IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

Right down to the title, this one screams copycat sequel, and for half an album, that's pretty much the formula. For the other half, KING CRIMSON provides strong hints as to their direction for the next couple of years. The group was imploding, members were abandoning the project and shifting roles, and critical underpinnings of the prior masterpiece were crumbling. The readily accessible yet dark foreboding of "In the Court" would run its course here, and KC would never be the same,

Apart from the 30 second introduction of the "Peace" theme, Side 1 is a track by track analog to Side 1 on the debut. "Pictures of the City" is this album's "Schizoid Man", but not nearly as groundbreaking or hard hitting. Michael Giles remains on drums but the trebly quality of his kit is gone, replaced by a more guttural timbre. He nonetheless remains as prominent. In "Cadence and Cascade" we have a more terse statement of the "I Talk to the Wind" theme, with Gordon Haskell having stepped in as short lived vocalist. While it could not match the original for sheer psychedelic bliss, to me it's an equal. The title cut is this recording's "Epitaph", and in some respects exceeds that cut, thanks to an even more majestic middle mellotron theme. The ending is somewhat drawn out, but suggests the sea as an infinite source of life, inspiration, and death.

Side 2 begins and ends with instrumental and more vocal recapitulation of the acoustic "Peace" themes respectively, but in between we are offered the new, less democratic direction for KC under Robert Fripp. "Cat Food" is a quaint mixture of rock and roll tickled by Keith Tippet's piano work, but ultimately lightweight compared to what we are used to. "The Devil's Triangle" is mellotron gone awry, ostensibly in the service of Holst's "Planets", and seems to be at least in part a parting shot by Ian McDonald. Both of these tracks point to what would be somewhat better developed on "Lizard".

Apart from "Cadence" and the title song, this isn't an album to come back to a whole lot. Even if it had been first out of the gate, it lacks the cohesion of "In the Court.." , while its second side sacrifices craftsmanship for virtuosity and gimmickry, which makes an ocean of difference.