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Iucounu posted:If you get one thing from 80s Crim, get Absent Lovers. It's insanely good. I'll probably just get it all based on these recommendations. I found a copy of Beat once but the cover gave me the impression that it was going to be some terrible 80s synthpop or something so I skipped it. Oh well.
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Dec 19, 2012 07:11
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Agree with Absent Lovers. King Crimson live is not a thing to be ignored. Other good live albums from the Crim: USA - Wetton era live album VROOM VROOM - Thrak lineup live album The Deception of the Thrush - ProjeKcts live album, all instrumental jams Epitaph - Greg Lake era live album Ladies of the Road - Islands Lineup live album, much better than Earthbound The Great Deceiver - Wetton era live box set, a lot more jamming than USA Heavy Construction - 2000 era Live album EleKtrik: Live in Japan - 2003 era Live album
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Dec 19, 2012 07:55
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From what I've heard Adrian Belew's solo albums are usually better than the concurrent solo material. Come to think of it I don't really like any of Fripp's contributions to King Crimson from Beat to ConstruKction of Light. Belew pretty much singlehandedly turns THRAK into something worthwhile. As far as live sets go I still maintain Absent Lovers is the best one but the first disc of VROOOM VROOOM (from the double trio in 1996, right before they split up) is almost as good.
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Dec 19, 2012 20:51
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The Great Deceiver Box Set is amazing. It was my introduction to King Crimson (my local library, of all places, had it). It really showcases the peak musical ability of that lineup. It's got some of the best solos Fripp ever played, and We'll Let You Know and Providence were put on the albums Starless And Bible Black and Red, respectively. If you haven't yet, go to their website, dgmlive.com, and check out the authorized bootlegs, taken from their soundboard. Their set from Nagoya, Japan, April 20, 2003 is amazing - possibly the best Pat Mastelotto has ever played. Live in Udine, March 19, 1974 is also spectacular. It has my favorite version of Doctor Diamond, and a Wetton piece called Guts On My Side that is a...fun song. "Fun" being a term I never thought I'd use to describe King Crimson.
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Dec 20, 2012 01:11
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Just got a note in my email from Bass Player magazine that apparently Yes will be playing through some of their classic albums on tour: "This year’s Bass Player Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Chris Squire will be hitting the road with Yes in 2013 to perform the band’s The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going For the One albums in their entirety. YES, indeed!" http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/yes-to-perform-three-classic-albums-each-night-on-2013-tour/150148 I haven't been to a concert in a while, so I think I'm going to go out of my way to see this. Also, thanks to this thread I was also able to pick up a few more Genesis albums (Selling England By The Pound and A Trick Of The Tail). It was getting kind of boring listening to the same three albums all the time. The iTunes version of Trick of the Tail also has a video with interviews with Phil, Steve, Tony, and Mike about making things work after Peter left...it's pretty cool! I also picked up "Moving Waves," by Focus - not sure if they're considered prog or not, but it's a great album. Also got Aqualung and Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull. I did grab the self-titled ELP album, but I disliked seeing that it came with a bunch of redundant "alternate take" tracks. I'm not a fan of this, as the takes really don't seem to have that much to differentiate them and listening to the same songs repeatedly is boring. Still a great album though!
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Dec 24, 2012 18:21
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Moving Waves was my first cd. Bought it in 1989 when it first came out on cd. I was 9 years old. It still gets regular rotation from me, and was my gateway into all things prog.
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Dec 25, 2012 03:06
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Santa (at least that's what the label on my present said) brought me the big Lark's Tongues boxed set. I just heard the remaster itself, and it sounds waaaaaaaaay clearer than before. All the muddiness is gone. This will be a Larks' Tongues day. Only 14 CDs to go.
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Dec 25, 2012 19:27
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Mithra6 posted:Santa (at least that's what the label on my present said) brought me the big Lark's Tongues boxed set. I just heard the remaster itself, and it sounds waaaaaaaaay clearer than before. All the muddiness is gone. Jesus, a 15 CD box set of one single LP? These box sets are getting ridiculously excessive.
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Dec 26, 2012 21:00
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Gianthogweed posted:Jesus, a 15 CD box set of one single LP? These box sets are getting ridiculously excessive. What, you don't want to hear every take of every session ever laid to tape?
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Dec 26, 2012 21:46
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Gianthogweed posted:Jesus, a 15 CD box set of one single LP? These box sets are getting ridiculously excessive. Well.... excessive to some! It has the new mix, the previous remaster, outtakes, DVDs of performances, and about 9 or so live recordings from the period. As a diehard Crimson fan, I've always wanted to hear most of this, and LTIA is probably my favorite album.
