The King Crimson studio album poll

She was one step removed from a carnival barker at the merch table on the tour.

omg lol

it's really unnerving how their faces look so much alike
they're not twins are they?!

Also how they refer to themselves in the third person.

what if they address one another in conversation as 'brother' and 'sister'?

I think it would be great if she was the variety of motivational speaker that spends her time onstage seated, nearly motionless, staring at a laptop and other devices surrounding her, and thus is reliant on more outgoing American underlings to engage the audience that paid to attend the event and to be motivated (I'm sure someone else has made that funnee on the innuhnet at some point).

she's really nice and ives in the bay area. she worked the merch table at the KC shows here a few months ago; she told me a 'medium' would probably fit me because I was not as 'chubby as some of our fans'.

!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8t4lYNjS0Y#t=80

what do people think of Lizard?

the steven wilson remix is nice

Agreed. Love the weird, sometimes ugly Third Stream sound of the record.

I'd probably vote for Lizard if we ran this poll again. So weird, so heavy. That Steven Wilson remix is indeed something of a revelation. Too bad they never played "Indoor Games" live, there is a clip of the Islands-era band playing "Cirkus" though

I do not get why everyone loves Red. It rocks. I enjoy it. But what does this record do that Black Sabbath or Deep Purple or even Genesis didnt do better years before?

this post still baffles me

I think Lizard is underrated. I have always loved "Cirkus", and although Haskell's vocals sound like Marlon Brando chewing on a ham sandwich, the title track and a few of the other middle tracks make it worthwhile. it's weird, it's not immediate, but I think it was my second KC album.

Red or Lark's Tongues for me though, usually.

It used to be that the only Crimson records you could find in the used LP bins were the 80s ones and 4 copies of Lizard.

Having had my mind first blown by the Wetton/Bruford era, coming upon Lizard was a profound letdown. 'There are no gnarly guitar solos on this record wtf was generally my take'. Nevertheless, I'd break it out periodically to see if I liked it any better. Hearing the material on the Collectors Club releases was what really convinced me of its virtues. It's kind of a classic 'when you're sick of every other release by your favorite band' kind of record.

The Wilson remix really did improve upon the original recording in some ways, especially for Cirkus & the title track, much the same way that Islands sounds tons better for those who primarily knew it from the Editions EG CDs, or in my case, cassettes, which were probably some of the worst mastered products I've ever heard.

Seems like the general reappraisal of Lizard and Islands from the remixes were a big motivator for Fripp to reembrace that material himself. I guess that's an obvious point... but all in all, still has a lot to give imo.

the reason I ask is that I was toying with buying a kc album on vinyl (since they're not on spotify) and out of the ones in the shop (larks tongues, starless, lizard), lizard was the one I was most tempted to take home despite the fact its reputation

...is not so hot compared to the others.

you should buy them in the order you listed them in

you should go with the one with the best cover artwork, probably lizard? though maybe one of them has a cool gatefold or something I dunno don't have any KC on vinyl

I really like the cover of larks tongues too, so much so that I considered getting a tattoo, until I discovered that Mike Portnoy had the same bright idea, and his looks awwwwfffuuul

Mike Portnoy ruins everything

tbf I was going to do it in plain black to better illustrate the yin yang aspect, his is in color and looks like he got it in prison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NS6XNjAHCE

Dunno how many of y'all follow DGM's "hot tickles" but this is a pretty fascinating look at some of the isolated backing tracks for "indoor games"

It's kind of a classic 'when you're sick of every other release by your favorite band' kind of record.

pretty otm right here, but honestly I rate it higher than a lot of the KC discog anyway

It's the first great departure (Poseidon was obviously In the Court pt II) and apparently Peter Sinfield really stepped up to the plate for Lizard? As much as I love Fripp, I think King Crimson works best when there is at least one other voice making decisions at a production level, checks and balances and all that. Music is just tremendously more interesting to me as a real collaboration, rather than one person and a "vision"

it's a lot more interesting than anything that came after Thrak

Post-Thrak band sounds best to me live. Until then, I think they were a more solid studio band than they are generally given credit for. But once they started doing the Projekcts, I think they were really in their element when they were playing in concert, usually with lots of improvisations and Fripp Soundscapes.

