King Crimson - The Road to Red

Well, here it is. The latest King Crimson mega disc box set, The Road to Ruin, I mean Red! After last years epic Larks' Tongues In Aspic box, I didn't think they could top it. But they have. 16 concerts, spread over 20 CD's, plus DVD and two blu-rays and a new stereo mix of the Red studio album, this is the ultimate presentation of the 1974 live band. It's like an expanded Great Deceiver, but with added meat.

Whereas the Larks' box, though great, the audio quality of a lot of the material was sub par, with this box, all the material will be of high quality. David Singleton has spent many hours restoring the audio and I know this set is going to be the perfect testament to my favourite period of King Crimson. Roll on 14th October.

 

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Rush - The Studio Albums 1989 to 2007

At last Vapor Trails is remixed and remastered. Released on its own and as part of the above box set in October, Vapor Trails has, ever since its release, always been held up as the best example of extremely loud mastering, in what has become known as the loudness wars. The band has admitted there were problems during recording and mastering, so hopefully those have been rectified somewhat by this new release.

The box set looks like it takes the same form as the Sector box sets. Each album in its own paper wallet with a separate standalone booklet. October is going to be a busy month!

 

 

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King Crimson - USA (70's Live Album Series)

This one is a favourite. Recorded at one of Crimson's final gigs before Fripp put the band into storage in 1974. Though I had heard Crimson albums in the early 70's this was the first one I bought back in 1975. I didn't know much about the band and found the album cover, like the others I knew; Lizard, In the Court of the Crimson King and Larks' Tongues in Aspic didn't give anything away about what the band looked like.

I loved the glossy album cover. The womans hand holding the metal bar with the bands name and album title stamped on the front was very appealing for some strange reason. Who came up with the idea? On the back were hands (the same woman's?) holding a Kirlian photograph of a hand. What was it all about?

It's easy to forget that Crimson were on Island records along with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. USA had the classic pink palm tree label.

Musically, this album had excellent versions of material from Larks' Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black. In particular, Lament and Easy Money had fine guitar solos. In fact, Easy Moneys mid section solo is amongst Fripp's best. The way it builds up to an exhilarating crescendo, where it sounds as if Fripp has run out of fretboard is spine tingling. But the highlight is the improv, Asbury Park. This is perfect and is my desert island disc Crimson track. Though The Great Deceiver box set showed that the foundations of this improv were laid in earlier pieces, by the time the band got to Asbury Park, the telepathy between the band was such that everything came together to produce an instrumental that sounded more composed than improvised. The combination of guitar, bass, mellotron and drums were all in perfect unison. Absolutely sublime!

The first CD version I had was a bootleg, which was just taken from a needle drop vinyl copy. Eventually a proper CD version taken from the master tapes was released as part of the 30th anniversary series, which also included some bonus tracks. This was originally released as a mini LP papersleeve edition, though it had a gatefold sleeve which the original LP didn't. The version I have is the HQCD Japanese papersleeve version, which is based on Simon Heyworths 30th anniversary remaster. The sleeve does replicate the glossy single sleeve of the LP version and even has a replication of the light blue Island insert sleeve. The booklet is the same as the 30th anniversary edition, though it does also include lyrics.

Another point are the overdubs by Eddie Jobson. Not sure on the reasoning behind this. Maybe the mix wasn't sufficient in the violin and piano department. I have heard the original mix, without the overdubs and prefer the USA version. Maybe that's just familiarity, but Fripp's mix decisions for USA did make a better album. Though The Great Deceiver box set and subsequent archival live releases have presented better live Crimson from that period, USA is the first and is still a special album to me.

Addendum on 3/8/13. Panegyric are releasing a 40th Anniversary edition of USA in October. It will be a CD/DVD package and will include a new hi res mix of the album by Fripp/Singleton as well as the expanded 30th anniversary edition and the original concert without overdubs.

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Gong - Live Etc (70's Live Album Series)

The live album. All the bands in the 70's had them. Whether a single, double or even triple LP, it was the stop gap between studio albums or the contractual obligation filler. There were good ones and bad ones, just like their studio counterparts. Here, I present some of my favourites from that time of excess packaging and too much vinyl.

