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King Crimson: The Power to Believe

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Sanctuary Records
Released: 2003.02.24
Time:
 51:11
Category: Progressive Rock
Producer(s): King Crimson, The Machine
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] The Power to Believe I: A Cappella (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 0:44
[2] Level Five (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 7:17
[3] Eyes Wide Open (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 4:08
[4] Elektrik (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 7:59
[5] Facts of Life [Intro] (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 1:38
[6] Facts of Life (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 5:05
[7] The Power to Believe II: Power Circle (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 7:43
[8] Dangerous Curves (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 6:42
[9] Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 3:17
[10] The Power to Believe III: Deception of the Thrush (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - :09
[11] The Power to Believe IV: Coda (A.Belew/R.Fripp/T.Gun/P.Mastelotto) - 2:29

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Robert Fripp - Guitar, Editing, Mastering, Production Mastering, Sequencing, Producer on [1-11]
Adrian Belew - Guitar, Vocals, Producer on [1-10]
Trey Gunn - Warr Guitars, Fretless Warr Guitar, Producer on [1-10]
Pat Mastelotto - Drums, Traps & Buttons, Producer on [1-10]

The Machine - Recording, Engineer, Mixing, Programming, Producer on [1-10]
The Vicar - Priducer on [11]
Ken Latchney - Engineer, Vocal Engineer
Jeff Juliano - Additional Engineer
David Singleton - Editing, Mastering, Production Mastering, Sequencing, Management
Simon Heyworth - Mastering
P.J. Crook - Cover Artwork from Fin de Siecle
Hugh O'Donnell - Design
Todd Faulkner - Voice Sample
Charlie Hewitt - Management

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded & Engineered at The Tracking Room, StudioBelew and Pat's Garage.
Mixed at the Mixing Room, Nashville; remixing at The Shop, Hoboken, NJ.
Mastered  at The White House (Super Audio Mastering), Chagford, Devon.



King Crimson, according to guitarist and founding member Robert Fripp, has always been a musical force that exists outside of the musicians themselves, a force that calls upon their frail musical flesh to bring the noise of the Crim into the world.

After King Crimson’s heady and always-changing Progressive Rock line-ups of the ’60s and early ’70s came the sublime and frightening Muir-Wetton-Cross-Bruford-Fripp assembly that released Lark’s Tongues in Aspic in 1972, only to splinter – sans Jamie Muir’s conceptual Shamanism – a short two years later. The best moments of these different groupings, from 1969’s In the Court of King Crimson onward, have contributed immensely to the thing called Post-Rock: that slippery blend of improv and texture; noise and stasis; irony and naiveté.

Following a long silence, King Crimson re-invented itself in the 80s as a minimalist rock gamelan with spiritual underpinnings and a pan-global vibe, not to mention some sweet and arch melodic pop from singer-lyricist-stunt guitarist Adrian Belew. With two amazing – and very different – guitarists, and Tony Levin’s lyrical bass over Bill Bruford’s percussive juggernaut, the new Crimson made three records between 1981 and 1984 that define the outer edges of mainstream experimental rock from that era, exploring and exploiting the technology of digital guitar effects and electronic percussion.

The long history lesson here is for a reason: King Crimson has always been followed by fans obsessed with the band’s own past; and that past often casts a huge shadow over whatever King Crimson attempts. Fripp himself has expressed dismay at this fact in his on-line diary. It is, perhaps, one price to be paid for being a 30-year-old rock institution that chooses exploration and fresh ideas over nostalgia – mongering and pleasing the crowd.

The band’s work in the 90s and beyond was often brave and powerful, sometimes diffuse and unfocused. But the seeds planted in the efforts of the dense and bewildering “double trio” and the improv explorations of the various spin-off Projeckts, have at last taken root and grown into King Crimson’s best work in years on The Power To Believe.

The cover, from a painting by P.J. Crook, sets an enigmatic tone: a naked baby is born into a smoky post-industrial world of gas masks, soldiers, thronging masses. Is the child a messiah? A medical experiment? Simply a normal child born into an urban world? This is the most disturbing King Crimson cover image since the famous screaming red face on their first album.

