Post-1994 King Crimson: S/D

I would agree — tho often you get the sense that they go beyond "revisting" the style and just kind of ape it for lack of a better idea. It's by no means an unforgivable transgression, just not as forward-looking as it could be.

For instance, say what you will about the 80's version of Crimson, but they def. were trying to forge something new, what w/ the dueling guitars, the afro-beat percussion, Chapman stick, and Simmons drums. As with the League of Gentlemen, there was a real sense of forward movement, energy and narrowly defined aesthetic there. By contrast (tho with exceptions), this era tends to feel kind of sloppy and all over the place.

and I would suggest that this tendency pre-dates "nu-metal." But what exactly do you mean by that, Naive One? Tool? Korn? lamb of God?

Korn, Tool, yeah — there's the Machine production on Power... which I don't really know, but you could also hear traces of it forming on ConstruKction some. Perhaps I'm missing something, but nü metal just seems beneath Fripp. It doesn't appear to be a very sophisticated or intelligent idiom. And even if its progeny have been influenced by Crimson in some way, it doesn't really suit Crimson very well.

Again, part of me wonders whether this band would have benefited from a more sophisticated electronic production — maybe not Sylvian or even Eno, exactly, but a Deathprod-type, who understands how to modulate some of the group's more excessive tendencies.

Thrakattack had some really cool bits on it, but it's not the kind of thing I can listen to often.

The ConstruKction of Light I've probably only listened to about 5 times total.

I haven't heard anything they've put out since then.

other than Tool, I hear ZERO correlatives to nu-metal. Now, if you were to suggest that Crimson should have been competing with Don Cabellero and other mathy Touch and Go bands, then I might say you have something there.

Along the same lines, I was listening to Thrak again this am, and I'd forgotten how much a lot of the Belew songs just stick out — almost as if they'd been slated for a solo record. In that it doesn't, I would agree that "Into the Frying Pan" from ConstruKction is among the best things he's done w/ them, song-wise. Def. a highlight...

I agree with the post upthread about Power to Beleive, a short but thrilling album. I loved Thrak when it first came out, but that whole double trio period seems sort of overblown looking back.

I know this isn't post-94 KC but since you mentioned it in the first post, Absent Lovers is the best 80's Crimson material ever released, in my opinion, better than Discipline. That album is fucking fantastic! What a band that was.

Having listened to it again on the commute home, let me be the first to say: yes, I was totally, completely wrong. "ProzaKc Blues" sounds nothing like nü metal, and a lot like "Vroom," albeit with silly pitched-down vocals replacing the mellotron. I will say, tho', that Mastelotto's hollow, tight snare sound, drum triggers and electriconic percussion have a decidedly White Zombie-esque feel to them.

That said, the double-trio formation was really cool

It was, tho' I'm actually still wondering why I didn't say anything in the original post about it.

Staggering. no?

At this point, my wish for Crimson is to just let Fripp, Belew, Levin and Bruford be the band, and hire a fucking producer (I'm thinking getting eYe to mix whatever music they come up with would be nice, or even doing a record for Ipecac and letting Patton choose the songs).

levin is back now, allegedly, when and if they actually record again. no bruford though.

Belew wrote some decent stuff lyrically in the 80s (Matte Kudasai, Neal and Jack and Me, Dig Me, Three of a Perfect Pair). Now, his lyrics are quite often just totally inane--those noun wordplays especially.

The self-referentiality, the 'Kc' gimmick on song titles, and, relatedly, the acquiescence and indulging of expectations to hear their 'big, bad, dark, and chromatic' sound is also a creative bad moon risin' to me.

I agree that for King Crimson to stand for something again, Fripp would need to start over from scratch, but it seems like he is involving himself with a new band project (Rieflin, who he's worked with before, but also Peter Buck from R.E.M.--he could probably use a shot in the arm, too).

Definitely the second side Three of a Perfect Pair was probably the last thing they ever did that kept me consistently interested. I am sure there is innovative stuff scattered throughout their post-1994 catalog, too, but it seems transient when it occurs.

more like a scarcity of publicity

R.F. GOT SMOOTH. CREEPZ!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOxn2GTGa2U

I've only heard 'The Scarcity of Miracles' title terack but it was enjoyable enough.

