After just enduringly enjoying the BR of Radical Action Suite the smiles, the power as the 7 headed beast surrounded the apparent black hole and truly revealed it’s worth….surely that’s enough to blather about.
Written by Chris Inguanta
02 September, 2024
The Pier, NY, June 27th, 1984
Looking forward to this one no matter what the sound quality since I was THERE!!!!!
Written by Christian Vaughan
31 August, 2024
Fantasy Crimson 5K
Congrats on your PB, Alex. That is all you can ever ask for...and faster than Peter, too. It got me thinking...out of all the members of the band - in their prime - who might have been able to the fastest 5k. I imagine Gavin is pretty fit. I might go with him ;-)
Written by Jim Banks
30 August, 2024
Real-Talk on the Double Trio
(There's not a lot of actual discussion in this forum lately, so indulge my blathering at length:)
The much-maligned Bill Bruford just added a video of a 1995 Double Trio performance on his YouTube channel. His commentary about this performance and the group is spot-on with my experience attending a Double Trio performance and listening to live performances.
My main impression in person in the venue at a Double Trio concert was being overwhelmed with an immense cloud of digital audio data,...
(There's not a lot of actual discussion in this forum lately, so indulge my blathering at length:)
The much-maligned Bill Bruford just added a video of a 1995 Double Trio performance on his YouTube channel. His commentary about this performance and the group is spot-on with my experience attending a Double Trio performance and listening to live performances.
My main impression in person in the venue at a Double Trio concert was being overwhelmed with an immense cloud of digital audio data, and not always in a good way. Bill comments that in the '90s era of advanced digital processing for every instrument onstage, everything came out dark, dense and heavy, and that's what I heard as well.
The other problem with the Double Trio is that Bill and Tony seemed unwilling to make any concessions to the idea of Pat and Trey being in the band. So Trey ended up functioning as a third guitarist for the most part, and with the exception of composed drum pieces, the double-drummer collaboration didn't sound meaningful. Tony was Tony, unaltered from the '80s quartet, and as Bill correctly points out, because Trey ended up in the "guitar section", it's difficult to even hear his contributions because they duplicate so much of what Robert and Adrian are playing.
When I saw the 7-headed Crimson in 2019 in Chicago, I was overwhelmed by an immense amount of intelligently-conceived information, propelled by a powerful front line of 3 drummers in thoughtful collaboration—in a good way. It was of course a more varied combination of instrument types with the saxophone, piano, and other keyboard sounds in the mix, and with a broader repertoire. But the power of the group did not come from all the players slathering on more processing and electronics and duplicating each other's parts. (I did not see Bill Rieflin in-person as the "fairy dusting," non-drumming member of the band , but his contribution on the "Meltdown" compilation is most definitely heard and appreciated.)
These are my further unsolicited reflections on having multiple drum kits in a band, and also the peculiar problem of touch guitars:
For the most part in pop, bands with multiple drummers don't sound like they need them. If you're going to have multiple drummers, I have often wondered why the drum kit isn't split apart into its component units, like the New Orleans drumlines that preceded the kit, so that the drummers can explore separately without getting in each other's way. As it turns out, this is exactly what David Byrne did with the group for his "American Utopia" Broadway performances, and that band was outstanding.
To my ears, the only multi-drumkit bands that have justified themselves are the double-drummer combination of Pat and Gavin, and the drum trio combination of the most recent Crimson. Robert deems that double-drummer version of the group unsuccessful, but I enjoyed how thoughtfully Pat and Gavin worked out playing together much more than the Pat/Bill collaboration.
With the triple-drummer configuration, the sheer number of drum kits made it necessary for Gavin to lead with coherent strategies and arrangements. By the end of the latest Crimson run, I found the 3-drummer combination incredibly successful. Bravo!