A Belew Haiku, sung gently through a Vocoder-like effect, is the recurring theme on the album. Heard alone and in various musical settings, it is a comforting presence throughout, helping to temper the doom-laden tritones descending in metallic crunch, the dislocated pounding rhythms, the menacing but strangely alluring ostinatos. Not that lyricism and beauty are left behind: Belew’s ballad “Eyes Wide Open” lopes through a landscape that is simultaneously yearning and hopeful; “The Power To Believe II” is a tour de force of grace and dignity that moves with the gentle flow of Javanese court gamelan and the tragic depth of Korean classical music. There are also nods to detuned testosterone rock, most notably on the good-natured but satirical “Happy to be Happy With What You Have to be Happy With.”

This particular edition of King Crimson has been together for longer than any other, and I can’t help but think that the lack of interpersonal rancor – along, of course, with the impeccable and inspired levels of musicianship – are a big part of why this mutation makes such a great team. You can hear the absolute precision, yes; but the head and hands have not left the heart and soul behind. Fripp, Belew, drummer Pat Mastelotto, and touch-guitarist Trey Gunn are equal in the clean, high-resolution mix: the crystalline sonics are perfect for this particular project.

King Crimson at its best generates a big and scary, but ultimately benevolent, force. And the power unleashed on The Power To Believe, whether bruising or healing, is impressive indeed.

Kevin Macneil Brown
Dusted Reviews - March 24, 2003



Metal bands like Iced Earth, and Cradle of Filth are notorious for having a constantly rotating lineup. But regardless of how many singers, guitarists, bassists, and drummers Jon Schaffer will eventually round up; the total number of players involved in Iced Earth will pale in comparison to the number guitarist Robert Fripp has brought into and fired from the legendary progressive rock band: King Crimson. Over 30 years and 23 members since their inception, Crimson has returned with their heaviest and undoubtedly the best album of their career with The Power to Believe. While the previous album from the seventh lineup of the band, The ConstruKction of Light had many excellent songs (The ConstruKction of Light, FraKtured, Lark’s Tongues in Aspic Part IV), the then new lineup showed significant rough edges throughout the album. The Power to Believe shows that King Crimson have grown into and perfected their new sound.

Singer/Guitarist Adrian Belew begins the album with The Power to Believe I: A Cappella, a Spoken haiku filtered through a vocorder. The first song on the album is Level Five (Originally planned to be Lark’s Tongues in Aspic Part V). Within the first few seconds of the heavily distorted guitar intro it becomes apparent that King Crimson are back in full force and heavier than ever. The song is an elaborate instrumental composition with a heavy use of triggered drum loops from drummer Pat Mastelotto. There’s quite a bit of the classic Crimson alternating guitar lines accompanied by the astounding Warr guitarist Trey Gunn (who played the role of bassist while in the band). Toward the end of the song there is a unison run that would leave many prog-metal bands of today gasping for breath. The first song with vocals follows. Eyes Wide Open is a lighter King Crimson song a la One Time or Walking on Air. Fripp plays an excellent solo toward the end of the song. Another instrumental, Elektrik is another highlight of the album. Although it uses electronic drum loops, and alternating guitar lines, the song is completely different from Level Five. The dynamics of Elektrik change drastically, as the song rises to a super heavy guitar riff in the last few minutes. The next song is Facts of Life. This is the first heavy song with vocals on the album. This is the most straightforward song the band has written in a long time.

The second pat of The Power to Believe begins with The Power to Believe II. The song is the haiku from the first part set to drums, bass, and synth guitar. The third instrumental of the album, Dangerous Curves follows. The song builds from silence for 3 minutes before Mastelotto’s unique, off-time drum fills enter and the song explodes, with every piece that had been building seemingly forever come together. Fripp closes the song with a solo that cadences on an awkward chord, producing a very dark effect. The final vocal song, Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With takes a stab at tired mainstream bands. The alternating guitars return in this one, creating an odd chorus to contrast the straightforward verse. The album closes with the Power to Believe III, which is very similar to Deception of the Thrush and The Power to Believe IV: Coda, which is centered on a Fripp soundscape.

With The Power to Believe, King Crimson once again goes beyond the boundaries of progressive rock to create one of the best albums of the year. Any metal head in an experimental mood should check this album out. Not only does Crimson represent the roots of metal, they continue to venture beyond what the music of any time is meant to sound like.

Keegan - MetalReviews.com



King Crimson only made one major misstep in their entire career, and that was 2000's The ConstruKction of Light. The cold and lifeless album proved to be a serious downer compared to the amazing compositions this band has been creating throughout its 40+ years of existence, and perhaps the unstable-getting-stabler formation of the King's Men meant bad news for the veteran proggies.