https://youtu.be/pDKBdiR64J8

Funny you should mention it, I blogged about that album a couple weeks ago

https://critterjams.wordpress.com/2016/08/14/king-crimson-lizard-1970/

In general it went from a record I thought was amusing but not very good, to one that I now think is really great, and SW's remix had a lot to do with that. Wilson's cleaning up the mix and supposedly adding some parts that weren't in the original kinda clarify how truly strange a record this is - I won't say it's aimless, but I do think the artistic vision was mostly left up to Sinfield, and the musical direction was left in the hands of the individual players, most of whom probably envisioned it being a different kind of album. Like you listen to McCullough's playing during most of the jam sections and he's just playing all these little fills, as though he doesn't know what anyone else in the group is doing. In other words everyone's just kind of roaming free which is actually kind of amazing. Can't really think of another record like it - maybe some VdGG discs come close?

nice writeup!

yes great work frogbs

I'm greatly indebted to you, Sparkle Motion. The mediafire links for your compilations still work, and I downloaded them all last week. These really are excellent, and they have a great selection of live material. They've gotten more listens from me than many of the original albums. Many thanks!

Hey, hooray! I had such a blast making those. I prepped but never finished subsequent volumes of the live volumes. It remains to be seen whether this iteration of crim makes enough of a dent of its own to warrant a revisit to the series...anyway, I'm glad the links work and that you enjoy them!

The Sometimes God Dies comps? Yeah, they're great!

+1 if you ever feel the need to delve into the live iteration of the post-Thrak band, with the ProjeKcts and all. I had written this era of the band off many moons ago but a few months ago found myself absolutely obsessed with hie Pat's "traps and buttons" approach and Fripp's soundscapes formed the basis of so much of the improvs and instrumental sections.

*which* formed

Anybody feeling inclined toward the new live set? I'm curious, but I feel like the Montreal recording more or less gave me what I'd want sans a new proper album, which I suspect will never happen.

Insanely great setlist last night, obv don't click if you don't want spoilers:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/king-crimson/2016/waterside-theatre-aylesbury-england-13fc7145.html

i'll get the new live release. really hping they swing through the US again with this newer setlist!

what's the best "lark's tongues in aspect" -- part i, ii, or iii?

Which aspect of Larks Tongues, you ask?

parts 1 and 2 bookending the eponymous album, "pigs on the wing" style, the third on three of a perfect pair

Pt 2's my favorite. There's a Pt 4 on Construkction of Light but I haven't heard it.

I can't choose between 1 and 2 they're both perfect

I think "Level Five" from The Power to Believe is meant to be a fifth part too

it's a little surprising they haven't written Larks 6 yet.

I'd rank them
2, which I'd like played at my funeral, 1, 5, 3, then 4 (with the coda performed instrumentally)

yep that'd be my order too. hate the garbage drum sound on Pt. 4 - plus, I'm pretty sure all the music is from the other 3 LTiAs

#1 for evah

mostly cuz of Muir's amazing percussion, but also for the heavy parts and the violin

btw 9 people in this poll were very very wrong

I like/love all KC albums but if I had voted here I would definitely have gone for Islands, which is actually one of my favourite albums of all time. I find every bit of it amazing and the title track especially seals the deal.

the idea that THRAK could be someone's favorite KC album is pretty amusing to me

I think that and TPTB are pretty good but anyone who likes them probably gets their head torn off by Red

Lizard I can see...despite its flaws it really is a truly unique album, and there's a VdGG-style abrasiveness to it that I dig

I didn't know about the existence of this until today: a Michael Giles solo album recorded in 1978, but not released until 2002. Nothing earth-shattering, but an interesting listen.

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

Am I correct that Michael Giles was considered/auditioned for one of the more recent iterations of the band? Or am I misremembering?

uh huh: in 1994, he was considered for the double trio. Pat M auditioned the same day, and asked if he could stick around to meet Giles. per the Sid smith book, in which RF says that in 1997 he suggested a quickie tour involving Giles, McDonald, Wetton and himself.