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THE 21st CENTURY GUIDE TO KING CRIMSON, VOLUME ONE
(DGM)
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King Crimson have released an overabundance of compilations, box sets, and live albums over the years. So what makes this one any more essential than, say, 1991’s Frame by Frame? Well, it comes in a handsome, handier-sized slipcase. And the sound has been upgraded. Again. And the focus is tighter — Frame by Frame covered the years 1969–1984 whereas The 21st Century Guide, Volume One zeroes in on albums and live cuts from the years 1969–1974. (Volume Two will address the remainder of their output.) This was a rich period for Robert Fripp and his revolving cast of musicians, who included a pre-ELP Greg Lake and a post-Yes Bill Bruford. What began as lumpy and pretentious, death-of-the-universe, mellotron-driven prog evolves into a fierce jazz-rock fusion, a sound that is forbidding, sprawling, and complex but also kicks some ass. Crimson have always had their share of nay-sayers, and included in this set’s booklet are brutal and pithy quotes from the press ("They are boring beyond description," wrote an LA Times critic of the group’s 1969 appearance at the Whisky) and from Fripp himself. "King Crimson’s first US gig to an audience with a high proportion tripping and expecting a happy soul band," he writes of their ’69 performance at Goddard College in Vermont. "We began with ‘Schizoid Man.’ The audience never recovered from the first shock. . . . I had the impression of the crowd being squashed." That pretty much says it all.
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