King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

can't believe they've dropped 21st Century from the set list!

For Springsteen On Broadway cameras are likewise forbidden under penalty of seizure/expulsion, but they similarly allow everyone to take pictures at the end. The weird result is that the applause at the end is oddly muted, since everyone is taking pictures.

I finally read Bill Buford's autobiography, which was, as reviewed, quite good, and at times more of a deep-diving treatise than a memoir. He's remarkably well-listened, often as or even more aware of peers, competition and up and comers as he is his band mates, particularly the impenetrable Fripp. There's not much Yes in here, but lots of KC, and the book comes closer than most to answering the eternal Fripp question: "weirdo, genius or asshole." Spoiler: like many artists, he's all three!

Listened to some of Live In Vienna in the car today. Exceptionally good “Fracture” – and nice to hear Fripp do some soundscapes after a long time away from them.

KC have taken an interesting approach to Spotify - a bunch of their live albums are up, but none of the studio albums.

Currently streaming:

Epitaph (Live 1969)
Ladies of the Road (Live 1971/72)
The Nightwatch (Live at the Koncertbebouw, Amsterdam, November 1973)
Absent Lovers (Live in Montreal 1984)
VROOOM VROOOM (Live 1995/96)
Heavy ConstrucKtion (Live in Europe, 2000)
Live in Vienna (2016)
Live in Chicago (2017)
Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind
Meltdown (Live in Mexico 2017)

on apple music too as it turns out

RF's always made a point about the band having a specific formation date, so happy 50th birthday to KC.

2000’s era boxed set incoming:

King Crimson / Heaven & Earth box


24-disc box set featuring CDs, blu-ray and DVD-As • Combo CD+DVD-A sets of two studio albums also available

King Crimson will release another one of their mega box sets in May. Heaven & Earth is the seventh in their ongoing series and focuses on the period from December 1997 to August 2008.

This box set features 18 CDs, 3 x blu-ray audio, one blu-ray video and two DVD-Audio discs. The first three CDs are devoted to enhanced version of the studio albums The ConstruKction Of Light (2000) and The Power to Believe (2003). The former has been remixed (by Don Gunn) and features all new drums by Pat Mastelotto and has a new moniker The ReconstruKction Of Light. The Power to Believe is featured as an extended/enhanced stereo mix and includes the studio version of Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With and Level 5.

The next four CDs feature the instrumental/improvised ProjeKcts, er, projects, described as “research and development” by Robert Fripp. These are all new to CD and each ‘ProjeKct’ each CD features a different line-up.

A further 11 CDs feature live recordings (several new to CD, with some material previously unreleased) from the 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2008 tours.

Of the three blu-ray audios:

Disc One contains the complete recordings of ProjeKcts 1, 3, 4 & 6 – every single concert plus additional material the ProjeKcts released, it features the complete albums: ProjeKct 1- Space Groove, The ProjeKcts – 4CD box, ProjeKct 1 – Jazz Café Suite, ProjeKct X – Heaven & Earth, BPM&M – ExtraKcts & ArtifaKcts and Rieflin/Fripp/Gunn – Repercussions of Angelic Behaviour
Disc Two contains the complete recordings of ProjeKct 2 (every single concert). More than 30 shows plus an album’s worth of rehearsals.
Disc Three contains The ReconstruKction Of Light – the album in stereo and 5.1 mixes with the drums completely re-recorded by Pat Mastelotto – stereo mixes by Don Gunn, 5.1 mixes by David Singleton and the original album in hi-res stereo, The Power to Believe – expanded/enhanced 2019 master (2 tracks with additional elements plus 3 extra tracks assembled/mixed by David Singleton) and 5.1 surround mixes by David Singleton – all mixes executive produced by Robert Fripp – plus the Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With and Level 5 mini-albums, the 2000 show from London, the EleKtriK live album from 2003 and a video of a tour of the KC studio/live equipment setup from 2002.
There is also blu-Ray video disc of Europe 2000 – The Bootleg TV tour, which features around 10 hours of audio/video mostly never seen/heard since the concerts with versions of selected songs and improvs (usually two per night of each) from almost every show. Includes footage and music from 20 performances.

