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| P2 At Albany Again |
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| :: Posted by Sid Smith on Mon., Feb 20, 2012 |
My thanks to J Eric Smith for sending in this marvelous review of P2 playing Albany. You can hear the gig that Eric is writing about here.
Eric writes "I was a music critic (for better or worse) in Albany, New York for many years. My wife and I recently relocated to Des Moines, Iowa, and as part of launching a web presence in my new home community, I have been reviewing old archives of my work for items that might lend themselves to new purposes. I found a ProjeKCt Two live review (copied below) while digging through old floppy discs and files, and thought I would share it here, since I have not seen many other formal newsprint reviews from that era posted here. It was a lovely show, one that I still cite as one of my all-time favorite live performances.
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ProjeKct Two
Valentine’s Music Hall, Albany, New York, May 8, 1998
Copyright 1998, J. Eric Smith (Originally appeared in Metroland, The Alternative Newsweekly of Northeastern New York)
"OK, now we’ve played everything we don’t know,so we can play something that we actually do know," announced electronic drummer Adrian Belew at the end of ProjeKct Two’s second all-instrumental, all-improvised set. Belew, 10-string Warr guitarist Trey Gunn and electric six-string guitarist Robert Fripp then encored with King Crimson’s "Vrooom," an angular number originally created by Fripp, Belew, Gunn and their Crimson bandmates Tony Levin, Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto.
As nice as it was to hear "Vrooom," the true value of the encore was to place the evening’s improvisational extravaganza in context by providing a single sample of how ProjeKct Two sounded when tackling a fully developed and structured instrumental piece. Frankly speaking, the encore paled in comparison to the 90 minutes of music preceding it, as its rehearsed complexities and nuances were nowhere near as impressive as the knotty, towering sound collages that ProjeKct Two created on the fly as the rapt audience watched and listened.
Fripp, Belew and Gunn were watching and listening to each other as well, and much of the thrill of this concert came from witnessing the interactions between these deeply talented musicians who have played together long enough to anticipate each other’s thoughts, sometimes before they eve realize that they’ve had them. Belew or Fripp typically opened each number with a drum or guitar pattern that the other musicians would would investigate, mount and ride, sometimes to loud and uplifting summits, sometimes to quiet, scary grottoes, sometimes back to the point at which they started. It was actually harrowing to experience in many cases, as the trio careened just on this side of control as they rode, the looks on their faces indicating that it was just as thrilling (and frightening) for them as it was their audience.
As important as technical prowess was to the concert’s success, mention must also be made of ProjeKct Two’s technological proficiancy. Belew was playing the latest generation of Roland virtual drums, allowing him to create a seemingly infinite number of sonic assaults as he clattered and rattled along with a look-Ma-I’ve-got drums grin on his face. (Understandable, given that he’s normally a guitarist.) Gunn matched Belew’s rhythmic and textural intensity as he tapped, stroked and and beat the touchboard of his Warr guitar.
Fripp spun out any number of his trademark spine-tingling sustained guitar lines but also used the treatment technology he has developed over the years via his Soundscape and Frippertronic performance experiments to create a wealth of tones and intonations. At times, the bands’ sounds were so far skewed from what your eyes were reporting to your brain that it was almost psychologically easier to look at the floor and imagine that Fripp was playing cluster chords on some beaten-up jazz-hall piano while Gunn blew on a baritone sax and Belew kept time by tapping on whisky bottles and ashtrays. Crazy, man, crazy.
All told, ProjeKct Two’s concert was a magnificent one, and I must confess to feeling great relief in being able to report that. Why? Because Robert Fripp’s written and recorded works have done more to shape both how I listen to and how I think about music than have any other artist’s over the last two decades, although I never actually stood in the same space with Fripp until last Friday. So imagine the potential for debilitating disappointment at this show, and then imagine the transcendent relief and joy when it didn’t come to pass. It literally moved me to tears. And how often can a wordless concert do that?"
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And The Winner Is...
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Thu., Jan 31, 2013
Congratulations to Michael Sandy of Swansea. Because he was able to tell me that Maartin Allcock was born in Manchester, Michael wins a copy of Maartin's new album, Chilli Morning.
Stay tuned for another great giveaway in the next couple of days.
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Nina Simone's Direct Action On Royalties
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Thu., Jan 31, 2013
My thanks to homeoffice for sending in this. "Just ran across this older bit today on the interwebs...good old Nina,
if only the kind folks of DGM could go back in time to get Ms. Simone to
handle the backpay issue, she seems sure of how to handle it
here...good stuff"
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Bernier's Looking Over The Edge Of Death
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Jan 29, 2013
Ex-Stick Men member Michael Bernier has posted up a rough mix of a work in progress called Looking Over The Edge Of Death. Michael writes "I thought I should share this new track's process. I’ve been dealing with the gauntlet of medical analysis
and speculation over my mysterious brain growth anomaly and the
seizures while trying to complete my newest CD.
