King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

Fripp's latest diary entry hints at the possibility of KC on iTunes.

I've owned these albums on vinyl, cassette, CD, remastered CD, boxed sets, fan club CD, re-remastered CD, 5.1 DVD, so it's a relief to learn that I might one day own them on MP3 as well.

http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm?entry=24091

Crimson Mk. VIII is go, apparently, a 3-drummer lineup including Bill Rieflin.

excellent

thats crazy, I thought for sure that Fripp was done for good with this

Huh. So who the hell is in this? He says four Brits and three Americans, so ... Belew, Rieflin, Levin? No more Pat? Who would the other two drummers be, then? Gavin Harrison and ... ? The other drummer would have to be British, too. Which still leaves two Brits, Fripp and ... ?

I guess Rieflin is the only confirmed member besides Fripp, with Tony Levin more than likely. Via Fripp 9/5: "Into the Cellar for an important call to T Lev. According to Tony, the call made his day, week and year."

I dont know what the logistics of such a lineup would be, is the idea to have a King Crimson UK and a King Crimson US? And to what extent will Steven Wilson be involved?

I think the likely UMG settlement after 5+ years of fighting is the bigger news, really.

I don't think Wilson will be involved, I imagine. At least not until they remix the new album in 5.1 in 15 years. But then the question remains, who are the three American and four Brits? Levin is a go, and Rieflin is a go ... I can't imagine Crimson without Belew at this point, though such a thing could be refreshing. Wilson could conceivably be great as guitar number two, and I can't imagine he could say no to being in Crimson.

Fripp talent strike puts him in the running with Fogerty for most dramatic label dispute.

I'm guessing Jakko is in, what has he got to do?

It would be amazing if they could corral one of the original members! Can't imagine that Fripp would do it though.

I don't think he's on bad terms with any of them except Sinfield.

Best news of the day

Well, it's really curious! Assuming Belew and Levin and knowing it's Rieflin, that's Fripp plus three other Brits, two of them drummers! But if it's Jakko that would imply no Belew.

And yet, Belew is already booked to tour his King Crimson ProjeKCt in 2014, which would be weird if he was not in Crimson.

love these tracks based on samples of 'Moon Child':

http://exclaim.ca/News/cock_swan_hit_kickstarter_to_fund_vinyl_release_share_ep_made_of_king_crimson_samples

Though it looks like Belew is busy:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EjRKiWPBAkY/UXWkQMVdpRI/AAAAAAAABLU/h44e-eSOJ0A/s640/blogger-image-701532764.jpg

I was under the impression Fripp had fallen out with Belew. I would be very happy if Belew wasn't in this. Wilson would be fab but he's pretty busy w/his solo career.

I think Belew did a lot for the band in the 80's and on THRAK but I can't imagine he has much to give to King Crimson, especially since his solo albums as of late have used a lot of those ideas

If Belew is out then they need a singer and 2nd guitarist. Wilson would fit the bill perfectly.

Wilson doesn't seem like the right fit, as a singer or guitarist, and he does seem pretty busy. I still put my money of Gavin Harrison being a part of this, so there's your Porcupine Tree quota.

My only thought is that the lack of Belew means pretty much all new material. I know Belew never sang any of the old Crimson stuff, and I assume no singer would do his stuff, either. Which means a couple of decades of stuff off the table. I'm guessing new Crimson will pretty much ignore much of Crimson I through VI or whatever.

If Belew is out then they need a singer and 2nd guitarist. Wilson would fit the bill perfectly.

Again, or Jakko.

I'm not going to take 2 guitarists as a given.

I know Belew never sang any of the old Crimson stuff

He did on occasion, e.g.

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

Fripp, Levin, Mastellotto, Rieflin, Harrison seem to be safe-ish bets, leaving 2 Brits to be named. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Wetton is one of them.