After all, if you take a quick glance at the group's work in the 70's, you will see that not on a single album, they had the same line-up. This was all changed in the 80's, when the quartet of Robert Fripp/Adrian Belew/Tonny Levin/ Bill Bruford stayed together and recorded three albums. 1995's THRAK, ending the second hiatus for Crimson, continued this formation while adding two members, and although there's been some hustle and bustle regarding membership since then, Belew has continued to front the band, and their sound hasn't changed all that much since the 90's.

The Power to Believe, released in 2003 but still Crimson's most recent work to date, is victim to this. Once again, King Crimson sound heavy and dense, and the element of surprise has really walked off. Ear-crushing riffs, such as the ones found aplenty on Level Five, are in position as expected, but the problem is obvious: they don't really don't do that much anymore. The same goes for the 'let's-give-Belew-his-moment-in-the-spotlight' softer songs such as Eyes Wide Open, which definitely are pleasurable listens, but still needless repetitions of THRAK's Walking on Air-esque material. '

This 'we've-heard-it-all-before' feeling that runs through The Power to Believe is not one that is particularly befitting of King Crimson. After all, the last time they really sounded the same was when they didn't know how to follow up In the Court of the Crimson King and just conjured up a similar second album. That was in '70, in Crimson's younger days, and our expectations of the now-veterans is surely higher than this. That said, of course this album is not a bad King Crimson record by any means. Rather, Fripp and company have reached some sort of status quo, which keeps their consistency in check but doesn't really allow new innovation. And that, of course, is a massive shame.

Matthijs van der Lee - June 29th, 2010
Copyright 2005-2014 Sputnikmusic.com



Robert Fripp and the ever-changing lineup of King Crimson continue to fascinate and challenge with The Power to Believe. The album’s opener is an a cappella version of the title track sweetly delivered by Adrian Belew that’s reprised three times later: once with jangling Eastern percussion and a soaring guitar; once as a sci-fi extravaganza that harkens to Crimson's glorious past; and finally as an a cappella closer. In between lies the disciplined, varied, and often mind-blowing playing one expects from these accomplished musicians. "Facts of Life" is dirty prog blues, while "Dangerous Curves" is like a low-key "Kashmir" until it rises to a metallic crescendo. Then there's the sarcastic "Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With," which finds Belew berating younger outfits for their lack of artistic ambition.

Dominic Wills - Amazon.com



Never let it be said that King Crimson don't take time and care over their output and direction. It's now over three years since the line-up mutated from a double trio to a four-piece and over two since their first studio album. In all that time there have been various side projects, live albums, rehearsal EPs and all manner of official bootlegs/ aborted recording dates and re-thinks. Not many bands would have such a commitment to perfecting and searching for a new direction, but then again, if you ever get to listen to The Power To Believe, you'll know why it was totally necessary.

The band was bound to seriously re-tool their approach; due in no small part to the fact that this most English of institutions suddenly found itself to be three quarters American! This, combined with a tour supporting Tool led them to strip away a lot of the extraneous noodling that bogged down the last album (The Construcktion Of Light), making the new work far less 'prog' and much more...well, progressive in the true sense of the word. The original title of the album was Nuovo Metal - but this goes way beyond bludgeoning mayhem. Just listen to the post-modern japery on display in ''Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With''. It's mayhem with both balls and brains.

The title comes from a haiku that Adrian Belew (now the second longest-serving member after Fripp!) has lifted from his own work (''All Her Love Is Mine'' from the marvellous Op Zop Too Wah). A simple vocoder rendition, repeated at intervals throughout gives the album its coherence. What occurs in between is, in turns, startling, incendiary and also very, very beautiful.

Belew's lyrics now sit far more comfortably within this sixth incarnation, and ''Eyes Wide Open'''s harmonies couldn't fail to wrench the most atrophied of heartstrings. As with all Crimson albums the essential spirit of the band is represented by motifs from the band's thirty year history. ''Level Five'' has the gamelan-like guitar interplay that suffused Discipline. The ''Power To Believe II'' has the eastern vibe of Larks Tongues In Aspic work, and ''Dangerous Curves'' even harks back to the hairier days of In The Wake Of Poseidon.

