King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

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

I do like the idea that two of the drummers are best known for Mr. Mister/XTC and R.E.M.

tbh mastelotto is best known for crimson these days

And yet, more people can sing "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie" than anything by KC!

Just making fun of Mister Mister. Looks like Paul Fox really liked Pat. Besides XTC he did that one Too Much Joy album and also "Stick Around for Joy" by the Sugarcubes, or at least bits of them.

I still think Rieflin is the awesome x-factor here. He's a great drummer, but he can also play a bit of everything, and he sings pretty much just like David Sylvian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siba1wuCaS0

Here he is playing piano with Chris Connelly, covering Robert Wyatt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WS0eH7ZGW4

Playing guitar with Robyn Hitchcock:

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

And just because holy shit, the insanity of Ministry live in 1990:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGj-MgNwLyE

His work as Hitchcock's usual drummer since 2006 has been amazing, ESPECIALLY live.

i used to love reading rieflin's blog in the early '00s.

And yet, more people can sing "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie" than anything by KC!

Just making fun of Mister Mister. Looks like Paul Fox really liked Pat. Besides XTC he did that one Too Much Joy album and also "Stick Around for Joy" by the Sugarcubes, or at least bits of them.

I still think Rieflin is the awesome x-factor here. He's a great drummer, but he can also play a bit of everything, and he sings pretty much just like David Sylvian:



Here he is playing piano with Chris Connelly, covering Robert Wyatt:

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Playing guitar with Robyn Hitchcock:

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And just because holy shit, the insanity of Ministry live in 1990:

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Good stuff.

So, with the Rieflin/Gunn/Fripp record siunding like Soundscapes plus big rolling drum parts, and Scarcity being more lyrical, with flutes and whatnot, I still think this has the chance to be interesting.

Also, because it's awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE1VzGLzYmM&sns=em

Belew on Facebook:

questions and answers.

q: are you in the new King Crimson planned for next september 2014?

a: no. after 32 years I am no longer in King Crimson.

q: were you asked to be in the new King Crimson?

a: no, I was not. robert informed me in an email that he was starting a 7-piece version of the band. he said I would not be right for what the band is doing.

q: so, how do you feel?

a: "happy with what I have to be happy with". which is quite a lot.

I'm busy creating something I've wanted to create all my life, something which has never been done. FLUX: never the same twice. creatively I'm exploding with new ideas, songs, and music. in 60 days I'll be touring south america with my beloved Power Trio and next spring I'll be touring europe with Crimson Project, which is a celebration of the crimson music
tony, pat, and I have help create. life is great.

q: what would you like to say to crimson fans about the new King Crimson?

a: my advice is to check it out and if you like it: support it.
and on that note: thanks to all of you for your continued support of my music.
cheers!

whoa

xtc, REM, mr mister, and jakko was in level 42. it's the alternate pop 80's crim

I gave scarcity of miracles another listen, still kind of boring. jakko's solo album bruised romantic glee club is way more interesting actually.

Jakko was also in the Kinks for a short while, replacing Dave Davies. He's on some of their early 90s BBC recordings, which means for a brief period there was a Kinks with only one original member.

That email must've been awesome.

i wouldn't complain if they did this live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQMPGT1EoHA

Just for fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8NpBWPL93s

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

― "Turkey In The Straw" coming from someplace in the clouds (Sparkle Motion)

So the cats out of the bag but we should all probably post our respective 7-Man King Crimson Fantasy Draft Picks anyways:

Bruford, Harrison, Collins, Cross, Wetton, Hall, Fripp

fripp, sylvian, levin, harrison.

oh that's no 7. then collins and . . . . dunno. rieflin I guess.

Bill Rieflin is pretty much become one of those six degree of separation kind of musicians. He's played with a ton of different people and really all over the place. The guy has did a whole lot of stuff since he was one of the house drummers at Wax Trax.

I just heard both of the Crimson Jazz Trio albums (which is Ian Wallace and a pianist and bassist) and they are really awesome. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

if you like jazz that is.

both good, 2nd one squeaks by due to the Islands Suite. RIP Ian Wallace, it was really a good setting for him

I like the arrangement of One Time a lot on the 2nd one and Islands is great; the Islands material really shines in these arrangements. I read somewhere that Fripp considers these the only covers that add something new to the originals and I agree.

Yes, he seemed to be quite appreciative of the project. They really chose a good range of material. I'd like to read some Jazz-centric reviews of the records to get that side of things.

Listening to Vol 1 nonstop, cheers for hipping me to these

I didn't even know this existed!

That little "Larks Tongues" boxed set was for chumps:

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/king-crimson-the-road-to-red-24-disc-box-full-track-listing/

man, 10 years ago I'd have been all over this. I hardly have time for the Great Deciever boxset despite how excellent that one is. Doesn't look like there's anything particularly interesting like Cat Food on that set - it really is "Lament", "Easy Money", etc. etc. over and over again

But apparently different lengths, depending on the set, and different solos/improvs. Etc. Still, that's a lot of live Crimson.

has any other short-lived band like the Wetton/Bruford Crimson been mined this hard before? did they ever play a show that wasn't recorded and remastered?

Hmm. Stooges Fun House Sessions?

It'd be worth it if there were somehow a live take of 'Red' itself in there...

did any shows with Jamie Muir get out? that would be something...

There were several released in the Collector's Club series as single CDs. I got two of them. I remember wishing the sound qual were as good as the great deceiver box.

should revisit, its been years

Zoom Club release has Muir. The sound is p bad.

yeah, and the other one is a radio broadcast with better sound than zoom but iirc the performance is not all that

I just picked up the reissue of Red the other day, the one with the 2013 Steven Wilson remaster. Other than the In the Court of... I've had on vinyl for years and those awesome mixes some ilxor made a few years ago, this will be my next big step into King Crimson land.

I would be honored to think that you were referring to the mixes I made some while back. I've been thinking of remastering them (using better quality source mp3s) myself.

They've got to be, right? I have those and really enjoyed them as well!!

Cool. That was really fun to do. I've wanted to make more live comps and one for the ProjeKcts as well. Would anybody be up for it?

yes indeed