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Dec 27, 2012 01:06
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Seventh Arrow posted:Just got a note in my email from Bass Player magazine that apparently Yes will be playing through some of their classic albums on tour: I wouldn't get too excited about this. Based on all the footage I've seen of them from 2003 onward, they can't play the classic stuff anymore. Chris and Alan just can't play anything to speed anymore, so they slow it down to half the speed it was on the record, and it becomes boring.
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Dec 27, 2012 23:06
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Prog Doctor posted:I wouldn't get too excited about this. Based on all the footage I've seen of them from 2003 onward, they can't play the classic stuff anymore. Chris and Alan just can't play anything to speed anymore, so they slow it down to half the speed it was on the record, and it becomes boring. Yeah look at this version of "Close to the Edge": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwHnbN5eysc
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Dec 28, 2012 00:16
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Mithra6 posted:Yeah look at this version of "Close to the Edge": To be fair, CTTE hasn't been played up to speed since the 70s. Even on An Evening of Yes Music Plus you can definitely hear how much they slowed down the intro, and that was with Bruford on the drums. That recording has Jeff Berlin on bass though, and not Tony Levin. I'm not sure if the Tony Levin version is any faster. Still, this is the slowest I've heard them play it yet. edit: Actually, after watching the 1990 ABWH video of CTTE, I guess they were playing it up to speed during the ABWH tour. It is slower than the way they used to play it live. The 1973 and 1975 versions are frantic as all hell. But this version does match the speed of the record at least. I've seen Yes three times. The first time was in 2000 for the Masterworks tour, then in 2001 for the symphonic tour, and finally in 2004 for the 35th anniversary tour. The symphonic concert was probably the best one I've seen. They still had the energy and the orchestra really did add a new layer of awesomeness to the music. 2004 was probably the worst, despite the return if Rick Wakeman. They definitely had lost a lot of their energy by this point and the slow down was starting to become really noticeable. I'm not sure if it's just because they're old men now, or if it's just that they don't practice as much as they used to. It's probably a combination of the two, but it is a letdown to listen to an awesome live album like Yessongs, which is probably my favorite live album of all time, and then hear them perform today. They sound like two completely different bands. One amazing, and one average at best. Gianthogweed fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 00:42
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Wow, that 2011 video is pretty drat bad. Not jut the slowdown and the lack of energy but it's pretty sloppy and the vocals and harmonies are hit-and-miss at best. Steve Howe is still fun to watch, though...he looks like The Mad Scientist Of Prog. The keyboardist (Wakeman Jr., I guess?) is pretty good.
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Dec 28, 2012 01:06
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Seventh Arrow posted:Wow, that 2011 video is pretty drat bad. Not jut the slowdown and the lack of energy but it's pretty sloppy and the vocals and harmonies are hit-and-miss at best. Steve Howe is still fun to watch, though...he looks like The Mad Scientist Of Prog. The keyboardist (Wakeman Jr., I guess?) is pretty good. It was their worst tour yet, I think. Hopefully, it was a wake-up call for them and they've been practicing more and will be able pull it together for that 3 album tour, but I'm not holding my breath. Still, from the sounds of it, Jon Davison sounds much better than Benoit David, and overall they sounded much better in 2012 than they did in 2011. But they haven't attempted CTTE since 2011, and I'd rather they not attempt it at all if they can't pull it off. Benoit David is a good singer, but he didn't have the stamina to sing like Jon Anderson for a sustained tour. Anderson's voice has deteriorated with age too, but his voice is better trained and better suited for this type of music (especially since he wrote most of the vocal parts). He also has a charisma that these younger imitators don't have. Oliver Wakeman is great, it's obvious he has some of his father's talents, but he doesn't have the charisma either. Gianthogweed fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 01:50
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As a huge Yes fan, I like to pretend they broke up after the 2004 tour.
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Dec 28, 2012 02:31
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Iucounu posted:As a huge Yes fan, I like to pretend they broke up after the 2004 tour. This thread has gotten me listening to a lot of their 2012 youtube videos. A lot of it is quite good, some of it great even, definitely much better than their 2011 stuff. I might just check them out next year after all. Gianthogweed fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 02:48
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I'm kind of funny with the oldies. I think a lot of these bands had their heyday and seeing them now is just depressing. Even if they can still play their music it still isn't the same. I think King Crimson is an exception because they've changed so much, it's like seeing a new band each time.
