THRAK

The first track intro sounds like the intro of Judas Priest's "On the run"! So, a killer guitar announces an aggressive & structured razor album! Well, things don't exactly happen that way: actually, I must admit here that Fripp's guitar sound is better than ever, being very loud and NOT extremely grunge like on the Red album. Unfortunately, he destroys the overall ensemble by often presenting unstructured, dissonant, improvised-like and experimental compositions. As only keyboards notes, a rare floating vintage TV mellotron rides in the background to satisfy the nostalgic listeners.

I like the guitar free progressive part after the third minute of Dinosaur, reminding me Univers Zero and Larry Fast's Synergy. "B'Boom" has a very good demonstration of Bruford's skills, but it starts too slowly with some bizarre sickening psychotic sounds. The guitars and effects on "Thrak" are just simply too aggressive and crazy for nothing: this track approaches the nullity of bands like Alice in chains! There are a few variations on the same theme. The guitar solo on the more rhythmic "People" has a serious lack of melody! "Radio 1" is ridiculously awful and dissonant, while the very better "Radio 2" has a pleasant ethereal ambience, a bit like on Mark Isham's Beast soundtrack. "Sex, sleep, eat, drink, dream" is EXACTLY the kind of music I HATE at its highest level: this track is COMPLETELY incoherent, dissonant and crazy, with TONS of twisted electric guitar sounds: as if all this was not enough, there is a reuse of the modified lead vocals in "21st Century Schizoid Man"!! The last track, "Vroom vroom: coda" is an epitome of dissonance and craziness! That's laughable! I hope the guys do not take themselves too seriously!

Only a few tracks are really worth the WHOLE listen: the very atmospheric bluesy "Walking on air" has an incredible combination of EXTREMELY BOTTOM bass, ethereal floating keyboards, gentle guitars and drums: the lead vocals are impressive too; this track is like a flower that blooms on a concrete surface. There is another very good track in the same genre: "One time", although less catchy and refined than "Walking on the moon", still has this very pleasant bottom bass, a rhythmic guitar a la Chris Isaak and some ethereal mysterious notes in the background. This record is mostly emotionless, unmelodious, and the possibly present harmony is very arguable. The album is very cold. Among the worst Crimson's albums.