“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.
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”.
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…
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.
Reid Anderson, Dave King, Craig Taborn: the start of this intimate fellowship, also a narrative showing the invaluable role of friendship in music, is dated 1982. At the forefront are songs based on a pop sensibility, played live without sequencers and delivered by astound ing improvisers and virtuoso instrumentalists, eschewing the muscular gestures of soloist free-styling and improvisatory furore and thus making wisdom audible: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
This is the 4th record for Jim Diamond & The Groove Syndicate. They are an award winning International Blues recording act. This record is an all original collection of tunes; where blues meets jazz, meets swing, meets blues rock, meets soul.
Original Album Classics is a 5CD box set with original artwork 'mini LP' CD wallets in deluxe packaging. Includes the albums: Simple Things, Welcome Home, Touch The Sky, Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King and Love Makes The World.