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Dec 28, 2012 03:28
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Mithra6 posted:I'm kind of funny with the oldies. I think a lot of these bands had their heyday and seeing them now is just depressing. Even if they can still play their music it still isn't the same. I don't mind a bit of nostalgia, as long as they can still put on a great show. At least Yes is still trying to do this. They had a new album out last year that wasn't half bad and they've been playing a significant chunk of it in their shows. King Crimson hasn't had an album in almost 10 years, and I doubt there will be another since Fripp announced his retirement. But yes, I agree, King Crimson was more consistent with the quality of their output and never had nearly as bad a year as Yes did in 2011.
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Dec 28, 2012 03:45
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Gianthogweed posted:I don't mind a bit of nostalgia, as long as they can still put on a great show. At least Yes is still trying to do this. They had a new album out last year that wasn't half bad and they've been playing a significant chunk of it in their shows. King Crimson hasn't had an album in almost 10 years, and I doubt there will be another since Fripp announced his retirement. But yes, I agree, King Crimson was more consistent with the quality of their output and never had nearly as bad a year as Yes did in 2011. Actually, they released an album last year.
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Dec 28, 2012 22:37
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I wasn't aware of this. Although, from the look of it, I'm not sure Fripp was ready to call this a King Crimson album proper, but one of the projeKcts, which can be thought of as KC albums if one chooses to. How is it? Gianthogweed fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 23:25
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Gianthogweed posted:I wasn't aware of this. Although, from the look of it, I'm not sure Fripp was ready to call this a King Crimson album proper, but one of the projeKcts, which can be thought of as KC albums if one chooses to. How is it? Reminds me of the better part of Islands. I still haven't listened to a lot of King Crimson's late work so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. It's a pretty good album, but from what I've heard about Power To Believe I'm led to think that this is far from that.
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Dec 28, 2012 23:37
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iamathousandapples posted:Reminds me of the better part of Islands. I still haven't listened to a lot of King Crimson's late work so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. It's a pretty good album, but from what I've heard about Power To Believe I'm led to think that this is far from that. Listening to the title track on youtube. It's pleasant sounding, but so far not very interesting. I wouldn't compare it to Islands though. There was kind of an acid trippy weird undercurrent throughout that album. In fact, all of their albums had a deeply unsettling undercurrent running through them. This song doesn't have that, but I'll have to hear the rest of the album to judge it correctly.
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Dec 28, 2012 23:54
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Scarcity of Miracles is a weird album to me. I feel like if I sit there and analyze each piece everything is pretty great. The singing is good. The guitar playing is pretty fantastic. The sax stuff is good. Drumming is fine. The song writing, even, isn't too shabby. It should be a good album. But, I find that it all doesn't come together for me somehow. It's like the combination of those pieces is less as a whole. I can't really explain it.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:10
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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RDreamer posted:It's like the combination of those pieces is less as a whole. This is honestly how I've felt about King Crimson since the end of the double-trio. It seems like, with few exceptions, their chemistry just evaporated. Fripp released what is in many ways his best solo work with The Gates of Paradise in 1998, and the Power Trio shows Adrian Belew as strong and imaginative as ever, but smush them together in King Crimson and you get uninspired crap like Facts of Life, Happy With What You Have to be Happy With, and 3/4 of The ConstruKction of Light. I actually haven't listened to A Scarcity of Miracles yet, but the samples I've heard sound like elevator jazz, and I've just been putting it off.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:54
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Rollersnake posted:This is honestly how I've felt about King Crimson since the end of the double-trio. It seems like, with few exceptions, their chemistry just evaporated. Fripp released what is in many ways his best solo work with The Gates of Paradise in 1998, and the Power Trio shows Adrian Belew as strong and imaginative as ever, but smush them together in King Crimson and you get uninspired crap like Facts of Life, Happy With What You Have to be Happy With, and 3/4 of The ConstruKction of Light. My problem with some of the things you've mentioned is Adrian Belew. I think the overall writing on The Power to Believe and most of TCOL is pretty good, but sometimes Belew just annoys me. He has ever since Discipline. His goofy lyrics and goofy delivery just gets to me at times. That said, I think I'd still rather listen to Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair than Scarcity of Miracles. Rollersnake posted:I actually haven't listened to A Scarcity of Miracles yet, but the samples I've heard sound like elevator jazz, and I've just been putting it off. That's definitely the surface impression it gives, and I think its big problem is that it can never really seem to shake that, at least in my own mind. If you do get a chance to listen to it, concentrate on the guitar work. Fripp does some great stuff in there. On the subject of KC, anyone know when the rest of the 5.1 remasters are coming out? I'm pretty excited to keep going on my collection, and I'm interested to hear Beat and ToaPP. And even though I started collecting because SW was redoing them, and didn't originally intend to buy any remastering of Thrak, I think I'll continue the collection through whoever (I think Jakko?) does the rest of 'em.
