SOUNDTRACK: KING CRIMSON-The Elements Of King Crimson – 2015 Tour Box (2015).
The Elements box set has become a tour staple since the band reformed in 2014. This is the second set and it contains another fascinating cross section of music from throughout Crimson’s existence.
In addition to the music, these sets contain a booklet that is chock full of pictures and usually an essay that gives context to what you’re about to hear.
It also includes the seven Principles of King Crimson
- May King Crimson bring joy to us all. Including me.
- If you don’t want to play a part, that’s fine!
- Give it to someone else – there’s enough of us.All the music is new, whenever it was written.
- If you don’t know your note, hit C#.
- If you don’t the time, play in 5. Or 7.
- If you don’t know what to play, get more gear.
- If you still don’t know what to play, play nothing.
Of the four boxes, I think this is my favorite–although the second disc of 2017 is pretty awesome. I really enjoy the first half of the first disc. It’s all instrumental (even tracks that have words are instrumental versions). It’s a great collection of sometimes pretty, sometimes not, 70s prog rock.
The eight-minute instrumental version of “Epitaph” (Steven Wilson 2015 instrumental mix) is gorgeous. Even though I like the words just fine, there’s something really thrilling about removing them on this song. “Catfood” is (somewhat obviously) a rather goofy lyric, so hearing this complex song without words is also a treat. “Bolero – The Peacock’s Tale” is listed as a Tony Levin overdub. I don’t know exactly what that means, as it is taken from the Lizard recording sessions, but the song is lovely.
In addition to longer, complete songs, the Elements sets feature short snippets. Like the two-minute extract of “Islands” (with oboe). Or the four-minute jazzy “A Peacemaking Stint Unrolls” which is clearly the foundation for “Lark’s Tongues in Aspic.”
Although the set is largely chronological, there’s an excerpt from the 2014 tour rehearsals in which Fripp discusses how the band knows all of their parts. They give a mellow example of how he and Jakko will play “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part II)” which is followed by the full 6 minute version from 1974. It’s followed by an 11 minute live version of “Fracture” from 1974 (the previous box’s version was from 1973).
There’s a “guitar extract” of “One More Red Nightmare” (less than a minute long) from 1974 followed by a full performance of the song from 2014 which doesn’t feel like a jump of forty years in any way.
The disc jumps to the 1980s era with an extended remix of “Elephant Talk” followed by 1981’s “Absent Lovers.”
1983’s “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part III/Sleepless” is staggeringly good.
Disc Two suffers a bit in comparison, which I find surprising as I really like the later era of King Crimson–the more metal sounding stuff is really intense.
I enjoyed the first part–the late 1990s; work. “Jurassic THRAK” sounds huge, and 2014’s drum solo “The Hell Hounds of Krim” works fine as a connector to the next four songs which highlight the late 90’s abrasive guitars. It’s about 20 minutes of noisy coolness. “VROOOM,” “Coda: Marine 475” and “ProjeKction” (Performed by ProjeKct Four) all showcase that complicated music really delightfully.
Then things start to slow down somewhat. “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic – Part IV/the construKction of light” suffers in my mind because of the smallness of the band. With only four members playing, the song doesn’t feel like a huge organism, it feels more like two guitarists playing next to each other. Mind you, it sounds amazing if you can get away from the fact that it doesn’t feel terribly “full.” Of course, I may be just spoiled from the great versions of LTIA I’ve seen with the 7-piece band.
Things really slow down and chill out for “Sus-Tayn-Z” (Performed by ProjeKct X), “Power to Believe,” “Ex Uno Patres” and the nine minute exceedingly mellow (with vocals) “The Light of Day.” I do not love this style of Crimson. It works as a palette cleanser between heavy songs, but too much is too much.
The “Ba Ba Boom Boom” drum solo and “ATTAKcATHRAK” ramp things up with the kind of noise that segues nicely into the blistering 2014 version of “21st Century Schizoid Man.”
This box set once again demonstrates that King Crimson is a multi-headed beast, liable to go in any direction at any time.
[READ: January 6, 2018] Heroes of the Frontier
Somehow I missed that Eggers had written this book. I saw it in the bookstore recently and immediately grabbed it and devoured it.
I was worried that it was going to be a woman-moves-off-the-grid-and-life-gets-better story, but it’s not that at all. It’s far more complicated and a bit more unsettling.
Josie is a dentist in Ohio. But as we meet her, she and her children are riding in a crappy rented RV through the highways of Alaska.
Josie has a large sum of cash with her. She had been sued by a patient for a sum she could not afford. Rather than trying to raise th e money to save her practice or giving it over to woman, she sold her practice in total to a dentist friend. So now, she has the cash and, temporarily, no future.
She was also in a terrible relationship. Her children’s father, Carl, had taken off on them. He was always aloof and a loser, but this disappearance to Florida was something else entirely.
She took her kids, Paul (8) and Ana (5) and got outta Dodge. The children are an interesting pair. Paul is nurturing and worrying, especially about his sister. He looks after her more closely than their mother ever does. Ana, meanwhile, is a disaster–she seems to have a natural gift for how to break something–she can find the weak point of any structure or situation and cause havoc wherever she goes–and Paul is happy to fix the situation.
Why Alaska? Because she has a stepsister (sort of) who lives in Homer. Sam is independent and successful (which Josie was as well, although she was unhappy). (more…)
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