Touch guitars seem to be a solution in search of a problem. The players who have mastered them can play anything. It's a guitar! It's a bass! All at the same time! If it replaces one of those functions in a band, the player ends up using only half of the instrument. And if the virtuoso plays all the guitar and bass parts together, there's not much point to being in more than a duo, because at least they can't Bogart the drum parts.
In the early days of Crimson and Peter Gabriel, Tony seemed to be using the Chapman Stick for a different sonic quality than the bass. His Stick had a thumping, percussive sound that was distinct from his bass playing and brought a different atmosphere to the songs on which he used it. Other multi-hand parts he played on the Stick evoked keyboard sounds in the ballpark of the clavinet and harpsichord, not strict emulation of the guitar or conventional bass.
Trey and several other players in the Crimson orbit can play anything on touch guitar and make it sound exactly like a guitar or bass. Trey in particular is a very lyrical soloist. (Having his solo erased from "The Deception Of The Thrush" to create "The Power To Believe III" must not have set well.) But in Crimson he was relegated to me-too guitar parts in the Double Trio and strictly-functional-bass in the Double Duo. At least he got his revenge by making Tony play his fiendishly inventive bottom-part for "The ConstruKction Of Light" in later formations.
I wish touch guitarists luck though. As I said to a Stick player after his performance in the backing band of the Blue Man Group in Chicago, there are really only 3 touch guitar gigs: Blue Man Group, Cirque Du Soleil, and King Crimson.
Written by Christian Vaughan
30 August, 2024
Stormy 5K
Good luck in the Park Run tomorrow, Alex. We want photographic evidence of you crossing the line, please :)
Alex Mundy replied:
Dear Christian, Sadly no photo evidence, BUT, I did get my PB, at 23.47! (60-64 year age group) very much inspired by Peter Giles' excellent performance.
I recently added volumes 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11 to my collection, and I must say, each album is like a little treasure trove of surprises. Every one of them features a delightful mix of tunes, some of which are absolute gems, while others are genuinely cherishable. Integrating these into my KC collection felt akin to being a child in a toy shop—utterly thrilled with each discovery. These albums are not just music; they're an eclectic assortment of auditory delights that keep giving. Highly recomme...
I recently added volumes 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11 to my collection, and I must say, each album is like a little treasure trove of surprises. Every one of them features a delightful mix of tunes, some of which are absolute gems, while others are genuinely cherishable. Integrating these into my KC collection felt akin to being a child in a toy shop—utterly thrilled with each discovery. These albums are not just music; they're an eclectic assortment of auditory delights that keep giving. Highly recommended for anyone looking to add some variety and excitement to their music library.
This isn't The Casino or Krim with Wetton-Cross-Bruford, but it's Asbury Park nevertheless, and what a LoG show! The sound quality is quite good, and I strongly recommend these renditions of "Ooh Mr. Fripp" and "Farewell Johnny Brill". Oh, and I'd also like to comment about the opening bars of the show - Barry fell out of step, but the result is interesting, a different shade of "Inductive"!
"If you only buy one show from this run of gigs then this is one to go for."
Yes, it's a great recording, to the point that it was included on disc 17 of the Exposures boxed set, one of only two shows to receive the treatment. Despite the broken string must have affected the middle section of "Dislocated" on the main set, Robert still didn't play too much when the number was reprised at the encores. And speaking of encores, if the first show of the night included a rare "Trap", this one has an extra "Heptaparaparshinokh". It is a great example of the LoG in full flight, ...
Yes, it's a great recording, to the point that it was included on disc 17 of the Exposures boxed set, one of only two shows to receive the treatment. Despite the broken string must have affected the middle section of "Dislocated" on the main set, Robert still didn't play too much when the number was reprised at the encores. And speaking of encores, if the first show of the night included a rare "Trap", this one has an extra "Heptaparaparshinokh". It is a great example of the LoG in full flight, and the CD edition adds rehearsal versions of "Disengage" and "The zero of the signified", which can be found elsewhere on the website. Make sure you check them out too!!