Finally, two DVD-As (compatible with all dvd players) feature The ReconstruKction of Light (new stereo/5.1/original stereo mixes plus ProjeKct X – Heaven & Earth) and The Power to Believe (2019 stereo/5.1/original master mixes plus Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With mini-album).

A detailed track listing will be available soon, but you get the general idea! As with the previous sets this box comes presented in a 12-inch box with booklet, memorabilia and new sleeve-notes by Sid Smith and David Singleton.

Heaven & Earth will be released on 31 May 2019 via Panegyric Recordings. If the big box is just too much you can opt for CD+DVD-A combos of The ReconstruKction Of Light and The Power to Believe. All three products can be ordered from the SDE shop using this link or the buttons below (scroll down for price comparison widgets).

that 2000 3-disc set called Heavy ConstruKction was really good - all the improv stuff was incredible. plus, the ConstruKction tracks sounded quite a bit better live. a lot less gimmicky.

I'm puzzled as to why they'd re-record the drums, but it's fripp and he's obsessed with percussion so maybe I ought not be surprised.

Agreed on Heavy ConstruKction- if you have only one document from that era, it's as definitive a statement as anything they produced.

ProjeKct X was a total mess though, if memory serves.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Pat has simply gotten better with better electronics than what they had then? When I saw them a couple of years ago he was practically playing the Jamie Muir role. Either that or it is just to take advantage of the 5.1 surround. .

Anyone else see that artist who is turning classic bands and albums into pulp covers?

https://i.etsystatic.com/16399689/r/il/dfdc7e/1413420327/il_570xN.1413420327_cu1r.jpg

https://i.etsystatic.com/16399689/r/il/4e928b/1359219662/il_570xN.1359219662_madp.jpg

https://i.etsystatic.com/16399689/r/il/eed582/1422538727/il_570xN.1422538727_rrt4.jpg

why do i hate this? it doesn't even make sense. why would those be books? smh

all they're doing is taking existing paperbacks* and dropping in KC titles w/o changing the cover illustration

*(not really pulps, the larks tongues one is a pelican forex = a non-fiction paperback published by penguin abt education or science)

the joy division unknown pleasures "song titles on book spines" was cool, but yeah I don't understand the point of this other than just boilerplate text for making designs or whatever

ha yeah I was gonna say "artist? their probably just using existing book covers"

not King Crimson but these are pretty cool

https://www.instagram.com/madebymotel/

they don't necessarily have to make sense

they don't HAVE to make sense, but then you're in let's just put two things together mash up geek shirt territory

https://66.media.tumblr.com/28f578eeae60b64f5207d530dfde1099/tumblr_picptbR6st1qirnn2_540.jpg

but one of those things is something I like

Aw, I think the covers are cute.

Going to try to make the Philly show. Was holding out hope for a Fripp-Levin-Belew-Bruford reunion tour before I die (or before Fripp does) but at this point that looks unlikely, so I'm pretty determined to see this band while I can. Also, that Meltdown set from Mexico City was incredible. My expectations are high

go see belew trio if you get a chance tho its good

Buford is totally retired.

go see belew trio if you get a chance tho its good

― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, April 2, 2019 7:47 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have heard this! I missed him by a day on this last tour.

are Belew and Stewart Copeland still playing together? these setlists look great:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/gizmodrome/2018/scala-london-england-bef91d2.html

the covers are good! they just belong to something already made

https://katemacdonalddotnet.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/p2050005.jpg

far as I can tell, the Belew/Stew band (with Mark King!) only played in London and I think Milan or something last year…they never came to the U.S. and so I don't think that Belew and Stew were going to curtail their normal doings when the record received such a tepid reception —it does in fact suck and Belew is back to his normal touring routine. But boy would I ever wanna see those guys play Stewart's Police shit and Belew's KC stuff that the Jakko Revue doesn't do… there is footage from the London shows where you can see Belew singing "miss Gradenko" and Stew playing "Elephant Talk."

