King Crimson
Epitaph
Discipline Global Mobile
1997

      This is what all you middle-aged guys who get all misty-eyed when you remember the first time you heard In the Court of the Crimson King have been waiting for. Epitaph is two or four CDs (discs three and four are only available by mail order from Possible Productions or Discipline Global Mobile [see links page]) of live performances by "Crimso the Great," the original 1969 lineup of King Crimson. The performances include sessions from the BBC and live concerts from Filmore East, Filmore West, The Plumpton Festival and the Chesterfield Jazz Club. This provides a glimpse into how this Crimson performed in a variety of settings, and with widely varying crowd sizes. As with the Great Deceiver box set, which highlighted the 1973-74 lineup of the band, this is more than just a collection of CDs, it is a definitive statement on several aspects of the band's history at that point. Thus a discussion of more than just the music is in order.

The Package
      Unlike the two previous box sets released by King Crimson, this is not a large package with a huge book and four jewel cases containing CDs. This is a small cardboard box which is slightly larger than the typical CD jewel case. It folds open like a book to reveal four CDs in thin, individual cardboard envelopes and a thick, square booklet. I'm not sure what inspired this minimalist packaging, but if it was meant to keep costs down, (for Discipline and consumers) that is commendable. I just hope all this cardboard will last. The tiny booklet is already showing signs of wear from the first reading. You really have to stretch it open to read it comfortably.
      As usual, the booklet contains lots of interesting information and pictures. Also as usual, Robert Fripp takes the liberty of spouting on endlessly about everything from his torturous relationship with E.G. Records/Management to an essay about prog rock in which he affirms the generalization that "All Prog is appalling," and then claims that King Crimson is not prog rock! (More on that next issue!)
      One of the nicest things about the booklet is that all the members of the band, and even one of the roadies, get a couple of pages to say what they want to say about their memories of the band.
      Like I said before, this booklet is small and so is the type. Get out your reading glasses!

The Music
     These CDs feature a slightly different sounding 1969 King Crimson than what we are used to. In live situations they were more powerful and heavy, but alternately they were more jazzy too. I like the heavy part, but the jazzy aspect is tough for me to swallow sometimes. Songs like the unreleased "Travel Weary Capricorn" and the Donovan cover "Get Thy Bearings" (both of which appeared on the Frame by Frame box set) don't sound much like the King Crimson that I know at all. This jazziness, propelled largely by Ian McDonald's saxophone playing, also permeates several of the songs we know and love, which adds a welcome difference from the album versions simply because they are different.
      "A Man, A City" is one of the best examples of this difference. You probably know this song as "Pictures of a City" from In the Wake of Poseidon, the second King Crimson album. This song sounds rather different in the way it is performed. Most importantly is that there are several interesting "cliffhangers" where the band stops and starts (not always successfully) in unusual places.
      As for the other songs, some of them come off quite nicely. "In the Court of the Crimson King" is surprisingly successful, I thought this song relied heavily on overdubbing to create its effect, but it sounds quite full with the help of someone (I don't know who yet) contributing backup vocals. "Epitaph" is also a real winner. Its first appearance on this set is excellent. Fripp even plays acoustic guitar in the appropriate places. When was the last time he did that on stage with King Crimson? This song does suffer from the lack of Ian McDonald's overdubbed wind instruments in the middle section, but his delicate flute solo provides a nice stripped down version.
      There are a couple of interesting improvisations on this set, but they don't even come close to comparing with those found on the Great Deceiver set. That pretty much goes without saying, however.
      Perhaps one of the most surprising things about these performances is Robert Fripp's guitar playing. It's hard to believe, but Fripp was not always the unconventional and ultra-technical guitar machine that he was even a few years later. "After King Crimson in 1969 he practiced a lot more and got better," says Fripp in his third-person liner notes on himself. I agree. One unusually noisy guitar solo on disc three finds our man sounding frighteningly similar to Jimmy Page of all people! Yikes!
      Much has been made about the sound quality of the recordings on this set, especially that of discs three and four. I have said it before, and I will say it again: I am no audiophile, so I don't really have much of a problem with the sound quality on these discs. It ranges from excellent to okay, but all the instruments are always audible and well mixed, and noise is at a minimum. Considering the age and sources for these recordings, many of which were bootlegs, I'd say that the sound is pretty good.
      My biggest problem with the set is the repetition. Basically what we have here is the same six or seven song set repeated four times. This is understandable since they really only had one album of material to work with, but it makes it hard to listen to more than one disc of this set in one sitting. I recommend getting all four discs only if you really love early King Crimson. Discs one and two, however, are mandatory. Purchase immediately!