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Dec 30, 2012 17:39
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Rollersnake posted:sound like elevator jazz That's pretty much exactly what it is. I listened to it twice after buying it, and was so bored with it that I just donated it to my local library. I was really disappointed that the union of such great musicians produced something so piddly. I can agree with some of the griping about Adrian. My biggest gripe with him, though, is that he won't play any pre-discipline stuff if it isn't instrumental, because he didn't originally sing on it. KC could be doing so much more, but Adrian is just road block. Get rid of him, let him focus on his power trio, and replace him with someone who will let them dive deep into the back catalog!
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Dec 31, 2012 00:01
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Prog Doctor posted:KC could be doing so much more, but Adrian is just road block. Get rid of him, let him focus on his power trio, and replace him with someone who will let them dive deep into the back catalog! Except it's never sounded like Fripp has wanted to play anything from back then, either, and even if KC is "a way of doing things" and not a band, there's not going to be anything coming out that says KC and not Projekct without him.
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Dec 31, 2012 02:46
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That's more of a Fripp thing I think. Notice in their last major tour, they didn't play much from THRAK either. I think Fripp doesn't want to play things that were written by different musicians, or (in the case of THRAK) where half the band is missing. KC also didn't play much from their first four albums during the Wetton period except for the few case of 21st Century Schizoid Man.
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Dec 31, 2012 03:06
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Mithra6 posted:That's more of a Fripp thing I think. Notice in their last major tour, they didn't play much from THRAK either. They also did Cat Food with Wetton, though I have no idea if that was a one-time thing or not. I'm pretty sure the only time they ever played that live was with Wetton. I too found Belew's lyrics/vocals grating at first, but aside from the most egregious examples, I find his corniness charming more often than not. There is nothing in his solo career as bad as some of the material on The ConstruKction of Light, which I feel points to a problem with the band as a whole rather than any one member. King Crimson was holding King Crimson back, and it's just as well that it ceased to exist before those involved embarrassed themselves further. (That's not to say I hate later Crimson—I just think the last two albums were extremely inconsistent, broke very little new ground, and generally didn't live up to the promise of the ProjeKcts.) Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Dec 31, 2012 |
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Dec 31, 2012 03:38
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What's so bad about The ConstruKction of Light? I just listened to it again today, and I enjoyed it. The one song that stuck out was ProzaKc Blues, but most Belew albums have weird songs that stick out as kind of irksome (Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With and Facts of Life for instance).
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Dec 31, 2012 03:57
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Allen Wren posted:Except it's never sounded like Fripp has wanted to play anything from back then, either, and even if KC is "a way of doing things" and not a band, there's not going to be anything coming out that says KC and not Projekct without him. Of course there won't be any KC without Fripp. The reason I said that it was Adrian keeping them from playing older songs was a saw a Fripp interview last year wherein Fripp explicitly stated he'd like to bust out the older material (if I remember correctly, he explicitly mentioned "something like Lizard"), but the present band was preventing that from happening... But I can't seem to find it. I think a link to it was on the DGM website, but I don't much feel like weeding through all the posts for the last 22 months to try and find it.
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Dec 31, 2012 04:45
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Hence the most recent Projekct. That makes sense. Of course it's all moot since Fripp has said he's done with music, but whatevs.
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Dec 31, 2012 06:43
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RDreamer posted:What's so bad about The ConstruKction of Light? I just listened to it again today, and I enjoyed it. The one song that stuck out was ProzaKc Blues, but most Belew albums have weird songs that stick out as kind of irksome (Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With and Facts of Life for instance). ProzaKc Blues is almost a good track, I think, but the pitch-shifting was totally unnecessary, and the lyrics reek of a Fear of a Blank Planet sort of old fogeyness. The title track feels kinda sloppy and "undercooked" compared to the different arrangement they started playing on the Level Five tour. The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum is an undoubtedly fun wordplay exercise that makes for a poo poo song. Actually includes the phrase "gettin' jiggy with it." And even aside from the lyrics, it's just a really monotonous, overlong jam. Larks' Tongues in Aspic part IV is mostly a dull retread of older King Crimson themes, the one interesting part is also in FraKctured and works better there, and the coda features some of the most cringingly overwrought lyrics Adrian Belew ever penned. Heaven and Earth is really the only track I genuinely love with no reservations, and it's a bonus track. What the gently caress was up with their priorities?
