Despite the very best efforts to bring this audience recording back to our world from the sonic limbo in which it has hovered somewhere between life and death, this is a difficult listen. Even under all that murk and muck, there are several highlights still discernible.
No matter how many versions of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part One that one hears from this period, the speed at which the group takes the hairpin bends of the tune is just phenomenal. The velocity is highlighted by the precipitous contrast as they drop into the violin section.
Fracture is an absolute barnstormer and includes a moment where the Crims get so excited one half keeps going after the other half stops and then they all rush back to put it all together in the nick of time. Exhilarating stuff.
The first improvisation of the night has a kind of We’ll Let You Know vibe to it in the early stages. At around the ten-minute mark, after sustaining a funk-driven groove of increasing intensity, they all come to a dead stop. Even what follows, moving into more atmospheric territory, manages to command interest despite the dodgy audio.
Had this show been professionally recorded with engineer George Chkiantz there’s no doubt a substantial section of this improv would have appeared on the Starless And Bible album. Utterly breathtaking, it’s a fine example of the Crims at their improvising best.