This track music was
inspired by the terror experienced within a grand Mal seizure yet
translated through my subjective suspicion as to how KC would approach
it. Sort of a tribute to KC while also a sonic insight to my experience
under the veil of flatlining. I’m still tweaking it but I always like
feedback and sharing the steps along the way. OK
back to tracking...cheers!"
You can listen to the track here.
You can also listen and buy Michael's last album, Leviathan here.
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Famous Formentera
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Jan 29, 2013
My thanks to Ricj Mlinar for this item about the island of Formentera's links with popular culture.
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Latest DGM Press Release
:: Posted by David S on Mon., Jan 28, 2013
Ground-breaking multimedia project challenges the Music Industry A sleepy village in Wiltshire seems an unlikely place for a media revolution – even if it does involve earl grey tea-drinking Vicars, retiring rock stars and (in a twist worthy of Monty Python) a video-blogging flatulent drummer. The intent of THE VICAR CHRONICLES, based around the exploits of the legendary music producer, The Vicar, and released this week by DGM Ltd, could not be more simple: to expose the ill-treatment of musicians and artists at the hands of the ‘evil empire’ of the music industry. An industry, in the words of guitarist Robert Fripp, “founded on exploitation, oiled by deceit, riven with theft and fuelled by greed.” Even the copyright statement is a challenge to the status quo: “DGM Ltd accepts no reason for artists to give away the copyright interests in their work by virtue of a ‘common practice’ which is out of tune with the time, was always questionable and is now indefensible.” No revolution would be complete without a street protest – and Punk Sanderson, author of The Vicar Chronicles, recently took his protest to the London offices of Universal Music Group, the largest record label in the world, releasing a Youtube video of himself holding placards and breaking wind in protest at each broken contract. “It’s like the OCCUPY movement only smellier. We’ve called bankers, politicians and ‘phone-hackers to account – now it’s time to blow the wind of change at the major record labels. They trample over musicians’ rights and rather than owning up and offering fair settlement, reach for expensive lawyers. It would cost over £300,000 to fight them in the courts – who’s got that kind of money?” It has taken ten years for The VICAR CHRONICLES to see the light of day. It is only now possible due to recent changes in the media landscape. “A few years ago, a project of this magnitude – involving novels, graphic novels, audiobooks, videobooks, albums, even a potential TV series – could only have existed with the unlikely support, given the content, of a major label and book publisher,” co-creator, David Singleton, explains. “Now it took just two meetings. One with Robert Kondrck, co-founder of iTunes, who flew into London, and the other with Dan Slater, the head of Kindle at Amazon in Seattle.” The Vicar Chronicles, by Punk Sanderson, are released through Amazon and iTunes. ‘Sherlock Holmes meets Spinal Tap’, an ingenious series of whodunits set in the music industry, blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
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Good Evening Vancouver!
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Mon., Jan 28, 2013
The Crims pull off a cracking gig on the last night of their North American tour in 1981.
You can get the whole thing here.
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Farting Vine
:: Posted by David S on Fri., Jan 25, 2013
Technology lovers will know that today saw the launch of VINE - Twitter's new 6 second video tweets. And one of the very first VINE messages was apparently by none other than The Vicar's very own Punk Sanderson.
Punk did, of course, use this new medium to send out yet another "Fart For Your Rights" message - so this was presumably the world's first Farting Vine (although thankfully I think he may finally have run out of wind).
One can do nothing other than applaud his efforts (from a safe distance).
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We Fart on the Beaches
:: Posted by David S on Fri., Jan 25, 2013
A Third Video in the Fart For Your Rights campaign against UMG on behalf of King Crimson has been posted on YouTube - with Punk Sanderson once more on the streets in Kensington.
His liner notes invoke the spirit (who knows, maybe even the humour) of the backs-to-the-wall, David-against-Goliath master himself, Winston Churchill, in his fight to "blow the wind of change" at the major Record Labels.
For the campaign to succeed it needs our support, so please watch and share.
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Maartin Allcock Giveaway!
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Fri., Jan 25, 2013
Mentioned in recent weeks on Robert Fripp’s diary, Chilli Morning, a new album by Maartin Allcock has a version of Discipline on it and we have a copy to give away to a good home.
If you’d like to win this all you need to do is tell me where Maartin was born. If that information isn’t on the tip of your tongue then you might want to take a peek over at Maartin’s website. Send the answer, along with your postal address in an email to competitions@dgmlive.com marked DISCIPLINE. The winner will be announced on Thursday 31st January. You can read my take on the album over on the blog.
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