Steve Hackett
Spectral Mornings
Chrysalis
1979

      After Steve Hackett left Genesis in 1977, Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford had no one left to hold them back from the evil scheme they apparently had been planning all along – the sellout. It's obvious now with 20 years of hindsight, but in 1977 it wasn't so easy to spot.
      Sure, songs like 'More Fool Me" from 1973's otherwise excellent Selling England by the Pound and most of the A Trick of the Tail album were clues, but Wind and Wuthering and Seconds Out seemed to be leaning back in the right direction.
      Well, either Hackett saw it coming or he couldn't fight the Three Amigos' desires to go pop any longer without the aid of Peter Gabriel, who left in 1975, so he left too. Phil, Tony and Mike were now free to drag the Genesis name through the mud in what would prove to be one of the most blatant and disgraceful sellouts in rock history.
      This also left our valiant young guitar anti-hero alone to follow his own muse, and while Hackett's music became simpler, it didn't sink to such depths as that of his former bandmates – not for a while anyway.
      Steve's first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte came out in 1975 and is a rather Genesis-like affair, but Spectral Mornings, his first solo album after leaving Genesis is a more original work.
      Spectral Mornings reflects Hackett's interest in various styles of music, from classical to Cantonese koto music. There is even a little of Steve's own brand of space/prog rock on here. Each track is different, so this is a very diversified album.
      The best tracks on this album are definitely the instrumentals. "Clocks – the Angel of Mons" is an excellent sort of creepy space rock tune loaded with Mellotron and ominous Taurus pedal melodies. The title track is a nice bittersweet sounding instrumental in which Hackett's shimmering electric guitar melodies take center stage over a dreamy Mellotron backdrop. It's a beautiful track. "Tigermoth" starts out as another dark Mellotron/Taurus pedal instrumental similar to "Clocks," but then suddenly changes to a completely different kind of vocal piece that sounds like a Broadway tune. This is typical of Hackett's solo work. You never really know what's going to happen next, whether it be from album to album or within a single song.
      Another good instrumental is "Lost Time in Cordoba." This is a very nice classical guitar/flute duet. It's an odd track, however, because the entire piece has some sort of aural haze placed over it, which makes it sound a little strange. It's almost as if it was made to sound like it came from a very old record.
      There are a couple more songs on this album which are quite pleasant, but not extremely interesting. There's not a bad track on here, though. The entire album is completely listenable.
      Anyone who gets goose bumps from Hackett's wonderfully emotional guitar solos – especially on Seconds Out – should buy this album.

