..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page      The Desert Island      Copyright Notice
 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


King Crimson: Red

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Island Records
Released: 1974.10.06
Time:
 39:54
Category: Progressive Rock
Producer(s): King Crimson
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.king-crimson.com
Appears with: Robert Fripp, Tony Levin
Purchase date: 2015
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Red [instrumental] (R.Fripp) - 6:16
[2] Fallen Angel (R.Fripp/R.Palmer-James/J.Wetton) - 6:02
[3] One More Red Nightmare (R.Fripp/J.Wetton) - 7:07
[4] Providence [instrumental improv] (B.Bruford/D.Cross/R.Fripp/J.Wetton) - 8:09 *
[5] Starless (B.Bruford/D.Cross/R.Fripp/R.Palmer-James/J.Wetton) - 12:16

* - Recorded at Palace Theatre, Providence, USA, 30 June 1974

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Robert Fripp – Guitar, Mellotron, Producer, Arrangements, Remastering
John Wetton – Bass Guitar, Vocals, Producer, Arrangements
Bill Bruford – Drums, Percussion, Producer, Arrangements

David Cross – Violin on [4]
Mel Collins – Soprano Saxophone on [5]
Ian Mcdonald – Alto Saxophone on [3,5]
Mark Charig – Cornet on [2], Bass Cello on [1,5]
Robin Miller – Oboe on [2]

George Chkiantz - Recording, Engineer
Rod Thear - Recording, Engineer, Assistant Engineer
George Peckham - Mastering
Tony Arnold - Remastering
Simon Heyworth - Remastering
John Kosh - Artwork, Cover Design, Photography
Hugh O'Donnell - Design
Gered Mankowitz - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded on 30 June, July-August 1974 at Olympic Studios, London.



For many people, King Crimson will forever be associated with the pomp and pageantry of 70s prog rock: Roger Dean cover art, concept suites, and endlessly bad keyboard solos.

But how wrong they are. Yes, King Crimson were there at the birth of this divisive genre – but under the leadership of guitar wunderkind Robert Fripp, they forged a unique path of their own that quickly saw them leaving behind the lyrical whimsy and musical grandstanding of their first few albums to arrive at a sound that was both freer and more focused, embracing improv, world, modern classical and proto-noise rock elements.

And it's this leap into uncharted sonic waters that makes King Crimson one of the most significant bands on the rock timeline. Because it's with King Crimson – and particularly Fripp's dense, geometric fretwork – that a new type of heaviness starts to emerge, one that effectively disengages itself from the blues-derived riffology practiced by the big three of early 70s hard rock – Sabbath, Zeppelin, Purple – and instead creates a starker, colder, darker version of heavy that nevertheless still delivers serious cathartic thrills.

King Crimson distilled this new sound down to its pure essence on Red, but ironically, this was achieved at the expense of the group itself – disillusioned with the music business and undergoing a spiritual crisis, Fripp disbanded King Crimson two weeks before the album was released in October 1974. But as final statements go, Red takes some beating.

'Red' itself opens the album in explosive fashion. Fripp's future shock guitar instantly builds to a crescendo, and then again, but on the third pass, it ends on a horribly queasy discord and plunges down into the song's main riff, which sounds like the clanking gears of some engine of death. The track picks up velocity, driven by Bill Bruford's clattering beats and John Wetton's elastic bass, then folds in on itself, Fripp's guitar pulsating over a see-sawing cello. But all roads inexorably lead back to that grinding, relentless riff.

After that, the two vocal tracks that make up side one (as was) sound almost breezy in comparison, though of course, they're nothing of the sort. 'Fallen Angel' lulls the listener into a false sense of security with its gentle oboe-augmented verses before a brittle spidery riff from Fripp suddenly lowers the temperature to freezing. Wetton sings the title over and over as though haunted by some terrible knowledge while a cornet soars above a stuttering, self-destructing guitar part. In contrast, 'One More Red Nightmare' heaves into view with the swagger of a wounded, pissed off Godzilla. With Bruford playing what sounds like the entire contents of a scrapyard, this track actually swings, but just as Wetton starts to rock out, Fripp cuts him dead with another piece of icy guitar picking. Suitably chastened, the song stomps to its conclusion assailed by some stingingly caustic sax.

'Providence' follows, a live improvisation that builds from disquieting violin through a passage of avant jazz, before Wetton's snarling fuzz bass takes over to throw jagged shadows across Fripp's stratospheric soloing.

