LIZARD

My favourite KC album by some distance. This one is their least 'rocky' and probably the most difficult to get into. At times it sounds utterly chaotic with sudden changes in style and tempo. There's also an awful lot going on in this record with an almost uncountable number of instruments. I bet they wished they had 48 tracks to play with rather than the 16 while recording in 1970. Is it just me, or do all KC albums save the dark and threatening track for the opener? 'Cirkus' begins off nicely enough, then a big ugly mellotron rears it's head immediately followed by a doom laden bass. Fripp does some serious Flamenco style finger plucking on acoustic guitar which adds to the clash of styles present. Oh - and I reckon it's 'Cirkus' with the letter 'k' for King to go along with the 'c' for Crimson. That annoyed me for months before working it out! They always seem to be playing with those K&C letters.

'Indoor Games' is about as straight as things get and would probably have been the only possible choice as a 7"single.

'Happy Families' has some crazy filter through the vocals and again with lots going on in the background and a lot of stereo panning.

'Lady Of The Dancing Water' is somewhat similar to 'I Talk to the Wind' on their first album.

The main highlight is the side long title track which comes in at a whopping 23 minutes. Entirely scored with no Crimprovisation. Another head is reared during this tune - this time it's the ugly head of Jon Anderson of 'Yes' fame. Thankfully he doesn't sound out of place - but he must have wondered what the hell he'd let himself in for. Robert Fripp's guitar disappears after the first few minutes, then everything but the kitchen sink gets thrown in. There's a lot more Jazz than Rock on 'Lizard'. I get the impression Robert Fripp doesn't really like this record and it's also done poorly for them in royalties and sales but I think it's a brilliant experimental success despite the continual implosion of the band.