But, as always, this is never the same band twice. All is fiercely invigorating and seems potent with some form of musical Viagra. ''Facts of Life'' has, without doubt, one of the most explosive pieces of playing by Fripp for a very long time, ''Dangerous Curves'' features the most demonic ending chord - ever and Pat Mastelotto's drums have finally found a place of their own in this framework (a place that many still holdsacrosanct for the mighty Bill Bruford).

With Crimson it's never a return to form. It's just a new way of expressing what Crimson have always been about. On this evidence all the hard work was more than worth it. Simply stunning.

Chris Jones - BBC Review 2002



"The only reward the musician receives is music: The privilege of standing in the presence of music when it leans over and takes unto its confidence. As it is for the audience. In this moment everything else is irrelevant and without power. For those in music, this is the moment when life becomes unreal."

Robert Fripp, 1992

For all his scholarly quips and curmudgeonly demeanor, King Crimson founder and guitarist Robert Fripp has gone to great pains to keep his feet planted firmly on the ground. Unlike some of his first-generation progressive rock peers of the late 60s and early 70s, he never allowed his band to leap into the abyss of new age fantasy or wanky tech-pomp. At all points during Crimson's many-membered lifetime, Fripp has been the model of humble workmanship: You can usually count on him to 1) hate the music business, 2) refuse to rest on his laurels, and 3) practice his guitar. It makes sense that he wouldn't expect much pleasure from record sales or a cult of fans as obsessive as they come - after all, it's the musician's job to strive for excellence in the face of commerce and compromise.

And it shouldn't bother him that during the course of his 35-year, single-minded crusade he's left himself on a desert island with only his comfortable legion of fans and bandmates to keep him company. It's been a few years since he was painting London red with Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and David Bowie, and these days Fripp mostly celebrates advanced middle age with his wife, English garden and the latest version of his storied band. Sure, his records sound more than a little like shadows (albeit of the highest quality) of his classic past efforts, but it's not as if rock history is littered with grandfatherly figures re-inventing the wheel. "Hey man, lay off Fripp - King Crimson is the best prog band ever!" I know it is, I do; I really wish I could get past the irony of a progressive rock band being unable to progress.

The Power to Believe is the band's 13th studio LP, and the third featuring the current lineup of Fripp, Adrian Belew, Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto. Last year, the buzz about this record was that it was going to be the result of Crimson's ear to xFC-metal, and having toured with Tool - in fact, the working title was Nuovo Metal. Last year's Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With EP offered some preliminary tastes of this direction, as did the deluge of recent live releases, including 2001's Level Five, and the Projekcts albums. I'm happy to report that Power is much less awful than that EP, and more consistently interesting than the sprawling live CDs. That said, there is an omnipresent residue of stagnancy that has covered just about everything King Crimson have released since 1995's Thrak, and this record is no less stained.

Fans of the mid-1970s lineup should find the most to enjoy on Power to Believe, as it not only finds King Crimson playing with muscular aggression similar to that period, but also revisiting the group improvisation that set them so far apart from other 70s prog bands. The title suite - arranged in four movements; Fripp still loves the symphonic form - begins and ends as a sort-of haiku verse penned by Belew, but the middle sections are reminiscent of the lengthy excursions from 1992's excellent Great Deceiver box set, of their 1973-74 tours. Exotic percussion (Jaime Muir, where are you?), floating Frippertronics, and fretless basslines (ahem, "Warr guitar") flesh out what seems like very familiar territory.

It is, of course, a credit to the band that they manage to retain the adventurous spirit of past incarnations, whether or not the end result is a tad stale - Fripp's solo on "Part III" is pretty cool, after all, and the driving, minimal "Dangerous Curves" reminds me of "The Talking Drum" from Larks' Tongues, right down to the repeating bassline and ending on a wall of dissonant noise.

The band also throws a few bones to modern electronic music with "Level Five" and "Elektronic". The former tune is a fairly standard instrumental in the style of "Red", or more recently, "Thrak" - though not quite as ferocious as either. However, Mastelotto's drum parts are injected with occasional glitch and Aphex-style stutter, giving the groove a somewhat refreshing (at least for anyone who never heard Aphex) wrinkle. The latter tune fares better, if only because the efforts don't seem like hopeless catch-up exercises. Oh wait, yes they do, because I'm pretty sure those Prodigy beats were stale about six months into 1997. Anyway, the tunes are right on time for Crimson fans, and if you wanted to, you could easily tune out the barely there computer touches.

