Frippertronics-era Robert Fripp: Let's Discuss

Sadly the case. To be fair he's not calling it Frippertronics anymore, the 90's records are adorned with the phrase 'Soundscapes'.

My favorite of the 90's is 1999, the first one. Not restful, just dense apocalyptic & ominous.

I never heard Gates of Paradise because I'd burnt out on the previous FOUR albums of vague, vapid prettiness (I can't recommend any of them), but I've heard it's got some focus.

I agree with this review of ffwd.

dleone, your review of the new fripp/eno had a line about how no one else had ever done anything with frippertronics... let alone no mention of any of the forebearers like Oliveros, Riley, there's an entire horrifying industry of records made entirely with 2 to 10 second delays set at 99% decay, they oughta license those things... even Frith uses digital pedals to capture loops these days...

>So now I have to account for everyone that uses delay?

if 'frippertronics' = use of delay to layer canonic phrases... then there's a history and a legacy...

No Pussyfooting is a beautiful record... but Fripp naming something as basic as tape delay after himself is laughable. I wish he got called out for that more often.

'Frippertronics is defined as that musical experience which results at the (intersection) of Robert Fripp and a small and appropriate level of technology which is my Les Paul, the Fripple board, the Fripp pedal board of fuzz, wah-wah and volume pedals and two Revoxes.'

I guess that makes it pretty hard for anyone else to do much with Frippertronics!

http://www.loopers-delight.com/tools/eh16/eh16sec.JPG

original ad for the electro-harmonix EH 16. when fripp read the ad copy in the second paragraph, he contacted them and said 'this Fripp would like one for free'.

http://www.loopers-delight.com/tools/eh16/eh16.html

someone on Analogue Heaven posted up a review of the new version of this, which has recently come out.

I could quite fancy one of those new A-H boxen actually, there's this bit in my EMS AKS manual about putting the synthesiser in the feedback loop of the delay, and reprocessing the echoes as they come round. I've never had a long enough echo to get any kind of worthwhile effect, plus now I have modular gear!!

I just flinch like a loon when I hear discussion of Fripp & Eno's physical innovations, when they were actually nil (though what they accomplished with the delay set up was inspirational, there were many equally amazing records already in wide release) -- dubbing his setup 'Frippertronics' was a brilliant bit of PR that's obscured the discussion on the genre of loop based music. Which is an issue precisely because it's such a big field, a huge outgrowth of electronic, feedback-driven music making in general -- it's all loops. Ways for single performers to make huge amounts of noise.

past arguments with Fripp fanatics are haunting me, but everyone besides me is being quite reasonable here, so apologies. Let The Power Fall is an outstanding record. The bootlegs are great too, Scary Monsters caliber solos atop the walls...

Also, on the inner sleeve of my God Save the Queen copy on vinyl, he says outright something to the effect of "In fairness, others have used this delay system before me." I'll get the real quote later...

"The end of the Drive to 1981 was timed to coincide with an event of astrological significance, an alignment of the planets to take place on September 11, 1981, at which time, Fripp evidently believed, mankind was in for an awakening of apocalyptic import."

How do you mean?

Clearly there's been a demand for Frippertronics and it's our intention to make some of these available as the site grows and develops. More Soundscapes will be uploaded onto the site in the near future and the KC 2003 shows are also currently under consideration.

Just spoken to Steve Martin of The Agency in NYC. Soundscape performances are about to be confirmed for the end of February in Athens, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis, St. Louis & a few others.

rad little bit of frippertronics: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/matte-kudasai-solo/id129950531?i=109855476
the Matte Kudasai Solo isolated.

Found an original copy of the Pleasures In Pieces bootleg a while back, which Tamm raves about in his book. Rightly so, it's a gem.

that's this thing right? http://www.dgmlive.com/archive.htm?&show=1172
i need to keep up with the DGM Live thing, had no idea they had put out that 1975 eno/fripp show officially.

I thought Pleasure In Pieces was at the Kitchen in SoHo.

oh maybe? i haven't heard it.

