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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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Wanna Watch Stick Men?
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Sun., Oct 28, 2012
Currently touring Europe, Stick Men shared the bill at Frankfurt's Jazz Festival with Terry Bozzio. You can watch the whole concert here. Stick Men's portion of the show is about 38 minutes in. You can see Tony's snaps from the show by taking a visit to his web site.
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Theo Travis & Keith Tippett
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Sat., Oct 27, 2012
My thanks to Leonardo Pavkovic for letting me know that the recent concert by Theo Travis as a member Soft Machine Legacy was filmed and online. The concert also features special guest, Keith Tippett. You can watch the whole thing here.
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Andrew Keeling's Single
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Thu., Oct 25, 2012
The ever-prolific Andrew Keeling is releasing a single with this alt-rock outfit Otherworld on November 1st. Entitled For The Love Of A Woman, it's taken from the forthcoming album, Hyde. You can check out samples from the single here.
Thus sayeth the blurb:
For the Love of a Woman features Andrew Keeling - guitars and bass; Stephen Fellows (Comsat Angels) - guitars/bass; David Jaggs (The Ragamu ns) - vocals; Dave Cottrell - drums; Charlotte Dowding - strings,
and was written and arranged by Andrew Keeling with words by David Jaggs.
For the Love of a Woman is taken from the collective's second album, Hyde, released in April 2013.
Also included on the single is the title-track from Bells of Heaven released earlier this year which R2 magazine called 'a hugely ambitious and complex work, as intricate in its construction as it is in its assemblage of supporting musicians. It touches on genius.'
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Wilson's Court In The Act
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Wed., Oct 24, 2012
My thanks to tboyd for the heads-up that Steven Wilson was at DGM HQ yesterday recording Mellotron parts for his forthcoming follow-up to last year’s Grace For Drowning album.
Writing on his Facebook page Steven observed "“ Today I was at Robert [Fripp]‘s place recording the mellotron parts for my new album on his original sixties MK2 mellotron, famously the one used on the debut King Crimson album. Playing a real mellotron is quite an exhausting physical experience, but it sounds amazing….” And this snap from Steven’s Twitter feed You can check out more about the making of the album by visiting Steven’s brand new website.
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Noisey & Bible Black
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Oct 23, 2012
Artist Jonathan Spencer's video Noise contains a hat-tip of sorts to Tom Phillips via the inner sleeve of King Crimson's Starless And Bible Black. Jonathan says "It's a very short video (2 minutes 15 seconds) about
the nature of noise (both as a real phenomenon and as a metaphor for our
media saturated wired world), it relies heavily on chance and
serendipity. The project uses a number of compression algorithms for
aesthetic effect and skips from stereo to mono." You can take a look at the video (and several others by Spencer) here.
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Mister Stormy's Monday Selection
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Mon., Oct 22, 2012
Mister Stormy peels back the layers of Thela Hun Ginjeet to reveal how clean and keen the rhythmic engine is in this particular song.
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All About Larks' Tongues Big Box
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Mon., Oct 22, 2012
All About Jazz's John Kelman has been delving deep into the 15-disc Larks' Tongues In Aspic box set.
You can read his extensive analysis here and you can also take a peek into the contents of the box set over on the blog
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LTIA - Makes Tales from Topographic Oceans sound like Gilbert O’Sullivan.
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Fri., Oct 19, 2012
My thanks to Rich Mlinar for sending me this review of the reissued LTIA.
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Meet The New Boss...Same As The Old Boss
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Wed., Oct 17, 2012
Somebody is making a lot of money out of streaming services but it's not the musicians. Pandora want to make their business profitable at the expense of the very musicians that give their service its content, and thus value. Elsewhere, Chicago-based musician Benn Jordan is discovering how difficult it is when dealing with streaming services, in this case, Spotify.
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