Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: King Crimson
Label: Discipline Global Mobile
Released: 2001
Runtime: 128:37
Rating: 5/5
King Crimson are a band that keeps coming back to life in different bodies, no matter what completely different era they find themselves in. Their sound changes shape every time a period produces music that only King Crimson can play, but the soul always stays the same, thanks to their indestructible chieftain, the legendary guitar oddball Robert Fripp. Good old Uncle Bobby, who is usually none too warm toward his audience, has smashed this “small mobile unit” of his to pieces and put it back together again countless times over the decades.
The incarnation of King Crimson that took shape in the first half of the nineties was anything but small, with a full six members. This lineup, popularly known as the “Double Trio,” was officially their fifth since the band was founded on January 13, 1969. The Double Trio was a two-headed rhythm beast made up of two bassists and two drummers, and it was one of the most rhythmically complex lineups in the history of progressive rock and experimental music. This mix of incredible rhythmic discipline and adventurousness had countless parallel rhythmic lines at its disposal, which they mostly laid down through the meanders of chaotic yet always thrilling improvisations. Their greatest achievement is the phenomenal studio album “Thrak” (1995), but if you wanted to feel that most authentic King Crimson energy, you had to listen to their live exploits.
As far as the Double Trio goes, I don’t think there’s a better live pick than the double release “Vrooom Vrooom,” put together from a collection of different live recordings. The first CD features recordings from the live bootleg “Live in Mexico City” (previously available only through online file sharing), while the second holds the live goodies from the bootleg “King Crimson on Broadway” (previously available only to members and special subscribers of the KC fan club). After years of fan demand, the two releases were combined into this excellent live album, which manages to present the Double Trio at the peak of their powers.
The Double Trio was a symphony of the most varied sounds, a nightmare of countless rhythmic possibilities, an unruly mix of discipline, chaos and white-hot energy, a veritable logistical horror story of complexity, and a bridge between two historic periods of the band (1969-1974 and 1981-1984), one that fell apart into various sonic fragments more than once during shows, only to slowly pull itself back together into a tightly knit and disciplined collective. Most of their live performances leaned on material from the eighties and various favorites from the album “Thrak.” The seventies were represented only by a few indispensable KC classics, led by the hellish instrumentals “Red” and “Lark’s Tongues in Aspic (Part II)” and the mother of all drum improvisations, “Talking Drum,” while the early, Sinfield era was routinely ignored. The Mexico recordings contain an exception and one of the biggest live surprises in the history of the Double Trio, as they treat us to the evergreen standard “21st Century Schizoid Man,” the most beloved song in their history. It’s an excellent interpretation, with Adrian Belew on lead vocals for the first and probably last time. Even though nothing beats the original, Ade manages to bring in the necessary paranoia and terror.
The rarer, let’s call them more compact moments (by KC standards, of course) come from several long-time favorites, led by the ever-mysterious “Dinosaur,” the cheeky “Thela Hun Ginjeet,” the nostalgic “Frame By Frame,” the mocking “People,” the paranoid “Elephant Talk” and the refined “Three Of a Perfect Pair.” On the other side, the place is teeming with hellish collective improvisations like “Vrooom Vrooom,” “Coda: Marine 475,” “B’Boom” and “Thrak,” as well as some solo-driven ones, such as “Conundrum,” “Two Sticks” and “Prism” (the original is the work of the well-known Swiss jazz drummer and percussionist Pierre Favre), where their utterly unpredictable and endless sonic dimensions find their fullest expression. On the shorter improvisation “Biker Babes of Rio Grande,” Fripp amuses himself with his trademark soundscapes. Completely different KC qualities blossom on the romantic ballads “One Time” and “Walking On Air” and on the excellent cover of Lennon’s classic “Free As a Bird,” where Ade nails an exquisite vocal approximation of one of his main singing idols. It’s also a rare moment when KC allowed themselves a live cover of another artist (the others being The Beatles classic “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” Donovan’s “Drop In” and Bowie’s “Heroes”).
“Vrooom Vrooom” is a must for anyone who wants to hear the endless, utterly unpredictable sonic dimensions of the two-headed King Crimson rhythm beast embodied by the Double Trio. For all those who have neither the money nor the time to collect a pile of KC live bootlegs from the Double Trio era (and beyond), this excellent double live recording is tailor-made. It’s an album that captures down to the last detail all the best live qualities of this incredible lineup, which combined an abundance of sonic opposites, but in a completely unique King Crimson way. Sadly for many, the most rhythmically ambitious but financially most extravagant version of King Crimson was fated to first fall apart into various fragments, which operated for a while under the name ProjeKcts, and then give way to a more compact form of the KC collective.
Lineup
Robert Fripp – guitar
Adrian Belew – guitar, vocals
Tony Levin – bass guitar, electric upright bass, Chapman stick
Trey Gunn – warr guitar
Bill Bruford – drums, percussion
Pat Mastelotto – drums, percussion
Production
King Crimson
Track list
CD 1: 59:44
VROOOM VROOOM – Live In Mexico City
1. VROOOM VROOOM (5:01)
2. Coda: Marine 475 (2:44)
3. Dinosaur (5:05)
4. B’Boom (4:51)
5. THRAK (6:39)
6. The Talking Drum (4:03)
7. Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part II (6:13)
8. Neurotica (3:40)
9. Prism (4:24)
10. Red (7:03)
11. Improv: Biker Babes Of The Rio Grande (2:27)
12. 21st Century Schizoid Man (7:37)
CD 2: 68:43
ON BROADWAY – Live In New York City
1. Conundrum (1:57)
2. Thela Hun Ginjeet (6:44)
3. Frame By Frame (5:12)
4. People (6:12)
5. One Time (5:52)
6. Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream (4:55)
7. Indiscipline (7:16)
8. Two Sticks (1:50)
9. Elephant Talk (5:14)
10. Three Of A Perfect Pair (4:16)
11. B’Boom (3:47)
12. THRAK (6:43)
13. Free As A Bird (3:03)