But the real showstopper (quite literally at the time, through Fripp was to resurrect the King Crimson brand in 1981) is saved until last, because 'Starless' is pretty much the ultimate prog rock track – if cosmic justice had prevailed in 1974, the likes of Yes, Genesis, ELP et al would have simply downed twin-neck guitars, removed capes and called it a day. The opening sweep of elegiac Mellotron immediately creates an atmosphere somewhere between reflection and unease. Fripp plays some of his most fluid and downright lovely guitar to lead us into the verse/chorus section of the song, where Wetton delivers a spectacularly plaintive vocal with the clarity of a man confronting his own mortality.

Then the third chorus ends on a jarring, unexpected chord, and the ground suddenly gives away beneath your feet. There's a low-end rumble from the gloom before Fripp starts to slowly and very deliberately pick out notes like fingernails scraping at the underside of a coffin lid. Bruford decides to accompany this on wood blocks, which would be comical if it wasn't so unnerving. And so it continues, Fripp's guitar shrieking in desperation as Wetton's growling bass ratchets up the tension to an almost unbearable degree. When the song finally explodes into a sax rock wig-out, the sense of release is enormous (for both band and listener), with Fripp inspired to wring out a sustained bout of manic guitar abuse. But it's in the thunderous coda of the song when the original Mellotron theme returns that the absolute apogee of the new heaviness is reached, the earth-shattering bass underpinning the melody confirming that the end of the world is indeed nigh.

The reissue of Red under review here is of particular interest because of the presence behind the mixing desk of Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, nu-prog major domo and increasingly the go-to guy for the retooling of classic 70s albums (he did a similar job earlier this year on Hawkwind's superlative Warrior On The Edge Of Time). Alongside Fripp, he's produced a new stereo mix of Red which reinstates some of the grime and murky brute force that had been removed from the 30th anniversary remaster (also included on this reissue), particularly on the title track. There's also a different feel to 'Starless', the intro more ethereal than ever, the middle section even chillier.

With music being a melting pot of cross-fertilisation, technical advancements, compositional innovations and incremental micro-influences, it's often difficult to track the exact origin of a specific sound or genre. Red is that rarest of albums: a clearly defined jumping off point for much of the left-field rock music that was to emerge over the decades following its release. But it's also more than just a document of historical interest – after nearly 40 years, it's still primed and ready to tear the head off the unsuspecting listener.

Joe Banks , November 7th, 2013
TheQuietus.com



King Crimson fell apart once more, seemingly for the last time, as David Cross walked away during the making of this album. It became Robert Fripp's last thoughts on this version of the band, a bit noiser overall but with some surprising sounds featured, mostly out of the group's past - Mel Collins' and Ian McDonald's saxes, Marc Charig's cornet, and Robin Miller's oboe, thus providing a glimpse of what the 1972-era King Crimson might've sounded like handling the later group's repertory (which nearly happened). Indeed, Charig's cornet gets just about the best showcase it ever had on a King Crimson album, and the truth is that few intact groups could have gotten an album as good as Red together. The fact that it was put together by a band in its death throes makes it all the more impressive an achievement. Indeed, Red does improve in some respects on certain aspects of the previous album - including "Starless," a cousin to the prior album's title track - and only the lower quality of the vocal compositions keeps this from being as strongly recommended as its two predecessors.

Bruce Eder - All Music Guide



Red is the seventh studio album by progressive rock group King Crimson, released in 1974. It was their last studio recording of the 1970s and the last before the lead member Robert Fripp temporarily disbanded the group.

Tours in 1974 had seen King Crimson's musical approach becoming louder and more brutal, an approach primarily driven by bass player John Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford (guitarist and group leader Robert Fripp once compared their powerful playing to "a flying brick wall"). This had had the effect of drowning out the band's fourth member, violinist and sometime keyboard player David Cross and led to tension within the band. Deemed not strong enough as a musical personality, Cross was ejected from King Crimson after the end of its tour in summer 1974, reducing the group to the trio of Fripp, Wetton and Bruford. Having already begun to record Red with Cross, King Crimson finished the album with the help of former band-members Ian McDonald and Mel Collins.

While musically similar to its predecessor Starless and Bible Black, Red was produced very differently from previous King Crimson albums. For instance, while the acoustic guitar features prominently in previous releases, on Red it is heard only for a few bars in "Fallen Angel". Also, unlike previous King Crimson albums, Red features extensive use of guitar overdubs. Later albums lacked acoustic guitar entirely and reverted to a minimum of overdubs (perhaps partly because every lineup of the band after this one has included two guitarists).

