Frippertronics-era Robert Fripp: Let's Discuss

one of the things i loved about the LTPF work was how 'ego-less' it sounded - there was something relaxing in the abstraction/simplicity of it -

ref: TLOG - yes, great feeling of precision and sharp interlocking in alot of that - and iirc there were 1 or 2 short pieces of XTC's Barry Andrews' playing of that buzzy/fizzy organ being Frippertronic-ed, which sounded great - albeit they were geometrical/blocky canon-ical rather than being allowed to build up into shimmering whorly sounds...

what do you think of his later versions of frippertronics ? (using long DDL's instead of tapeloops i guess) I've not heard much - I don't know whether this stuff gets formulaic-ly boring or overfamiliar after a few albums - i think i found 1/3 a bit too harsh (think he was buggering about with modulating delaytimes), 1/3 a bit more schlocky postravey chill-out, and 1/3 as beautifully austere and neutral as he used to be...

As for the more recent ones, kind of agreed. I have the one for his mum (Brits and their mums), and it's got some very pretty moments on it...

(...though of course don't the 60's drone/minimalist ppl lead to both of those - e.g. riley's 'rainbow in curved air' -> some of no pussyfooting - and iirc the first section of 'poppy nogood...' sounds very prescient of fripp's 'urban landscape' (which is possibly my favourite frippertronics-drone piece ever - if only he had kept it going for another few minutes...)

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te0qfJUidHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiJH8TenrrQ

one more -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81NBo1L2TLY

jfc

Not sure if I've read anywhere about nauseating tweeness being a side-effect of self-isolation?

oh cmon these are completely endearing.

Er, OK?

they are saved by humor imo

listening to that Kitchen recording from Feb 1978, so freakin good

i dunno I don't begrudge anyone their manner of trying to bring some brightness into the current situation, particularly someone who has the reputation of being as self-serious as Fripp.

Some italian guy took huge offence to these and Fripp reposted all his rants on FB last week.

Fripp reposted all his rants on FB last week.

I'd say the dancing is for everyone else's enjoyment but the reposting was for his.

they are saved by humor imo

What humour? I suspect tolerance for this sort of middle class English whimsicality is a bit lower this side of the pond.

!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM9svvfhLxc

<3 what a joy, thanks for posting!

Amazing :D

Hostage video vibes there

Possibly in standard tuning, too, so yeah, clearly being held prisoner.

It's definitely not in standard! Look at his fingers during the bassline in the verse and pick out the notes he's playing: the 6th string is tuned to a low C and the 5th is tuned down to G. Lol at the fingerings he uses to play the power chords.

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