STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK

Don't let 'em fool you. The many improvisations that'll be found on this album (usually slightly embellished in the studio) do not make it inferior, because they're all first rate. When you put Fripp, Wetton, Bruford and Cross together on a stage, sparks did not necessarily fly, but this album captures moments when they did. No, the most serious problem with STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK is that 'a heap of fascinating snippets do not an album make'. There's a disjointed feel to the thing. Now that most of the same music can be heard in its original context (and unembellished) on superior live albums such as THE NIGHT WATCH (Live in Amsterdam) and THE GREAT DECEIVER (4-CD live box set), I'd advise new fans to go for those TRUE live versions straightaway.

However, I understand many of you will still be interested in STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK. You may want to know in what format this music was originally released. So if you insist on getting the album, let me just tell you this: I can't think of any Crimso ballad that's lovelier than 'The Nightwatch'; there's probably no Crimso improv lovelier than 'Trio'; and as for 'Fracture', well, that's ominous, high-class instrumental prog with an orchestral feel, which (in my view) surpasses the middle section of '20st Century Schizoid Man'.

Did you ever long for a four-man rock band who - occasionally - seem to equal (in symphonic power) the Concertgebouw Orchestra or the Berlin Phil? Well here they are.

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