Search - King Crimson :: Thrakattak (Mlps)

Audition before buying...

Zhimbo | New York City | 08/22/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Essentially, this is the middle free improvisation section of Thrak from various concerts strung together into a seamless hour or so of free rock improvisation. If you like Ornette Coleman's free jazz, or some of Sonic Youth's improvisational music from their SYR series, there's a good chance you'll like this. I like both of the above, and find this CD to be not quite of the same caliber musically (it was never intended to be a single composition in the first place), but enjoyable nonetheless.But, there's really no way to guarantee whether you'll like this album (even if you're a KC fan), so I recommend actually hearing it before you buy if possible."

Dark, daring and delightfully demanding

Simon Barrow | Exeter, United Kingdom | 06/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"THRaKaTTaK (let's be pedantic and get the upper and lower case rendition correct) is a full-frontal aural assault on the heinous mediocrities of corporate rock. Robert Fripp and his double-trio thread together an hour of immensely satisfying avant improvisation. This material was recorded at various live King Crimson concerts in 1995. It begins and ends with an account of 'Thrak' from the album of the same name - and in a different guise from the preceding EP, 'Vroom' (1994). In between the received notes we get some idea of just how far this Crimson line-up pushed their experimental mandate. The natural aggression of rock, the instinctive bravery of free jazz and the complex textural interest of contemporary composed musics are all called to mind as Fripp (guitar and electronics), Adrian Belew (guitar and FX), Tony Levin (Chapman stick), Trey Gunn (Warr guitar), Pat Mastelotto (drums) and Bill Bruford (percussion) set to work. The outcome is something far more terrifying and edgy than anything the band has produced in the studio so far - a milestone in improvised rock, and for once something that actually merits the much misused monicker 'progressive'. Many sympathetic to the Crimson cause have argued that the double trio format never really gelled. Mastelotto's muscular drums and Bruford's skittering, angularly metred percussive forays found differentiated but complementary roles; Levin's distinctive stick sound continued to cut through without competition; but the guitar-based musicians sometimes seemed to encroach on each others' accents and harmonic territory a little too much. On THRaKaTTaK, however, they unleashed a sonic force that is undoubtedly greater than the sum of their not inconsiderable parts. A classic in its own right, and one to file in between Ornette Coleman and Glenn Branca. Dark, daring and delightfully demanding."

On a Different Plateau.

nataraxia | New York, NY United States | 11/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Unfortunately, many of those who listen to this album, including fans of King Crimson, will be predisposed to dismiss it as an impromptu, nonsensical array of harsh and annoying dissonance, seemingly without beginning or end, purpose or direction. Granted, there appears to be a fine line between idiosyncratic genius and senendipitous chaos when it comes to a musical treatise such as King Crimson's "Thrakattak." Fortunately, this album transcends the boundaries of such dualistic categorization, and being composed purely of live, improvisational material, it cannot be held to the conventional standard of judgment regarding studio-produced music. King Crimson has always approached music from an experimental point of view, though not necessarily based on raw passion. For the band, it has always been an intellectual journey, an exploration into the kinds of harmonical verisimilitude they can create. If "Discipline" was King Crimson at their pinnacle of controlled virtuosity, "Thrakattak" is an emblem of their musical primordiality, unfettered by convention, tonality or cadence, yet still retaining the ability to keep their atonal manifestations together through technical expertise. Sometimes genius is not understood but posthumously. Beethoven did not come to be appreciated by most people until after his death, for instance. Nevertheless, get this album, and listen to it from beginning to end numerous times - not with an open, forgiving mind, but with a scrupulously critical one. You may or may not be surprised by the amount of characteristic order embedded within the veil of ostensible, harmonic entropy, but you will be surprised, pleasantly or not, by the musical challenge this collection offers, in juxtaposition not only to other KC albums, but to the entire genre of modern music."