King Crimson - USA & Thrak

King Crimson
USA (originally released on EG in 1974) Virgin/DGM 2002
Thrak (original release on DGM in 1994) Virgin/DGM 2002

Personnel for USA:
Robert Fripp - Guitar and Mellotron
David Cross - Violin and Keyboards
John Wetton - Bass and Voices
Bill Bruford - Percussives
Remix assistance: Eddie Jobson - Violin on 'Larks Tongue' & 'Schitzoid Man' and piano on 'Lament'
Production:
King Crimson


Personnel for Thrak:
Robert Fripp - Guitar, Soundscapes, Mellotron
Adrian Belew - Guitar, Voice, Words
Bill Bruford - Acoustic & Electronic Percussions
Pat Mastelloto - Acoustic & Electronic Percussions
Tony Levin - Upright & Electric Basses, Backing Vocals
Trey Gunn - Stick, Backing Vocals

Production:
King Crimson and David Bottrill

So in an impulse of expression of buying power I purchase the new re-releases of two very distinct King Crimson albums, almost 2 decades apart to the month. Thrak was the first full release of what was arguably the best and most potent KC lineup in its 30 year history (a power-sextet that became a quartet with the departure of Bruford and Levin in 2000), with a sound that seemed to consolidate their past and expand outwards. USA was a controversial release for the band, seeing as KC leader Fripp disowned the album shortly after release and lambasted it as poor quality until having a chance to rexamine and remaster the tapes (not to mention do some remix/'touch-up' work with Eddie Jobson) turning it into a lost gem. Both disks feature new packaging and added material which makes th epurchase extra sweet.

USA is a lots gem which finally gets its proper cd release, with an amazing change in quality from the admittedly muddy sound from the original vinyl. The quartet featured was one that actually lasted several years (a heretofore unknown feat in KC, which had a turnover that even gave Yes pause), but eventually gave out to the harder sounds of Red, when Cross left and the remaining trio engaged in some of its most apocalyptic angular destruction. This line-up however, was not a slouch; dynamic, varied, and slightly less improvisational, KC in 1974 has a muscular rhythm section in Bruford and Wetton. Gone was Brufords delicate touch and Wettons basic bass-playing, in was cacophonic bursts of beats and thumping filthy distorted bass that could transition at a moments notice to fluid jazzy shuffles. David Cross had finally more space to add textures with his keyboard work, and build some stunning violin+guitar interplay with Fripp, making for swirling changes of tones that veered from soft pastoral (incredibly English) washes to racing middle-eastern influenced figures.

There is no filler on this live set, with the possible exception of the overly -fluffy intro Walk On...No Pussyfooting, an ambient ditty written by Fripp and Brian Eno (which by itself would be quite good if not for the fact that it seems utterly removed from the rest of the release). From there one is immediately smacked upside the head with Larks' Tongue in Aspic Part II and quickly marathons through brillinat renditions of Lament, Exiles, Easy Money, a cyclonic 21st Century Schitzoid Man and eventually goes out with a somber Starless as the last notes go to applause. Wetton's voice is in good form (at least by Wettonian standards) and if nothing else, unlike the last 2 decades of KC output with a dual guitar assault, this is all Fripp, all the time. He plays with a crystalline clarity and drunken abandon that cuts across anything in its path.

Thrak was an unusual reunion; it didn't suck mighty amounts of ass. In a decade when you saw all manner of 70s and 80s relics doing nostalgia tours or trying to resucustate their careers by poorly gluing their former selves to the new trends with little in the way of coherence or listenability..KC comes out and does what it hs always done - been itself. They helped birth the art-rock genre, but arguably are one of the only ones practicing it, as most others either went the way of pop fluffery (Genesis) or gutted themselves sonically (the post-Rabin Yes comes to mind). KC came back with an expanded line-up, an expanded sound palette, and a mission to do music that in Fripps words "only King Crimson can do". Bands like Tool and Radiohead worship at the alter of KC not only because of their sound, but because of their singular committment to themselves and nothing else. Tool has gone so far as to bring KC on tour with them and use David Bottrill as their producer, and it shows in their growing sound.

KC truly were progressive with this release, with a range that starts at pummelling sheets of distortion and sonic rust reeling into soft ambient passages and eventually little art-pop excursions like People which marries Adrian Belews Beatles fetish with more avant forms of songsmithing...Adrian sings like a nasal David Byrne impersonating John Lennon during puberty, but somehow it still ends up sounding good, particulatly on the aforementioned People and on the scuttling Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream. There is nothing on this album that speaks of sitting on laurels, but a resolve to take what had been done before, collapsing it on itself and then pushing that mass of sound outward to its logical extreme. It is an acquired taste (unlike Tool and Radiohead, KC are far more non-mainstream than their growing public presence would suggest) with their atomic cocktail of Police-era power pop, avalanches of odd-time funk, neurotic instrumental segues and delusional dada lyrics (that is when they have lyrics...most of the tracks on Thrak are instrumental).

Of note is the dual everything attack:
Belew's freeform stunt guitar coupled with the cheerful insanity of Fripp's tidal waves of structured noise. Bruford's aymmetrical percussion blasts held together with Mastelloto's back-beat desperately keeping up, and the multi-stringed weirdness of Gunn and Levin, sometimes both weilding the 10-12 string hybrid instrument Chapman Stick, sometimes going into odd mixes of Stick and upright or electric bass with the result being a rubbery thump and a low end that is both distinct yet a thrumming undertow throughout the proceedings.