Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: King Crimson
Label: Discipline Global Mobile
Released: 2003
Rating: 5/5
»EleKtrik: Live in Japan« is a live album the British prog-rock champions King Crimson recorded on their 2003 Japanese tour, when they were promoting their then-current studio effort »The Power to Believe« (2003). Performances from »The Power to Believe« and »The ConstruKction of Light« (2000) dominate, with the sole exception of the ballad »One Time«, which originally appeared on »Thrak« (1995). Nobody who knows the character and body of work of these legendary prog pioneers should be too surprised that you won’t find a single long-standing classic among the tracks on »EleKtrik«, because King Crimson do everything they can to avoid playing them, and with that the danger of sliding into some predictable live routine. At gigs the last two studio albums normally take priority, while they only rarely remember the creations that came about more than two decades earlier. So for anyone familiar with their long-standing philosophy, the absence of King Crimson evergreens on »EleKtrik« simply can’t be counted as a minus.
The band’s chieftain, the brilliant and eccentric guitarist Robert Fripp, a living legend of prog rock and, alongside Brian Eno, probably the greatest musical innovator when it comes to building ambient sonic curtains, which he himself calls ‘soundscapes’, is after all a hard-nosed dictator who never tolerated any deviation from strict order and discipline, and indifference toward older material at current live shows is just one of his ‘ten commandments’. The other three (American) members of the King Crimson lineup, which worked in the studio and on stage from 1999 to 2004, were very well aware of this. You can hear it in every live performance on this recording, where, except in the middle of individual improvisations, i.e. exactly where Fripp always encouraged his own creativity and the free flow of ideas, they stick strictly to the prescribed rhythmic forms, which are at all times in perfect harmony with the melodramatic sonic waves of the stern guitar commander.
For the brilliant American guitarist and singer Adrian Belew, the only man who has stuck it out with Fripp as a long-time King Crimson member, on and off, for more than three decades, and even that mostly thanks to his boundless lucidity and peculiar sense of humor, this gig was yet another new challenge, one where he deftly spread his exceptional vocal talent around and went wild with guitar improvisations, not skimping on his trademark sound effects, with which he conjures up all kinds of, usually quite absurd, noises. The killer rhythm section, made up of Belew’s American peers, bassist, Chapman Stick and Warr guitar player (an instrument related to the Stick) Trey Gunn and drummer Pat Mastelotto, was once again hard at work at full steam that night and proved one more time why it’s considered the hardest-hitting one in this legendary band’s history.
»Introductory Soundscape«, Fripp’s mellifluous opening wall of sound, which feels like the slow, gentle stretching of silk thread, flows via a short a cappella »The Power to Believe« into the brutal instrumental »Level Five«, where math metal, avant-garde and fusion join hands and lead the listener, on the ambient side, into the merciless world of unfeeling neoliberalism, ruled by the laws of capital and where, under the watchful eye of Big Brother, man is forever a wolf to man. »ProzaKc Blues«, the first vocal number of the night, on which a ‘sleepy and grumpy’ Belew once again delights as an exceptional vocal improviser, aptly carries on the pulse of everyday life of the little schizoid man of the 21st century. The chemistry between all four members and the level of the individual improvised passages is simply astounding, and in that respect it faithfully continues the fine, long-standing King Crimson tradition.
»EleKtrik« and »Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With«, which also came out as an EP in 2002, likewise come across, in their brutal ambient confessions of the desperate emptiness of today’s little man, as successful upgrades of both studio versions. »One Time« is the only ballad on this recording, and with its melancholic nature it softens the post-apocalyptic, hellish mood that reigns through most of the performances a bit. On »EleKtrik« King Crimson play nearly the entire studio masterpiece »The Power to Believe«, as they go on to deliver thrilling takes on the merciless social satire »Facts of Life«, the title-track classic and the killer instrumental »Dangerous Curves«, which, alongside »Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part IV)«, is one of the peaks of the night. To close out the recording, the cult foursome picked »The World’s My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum«, one of their most avant-garde achievements ever, where the main ‘star’ is Belew with a splendid vocal performance, one in which most singers, thanks to the gut-long song title and key line, would have long since tied their tongues in knots, while his totally bonkers electric guitar solos are a real treat for all lovers of great guitar improvisers.
»EleKtrik: Live in Japan« may well be the best official live document we have of what is very likely the last live incarnation of the legendary King Crimson, a band that always sounds even better on stage than in the studio. After listening to »EleKtrik«, which belongs to the elite of their best live albums, the thought that King Crimson more or less stopped playing live after 2004 leaves a bitter aftertaste: because of Fripp’s moodiness and egocentrism (the reasons for his recent musical inactivity are, as usual, banal) they called it a day far too early, even if they’d only stayed active as a live band.
Lineup
Adrian Belew – guitar and vocals
Robert Fripp – guitar
Trey Gunn – Warr guitar
Pat Mastelotto – drums and percussion
Production
King Crimson
Tracklist
1. Introductory Soundscape
2. The Power to Believe (Part I: A Cappella
3. Level Five
4. ProzaKc Blues
5. EleKtriK
6. Happy With What You Have to be Happy With
7. One Time
8. Facts of Life
9. The Power to Believe (Part II: Power Circle)
10. Dangerous Curves
11. Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part IV)
12. The World’s My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum
