album, and the notion of them rewriting old material hadn't become such a drag at that time. I really got into KC right about the time that THRAK was coming out, so it was kind of exciting to hear this mysterious band that was beginning to come back to life, and at least in my nerdy circle of Guitar Player-reading friends, there was a real sense of engagement with the history of KC merging with what sounded like renewed vitality at that time. I was boggled by the double trio notion (whereas now I just think they had at least one too many members--if anyone can distinguish for me the difference between Gunn & Levin at any point in those tunes, I'd appreciate it)... and I was blown away by seeing them live on that tour. So to that extent I wanted to capture some of that on the THRAK-era tracks.

There's more to say but I'm out of time atm....

(x-post) Velko, THANKS for that Sinfield link!! I listened to that solo album when it was new as much, or more, than contemporaneous Crimson, so it's completely bizarre (and lol) to me to SEE him singing it.

this one is even funnier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzoxJT74W0w

CoL and Believe are both albums that I never, ever bother with; I've tried and tried over the years, believe me; and I'm a huge Crimson fan, but most of those records just don't hold a candle to anything that came before.

I really like Beat, it was the first of the 80's albums I purchased myself (although I actually had the other two taped from someone). I'm a big 80's Crimson proponent and think they need to sound more like that if they continue (which seems doubtful right now).

if they continue (which seems doubtful right now).

carrying on with any more Crim activity seems like the worst idea in the world, really.

Apparently Fripp is doing some work with Jakko something or other, the guy behind the KC tribute group 21st Century Schizoid Band and Mel Collins.
As to whether or not they continue with Crim proper, it's a good bet they'll do one more record with the lineup from that last set of shows in '08 (2nd drummer, Gunn out, Levin back on bass/stick). Fripp has more or less said as much just as soon as he gets done suing everyone in the entire world that's done him wrong.
As dubious as I find their present state, a Crimso-less world is a sadder one to me, so I say continue, what the hell.

it's a good bet they'll do one more record with the lineup from that last set of shows in '08

I don't get that impression from his recent diary entries. Guitar Craft is wrapping up and it sounds like he's going to hunker down and write -- his memoirs, I hope.

carrying on with any more Crim activity seems like the worst idea in the world, really.

given that their last two albums proper were easily their strongest since red, I can't support this! not really a fan of 80s crimson, tbh. discipline certainly has its moments, but the rest is just too sleek and shiny for my liking.

I think you're way in the minority with that opinion though.

must admit, I'm kind of amazed the 80s period is so well regarded...

Loudly enjoying Disc 2 right now, thanks again for this compilation!

friend of mine was getting rid of a few Adrian Belew solo albums from the 80s/90s ... SHOULD I GRAB THEM. He said they sucked.

i've been listening to vol 1 and 2 all day long -- LOVE LOVE LOVE. i remember adrian belew as a weirdo with an overbite who wrote songs i didn't like (90s, mostly) and now i get it.

i get it! i love it.

also had no idea they were so deeply jazzy

yeah, that was surprising to me, too!

i'm really familiar with stuff like V5, The Thing, etc. and it totally reminds me of that, only heavier. LOVE!

I think the jazz came from McDonald & Giles in the first part, then Collins & especially Ian Wallace later--Wallace even did the whole Crimson Jazz Trio in his last years--I'm still out on that one.
On my forthcoming live megamix there's quite a bit of the jazzy stuff--Drop In sounds like a more skronky Astral Weeks track, and in The Sailor's Tale Mel Collins actually quotes a bit of Sonny Rollins' St. Thomas...
As I understand it, Fripp ultimately wanted to be able to break away from the jazz-based improvisational structure and try to improv in a strictly rock context, the result being the Larks band.

La Lechera: This "The Thing"?

http://www.rerelease.net/catalog.php?RID=4

Yeah the jazz thing is hitting me too, ties in kinda well with the Return to Forever anthology I've been listening to lately.