The album opens with the title track, a driving, hard rock instrumental. It features multiple time signatures including 5/8, 7/8 and 4/4. Its polyrhythmic melodies use whole-tone scales.

The fourth track on the album, "Providence", was recorded live at Palace Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, on 30 June 1974, and is the album's only live recording. Charles Snider refers to the album as a "swan song", and comments that "'Providence' packs just about everything improv-related from the last two albums into its eight short minutes." A longer, unedited version of the track was first available on the live four-CD set The Great Deceiver and later added as a bonus track to the album itself for its release as part of the band's 40th Anniversary Series.

The original lyrics and melody for "Starless" were written by John Wetton. He originally intended the song to be the title track of the group's previous album Starless and Bible Black. Fripp and Bruford had initially disliked the song and declined to record it for that album, with the group then choosing an instrumental composition as the title track for the Starless and Bible Black album. However, "Starless" was later revived, its lyrics altered and a long instrumental section (based on a bass riff in 13/4 contributed by Bruford) added to it, and performed live between March–June 1974. A discarded verse was later used by Wetton in UK's "Caesar's Palace Blues". For the Red recording sessions, the lyrics were again altered (with contributions by Richard Palmer-James). The haunting introductory theme, originally contributed and played by David Cross, was taken over by the guitar, with Fripp making minor alterations to the melody. As the title "Starless and Bible Black" had already been used, the original title was shortened to "Starless."

Early in the recording process, Fripp had had a spiritual revelation and consequently withdrew formally from the sessions' decision making. Although plans were considered to add McDonald to the lineup again for the next tour, Fripp abruptly disbanded King Crimson on 24 September 1974, and the album was released the following month with no accompanying tour.

The record spent only one week on the British charts, at No. 45, whereas all the band's previous studio albums had reached the Top 30. In the United States, it reached No. 66 on the Billboard 200. However, it remained a popular album with fans and critics.

Retrospective reviews were resoundingly positive. In theirs, Allmusic declared Red to be weaker than its two predecessors, but nonetheless a superlative work: "few intact groups could have gotten an album as good as Red together. The fact that it was put together by a band in its death throes makes it all the more impressive an achievement." Robert Christgau also applauded the album, calling it "Grand, powerful, grating, and surprisingly lyrical" and commenting that "this does for classical-rock fusion what John McLaughlin's Devotion did for jazz-rock fusion."

In 2001 Q magazine named Red as one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time", and Kurt Cobain has cited the album as a major influence. Musicologists Eric Tamm and Edward Macan both consider Red, and particularly the track "Starless", to be the highlight of King Crimson's recorded output.

The title track was ranked #87 in the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs list of Rolling Stone. Pitchfork ranked Red #72 on the Top 100 Albums of the 1970s stating that "For a band that was very obviously about to splinter, King Crimson's music sounds remarkably of a single mind. On Red, they achieved a remarkable balance between bone-crushing brutality and cerebral complexity." Rateyourmusic voted Red as the #1 album of 1974 and the 47th greatest album of all time.

The album had CD releases in 1989 and 2001, each newly remastered by Fripp at the time. The 40th Anniversary Series version appeared on 21 September 2009, containing a 5.1 Surround Sound mix on DVD-Audio (created by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, in collaboration with Fripp). Another new CD edition, including a 2013 stereo remix by Wilson and Fripp, was released in September 2013.

Wikipedia.org



Als King Crimson im Juli 74 das Studio betrat, hatte die Band zwei Jahre mit intensiven Tourneen und der Veröffentlichung der Alben "Larks´ Tongues in Aspic" und "Starless & Bible Black" hinter sich. Jamie Muir (Percussion) und David Cross (Geige/Mellotron) hatten die Band verlassen und gleichzeitig zementierte die Band ihren Ruf als eine der stärksten Bands der internationalen Rockszene. Mit vielen ehemaligen Mitgliedern und Freunden am Sax, Geige, Oboe und Klarinette produzierte die Band mit "Red" das letzte Crimson-Studioalben der 70er Jahre und ein wahres Meisterwerk des Jahrzehnts, das zahlreiche Musiker und Bands wie Steve Vai, Vernon Reid, Primus und viele mehr beeiflusste.

Amazon.de
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!