There are moments without many redeeming qualities: The dad-joke "Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With" survives in full form from its self-titled EP here, and alas, is still embarrassingly out of touch. Likewise, "Facts of Life" features just as clueless a take on metal as the former tune, and Belew's ridiculously holier-than-thou lyrics detailing how "some of us build, and some of us teach" (he forgot the ones who provide public service announcements), and how "nobody knows what happens when you die." These things are "fact[s] of life," he says. Now, if he could only throw in a verse about how "the president thinks he's so smart, but you know what, he's not," we'd be set.

Despite all the unfortunate narrative (which, in itself is reminiscent of most Crimson records) and quaint "updates" in sound, this record should please quite a few fans. Even as my brain tells me that the Crimson well is probably dry, my fist wants to pump during the breakdowns in "Level Five". Fact is, very few bands have a command of their own voice as well as Fripp and Crimson, and I suppose when you've been at it for so long, mastery comes with the territory. I can admit to feeling some of that old Crim magic a few times during Power to Believe, but would be kidding myself if I thought it was as potent a spell as their adventures of yore.

Dominique Leone - March 9, 2003
© 2015 Pitchfork Media Inc.


 
The Power to Believe (2003) marks the return of King Crimson for the group's first full-length studio release since ConstruKction of Light (2000). While it draws upon material featured on the live Level Five (2001) and studio Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With (2002) extended-play discs, there are also several new sonic sculptures included. Among them is the title track, which is divided into a series of central thematic motifs much in the same manner as the "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" movements had done in the past. This 21st century schizoid band ably bears the torch of its predecessors with the same ballsy aggression that has informed other seminal King Crimson works - such as In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), Red (1974), and more recently THRAK (1995). This incarnation of the Mighty Krim includes the excessively talented quartet of Adrian Belew (guitar/vocals), Robert Fripp (guitar), Trey Gunn (Warr guitar/Warr fretless guitar), and Pat Mastelotto (percussion). Under the auspices of Machine - whose notable productions include post-grunge and industrial medalists Pitchshifter and White Zombie - the combo unleashes a torrent of alternating sonic belligerence ("Level Five") and inescapable beauty ("Eyes Wide Open"). These extremes are linked as well as juxtaposed by equally challenging soundscapes from Fripp on "The Facts of Life: Intro" as well as Belew's series of "The Power to Believe" haikus. The disc is fleshed out with some choice extended instrumentals such as "Elektrik" and "Dangerous Curves," boasting tricky time signatures that are indelibly linked to equally engaging melodies. Both "Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With" and "Facts of Life" stand out as the (dare say) perfect coalescence of Belew's uncanny Beatlesque lyrical sense with the sort of bare-knuckled, in your face aural attack that has defined King Crimson for over three decades. If the bandmembers' constant tone probing is an active search to find the unwitting consciousness of a decidedly younger, rowdier, and more demanding audience, their collective mission is most assuredly accomplished on The Power to Believe - even more so than the tripped-out psychedelic prog rock behemoth from whence they initially emerged.

Lindsay Planer - All Music Guide



The Power to Believe is the thirteenth studio album by the band King Crimson released in 2003, a companion to the preceding mini-album Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With (2002). It confirms the band's return to more diverse songwriting and instrumentation, with a greater reliance on space and Soundscapes and with Mastelotto using more ProjeKCt-style percussion textures fused with natural rock drum kits. Songs such as "EleKtrik" and "Dangerous Curves" fuse 1970s, 1980s and 21st century Crimson styles with ProjeKct experimentation and influences from contemporary alternative and progressive music such as Nine Inch Nails, Porcupine Tree and Tool (with whom the band toured in 2001), the album running the gamut from metal to ambient. Alternative versions of "Eyes Wide Open" and "Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With" can be found on the Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With EP. The album reached number one hundred and fifty in the Billboard 200 and Top Internet Albums charts.

Both Level Five and Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With acted as work-in-progress reveals for the album, which Fripp described as "the culmination of three years of Crimsonising". The album incorporated reworked and/or retitled versions of "Deception of the Thrush" ("The Power to Believe III") and four of the EP tracks, plus a 1997 Soundscape with added instrumentation and vocals ("The Power to Believe: Coda"). Lyrics from an Adrian Belew solo song ("All Her Love is Mine") act as a linking theme across the four parts of the title track.

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