Phreeworld
Boost the Signal
Friends in the Garden
1994

      After my first listen to this five-song EP, I was ready to give this band a thorough drubbing. "You call this prog rock?!" Each new track either had me wincing in agony or rolling on the floor in laughter. Since I had to write a review, however, I forced myself to listen to it again.
      Then something strange happened. I started to hear things I liked. Not a lot of things, mind you, but it was enough to make me go around humming parts of certain songs in the grocery store.
      So let's cover the good points first. This band from Washington has a knack for creating good, interesting melodies and that's a good start. Like Yes, they seem to believe that the melody is supreme, and all other aspects of the music come second. There's nothing wrong with that as long as long as you've got a good melody to work with, and these guys have no problem with that.
      Phreeworld seems to be influenced by the lighter, more commercial end of the prog scale. I detect '80s Yes, post Fish-era Marillion and a strong dose of side two of Pink Floyd's Momentary Lapse of Reason album. In fact, The instrumental sections of "The Whispering" sound almost as if they were lifted directly off of out-takes of "Sorrow" and "Terminal Frost," right down to the big, slow, emotional guitar solo and the keyboard sounds. Momentary Lapse of Reason (especially side two) is Pink Floyd's best work in my opinion, so I don't mind that. In fact, much of Phreeworld's music has this emotional, dreamy (but not quite spacy) quality that I rather like.
      Now for the bad points. Phreeworld has indeed learned a thing or two from Yes and Pink Floyd, but unlike those bands, they seem unwilling or unable to stretch out musically. All the songs on Boost the Signal are in the three to five minute range and follow a fairly predictable verse/chorus format. They're also all in 4/4 in the slow to medium tempo range, which gets a little monotonous. If these guys really want to be a prog rock band, they're going to need to be a little more adventurous.
      They could also stand to go for a complete overhaul on their sound. This album has a very commercial feel to the production. (The band does deserve credit for the immaculate, professional quality of this self-produced album. I just don't like the way it was produced.) The vocals are way too up-front while the drums are buried so deep in the mix they could only be described as sounding "polite." Also, some of the keyboard sounds are just plain bad. The opening chords of "Hold on to Me" sound like they came straight out of an Amy Grant song! Way too bouncy, shiny and digital for my tastes. (In all fairness, I must admit to being an unapologetic techno-phobe. Give me analog or give me death!) Actually, there are some good digital keyboard sounds out there, and I would encourage Phreeworld to find them!
      Now that I've raked Phreeworld over the coals a little bit, let me say that I'm only being so picky because I think they have potential. Rather than just write them off and say "This sucks," I make suggestions for improvement. I suggest liberal doses of Univers Zero therapy to toughen up their sound. Listen to 1313 and and call me in the morning. I'm not suggesting Phreeworld should start playing chamber rock, just explore some of the less commercial aspects of prog rock.
            If you're a fan of the neo-prog sound, this is probably a band you should keep your eye on. I see a glimmer of promise for these guys and hope they can improve in the future. In fact, they are due to release a new full-length album in July or August. I would be interested to see what improvements they have made in the three years since Boost the Signal.

Visit Phreeworld's Web Site

David Torn
Door X
Windham Hill Records
1990

Review by Dan Luft

      I am the only one who likes this album. No David Torn fan I have ever met likes this album. I've even heard that there was an Internet chat somewhere in the deep reaches of cyberspace in which David Torn said that he doesn't like this album. Sometimes you just can't win.
      After years of innovative music making with groups such as Lonely Universe, The Everyman Band, and a number of solo projects including Cloud About Mercury with Tony Levin, Bill Bruford, and Mark Isham, Guitarist David Torn had caught the attention of a major record label. Unfortunately, it was Windham Hill Records. The label that had been the virtual McDonalds of New Age for years was now trying their hand at music for the masses, and Torn ended up as their Guinea Pig.
      The weakness of Door X, and the real reason no one likes it is that producer Steven Krause can never make up his mind as to what he wants Torn to be. On the one hand, you have songs like "Lion of Boaz," which feature Torn's ambient guitar drones and chord voicings accented perfectly by Mick Karn's fretless bass and some interesting, yet subtle drum lines from Bill Bruford; while on the other you have "Diamond Mansions," where a drum ostinato accompanies Torn's unsettling voice waning on about peace and mysticism, with his guitar coming in now and again almost as an afterthought.
      What results is two separate albums fighting it out at once. There is a certain groove to songs like "Lion of Boaz," the Squeeze-like danciness of "Promise," and the control to chaos of "The Others" that is painfully vacant from "Good Morning Mr. Wonderful," "Diamond Mansions," and "Time Bomb." And it's not so much a vocals versus instrumentals argument, it's based more on feel. This album flows so well when the musicians are allowed to take control, but it happens so rarely that it becomes frustrating waiting for something to happen. It's very hard to listen to this album all the way through because the songs just don't get along with each other.
      But the real problem with this album is that David Torn has been boxed into a set of pop songs. His strength is breaking boundaries, not coloring within the lines, and for fans used to his more adventurous work with looping and ambient tones, Door X is simply trying to force his guitar style into places where it doesn't belong. Without the freedom to use his musical style to take the listener away from the norms they are used to, you are left with an album of familiar sounding songs with some great guitar solos in them. In the end, Door X simply fails because its not much you haven't heard before.
      There is a bit of appeal in the fact that if you are a fan of his music, it's cool to hear him work within "normal" confines as opposed to the anarchy of the music he has been making since. So in that sense, the album works as a sort of novelty for true fans. Maybe that's why I like it.
      If you really want to check out the man and his music, look for other releases, like Polytown with Terry Bozzio and Mick Karn. But if you are already a fan, I suggest taking a listen to this album once more with an open mind. Yes, he is being forced to play short solos in pop songs. But some of those solos are brilliant. It's a chance to catch a glimpse of what these songs could be if musicians were allowed to be what they are, and not what a record label thinks they should be.

