RED

King Crimson

Eclectic Prog

4.57 | 3829 ratings

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Sorry, when it comes to King Crimson, I'm so totally bias and in love with the band I can't give a fair and balanced opinion of Red. Starless is 12 minutes of insanity. If it's not the greatest song ever written I don't know what is. Epitaph? The Mellotron opening of Starless with the solo electric guitar and then Mel Collins sax work joining in after John Wetton's opening words in the slow build of the song, gets to me. When the singing stops you get the solo bass and then the electric guitar repeating the same riff again and again as it gets louder and louder. For the first time you notice the delicate drum work of Bill Bruford. A bridge of guitar and sax relieves the tension as we move to the final section of the song with improvised playing of cymbals, McDonald's alto sax and Mellotron as the main melody line is reprised. The song may stop there but the music is still resonating between my ears afterwards.

The instrumental, Red, opens with a thunderous blast of distorted guitars and aggressive drums from Bill Bruford, whose drumming is exceptional. It becomes really menacing in the middle section with more distorted guitars, then changing back into the main theme at the end. The tone of the album switches to a great ballad in Fallen Angel, beginning pleasantly enough with John Wetton's voice and some nice oboe playing from Robin Miller before getting menacing like the first track in the middle and then back to the main chorus at the end.

One More Red Nightmare is one of King Crimson's most aggressive, heavy tracks. Very jazzy with lots of guitar effects, lovely alto sax work from Ian McDonald and some of Bill Bruford's best drumming, it all comes to an abrupt halt just as you're getting into the swing of the guitars, sax work and drums. Providence is a slow instrumental piece. Very avant-garde it begins atmospherically with David Cross's solo violin and sound effects, builds into rhythmic drums as the drums interplay with the violin and then as the drums die down there a nice exchange between bass and violin.

Red is King Crimson at their most heaviness, most avant-garde and a little difficult to get into at first, at least on the few spins until it starts to open up to the listener, at which point it rewards you with some of the most inspirational music Robert Fripp ever wrote. It harks back to the stunning debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, in terms of music which treads its own path away from the mainstream and challenges musicians to think outside the square in coming up with fresh sounding music that challenges again. After this album Robert Fripp disbanded King Crimson and started working with other musicians like David Bowie and Brian Eno for new inspiration. In that regard Robert Fripp was always one step ahead of the game. He reminds me of present day, Steven Wilson, always wanting to stay fresh and relevant and abreast of musical developments. When you work with the same musicians all the time within a band, you often go stale and repeat yourself, one of the worst traps of the musician. That was never the way Robert Fripp worked.

iluvmarillion | 5/5 | 2020-8-10

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