Discipline

Having been recommended ‘Red’ by my guitar teacher, I decided to try out this album too! I first came across this album whilst reading an interview with a member of Tool, I can’t remember if it was the drummer or guitarist, anyway, he noted this as being one of his favourite albums. Listening to a few of tracks, the influence on Tool is undeniable; indeed, some sections seem to be lifted directly from a Tool album, although obviously it’s the other way around! Despite being a guitar-driven band, King Crimson features vocals in some form (spoken words, singing, unusual vocal patterns etc) on all of the songs on this album, apart from its title track and the penultimate ‘Sheltered Sky,’ which is pretty unusual for this band as they tend to leave out vocals altogether, to concentrate on instrumentals instead. Another musical aspect than immediately grabs you about this album is the importance of the bass, or its prominence in the songs. I use the term bass guitar loosely as I’m sure they are using an unusual bass or equivalent, the name escapes me! Some songs almost have the bass and the guitar swapping roles almost (the bass soloing/leading and the guitar providing the customary ‘bass role’ of a rhythmic canvas). This is also a pretty short, succinct prog album coming in at just over 38 minutes (not counting the bonus track) and its all the better for it, (only two tracks are significantly longer than 5 minutes!) There is little wasted motion and no long-winded, drawn-out boredom often associated with prog rock. The songs themselves are absolute classics, and are as quirky and different as they are fun to listen to. ‘Elephant Talk’ has an almost ‘cocky’ (for lack of a better term) vocal delivery, a bouncy rhythm and will have fans of all instruments, desperately trying to figure out how they got that elephant noise! ‘Discipline’ is what a sci-fi soundtrack should sound like – futuristic, and it’s brother ‘Indiscipline’ is plain chaotic! ‘Matte Kudasai’ and its alternative version which is a bonus track (one of the few completely justified, non-filler bonus tracks I’ve heard in a long time) are both beautiful pieces of music. As much of a niche genre prog rock is made out to be, I find this album to be pretty accessible and a great advert for this type of music, I'm glad I read that Tool interview!

OK, confession time first. I was first year student at Liverpool University in the spring of 1970. Visiting a friend in one of the halls of residence, one of the other people who lived on his corridor came in and said "You absolutely have to hear this". (Since he was a second year medic and had mutton chop sideburns he was obviously *really* cool). What he played was "21st Century Schizoid Man" off "In the Court of the Crimson King", and I was absolutely blown away by it. (Mind you, his opinion was that the rest of the album wasn't worth listening to, which I agreed with - but only after after going out and buying it and listening to it a few times - to the extent that I didn't buy any more King Crimson albums). So that was my first encounter with King Crimson. A couple of years later I went to see them play live in the students union in Liverpool and was again blown away (but not to the extent that it made me go out and buy any more of their albums. Oh, and I could have done without Fripp doing a rather extended guitar noodle, sitting on a stool while the rest of the band buggered off. Not as bad as a drum solo, I admit, but still a bit dull). And that was it, really, until 2010. I knew they carried out recording, but to be honest I never could summon up the enthusiasm to buy any more of their albums, and I didn't know anybody else who had, and I wasn't going to risk buying another album that contained all that whimsical semi-folky psychedelic claptrap that marred the rest of the album that I had bought). Of course, given the number of personnel changes that King Crimson underwent in that time, the likelihood that things would stay the same were pretty minimal, but hey, you can never be too careful, can you? Forty years on, it occasionally pays to revisit your old prejudices. I decided it was finally time to have another go at King Crimson and see if they improved (or lived up to that first promise that had blown me away) over the rest of their recording career and through their changes of line-up. And boy, did they. This is a great album; as others have remarked in these reviews, at times you could be listening to Talking Heads or an album off the RealWorld label, and none the worse for that. So, if like me, you are prejudiced against King Crimson on the basis of some of their early stuff, get over it and give this a listen. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

So says Adrian. I do remember one thing from the early 80s when this album came out; I remember thinking, God I've never heard music like this before. Well that was 30 years ago and it still sounds absolutely brilliant. Superb musicians - really superb - and brilliant song-writing: 7 tracks all completely different and not a duff moment at all. There's a reviewer on here who gave this one star because it sounds like Talking Heads. Well, yes: Remain in Light and Discipline go together as the two albums that went furthest in bringing disparate genres together (rap, dance, post-punk, african, rock, techno). Discipline and Remain in Light are two of the best pop/rock albums ever made. If you've not heard this album you're really lucky - a bit like if you've not read the Brothers Karamazov, eaten Gloucester Old Spot pork or been to Munich. A very big treat awaits you.

It's an album from the eighties' line-up of King Crimson. Consequently it ventures nowhere near the usual mindless fodder perpetuated by the media. Eight tracks, including an alternative version of track 3, are all you get. But if you like unclassifiable, quirky prog rock that alternates between the beautifully melodic to the chaotically atonal.....then this could be for you! Typically, you won't get to know this album after one listening for there are complex strata to be delved - all of which underpinned by Fripp's unique and masterful guitar playing throughout. As you'd expect, there are highly valid contributions from Brufford and Belew as well, while Levin's vocal abilities really come to the fore on the track, Matte Kudasai.

Great music. Well packaged and fast delivery.

Un gran disco de los Crimson. Continúan asombrándonos. Muy recomendable.

Burn precio.

super cd envoi impeccable et soigné à recommander.

Artikel einwandfrei

Good cd