Crimson Syn Diamond Elite

As with previous tour boxes, the 2020 Elements box covers the full spectrum of Crimsoning, this one with music and line-ups from 1969-2019. Disc one represents a mostly live/mostly new-to-CD selection of material including 4 tracks taken from the 2019 tour. Disc two, in keeping with the theme of Sid's notes, discussed below, presents pieces played occasionally by the current line-up - Exiles and Sheltering Sky, pieces from the studio - both King Crimson and Robert Fripp that were never completed, or were developed in different ways, material that never made it to a studio recording - The Errors, Dr. Diamond, Trees (extract), Guts on my Side, etc, all combine to present a convincing musical counter-history to the band.

First released on CD as KCCC 29, the opening improv is akin to a gathering storm that suddenly finds its focus in Dr. Diamond. Almost overwhelmed in the beginning by Bill’s use of the gong, it quickly powers up into a great opening number. Prior to a gorgeous version of Exiles, Fripp deploys his classic stage announcement borrowed from Elmer Gantry, “Right, hands up those who like it those who don't fuck off my eyes feel like pissholes in the snow this is the last one for the evening seeds of space fly by my face”.

Blimey! They don’t come much more frenetic or savage than this - a riotous reading of LTIA pt1 emerging from a down n’ dirty intro/improv. Pausing only to catch breath in David’s solo (here with additional guitar shadings) before taking off again. “That was a good ending” says an approving Bill Bruford before they duck and dive their way through an especially crunchy Doctor Diamond. The fun continues during Easy Money with ornery and cussed clusters taking flight from the fretboard like a bunch of punch-drunk wasps, ready to sting wherever they land. This is the sound of band that’s really enjoying itself. Listen out for when Bruford audibly swoons during a particularly beautiful guitar solo on Night Watch. Of particular note is a storming improv which combines the eerie Providence sonics with a blast of Journey To The Centre Of The Cosmos rocking out. Mind you, the moment when the band sail out from that to set up a seamless transition into Starless is nothing short of beautiful. A sadly incomplete version of Exiles completes this belter of a gig.

“Yeaaah” yells Bill Bruford as the band tear into The Great Deceiver filling the cavernous-sounding venue with all of their considerable might and firepower. He yells some more as they bulldoze their way from that track into a devastatingly heavy Doctor Diamond.

Repackaged in this box are four live King Crimson concerts that were initially unleashed via the band's Collectors' Club mail-order series or as à la carte downloadable files. Granted, the primary target for anthologies such as this is not the casual enthusiast or curious listener. However, that unspoken guideline should be suspended for 2006's The Collectors' King Crimson, Vol. 10 due to the remarkable breadth of its contents…

The Great Deceiver is a 4 CD box set by the band King Crimson, consisting of live recordings from 1973 and 1974, released on Virgin Records in 1992. In 2007, it was reissued on Fripp’s Discipline Global Mobile label as two separate 2 CD sets, each featuring new artwork…

In King Crimson's extensive catalog of archival recordings and box sets, The Great Deceiver (Live 1973-1974) is the undisputed winner, the item truly worth acquiring. The four-CD set Frame by Frame, released 18 months earlier, was light on material previously unavailable and included a few edits and overdubs on classic King Crimson tracks that shocked the fans. Epitaph, another four-CD collection culled from the group's first live shows in 1969, boasted understandably flawed sound and more repetitive content. But The Great Deceiver has it all. Over four discs, the set chronicles the on-stage activity between October 1973 and June 1974 of the most powerful King Crimson lineup. Robert Fripp, John Wetton, David Cross, and Bill Bruford were mostly performing material from their previous two LPs (Larks Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black)…

The CD features a new stereo mix plus bonus tracks including the ultra-rare (performed once only) Guts on My Side.
Starless and Bible Black is even more powerful and daring than its predecessor, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, with jarring tempo shifts, explosive guitar riffs, and soaring, elegant, and delicate violin and Mellotron parts scattered throughout its 41 minutes, often all in the same songs. The album was on the outer fringes of accessible progressive rock, with enough musical ideas explored to make Starless and Bible Black more than background for tripping the way Emerson, Lake & Palmer's albums were. "The Night Watch," a song about a Rembrandt painting, was, incredibly, a single release, although it was much more representative of the sound that Crimson was abandoning than where it was going in 1973-1974…