This first one isn't really a complete live album. Released in 1977, Gong Live Etc, was a 2 LP compilation of live material from 1973 and 1975, BBC sessions and a couple of studio outtakes. I think this was released as a mid price set. If memory serves me right, I think I paid £3.99 when it was released. Belying its mid price tag, the packaging was quite deluxe. The records were each in their own sleeves, which were covered in pictures of the band. These slipped into the single sleeve, where the band pics could be seen through a die cut outer sleeve.

This was my first experience of Gong, though I knew about Steve Hillage, as his star was in the ascendancy in 1977. I loved the jazzy sound of the band with all these synth whooshes and Hillage's soaring guitar, all backed by the excellent Howlett/Moerlen rhythm section.

Virgin have released a CD version back in the 90's, as shown, knocking off one of the studio tracks to fit the album onto a single CD. It doesn't do justice to the original vinyl edition. There were plans, when Angels Egg and You were remastered back in 2004, to reissue Live Etc as a 3CD box set, but there were licensing issues which halted its release. Shame, it's a great album, with some fantastic performances from Gong's wild and wonderful glory days.

 

 

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Anima Mundi - The Lamplighter

Another great find. This band play symphonic prog and hail from Cuba no less. Prog is a world wide phenonomenon indeed! What I love about this band are the bold sounding, sumptuous arrangements based around the vast orchestral keyboards of Virginia Peraza and the fluid guitar lines of Roberto Diaz. This is colourful, energising prog as reflected in the beautiful cover artwork by Ed Unitsky. This is their fourth studio album I believe and I will be searching out the others.

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Trion - Funfair Fantasy

Another great slice of instrumental prog rock. This is the third album from Trion, a sort of side project by members of Flamborough Head and Odyssice. Though to be honest this album is just as good if not better than the members main outfits. The first two albums were released on Malcolm Parkers* excellent Cyclops label. I really liked the homage paid to Roger Dean by the cover design of the first album, even down to the balloon moniker aping Deans flying plane which he uses as his signature. The second album, "Pilgrim" had a cover more in the style of Hipgnosis's "Going for the One". Not sure if the new album is in the style of any established album however. The music though is beautifully realised keyboard and guitar based instrumental music in the style of Camel and Steve Hackett. Nothing too innovative maybe, but very well executed nonetheless.

*I am not overstating the fact that Malcolm Parker is one of the unsung heroes in rejuvenating the profile of progressive rock in the 90's. Through his mail order company GFT and recording label Cyclops, he enabled a whole new generation of bands and artists to be heard. It was the only place I knew where you could get stuff like Spocks Beard, Flower Kings and Anekdoten.

I have fond memories of leafing through his catalogue, stuffed with his comments and recommendations. Then there was his mail shots, sheets of new releases with his typed written comments marked up with his hand written annotations. How he managed to run GFT and the Cyclops label at the same time I don't know. Many times I would phone through an order (this was the pre internet days) for Malcolm to be on the end of the phone taking orders. Usually the order was on my doorstep by the next day. The mail was good in those days too! It was Cyclops who brought us Pineapple Thief, Mostly Autumn, Andy Tillison's pre Tangent Parallel or 90 Degrees, Manning, Citizen Cain and Karda Estra. My personal favourite band was Lands End. I believe the label is still going, but it seems on a much smaller scale. I really do think Prog Magazine should do a profile of the man.

 

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Vangelis - Blade Runner SACD

 

Simply put, Blade Runner is one of the best soundtracks ever produced. Not only is it great music in its own right, but it emphatically is part of the movie. You can't imagine Ridley Scott's future vision of Los Angeles and replicants without Vangelis's beautiful music.

Vangelis is a wonderful synthesist and this is ably demonstrated on this soundtrack where he makes extensive use of the Yamaha CS80 keyboard. This instrument was a favourite of Eddie Jobson too, who used it on both UK albums. This SACD really does bring out all the nuances of Vangelis's recording which he made at his own Nemo Studios in London. This recording is a master class in reverb and all the layers of keyboards and percussion are really well defined. What I found remarkable is, when listening on headphones, how almost 3 dimensional the reproduction is. Kudos to Kevin Gray for producing such an involving, immersive remaster. Praise also to Audio Fidelity who seem committed to the SACD format again. The packaging on this release is not too bad. Nice touch in the red CD, mimicking the recent red vinyl release. Another winner from AF.

 

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