Netting the monster
undeletablearchive | Hove, East Sussex United Kingdom | 05/21/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The second record from King Crimson Ver 4.0 (4.1, I guess, with the departure of Levin/Bruford) is harder, heavier and just plain better than Thrak, making no commercial concession at all. And a good thing too. More than any other KC record except Red, this one is dominated practically front-to-back by guitar: specifically, guitar arpeggios. Climbing arpeggios, descending arpeggios. Distempered, bloody-minded, unpretty arpeggios with weird geometries and disorienting time signatures. Wow, you think, Fripp's on form here. However, apart from brilliantly and idiosyncratically defining a uniquely Crimsonian musical architecture, these rapid, flashing nets of notes seem to act like constraints to stop too much chaos, too much anger bursting out. Robert Fripp has always seemed to be a man with something he's afraid of saying, perhaps because it's too primal, too dangerous. Nevertheless, KC are always implying it and promising it, which, throughout their history, makes for fascinating but frustrating listening. While `ConstruKction of Light' is powerful, heavy, elegant, streamlined and beautiful, you are always waiting for Robert to JUST LET RIP. Funnily enough, it's Belew who really lets it out here with impassioned and moving singing about depression/state of the world. It's his best vocal and lyrical performance by some distance. Behind him is the monster Fripp, frequently stirring but not yet ready to destroy the world. This man has the potential to make Voodoo Chile, Anarchy in the UK, and every other `raw energy' piece sound like S-Club 7 if he so chooses; and that's what I'm still waiting for."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1