Music Banter - View Single Post - Anteater Presents: An Essential Guide To Modern Prog.

Anteater · 11-23-2009, 07:49 PM

4.

King Crimson – THRAK (1995)

1. VROOOM (4:37)
2. Coda: Marine 475 (2:41)
3. Dinosaur (6:35)
4. Walking On Air (4:34)
5. B'Boom (4:11)
6. THRAK (3:58)
7. Inner Garden 1 (1:47)
8. People (5:53)
9. Radio 1 (0:43)
10. One Time (5:21)
11. Radio 2 (1:02)
12. Inner Garden 2 (1:15)
13. Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream (4:48)
14. VROOOM VROOOM (5:37)
15. VROOOM VROOOM: Coda (3:00)

Ten years after the release of Three Of A Perfect Pair, King Crimson returned in glorious swagger to a very different musical environment for the 1980's. Now was the age of grunge, of boy band schmaltz, of Blur and Oasis, and most of all the end of an era where radio and television completely controlled what music you were and were not exposed to.

In times such as these, what's a prog. band to do?

Change, evolve and kick some tail obviously!

THRAK marks a prominent evolution in King Crimson's already wondrous discography, putting the jazz and Frippertronics on the downswing and rediscovering that plodding wonderful density that made albums such as In The Court of the Crimson King and Red such marvelous attention getters. Furthermore, Fripp and the boys learned the value of "less is more': The track lengths were slimmed, the guitars and drumming brought up a notch in lieu with the tendencies of grunge and alternative rock, which wasn't that big a stretch considering the influence that King Crimson have on both genres; Kurt Cobain often cited Red as a favorite album of his after all.

Still, despite a few nods to accessibility and 90's rock (or perhaps because of those nods) THRAK is a masterpiece of modern progressive rock at the end of the 20th century. This is partly due to the fact that 'Dinosaur' and 'People' are very strong tracks, the former due to being a perfect fusion of 70's KC and alternative while the latter boasts some of the best bass and drum work the group ever cut on a track shorter than six minutes.

What's surprising here though is that the album's strongest moment, atleast in my opinion, comes very early on in the form of a crooned ballad from Adrian Belew, 'Walking On Air'. It's quiet, spacey, and also a subtle nod to the band's 1981 masterpiece Discipline in both structure and approach. It's also one of the rare occasions that Robert Fripp and co. have blatantly penned a love song.

Still, the rest of the album is fairly awesome too, with my kudos in particular going to 'Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream', a fun track that starts off oddly bluesy before chilling down into a killer mantra which gets into a drum freakout after about 2 minutes in.

Within King Crimson's massive discography, its really hard NOT to recommend THRAK. It's concise, very accessible, still livid with the baddass bass+drum+guitar work that makes them who they are, and best of all a diverse work which lets multiple sides of the band shine through without cheese or extravagant drama.

If there ever was a good example of an old band learning new tricks and even innovating, this is the best you'll find. Also recommended for people wanting to get into King Crimson but who can't stand longer track lengths.