After three years and four albums, the '80s incarnation of King Crimson, featuring Adrian Belew (guitar/vocals/drums), Bill Bruford (drums/percussion), Robert Fripp (guitar) and Tony Levin (bass/stick/synth/vocal) wrapped up their initial collaborative efforts at the conclusion of their 1984 North American tour. Absent Lovers (1998) presents the July 11, 1984 parting performance at the Spectrum in Montreal, Quebec in its entirety. As the show was simulcast on FM radio, decent sounding copies have been traded amongst the faithful for years, although not in such stunning fidelity or completeness. While the contents draw primarily from the Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984) long-players, the quartet likewise dip into the vintage Krim catalog…
There’s a palpable sense of energy and enthusiasm from the audience captured on the tapes at this concert as King Crimson (sharing a European tour with then label band mates Roxy Music) take to the stage in Fréjus, France, in late Summer, 1982. With two albums’ worth of material to draw upon (Discipline, Oct 1981 & Beat, June 1982) & extensive touring that had already seen the band play concerts in the UK, Europe, USA & Japan, the live shows - as often with King Crimson – had a dynamism & punch that simply couldn’t be replicated in a recording studio. Add a pair of classic KC instrumentals, (Red & Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part Two), to that mix & all the ingredients were there for a very special performance. Recorded initially for a video release, the audio from the concert has, inexplicably, never been issued as a standalone release. Nor has a live album from the 1980s line-up previously appeared on vinyl.
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…
A 2019 addition to the popular Tour Box series, originally created for concert venue sales on King Crimson’s 2019 European tour. As with previous releases in the series, the full variety of King Crimson’s music is presented over 2 CDs with extracts from rehearsals, new live recordings, elements from studio recordings, full tracks, alternate takes and finished recordings from 1969-2018.
This three-disc set gathers two King Crimson D.G.M. Collectors' Club releases: Live at Cap D'Agde, 1982 and On Broadway: Live in NYC, 1995, respectively. Oddly, the contents within this boxed set are reversed, with the latter title featured on disc one and two and the former on disc three. On Broadway: Live in NYC, 1995 contains a composite of five shows from the double-trio version of King Crimson at the off-Broadway Longacre Theater in New York City. Enthusiasts will find a whole lot to like about this two-hour-plus performance compilation, thanks in part to the flawless sound quality, which devours the endless stream of bootlegs that quickly flooded the underground market shortly after these shows were played…
This three-disc box contains a trio of entries from King Crimson's archival series. Housed within the Collectors' King Crimson, Vol. 3 (2000) are Live in San Francisco: The Roar of P4, The VROOOM Sessions, 1994, and Live at Summit Studios: Denver, 03/12/1972, respectively. After the fraKctilization of King Crimson's mid-'90s double-trio lineup, Robert Fripp (guitar) formed various "projeKcts" involving all six members; however, not necessarily at the same time. Live in San Francisco: The Roar of P4 features the fourth mini-Crim (aka ProjeKct Four) at the 7th Note Club in the city by the Bay. This all-instrumental and highly experimental aggregate features the collective efforts of touch guitarist Trey Gunn and electronic and acoustic percussionist Pat Mastelotto, guitarist Fripp, as well as bassist and Chapman stick player Tony Levin…
This is a two-CD collection capturing King Crimson during a pair of multi-night stands at The Longacre Theater in New York City (November 20-25, 1995) and The Metropolitan Theater in Mexico City (August 2-6, 1996). This double-trio lineup includes the talents of: Robert Fripp (guitar, soundscapes), Adrian Belew (guitar, vocals), Trey Gunn (touch guitar), Tony Levin (basses, stick), Bill Bruford (percussion of all sorts), and Pat Mastelotto (percussion of all sorts). Vrooom Vrooom includes much of the same frenetic energy and immaculate sonics that awaited attendees of these performances. Happily much of the repertoire focuses on materials from the 1995 studio release, Thrak, King Crimson's first in over a decade. Likewise, both the Mexico City and New York City sets are laden with the profound and otherwise solicitous vibes that present themselves whenever this band is running at full capacity on all six cylinders…
Adding to the already dizzying array of King Crimson live material is this second volume of the Collectable King Crimson, which hosts two gigs from 1981 in a double-disc set. The two discs vary in sound quality, but in terms of performance they are both fiery, exuberant and frequently stunning. Disc 1 has been retrieved from a cassette bootleg recording and has been restored as well as possible. The back cover notes that the quality is "fair". Disc 2 is a different story in that its sound quality is absolutely excellent.
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…