THE CONSTRUKCTION OF LIGHT

So on this record we lose two instrumental greats, Tony Levin and Bill Bruford, from the lineup.

And with them, the plot, apparently.

If "THRAKK" wasn't dark, metallic and mechanical enough for you, "The ConstruKction of Light" is your album, my guy, especially if you like songs with absolutely no sense, rhyme or reasoning whatsoever.

The album begins with a song called "ProzaKc Blues", which basically sounds like "THRAKK" with a drunk man singing it. Sure, it's meant to be a parody of your typical blues song, but the effect is completely lost. First off, the voice changing thing to sound deeper and more drunk? Not only does that sound stupid and not make sense, but it also make the song feel like the whole band is friggin' drunk, spooling about all over the place throwing random guitar riffs in notes that shouldn't be there. It sounds like they deliberately made a terrible song for a reason, a reason which still eludes me to this day.

The title track returns the "THRAKK" style of dark, mechanical and metallic sound and sort of dithers in atonal patterns for a few minutes before we hear guitar work similar to 80's era Crimson, interlaced and repetitive tonal guitar work, before that breaks down a few minutes later and roughly two minutes before the end, we hear vocals for the first time (and by vocals, I mean just words, basically). It's the most pleasant part of the song and it damn near takes 6 minutes to get there. Way too long and completely unnecessary.

"Into The Frying Pan" starts similarly, but then jumps into a neo-prog pop format and tries to shuffle between interlocked atonal stepwise chord progressions and rock-blues oriented groove patterns. On first listen, it doesn't sound bad, but maybe after a couple of listens you'll get it. And then you listen some more and it just never truly clicks. Then the track ends with some atonal string ensemble for whatever reason and completely destroys whatever groove and feel remained.

It's the same story throughout. "FraKctured" sounds like a busier "ConstruKction of Light" still with no curb appeal. "The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen" is another plodding, mechanical tune with no soul, "Lark's Pt. IV" doesn't have any resemblance to the previous three parts (and yet is still clear and away the best song of the lot simply for the instrumental activity), "Heaven and Earth" is just a 3 minute atmospheric electronic track 4 minutes too long, and if you're lucky to find it, the improv "Mastellotticus" is borderline unlistenable.

This is what happens when a man like Robert Fripp takes absolute control of the direction his music wants to go, and with electronics now making it happen, it becomes soulless, mechanical, passionless. Men like Edgard Varese and Karlheinz Stockhausen had grand visions of music and notes making perfect sense when it all just sounds like a jumbled mess, and Fripp took Crimson to this extent with "THRAKK" and this album.

Plain and simply, it's math music. It's music for mathematicians. Analytically, it's music that will make sense. The symmetry in the rhythms and chord progressions, interweaving and interlaced guitar and bass patterns. Written out on sheet paper, it probably looks magnificent, but tonally it just isn't appealing, and it doesn't make sense. It's a phase contemporary classical music is still trying to dislodge itself from, and a phase I really hope the whole of prog rock never truly falls into.

Pushing boundaries and advancing sounds in music is one thing, but if you can't make it appealing to listeners, who's going to notice such achievements? That's what made "Sgt. Pepper" a landmark album for the Beatles. That's what made "Court of the Crimson King" and landmark album for progressive music in general. It's not an easy thing to do, but it's been done many times before.