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Dec 31, 2012 07:22
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Allen Wren posted:Hence the most recent Projekct. That makes sense. Having talked to Pat, Tony and Ade at length about KC in the last 2 summers, the answer has been 'Robert'. Fripp has indicated he's hung up the guitar to focus on the legal aspects of recovering money from their old labels. At least that's what the other 3 members say publicly.
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Dec 31, 2012 15:21
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Rollersnake posted:ProzaKc Blues is almost a good track, I think, but the pitch-shifting was totally unnecessary, and the lyrics reek of a Fear of a Blank Planet sort of old fogeyness. Ah, yeah, it's certainly not an album I'd give a ton of awards to in comparison to other KC works, but I do still enjoy it. I also still think it sucks that it likely won't be getting the complete remaster and re-release treatment all the other ones are (It'll be out of place in my collection...) Rust Martialis posted:Having talked to Pat, Tony and Ade at length about KC in the last 2 summers, the answer has been 'Robert'. Fripp has indicated he's hung up the guitar to focus on the legal aspects of recovering money from their old labels. At least that's what the other 3 members say publicly. That's kind of sad that a guy who emphasizes music for music's sake would have to spend the rest of his days recovering money. Also kind of sad that his last album would be Scarcity. I guess at least KC went out decently and The Power to Believe was good.
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Dec 31, 2012 16:17
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Rick Wakeman approached Fripp recently and told him that if Fripp reformed King Crimson, and announced they would perform "In The Court of the Crimson King" in its entirety, it would sell out the O2, and that Wakeman would be the first in line (queue) for tickets. Fripp stated he simply wasn't interested. He's never been interested in the past. I'm one of the few that actually loved Scarcity of Miracles, and was sad that the tour of Spain with that lineup didn't happen. You KNOW they would've played more than just that album. And with Jakko from the 21st Century Schizoid Band, Mel Collins, Tony Levin, and Gavin Harrison, it would still kick rear end no matter what they played. Belew has been with Crimson longer than I would've liked. He was perfect for the 80's, and I was fortunate to have seen the double trio back in 1995. It was my second time seeing Bruford after the Yes Union tour, and had no desire to see Yes without him. I know Fripp doesn't want to be anything like the current Yes. After watching the Classic Artists dvd interviews, the old lighting man for Yes, Michael Tait, didn't even think the idea of their 2003 arena tour with the Roger Dean setup was a good idea. But with the current lineup he must be in tears.
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Dec 31, 2012 20:48
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Steven Wilson HQ.com posted:The [2013 tour] will incorporate several new visual elements / films, and the new album will be performed in its entirety. In addition an early Porcupine Tree song will be included in the setlist, dating from the years when PT was still Steven’s solo project. SO keen to hear Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape is being reissued. There are some real gems on that release and it's WAY too expensive to justify buying at present (especially with all the bootleg versions around). Still disappointed that he isn't coming to Australia again, but this eases the blow a bit.
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Jan 7, 2013 14:14
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So I've been going through the recommendations given me in this thread and I've picked up "Stained Glass Stories" by Cathedral - what a great album! I'm really digging it so far, I like the aggressiveness of the rhythm section. Being a bass player myself, I always like hearing cool bass guitar sounds and this guy has a nice just-overdriven-enough tone, sounds like it could be a Rickenbacker. I did a bit of digging and apparently they only recorded that one album. Well, until recently that is - seems like they eventually got back together and did at least one more album and have a Myspace page going. It's difficult to look for stuff on them though, because there's apparently a metal band named "Cathedral" as well. Also, apparently Chris Squire and Steve Hackett have formed a band. They've decided to call themselves..."Squackett"  Only in prog, ladies and gentlemen. Anyways, I picked up their album, "A Life In A Day" and it's not too bad. It's a bit bland in places but overall the songwriting seems fairly solid. Anyone else give it a listen?
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Jan 10, 2013 23:19
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david puddy posted:SO keen to hear Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape is being reissued. There are some real gems on that release and it's WAY too expensive to justify buying at present (especially with all the bootleg versions around). Still disappointed that he isn't coming to Australia again, but this eases the blow a bit. Yeah, I'm happy about the YHD reissue, too. I really liked the stuff on there. I've got it on vinyl, but never managed to get it on CD. As you said, the bootlegs make it even tougher to buy. Also curious to see which track they play live.
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Jan 11, 2013 02:23
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