Chasing The Dragon

Fans of Asia can celebrate with the release of this live album from bassist John Wetton, who recorded it during a tour of Japan. During the course of the seventeen tracks here, he covers a number of Asia tracks (starting with an acoustic version of "Heat of the Moment") along with material from his King Crimson and UK days. On the whole, it's okay, recorded fairly well and played professionally; the vocals are often mixed too far back, and some of the effects on the instruments (particularly acoustic guitars) are a little drastic even for this kind of music, but these are relatively minor things. It isn't a particularly compelling album, however – Wetton goes through the paces, and nobody flubs their part, but nothing stays once the album is done: even the King Crimson material didn't generate much interest (in fact, "Easy Money" is performed in such a way that it's close to annoying).