PROJEKCT X: HEAVEN AND EARTH

Although I'm not an expert in describing musical style, the style here in this record is more noisy in the artful way in which King Crimson is adept at using it-- perhaps somewhat like the mismash of live improvisations in the Thrakattak album, but more coherent and with more direction/purpose to the improvs. At the same time, there is an electronic/dance feel to a lot of the music, reminiscent of the Satori in Tangier from the Beat album and of the second half of the album, Three of A Perfect Pair. The best song on the album is the title track, Heaven and Earth, which (as another reviewer has stated) also made it onto the ConstruKction of Light album. I also personally like The Business of Pleasure, because it has an industrial feel to it.

I believe that someone on the DGM website wrote a review of this album, and I'm essentially echoing his or her sentiment in the following statement: There are a lot of great songs on here, but this album could have used some cleaning up. If it HAD been cleaned up, then it would have been considered one of King Crimson's very finest albums. The first four songs are very good. There are four songs which could have used (more) editing. I'll detail these below.

Strange Ears (Aging Rapidly) is only okay. Near the middle, it loses the listener's interest. It's a 9+ minute song. It could have been cut down.

Six O' Clock sounds a bit like Demolition (also on this album). From the Six O' Clock jam, you can definitely hear a similarity to parts of Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part IV as well as The World's my Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum (both from the ConstruKction of Light album (which was recorded at the same time)). Unfortunately, it is basically the same riff for most of the song. About 2.5 minutes into it, it starts to get a bit repetitive.

Superbottomfeeder is another long song. The riff from The World's my Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum also makes an appearance in this song. Superbottomfeeder is arguably a bit repetitive after the first five minutes or so. During the last part of the song, things get too wild, at least for me. The rhythm gets kind of messed up-- like out of sync for certain instrumental parts. The percussion tries to hold things together for a while, but basically gives up before resuming. I think this really should have been edited.

Demolition is a jam based on the main riff from The World's my Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum. It's main fault is that it's seven minutes long and based just on that one riff, which repeats over and over again. So yeah, it's repetitive. Again, this could have been easily fixed by shortening it.

Despite my noted gripes above, this album is considerably more listenable, interesting, fluid, and forward-looking than is ConstruKction of Light. I give this album ~3.7 stars. I'm rounding up.