THRAK

King Crimson

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 25, 1995)
• Original Release Date: April 25, 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000000W7H
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,002 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Vrooom

2. Coda: Marine 475

3. Dinosaur

4. Walking on Air

5. B'boom

6. Thrak

7. Inner Garden, Pt. 1

8. People

9. Radio, Pt. 1

10. One Time

11. Radio, Pt. 2

12. Inner Garden, Pt. 2

13. Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream

14. Vrooom Vrooom

15. Vrooom Vrooom: Coda

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Thrak finds the quartet responsible for Discipline, Three of a Perfect Pair, and Beat in the '80s reassembled, with Trey Gunn on stick (a basslike instrument) and Pat Mastelotto on percussion joining original members Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, and Bill Bruford. Thrak is musically quite similar to the King Crimson albums of the '80s, but it has less of a tribal, rhythmic focus, giving the bulk of the space to the stringed instruments. Bruford and Mastoletto are present and active (check out "B'Boom") but seem to play more of a supporting role. Belew, back from his somewhat successful solo career, resumed his dominant position, providing all the vocals and plenty of his distinctive backward-sounding guitar work. --Adem Tepedelen

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars King Crimson remains the same paradox its leader is..., June 23, 1999

By A Customer

Robert Fripp doesn't look like a rock musician. He looks more like a parish vicar with his round face and rimless glasses. He doesn't talk like one either--we're all used to London Cockney or Liverpool Scouse from British rockers, but Fripp's dry, clipped tones are reminiscent of the late John Houseman. Then he picks up his Gibson Les Paul and the whole prissy facade collapses. What blasts forth from his amp is the muscular, blunt-force style the Les was built for. Jazziz magazine called King Crimson "thinking man's metal" on strength of this album. Crimson is back--all the way back. This is Crimson NOW, not "remember when". They've taken the minimalist approach they had in the '80s and combined it with the noir aspect they had earlier. "Vrooom", for example, owes a lot to the title instrumental from the "Red" album. The title track "Thrak" is a percussive track based on drums, like drummer Bill Bruford did years ago in Yes's "Five Percent For Nothing", only a lot more jarring. I mean, the whole band's going "SLAM-SLAM....SLAM-SLAM" along with his sledgehammer both-hands hits on the toms (I had the album on when my brother showed up and he went "ho-ly s#&t...!"). There's more than just a little John Lennon in "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream", with its seemingly-mindless title and I Am the Walrus-derived lyrics. Likewise in the way singer Adrian Belew imitates Lennon's vocal style in "I'm a Dinosaur", a boy-was-I-ever-dumb look back at the Baby Boom generation's love-and-peace trip (as well as a veiled laugh at themselves as a middle-aged band trying to "re-emerge"). They haven't gone all the way back to the late '60s Moody Blues on a bum trip thing--nobody plays keyboards--the bridge section in this song is done by Belew using a synth interface on his Fender Strat. There's even (would you believe?) a song with a backbeat; "People". Most other re-emergent bands seem to be like those old fire horses pathetically still responding to the bell. King Crimson comes out more mature each time.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars KC Returns, At Long Last!, July 23, 2002

By	Shaw N. Gynan (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After Three of a Perfect Pair, KC suffered its longest hiatus, over ten years. The comeback would have to be significant, and it certainly was. Thrak surpasses many of KC's previous works. The benefit of improved recording technology, plus conceptualization on CD scale and not a two-sided album, leave it among the very best of KCs works, not to mention longest. At 56 minutes, this is way more KC than we are used to (around 50% more).

KC revs up the motors with the rocking Vrooom, which leads to a Coda and descending musical figures that end in a bass rock blast.

Dinosaur quickly became one of my King Crimson favorites, pop in flavor but with a driving beat. Walking on Air is unabashedly gorgeous and atmospheric, a lovely ballad. B'Boom is essentially a drum solo, but very arresting and creative. Thrak is monster rock, rumbling and driven with some spaced out atmospherics.

Inner Garden is mysterious and menacing in tone, but lyrical and lilting. The pop-flavored People features great guitar and a driving beat. Radio I and II are short interludes of outer-space reverb and echo that frame One Time, yet another ballad that rivals Walking on Air for beauty and clarity. This set is brought to a close by a revisted Inner Garden.

We are treated to a third pop-flavored rocker, Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream. Two more versions of the hard-rock Vroom bring this great disc to a close.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Progress, yet again., October 22, 1999

By A Customer

King Crimson works best if you listen to each new album without any expectations since no album sounds like any other. Change and experimentation have always been at the core of the group, and this CD is no different. Thrak is probably the most metal-sounding record they've done, even more than Red. "B'Boom" is like all the members of Stomp summed up by two drummers. "Dinosaur" is a song you could use to torture small children. "Walking on Air" is the spookiest slow song I've heard. "VROOOM" and "VROOOM VROOOM" (not to be confused) give us a loud shred-fest with all six members coming together and blending perfectly. It always amazes me. Long live the King.