RePost: Return to the Court of the Crimson King
Apparently, this never got published. I sort of wondered…
Howdy, Valentine Wolfe fans. today, I’m going to review a classic album, make some confessions, and provide all kinds of new links. So, strap in-should be fun.
I greeted the news of the release of the 4oth anniversary edition of King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King with a decided shrug and a meh, which soem may find odd (including yours truly), considering Crimson is my all time favorite band, ever.
And now, the confession. I never really liked ITCOTKC all that much, and indeed, the early phase of Crimson sort of left me cold-once Bill Bruford joined the band, I was more satisfied as a listener, and once Adrian Belew joined, I was even more enthused, and the work of the double trio and the transition to the double duo approach sonic perfection for my ears and tastes. In short, I’m much more likely to have Power to Believe on my ipod at any moment than I am Lizards. In fact, I don’t even own In the Wake of Poseidon, being content with the material culled for the box set.
But when I read more about the new remixed version of Court, I was interested, if for no other reason than audio geekery: the original master tapes had been found, meaning no more doing the best you could with the submixes (ah the days of 8 track analog. So glad I wasn’t there. Give it to us cold and digital). The appearance of the new product on sale at my local record store made it an easy choice. I figure I’d but it, check it out, and shelve it…I’m a collector, and an enthusiast, but I generally find King Crimson’s most recent works the more compelling.
It would be hard to really explain how much better the music sounds now. Gone is the dry, cheesy, 70′s porno movie mix. The low ends snarls, warm, defined-and for the record, Greg Lake is a hell of a bassist, much better than I ever realized. The drums still sound a bit thin to my ear (more jazz kit/thin sounding than the huge sound I imagine with the music…I wondered several times during my first listen how much different the band would have sounded with say, John Bonham on drums), but overall, the new mix is superb. I cannot recommend the new version to KC fans enough, and if you think you’re so familiar with the album, you don’t need another copy, well…yes, you do. The connection between this band and the band that recorded Starless and Bible Black years later is MUCH more evident and obvious.
If you DON’T own a copy of ITCOFTCK (Shame, Shame!), don’t even wonder-this is the version you need. It also comes with a 5.1 surround dvd I’m looking forward to checking out-at the moment, since most of our mixes rely on stereo/mono mixes, 5.1 isn’t a huge priority for us, so we’re not really set up for that.
Sometimes, we must know when to abandon a work of art and call in finished. Sometimes, we must know when the time is right to revisit, revise, indeed improve. Bravo to Robert Fripp and Steve Wilson for doing all of the above and then some.
This is some of the best visual art I’ve seen since Dragon Con. Click and Enjoy.