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Old 05-26-2006, 04:33 AM   #1 (permalink)
boo boo
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Default The King Crimson Marathon

Because i'm too lazy to just pick one, i'll review every King Crimson studio album starting with the earliest... The band has gone a long way since opening for groups like Iron Butterfly, Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin and The Rolling Stones... IMO the only band who formed in the 60s that is still making challenging music now and beyond.... I won't waste anyones time with a ratings system... So lets start, shall we?



In The Court Of The Crimson King - 1969

Personnel:
Robert Fripp - Guitar.
Greg Lake - Bass, Lead Vocals.
Michael Giles - Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals.
Ian McDonald - Reeds, Woodwinds, Vibes, Mellotron, Backing Vocals.
Peter Sinfield - Lyrics.

After Giles, Giles and Fripp disbanded (thanks to Peter Giles departure) remaining members Robert Fripp and Peter's bro Michael deciding to form a new experiemental band with music illuminist Peter Sinfield (who went on to work with ELP and Roxy Music, among others) that would break new ground in pyschedelic rock, creating what eventually would become progressive rock... With future ELP frontman Lake and former GG&F member McDonald along for the ride, Fripp and co. did much more than accomplish their mission, they indirectly started a musical revolution, resulting in one of the best albums of the 60s... Anyway enough with the history lessions, one of the unique factors about ITCOTCK is that it abandons the standard rock formula completely, no blues influence in sight... Basically redefining what can make a rock band a rock band... KC perfectly married sophisticated medieval-esque melodys and instrumentation with jazzy improvisitions, sometimes with an almost metal like agressiveness, but that is only present on the first track of this album, however the band would develop a more hard rock sound in the future... And of course, the musical virtuososity is more than just a bonus.

1. 21st Century Schizoid Man: If you haven't heard this song before, download it now... One of the best album openers ever... The track starts off with strange car sounds before progressing into a bone crunching riff with strong brass... Every instrument and sound distorted like crazy, with Lake singing like a paranoid android (no pun intended) reciting lyrics that draw the parallel between humanity and materialism (a theme KC would explore throughout their entire career)... The song breaks into a long, frenzied jam (complete with Fripps infamous anti-guitar solo, Lakes frantic/precise bass fills and McDonald beating the holy hell out of his sax) before building up to the climax when all the instruments clash together and roar at another like animals...I can garrantee you that Black Sabbath were writing sh*t down when they heard this.

The big surprise is that as it turns out, this is the only "rocking" song on the album, everything that follows is quite soft and mellow in contrast, however, this song introduces the loud-madman noise rock dynamics that King Crimson would experiement with even further on their later albums.

2. I Talk To The Wind: After the 7 minute chaos of Schizoid Man, KC make a drastic change of sound with this one... Beginning with a gorgeous harmony of woodwinds... The song drifts into a smooth soundscape of breathy vocals and somber, muted guitar... The gloomy lyrics complement the lush compositions perfectly, a beautiful piece.... Some wonderful flute work from McDonald too.

3. Epitaph: The first song on the album to feature the bands trademark mellotron... One of the bands more emotional songs, a somber anti war ballad with lyrics that sound like a cry for help... The mellotron owns the show here, providing a larger life than life sound (i call it the wall's of sound) thats just perfect for this piece... Great use of accoustics too.

4. Moonchild: A very soft, ambient piece, while the weakest track on the LP (many are quick to call this a bad song, but i digress) it's a nice companion piece nonetheless... The song begins perfectly, one of the earliest examples of Crimsons medieval music influence... A love song so to speak, but its all in the ambient mood and tone that makes it worthwhile, theres weird (but pretty) noises coming from every direction... A very spacey and dissonant song... The vocal passages are short and the song transforms into a odd 10 minute quiet jam, a bit too long... But nothing unsettling, the instruments provide a windchime like harmony of notes... May be boring to most, but a great song to listen to when you're just kicking back and want to take a nap.... A very soothing piece.

5. In The Court Of The Crimson King: Another mellotron driven piece... With a medieval like quality to it, in both the sound and lyrics that provide the setting of this epic style piece... A wordless chorus of gregorian like chants, and a lot of accoustic guitar and woodwinds... A brillant and climatic closer... Songs like this helped define the style of progressive rock known as symphonic prog.

Over all, every song gives the album a very cinematic quality, like you're watching movie.... Something many prog bands would attempt to emulate for years on end... Aside from this albums historical importance, none of that should matter, it's just a fantastic album and one of the most impressive debuts this side of Led Zeppelin I, symphonic rock at its best... More importantly this a look into the bands earliest form, which makes it even more mind blowing to think how much this band has changed over the past 30 years, though of course, a billion or so lineup changes played a part in the bands continuous evolution in sound, from symphonic rock band to free form jazz band to avant garde proto metal band to new wave band to funk metal band to industrial metal band (or whatever the hell you wanna call them), while many bands try to experiement with many genres, only a few have the talent to pull it off, KC is certainly one of those bands... The most important thing about Crimson is that unlike some of their peers and way too many of their so called successors (Cough*Dream Theater*Cough) King Crimson have never forgotten the most important fundamental of being progressive rock, which is being progressive, duh.

I'll continue with the next review tommorow, i'm dog tired.
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