It’s May 1981 and Robert Fripp has just sat down with his headphones on and guitar at the ready. It’s his first pass at a solo for the ballad Matte Kudasai. He nods and the engineer presses record. 31 years later we get a ringside seat on Fripp’s prodigious sustain technique and for those so inclined, a ticket to bliss.
This track is available as part of Mr Stormy's next bumper collection. His fourth year of treasures from the murky, cavernous DGM archives, torch in hand, fedora upon his head is now available for download.
This track was one of Stormy's Monday selections. It is currently unavailable, but will be part of his next bumper collection. His fourth year of treasures from the murky, cavernous DGM archives, torch in hand, fedora upon his head is now available for download.
It’s May 1981 and Robert Fripp has just sat down with his headphones on and guitar a...
This is the essence of Robert Fripp’s Guitar Work, for me, at least. The interlocking stuff, the complex-timed constructions, the Soundscapes, I wait (and sometimes suffer) through all of that to get the smidgen of this. Solos like the "Hammond Song", like "St. Elmo’s Fire"-A sui generis tone, playing melodies not based in the blues, but having just as much emotion. The few notes of "Heroes" says more than all the notes of all the shredders together. A reviewer once wrote "Withering" an...
This is the essence of Robert Fripp’s Guitar Work, for me, at least. The interlocking stuff, the complex-timed constructions, the Soundscapes, I wait (and sometimes suffer) through all of that to get the smidgen of this. Solos like the "Hammond Song", like "St. Elmo’s Fire"-A sui generis tone, playing melodies not based in the blues, but having just as much emotion. The few notes of "Heroes" says more than all the notes of all the shredders together. A reviewer once wrote "Withering" and I couldn’t agree more.I often wanted to attend a Guitar Craft course, just for the chance to ask RF a "burning question" -"Why are you so parsimonious with these gems?" The Frippertronics shows of yore were rich with the melodic solos, but they really shine as part of a song. A fantasy of mine would put RF in a studio with Art Garfunkel or Aaron Neville, a piano trio (preferably Larry Goldings) and new songs by people who know better. Produced "audio verité" style. That guitar with those voices, in that setting. Traditional and cutting edge simultaneously. And I’ll bet that record would shift a few units as well.But I digress...I do not mean to dismiss the larger portion of RF’s work, but the "Gamelan Guitars" start to sound like The Hanon and Czerny exercises I had to endure as a student. The Soundscapes remind me of Tangerine Dream and Eno’s ambient stuff. The aleatoric-ish Crim tunes sometimes sound like they are dense and difficult for their own sake. I continue to buy Crim and Fripp-related music because I am assured that there will always be something that will interest me therein, and there is always a chance that there will be some sort of Fripp melodic moment contained.2¢ deposited, Soapbox collapsed. And if anyone has Art or Aaron’s phone number, pass it over to RF-I have Larry’s...
Written by Tim Gainer
AH...THAT SOUND!
If there is such a thing as a perfect electric guitar sound, it has to be that of Fripp’s sustained overdrive. Love it....just plain love it.
Written by Ian Sturgess
Presumably it was Record that the engineer hit!Ha - absolutely Ian! Sid
