IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

My 40th Anniversary Serie version. After buying King Crimson their legendary debut album (from 1969) in the mid-Seventies I was in Prog Heaven, and soon decided to buy more King Crimson, hoping for more Mellotron drenched prog like in the awesome and pivotal titletrack. So I bought In The Wake Of Poseidon, the successor of ITCOTCK and released in 1970. Well, for me it was a musical confrontation with very mixed feelings. On one hand typical KC prog like Pictures Of A City (the famous Fripperian 'gentle chainsaw' sound, along strong interplay between saxophone, guitar and a powerful rhythm-section, in the vein of 21st Century Schizoid Man) and the wonderful Cadance And Cascade (dreamy with warm vocals by guest Gordon Haskell and fragile piano, acoustic guitar and flute, by Mel Collins). And especially the compelling titletrack featuring warm vocals from Greg Lake and glorious Mellotron violins delighted me, what a breathtaking symphonic rock! But on the other hand I noticed the first strong efforts in the realm of experimental prog by King Crimson: freaky piano by Keith Tippett in the 'anti-single' Cat Food (in 1970 even playbacked in Top Of The Tops) and an avant-garde undertone in the Bolero-like The Devil's Triangle (3 parts). Fripp his use of the unsurpassed Mellotron (violin ? and brass section) is captivating, but for me a bit too close to cacaphonic in part 2 and 3. Personally I can't stand that huge difference between 24-carat symphonic rock and experimental so this second musical encounter with King Crimson turned out to be pretty disappointing.

The 3 bonus tracks on this CD are Groon (dreamy with twanging acoutic guitar getokkel and beautiful vocals), Peace ? An End (jazzy and experimental in an 'alternate mix') and Cadence & Cascade (with Greg Lake as the singer).

The DVD contains the 10 tracks of the original LP in 3 versions: DTS 5.1 Digital Surround, PCM Stereo 2.0 (24/48) and '30th anniversary remaster' from the original 1970 stereo mix. Also included are 12 extra tracks, like different versions of Groon and Cadence & Cascade. The 16-page booklet contains also this time very interesting information by KC connaisseur Sid Smith, along nice studio pictures from the band members.

My rating: 3,5 star.

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