I listened to some of Thrak yesterday and I remember thinking that 'Dinosaur' should of been a hit all over the radio (they could of easily edited it for length). 'Dinosaur' would still fit in well on a contemporary rock station.

Scarcity of Miracles is ok but there is too much Cross and Jakko's vocals get pretty breathless and precious. But the title track and The Price We Pay are good. A lot of the album does sound more improvised and not in a paricularly great way, which leads to to believe that, had it been thought through longer and worked on more, it really would have turned out as a great new, 5th or 6th version of Crimson. But as it is it is more rightly a 'projekct' as it was labeled.

Scarcity of publicity is right.

also a relief not to have Adrian Belew emoting all over it

but jakko emotes all over it which is worse. i prefer belew ballads to him.

I did review this on my site and gave it 2 stars - it's another KC improv album where everyone is afraid to step on anyone's toes, so as a result nearly all the pieces sound the same. For an album with a bunch of vocals there's a surprising lack of any melody whatsoever. Jakko has got to be the most generic, one-note (literally) vocalist for this sort of thing.

THRAK and Power to Believe are pretty good post-90's albums. ConstruKction sucks but the triple live album that came out of it was actually really good. Some of the best improv they've ever done, and it turns out the album tracks sound a lot better without all the distortion and vocal effects.

Would you mind linking to your site, I'd like to read the review. I couldn't agree more, except to call it a KC improv is a real stretch. In fact, the improv aspect is so anemic, it sounds like they jammed over one another in separate studios. Mel Collins was probably the biggest disappointment- he just does these flittery fills after every line, except for the briefest flash where him and RF double up on the melody and it sounds like something Lizard-y. I don't know what I expect guys of their age and temperament to play like, but I'm sure I never want to hear a followup to this record.

http://listology.com/jamool/story/king-crimson - it's all the way at the bottom

I considered it improv because it isn't really jamming and doesn't sound composed. Like they just passed around the skeleton of the tune and had the musicians just play whatever they felt.

wow this is awful

Yeah that's a good way to put it (xpost)....also this made me actually regret Tony Levin's presence as well--his bass sounds so apologetic it just makes the whole thing more sad.

So after a lot of bellyaching about this era and some truly inexplicable intensive listening the last few weeks I've come to the conclusion that I really like the 2000's-era "double duo" version of this band.

I think my biggest hangup until now was Thrak, which I still find to be unremittingly loud, shamelessly in thrall to the Red-era band and, other than Bruford, not particularly adventurous (I do like Thrakatak, however, which was assembled from the very few improvisations that band did).

By contrast, most of the ConstruKction material, while still often derivative, is generally really interesting. And as noted elsewhere, this band was an absolute corker live. This version of "FraKctured" in Bonn in 2000 is pretty damn stunning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-qfW1UL-vQ&feature=youtu.be&t=18m16s

dunno where this should go but apparently Bill Rieflin has died.

Oh goddamn

what!?!!

he died this morning; Fripp posted it a little while ago. A friend in Seattle told me he's had cancer for quite a while and was on chemo until recently; I had assumed he was sick when he took a sabbatical from Crimson the first time but then when his wife died I assumed he'd done that because of her illness. I had no idea it was both of them. Terrible.

God damn cancer. RIP

Yeah, I just posted this on another thread. Awful.

Seeing news that my old friend Bill Rieflin has died of cancer. You know him as a mighty drummer for bands from Ministry to later R.E.M. To me he was the kindest guy who worked with me at Tower Records SF when I was 19 and so uncool. Hadn't seen him for a while but I am so sad. pic.twitter.com/MAXjc3TzNX

— Feeling Distant (@annkpowers) March 24, 2020

I didn't know where to post this, but damn if Miles Davis' 'Aura' doesn't put me in the mind of the ProjeKcts

https://youtu.be/zv_GaykNfe8
https://youtu.be/NxQkqJAetGc