King Crimson and Islands got a special namecheck and shoutout on BBC6 Music yesterday. The station’s output had been given over to The Unthanks, whose latest album, Mount the Air, has attracted widespread critical acclaim.
Adrian McNally, pianist with the group introduced the track: “This next piece, alongside Sketches Of Spain by Miles Davis and Gil Evans, has had more influence on me as an arranger and producer than any other, and also reveals the source of inspiration of our use of trumpet in The Unthanks. For most of my adult life this piece has been just a distant memory from childhood. I wasn’t even sure who it was by until I looked it up again recently.
All I could remember was the feeling it gave me, and now I realise that my limited armoury of tricks that relate to the impact of scale on the power and intimacy of music were all subconsciously learnt from this one piece. As an adult I can see its flaws but the best prog is full of flaws because the best prog was pushing boundaries, and if you’re pushing boundaries and not getting it wrong half the time, you’re not pushing hard enough. This is Islands by King Crimson...”
The programme then goes on to play the full track with Adrian adding afterwards, “Before we get any King Crimson aficionados regarding my comment about trumpet on that track, that was Mark Charig playing the cornet not the trumpet but did inspire us to use trumpet in The Unthanks which we’ve gone on to do.” You can listen to the whole show here with the King Crimson section starting at around 01.09.34.
The band have previously covered Starless by King Crimson on their 2011 album, Last. You can read my take on the record over on the blog.
Adrian McNally, pianist with the group introduced the track: “This next piece, alongside Sketches Of Spain by Miles Davis and Gil Evans, has had more influence on me as an arranger and producer than any other, and also reveals the source of inspiration of our use of trumpet in The Unthanks. For most of my adult life this piece has been just a distant memory from childhood. I wasn’t even sure who it was by until I looked it up again recently.
All I could remember was the feeling it gave me, and now I realise that my limited armoury of tricks that relate to the impact of scale on the power and intimacy of music were all subconsciously learnt from this one piece. As an adult I can see its flaws but the best prog is full of flaws because the best prog was pushing boundaries, and if you’re pushing boundaries and not getting it wrong half the time, you’re not pushing hard enough. This is Islands by King Crimson...”
The programme then goes on to play the full track with Adrian adding afterwards, “Before we get any King Crimson aficionados regarding my comment about trumpet on that track, that was Mark Charig playing the cornet not the trumpet but did inspire us to use trumpet in The Unthanks which we’ve gone on to do.” You can listen to the whole show here with the King Crimson section starting at around 01.09.34.
The band have previously covered Starless by King Crimson on their 2011 album, Last. You can read my take on the record over on the blog.