Neither have I. Would love to tho. Seems kind of odd DGM hasn't released it.

yeah it's the Kitchen, Feb 1978

And DGM hasn't released it, right?

correct

also you said you downloaded it upthread :)

So I did! I think I may have lost it in The Great Crash of 2011.

i need this bootleg and yet i cannot find it. these are dark days.

think "no pussyfooting" played at 33 is the greatest album of all time

so ... what up w/ the album art?

happy 66th bday robert fripp!

woo. coincidentally was just listening to this for the first time: http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f90/robert-fripp-1979-08-11-toronto-canada-aud-mp3320-a-121738.html

His and Toyah's appearance on All Star Mr. and Mrs. from a week or two ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64VGyoIyBgc

did a whole sacred songs/peter gabriel 2/exposure listening marathon last week and it ruled

His and Toyah's appearance on All Star Mr. and Mrs. from a week or two ago:



Frippertronics emulator - VST plugin

http://synth.me/music-gear/elottronix-xl-free-frippertronics-emulator-vst

bweep-aweepabweep

I believe that's Fripp's New Standard Tuning.

"How can I make 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' hard to play?"

Yeah, actually, it did seem a bit weird looking to me. His New Standard is ... cello tuning?

C-G-D-A-E-G from the bottom.

It's the tuning that was taught in the Guitar Craft seminars. In his book, Eric Tamm describes how the students had to perform a new piece in public in this tuning. Tamm's composition was gentle, melodic and had a recurring C major chord, which made Fripp make retching sounds from the audience.

Will admit that using that tuning as a baseline standard seems kind of insane to me. Lol though that Fripp would object to someone writing a recurring C major chord in a tuning that spells out a C major pentatonic scale (with octave displacements natch).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khkKfMotNoI

...

Lol at the stretches to play that in Guitar Craft tuning.

They did "Anarchy in the UK" in December as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEiNW4HmFPE

I love the idea that after decades of alternate tunings designed to make playing certain things easier, Fripp has devised and perfected the one alternate tuning designed to make everything harder.

Content warnings on the comments for that first video

lol I knew better than to look until your comment, so I looked, and some of those responses are as funny as they are predictable.

They, uh, don't seem to mind the response:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFaQExRwLUM

can't wait for the studies and papers on lockdown syndrome ;)

I like to imagine Anita Dobson coming down to breakfast, hurling that newspaper headline in the face of Brian May with a disgusted "fucking Toyah!"

Brian thinks back to the last slightly tipsy garden barbeque at the Fripp-Wilcoxes, and sighs with a thought of what could have been, then gets up and slowly potters off to catalogue his plectrums again....

one thing that quarantine has made very clear is that robert fripp fucks...a lot

"Ladies of the Road" already provided a hint.

ew

Great thread revive.

Oh! Oh!

firestarter!

(look it up yourself, it's NSFW)

Man oh man, I love Sundays...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWMY7TVzgcE

Fucking hell...

https://www.dgmlive.com/news/robert-fripp-exposures-32-discs-boxed-set-robert-fripp-studio-live-1977-1983

The long-awaited 32-disc boxed set of Robert Fripp in the studio and in concert 1977 - 1983 will be released on 27th May 2022. The set will feature many previously unreleased tracks, outtakes and rarities as well as numbers tracks becoming on CD for the first time.

Holy shit, I'm exhausted just trying to read the tracklisting.

I haven't gotten any of the monster-size KC boxes, but I'll probably be getting this.

Yeah holy fuck, I think this is kind of a mandatory purchase.

dear god

WmC I will happily trade you 32 CDRs of your choice for rips/files if/when you get this

Don't know if this is "the writing project" as mentioned by RF over the years, but https://dgmlive.com/news/the-guitar-circle-book-by-rf

The long-awaited first book from Robert Fripp - 'The Guitar Circle' - collects much of RF's writing about Guitar Craft, as well as his unique approach to guitar playing, collaborating and personal development.

Presented in a limited edition first print hardcover format (and printed on high-end Italian Fedrigoni paper), the book is due to be published on September 1st 2022 by Panegyric Publishing.