Bruford
The Bruford Tapes
E.G.
1979

      Ripping instrumental jazz rock from four gifted musicians is what you'll get on this live album.
       After King Crimson broke up in 1974, Bill Bruford piddled around in a few bands like Gong, Genesis and National Health before finally forming his own band. He recruited National Health keyboardist Dave Stewart, rising fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth and bassist Jeff Berlin and thus created one of the most exciting fusion bands ever.
      This album finds the band (with John Clark replacing Holdsworth) playing at their fiercest and most exciting. Long gone are Annette Peacock's vocals and most of the other "smooth jazz" inclinations that that so marred the first Bruford album, Feels Good to Me, (and fusion in general). Not yet come are Jeff Berlin's slightly annoying singsong vocals and melodies that blemish portions of the next album, Gradually Going Tornado. All four of Bruford's albums are good, but this one captures the band at its stripped-down and in-your-face best.
      The highlights are "Hell's Bells" (NOT the AC/DC song) with its jubilant keyboard theme, the "quick little fellow" called "Beelzebub" (what's with the evil song titles, Bill?) which features some wacky time signatures and "5g," with the super fast slap and pop of Jeff Berlin's bass.
      Speaking of Jeff Berlin, he is truly amazing. All bass players should buy this album, you'll either be inspired or discouraged (or maybe both, like me.) Dave Stewart fans should get a kick out of his jazzy, yet heavily distorted organ playing on this album as well. Bruford? Well he's one of the best drummers on earth without being a stick-twirling wanker, and this album shows him in top form.
      The only drawback to this album is the fact that Allan Holdsworth is not on it. (John Clark does a real good Holdsworth impression and is an excellent guitarist, but there's nothing quite like the real thing.)
      The style of music is much like that of the much-celebrated National Health, due to Stewart's presence, but a little more rock oriented and energetic. It is intelligent, yet exciting music that straddles the fence between jazz fusion and progressive rock. Personally, I'll take Bruford over National Health any day.

Pär Lindh Project
Gothic Impressions
Crimsonic
1994

      One of the people responsible for the Swedish prog revival of the '90s is Pär Lindh, a professional classical musician who grew up listening to prog rock in the '70s.
      Lindh was a member of the Royal Swedish Chamber Orchestra for four years before delving into progressive rock on a professional level, and he is a genuinely talented, sincere musician who does everything with a sense of integrity.
      Most people who bought this debut album probably did so because several members of the tragically short-lived but already legendary Swedish band Änglagård play on this album. Their performances are good, but anyone who expects this album to sound like Änglagård is likely to be sadly disappointed.
      Instead of Änglagård's violently dynamic mood swings, what we have here is a more even tempered, refined brand of Swedish classical rock with the accent on classical.
      If Emerson Lake & Palmer operated in the space between classical and rock music, Pär Lindh works in the space between ELP and classical music. While Lindh is obviously heavily influenced by ELP, his career in classical music seems to have tempered any inclinations he may have ever had toward blatant prog rock bombast. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on your point of view. Those legions upon legions of critics who constantly abused ELP for their ultra-bombastic bastardizations of classical pieces might find Lindh's approach more appetizing. His rendition of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bare Mountain" has so little rock music or instrumentation infused into it that a casual listener not very familiar with the piece may not suspect this was a "rock" recording at all. This is because Lindh stays fairly true to the original piece and uses modern keyboards that very convincingly synthesize the sound of a real orchestra.
      This applies largely to the rest of the album as well. Lindh deftly mixes Mellotrons, Hammond Organ, various synthesizers both old and new and what sounds like a real church pipe organ into a seamless mixture of classically-influenced prog rock.
      To my ears, however, there is a little too much classical prettiness and not enough bombast. I realize I am probably almost completely alone in that opinion, but I like Keith Emerson's knives-jammed-between-the-keys-of-the-Hammond approach complete with Moog ramblings. I like Pictures at an Exhibition! I like bombast! But that's just me.
      However, I'm sure the Pretentious Police would find plenty of other things on Gothic Impressions to complain about. The vocals provided by Ralf Glasz and Mathias Jonsson are a little too operatic and snooty sounding even for my tastes. Fortunately, the vocals are kept to a minimum and instrumental passages dominate the album.
      Easily the best track on the album is the nearly 20-minute-long "Cathedral." This piece features lots of pipe organ to set the scene of a Gothic cathedral. One passage from this piece absolutely reeks of ELP influence. It is the only section where Lindh could actually be accused of being derivative, but it is also my favorite part of the album because it's the only place where he truly attempts to rock. Änglagård's Johan Högberg and Mattias Olsson make some great contributions on bass and drums on this track.
      Overall this is a decent album, but I can think of several CDs on which I would have rather spent my $20.

