King Crimson – THRaKaTTaK (1996)
Among the King Crimson bootlegs at Harborough Market (mostly live shows and suchlike) was this official release from the 1990s 'Double Trio' set up of two trios of guiar, bass and drums - Fripp, Gunn, Mastelotto v Belew, Levin, Bruford.
It says 57 minutes of improvised music and poster on the sticker. Does anyone old enough to enjoy the Mighty Crim really want a poster of their heroes? One folded down to the size of a CD? I thought not.
So, how to sum this up? The only previously released piece is 1995's Thrak which starts and ends the album with typical KC bombast, while the rest consists of live improvisations which occupied the central section of Thrak during the 1995 tour, edited together to form six named pieces. I was going to say tunes, but that would be misleading.
So there's 50 minutes of soaring Fripp guitar, soundscape, powerful percussion, sound effect. It's dissonant, dark, exhilarating, difficult, at times beautiful, at times migraine inducing. But it's never dull.
It's not for beginners. It's an album for KC diehards, demanding something more difficult to really test their patience. It's an album to make KC aficionados feel smug about how they can derive beauty from an abstract noise assault.
3* - a test for all but the most committed fan, but certainly not uninteresting
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