This is the first in a series of books to include The DGM Diaries, Crimson Chronicles and membership of King Crimson (1969-2021) and personal commentary on living in New York during and after the recording of Exposure at a point in the late 1970s when New York was the fulcrum of a wider cultural rebirth.

The book will be available via Burning Shed and other major online bookstores from September 1st. Click here to pre-order.
(For U.S. customers, the book will be available to pre-order via Inner Knot soon.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAmC8VRxC1g

Success. Frippertronics rig set up in the "traditional" way. In other words, no mixer, no extra delay and one cable between playback and record machines. pic.twitter.com/sQ1HyFUiXe

— tarotplane (@tarotplane_) February 9, 2023

Fripp had a heart attack April 26th before/during travel to Italy for a GC event, had surgery 2x there, seems to be doing well, per a Toyah/RF video on her youtube channel.

Wow. I can imagine him going either way, nothing but stress 24/7 or nothing but Zen.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJecZwAxkJl

Ok, long post incoming:

A few weeks ago I finally popped for the Exposures 32-disc set, and it is probably the best box set I've ever encountered. Admittedly, Fripp does the fan service thing extremely well -- like, the Sid Smith biography of Crimson he cooperated with (and refers to as "The Toxic Tome," LOL) is probably the single greatest music biography I've read. It is extremely well researched, interviews all the main players, takes a fair and even critical view of those who make it possible -- while also including sections that go through every album track by track and all their live gigs. It manages to be extremely comprehensive without ever once feeling overwhelming.

This box--which intimidated the shit out of me when I first heard about it and I figured I'd never buy--is exactly the same. Don't get me wrong: it is loaded to the gills with music. Six different mixes of the Exposure album proper, multiple discs of loops he prepared for the record and for a bunch of other records he was on around then(like for My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and the Roches’ first album), as well as all of his other releases from that period — the Frippertronics record, God Save the Queen and the League of Gentlemen record. All the proper releases are mixed in surround by Steven Wilson and Fripp’s manager/engineer — and there are a ton of screamingly heavy outtakes of Fripp with players like John Wetton, Phil Collins and Jerry Marotta.

Oh, and there’s 68(!) hours of Frippertronics concerts on the Blu-ray.

Despite that, it feels really well organized and easy to dive into? Exposure itself has never been an easy listen — but it’s fascinating to see how it come together and the component parts are a great listen in their own right.

A few other thoughts:

The Frippertronics stuff is just amazing. I sort of assumed I would quickly tire of listening to all that beeping and whatnot but it really hits the spot late at night and the surround mixes they did of it are stunningly well done. There’s like a whole series of thoughts I’ve had about what a completely sui generis thing it is in terms of, not just the tape loop system, but as a musical language and form of electronic music (as opposed to guitar music). I’ve heard similar things but never anything else quite like it.

The League of Gentlemen is a lot more fun and less dorky than I remember (esp. shorn of the JG Bennet spoken word snippets) — but also rips really fucking hard, especially on the live stuff included.

This kind of “all-in” overview where everything is done in a really class way feels like the kind of thing that’s only possible when artists own their own music. Fripp fought his ass off to get that right — and all joking aside about “funding his 401(k),” this box demonstrates what’s possible when artists aren’t having to clear everything with corporate entities that just have a completely different perspective on projects like these.

All in all, it just strikes that incredible balance between "Everything you could possibly want" and being presented in such an inviting way that you are actually glad you have it.

RF: The Onion's "Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work" remains one of my fave LOL viddy moments. So very happy for KC to be featured here...

https://scontent-ord5-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/539406349_1385325756542200_3767052363354387277_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=hO-0Lc0X58EQ7kNvwH6VkE0&_nc_oc=Adm3PgCLvFxvxulSRIqduBxGl4YKh1nKW7AOGOaBWby4yOuUiwY2GWa73DIsdydJNsY&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-3.xx&_nc_gid=S7CxnyPHCPvY0T_AcATYdg&oh=00_AfYEj8trofpIH6295vJPPNcZCPP4AvEchMhgwZDWxB-m-Q&oe=68C0EC06