Introducing the KC Double Trio to the world
DaveBassTaiko | 07/20/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A must for all King Crimson fans, this is a 'calling card', as the liner notes suggest, a means to introduce King Crimson's Double Trio lineup to the listening audience. The casual listener unfamiliar with Crimson can find plenty here that will open their ears, if they are willing to be receptive, but the real treat is for dedicated Crimson fans: exceptionally tight preliminary readings of four songs that would later appear on the full-length THRAK CD, as well as two other tracks that didn't make it to that disc. As a musician and Crim aficionado, I find that these tracks offer intriguing glimpses of how these songs were interpreted early on. The arrangements are largely similar to the THRAK versions, but the performances of this particular combination of musicians means that the songs not only stand on their own, apart from THRAK, but also reveal how this group can shape and transform compositions over time. The other songs, "Cage" and "When I say Stop, Continue" merit further listening in their own right, and are not mere filler."