New King Crimson Line-Up Confirmed

The 8th incarnation of King Crimson will be Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Mel Collins, Jakko Jakszyk and Robert Fripp.

More at http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=4335

I guess I'm cool with that. Belew is such a dominant personality that it's nice to give someone else a chance for once.

Mel Collins

!

No belew is good belew from where I'm standing.

I'd be fine if they played nearly all new material with maybe a couple of newly resurrected tracks. My guess is they'll start by reworking stuff off of Scarcity of Miracles, which doesn't sound especially appealing.

From Fripp's diary in 2010:

Following recent diarizing on possible trajectories & processes in my musical life, one possible way of moving forward after the collapse of the KC Celebratory Crimsonising was for ProjeKct Seven to go live. A main part of P7 as conceived was to have been the players of JFC – JFCL&H. I saw how the business might be arranged to support rehearsals & live, with Gaucho Productions as the business entity and performances in the UK & Spain. This was fully discussed with Don Hernan of Gaucho Productions. Who knows where P7 might have gone?

JFCL&H=Jaksyk, Fripp, Collins, Levin & Harrison. Looks like this was the germ of an idea whose time has finally come.

Fripp's obvious respect for Jakszyk notwithstanding, I'm not too excited about this pick. I saw him as part of 21st Century Schizoid Band and wasn't too impressed. This is like that bloke from a Judas Priest tribute band who ended up fronting Judas Priest.

I haven't liked Jakko in anything yet either. Still I'm very curious how this will sound and I really hope it is not anything like Scarcity of Miracles.

^^^this

Too bad Wetton isn't involved, was looking forward to hearing a five minute frippertronics break in the middle of "Heat of the Moment"

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

Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Mel Collins, Jakko Jakszyk and Robert Fripp.

jakko being the bum note, but maybe the material will be better than that last record

I've never seen Crimson. I don't care who's in it. I'm so there.

Would have been cool if Fripp reconvened with David Sylvian.

All morning before the lineup became apparent I was doing Fantasy Crimson Draft with a few other folks. My lineup was Rieflin/Giles/Muir/Levin/Lake/Wetton/Fripp

It'll be interesting to see if they tour Europe. Back in 2008 when KC VII briefly toured the US, Fripp said that touring Europe presented insurmountable difficulties.

That's probably Fripp-talk for "they wouldn't pay us enough."

I thought KC VII was soooo awesome live. That's why I'm really excited about Harrison being in the fold; he was an awesome pairing with Pat. I have no idea how Rieflin fits in this, given Harrison alone is like two drummers, but the first Rieflin solo album "Birth of a Giant" (with Fripp and Trey Gunn) was great.

Repercussions of Angelic Behavior was pretty good. I've not heard Birth of A Giant. Hopefully BR will steer whatever they develop in an interesting direction. I tried to give Scarcity of Miracles another go and man it is not good. I've got no beef with smooth but that was too smooth for its own good.

For all the talk on this thread and elsewhere about how crummy Scarcity of Miracles was, the few tracks I've hunted down on YouTube sound pretty good to me. It definitively has the feel of a research project the way League of Gentlemen did – there's nothing earth-shattering. But it's refreshing to hear Fripp ditch the nü-metal thrashing he adopted in the last few decades for his rock projects (as kind of an "updated" Larks Tongue-era sound). Instead, it's kind of a throwback in a lot of ways to the first few marks of KC, when they were more overtly jazzbo, with a touch of Listen Now!-era Manzanera in the songwriting and plaintive singing (Collins was on that as well).

So color me kind of excited about what this could mean for the big group.

I know what you mean but the fact that there are three drummers doesn't augur well. The potential for nu-metal thraashing is quite high, I fear.

I'm not so sure. Seek out audio of Pat and Gavin at work the last go 'round.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtTUxPPGp-c

Then here's Rieflin at perhaps his most sympatico:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM5DOSC0jUo

Or maybe even more so this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zQ9bu0ASZI