I thought the album was pretty good, but then again I'm a big fan of Copeland's stuff and if you approach the record from that angle (it's basically a Klark Kent record with a great backing band) I think it holds up fine. A live album would be incredible, especially if they focus on old stuff that doesn't get played anymore - nu-Crimson playing the 80s stuff feels off to me, mainly because that era of the band is so walled off from everything that came before and after. And of course Belew's solo career has plenty of gems as well.

The studio albums will be on streaming services in May/June.

At a press event in London on Saturday, King Crimson manager David Singleton announced that the band’s entire studio-album catalog will soon launch on Spotify. Describing the move as part of an “outreach year” for the band, Singleton said the albums are set to begin streaming in time for the avant-rock legends’ upcoming 50th anniversary tour.

...

Singleton said that the band’s 13 studio albums — from 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King through 2003’s The Power to Believe — would roll out on other streaming platforms in May before arriving on Spotify on June 10th, the day King Crimson kick off their world tour in Leipzig, Germany.

“The reason we’ve been slow on Spotify is that, unlike apparently the whole of the rest of the industry that’s been telling us that physical is dead, we’ve had rising physical sales for probably the last 10 years,” Singleton said, referring to titles issued via the band’s own DGM label. “But that argument was valid for a while, and it isn’t anymore.”

He went on to say that, at this point, the pros of streaming outweigh the cons. “In the end, our prime function is to serve the music and make the music available, and Spotify has now definitely become one of the places that people, particularly younger people, find music.”

ugh

Pretty sure I cannot stream the albums via Amazon Music ...

Well there goes all P0rnhub's traffic

xp -- pretty sure you can't either, the deal doesn't start until May/June. Do you mean you won't be able to when the streaming deal starts?

king crimson seems to do a lot more mexico shows than other bands. do they have a really big following down there?

xpost I wasn't sure about Amazon because I don't think of it as a streaming service, per se, as opposed to Spotify, which is exclusively streaming. And that article (afaict) only specifies Spotify, right?

Singleton said that the band’s 13 studio albums — from 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King through 2003’s The Power to Believe — would roll out on other streaming platforms in May before arriving on Spotify on June 10th, the day King Crimson kick off their world tour in Leipzig, Germany.

Yeah, I didn't know if that meant every streaming platform. And like I said, I don't necessarily think of Amazon as a streaming platform, but I guess it is? But cool if it happens or is happening.

New interview with Fripp.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/robert-fripp-interview-king-crimson-tour-david-bowie-kanye-west-820783/?fbclid=IwAR1DmPkXNIK_prz6CjHj3m_NNBMa3qbcuvy1rRKm9E6Mp1RzMmvGsXXE2y0

Nice interview, love RF forever.

great interview, i hope kc will go on forever, they are still so amazing live.

Love the idea that RF’s been trying to get someone to take over Crim for 35 years

Yeah, I thought that was funny. "I've been waiting here for someone to take over and ... " - eyes voracious team of lawyers - "... no one has lead the charge. So I guess it will just fall on Robert's shoulders, once again."

are we getting a new record anytime soon

If we do it’ll probably be edited down live stuff.

I still find it anomalous that this KC is pretty much an oldies band. Not that I'm complaining, far from it, but I'd like to hear Fripp's take on why he's mining the band's past more deeply now than ever before.

the answer would probably be something like "this is the first KC lineup worthy of the back catalogue"

reality of course is that they haven't really written any material for themselves so what else are you gonna do. not play that "penis of an alien" song I suppose

He's also building up a tidy little retirement fund, of course.

they have something like 2 full albums worth of new material that you can compile from the live sets. obviously most of it isn't 'songs' but some is (the errors comes to mind). I think he finds the live experience more interesting than the studio experience so yeah, if any 'only new material' album surfaces my guess is it would be from live sets, ala Starless and Bible Black.