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21st Century Guide to King Crimson 2: 1981-2003

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For those of you who heard "Thela Hun Ginjeet" or "Heartbeat" in the early '80's, King Crimson is a familiar sound to you. In the box set "The 21st Century Guide To King Crimson, Volume Two", we are going to take you to today's KC band. First of all, we cover 1981-2003 albums, from "Discipline", "Beat", and "Three of a Perfect Pair", through "Thrak" and into "The Power To Believe". And I still missed 10 more albums! On 4CD's there are 65 tracks filling over 5 hrs. of music. And 25 tracks, studio and live, of Fripp-Belew-Levin-Bruford at their greatest early to mid- '80's sound. In the '90's there are 10 tracks for "Thrak", then all of the 2003's "The Power To Believe" less 1. Do not miss the cuts from "The Construkction of Light" and "The Projekcts" (late 1990's) for their KC experimental edge. An added plus is an 11 min. live version of "Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Pt IV)". Over two dozen live cuts up to 2003! All this includes a 24-page booklet filled with album art, chronologies, facts, etc. If you are a first time King Crimson fan, or know some of the albums, this is what you want to start off your collection with, or use to build more CD's. And don't forget "The Guide To King Crimson, Volume One (1969-1974)" 'cause this is where it all started.

In this second set of King Crimson guides there is music of the 1981-2003 period. There are two studio CD's plenty of the music of this period. Though it is not advertised anywhere, the studio CD's are HDCD encoded and they have fantastic sound. The two other CD's are a collection of live recordings of these period. In this case they are not HDCD encoded, but they also sound very good. If you want an introduction to the KC music of this period, this collection is excellent.

The reality is that Fripp, Bruford, Belew and Levin, the core of this box set (yes, I know Bruford and Levin left at one point) have had more to do with the advance of Music,especially in this avant-garde direction, than any four fellows since, well.... maybe since a quartet from northern England a few decades ago.
In any case, what's on offer, even if you have most (and you wouldn't have all) of the tunes on these discs, is a chronology of the dangerous life in the Court of the Crimson King. The thrills are so heady, the puzzlers are so confounding, that you'll enjoy the assembly here so much that you'll feel like you are re-discovering these songs. I love every bloody second of this set! Jayzuz! It gits me, down deep. The perils in negotiating "Fractured" justify the price all in itself. The live sets showcase what I've always held about Crim: they are always and ever a live and living enterprise that thrives on the notion that failure and bloodshed are imminent. But what is clear is that they are also the spiritual parents of Steve Wilson and his Porcupine Tree colleagues, as well as Erki Sven Tuur in the classical world, and the California Guitar Trio, Nguyen Le and his colleagues in France. In short, where Music itself goes to consider its coming into the world, there you will find the King and his Prime Minister working out how to bring Music into a world that strives so hard to keep it out.
In a few days' time, Fripp will be releasing LOVE CAN NOT BEAR, his Soundscapes from the World Financial Center. Like John Adams' ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS, it will have a profound impact on how we regard the tragedies that befall us and what Music can do to carry us through those times. Along with this intrepid account of the history of a group of men, some with facial hair and glasses, you will have before you poetry on which to dwell through the course of your life.