Laundry
Blacktongue
Prawn Song
1994

      If not for the fact that I occasionally glanced at my friend's Modern Drummer magazines, I would have never known this album existed. Apparently, no one else did. I think I'm one of about four people who bought this album. This is a shame, because it's quite an interesting CD.
      Laundry was a side project of Tim "Herb" Alexander, the now ex-drummer for Primus (one of the only "alternative" bands that deserves the label - or any attention). Herb is joined by Tom Butler on guitar, Toby Hawkins on vocals and Ian Varriale on Stick.
      A person familiar with Herb's and Primus' influences might see the Stick, put two and two together, and assume this band was influenced by King Crimson in some way. That person would be right! It's a fairly well-known fact that the members of Primus have been influenced by the likes of Rush and King Crimson. With Laundry, Herb got to prove it to those who weren't able to see the connection before.
      Blacktongue is from beginning to end a wonderful romp in the relatively unexplored void between current "alternative" music and progressive rock.
      The entire album is comprised of dark, polyrhythmic tunes that display elements of '70s and '80s King Crimson. Butler's guitar playing is often reminiscent of Robert Fripp's pointillistic guitar style that dominated albums like Discipline and Beat. Varriale's Stick playing is also quite similar to that of Tony Levin, rounding out the '80s Crim-fluence. The music itself is dark and fairly jagged, sometimes calling to mind Starless & Bible Black-Red era Crimson.
      One might think from what I have said so far that Laundry is extremely derivative and unoriginal. Let me assure you that Laundry is not simply a Crimson wannabe band. They are truly much more in the "alternative" (man, I hate that word!) vein than prog rock, but Laundry is so much more than any three-chord teen-angst band you'll ever see on Mtv. The music is actually very similar to Primus, but darker and more serious. There are no silly songs about cheese, mud, fishing or any of Les Claypool's cast of thousands of wacky characters from in and around San Pablo Bay.
       Anyone who finds Primus interesting musically, but can't get past the silly stories and the nasally vocals should give Laundry a try. Anyone who likes Primus and/or King Crimson should have bought this great album a long time ago.

Lockwood, Top, Vander & Widemann
Fusion
JMS
1981

      Do the names Lockwood, Top, Vander & Widemann sound familiar? All four of these men were members of Magma at one time or another. On this album the four of them got together to indulge their desires to play jazz fusion outside the setting of Magma, and the result is pretty good.
      Of course, anyone familiar with Christian Vander knows anything he does is automatically going to be at least a little unorthodox, so most of the music on this album is not your standard fusion.
      This album actually leans more to a more commercial '80s style of fusion than the usually more interesting '70s fusion, but gives it an interesting kick in the pants. This is where fusion should have gone in the '80s.
      The first track, "GHK Go To Miles" (whatever that means) is 24 minutes long and is the weirdest and most Magma-like track on the album. It starts funky with Janick Top's percussive bass and Christian Vander's impeccable drumming stopping and starting in some rather unusual rhythms. The track gets more melodic and includes interesting violin and keyboard solos by Didier Lockwood and Benoit Widemann.
      "Overdrive" is a nice melodic track that vaguely reminds me of Xaal's more melodic moments on their first album.
      The third track, "767 ZX" teeters perilously on the edge of cheesy smooth jazz before it veers into a fast, swinging theme complete with walking bass lines and jazzy violin and keyboard solos. This is the most overtly jazzy part of the album, and it is quite nice (even for someone who doesn't like "real" jazz) once it gets going.
      "Reliefs" is the fourth and last song. It has a heavy, funky riff that is reminiscent of Birds of Fire-era Mahavishnu Orchestra.
      This is an unusual album that should appeal to anyone who likes fusion and Magma. It is an interesting study in how these four very left-field musicians approached the already stagnating genre of jazz fusion.