The King Crimson studio album poll

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.

wetton was being considered for the most recent iteration as well but his illness intervened. there are some photos in fripp's online diary of wetton and him at Fripp's house or studio from a few years ago.

too bad belew is busy with stewart copeland, fripp-summers style

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/07/stewart-copeland-adrian-belew-more-form-supergroup-gizmodrome-announce-self-titled-debut-album/

I don't think Belew was invited to be a part of this

i hope they invited peter hammill. "i may not have enough of me but i've had enough of you" ranks way up with his best vocals outside his solo albums and Vd(GG)

first time I heard Hammill was on that album and it convinced me that he was my new favorite singer

his vocals on "Chicago" are so bizarrely over-the-top. wish he'd sing like that more often

for real. prefer daryll hall's 'third edition' vocals on "chicago" though. if he toured with crimson i might follow grateful dead style show to show

This will always and forever be Red for me. King Crimson were always the most menacing of all the prog bands.

young woman at my camp orientation yesterday was wearing KC tshirt <3

part i for the win. part ii is cool but the final movement of bartok's fourth string quartet is cooler. parts numbered greater than two are unworthy of consideration. _particularly_ if adrian belew is writing lyrics.

belew was not invited, it's been a whole thing.

fripp posted this today: https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/Tuesday%2013th.%20July,%202017

Huh

That's weird. So is that just passive aggressive stabs at Belew for making a deal out of playing his songs? Fripp's argument is that KC is an entity beyond whoever is in the band at any one time, and former members should just suck it up when they're not involved?

Whatever it was, it's gone now.

Still on their FB page:

https://m.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10156399199977519

KC twitter feed actually tweeted this out.

It's still around, maybe he rewrote it because I saw him repost it again today.

Earlier, he reposted all the communication he had with Belew around this situation, as in, his original email to him, etc, and make it very clear that Belew quit.

Weigel's prog book wasn't full of revelations but one thing that I did learn in it re: KC was that when Belew joined in 80, it was extremely important to him that he be allowed to have a solo career at the same time, and there was a full carve out in his contract to allow for such. And, later on, he was the one who quit (in 84, or later, now I can't remember). Fripp has stated that this time around he offered Belew a chance to remain as the shadow member, the way Levin had for many years while Gunn was in that seat; and Belew said no and quit.

Lotsa gossip and quotes here:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/king-crimson-with-belew-will-never-happen.576502/

there must be more stuff happening recently to have caused fripp to write this, his mention of 'ex members and their de facto manager'; belew must have had his manager (if he has one? i can't tell) fire off some angry stuff regarding their playing neurotica and indiscipline and that set him off.

because, other than the two comments that are re-produced in that hoffman forum, belew has been very quiet about this on FB from what I've been able to see.

I'm sure that's it. They must have come to an agreement, by Belew's understanding, that Belew era stuff would not be played, then Belew was informed that Fripp had reneged. Hence, if I'm not right for the band and I'm not involved, then stop playing my shit.

And Fripp's disingenuous response is hey, it's all KC, what can I do? It's a collective ensemble. As if he's seriously not making more than the other guys.

it's not clear if he is or not. he states pretty emphatically that everything is being split 9 ways. He also does fucking everything for this band; he's gone far beyond what most people would do to sort out contractual stuff, royalty backpayments from EG, etc. If he wanted a quick payday, as someone said elsewhere (maybe that hoffman thread) he would have taken out a 4 person band, the overhead would have certainly been less.