THE NIGHT WATCH

"The Night Watch" by King Crimson is a live record from a gig in Amsterdam back in 1973, featuring the classic Wetton-era line-up. Most of the reviews I've read describes this work as a masterpiece, a definitive gem of King Crimson live material: I agree to some point, finding all tracks on cd1 very powerful and convincing, even the improvised number called "Improv: Starless and Bible Black". And that's it

However there in lies a problem: disc 2, not catastrophic, but honestly speaking quite weak, both the tunes from "Larks' tounges in aspic" and especially the improvisation and the BAD version of "21st century schizoid man", absolutely WEAK.

The downside of this release is absolutely evident in comparison with other live releases from this incarnation of King Crimson: "USA" and the fantastic 4 cds "The Great Deceiver" in which the improvvisation is almost always STUNNING.

Another bad element is technical problems afflicting mellotrons, which in some points are out of tune and in other tunes don't even make a sound ( "The Night Watch").

So in the end this album is not absolutely bad...not their best live album for sure, for anyone interested in this period live albums I recommend again "The Great Deceiver" vol.1 and 2:much, much better.

3.5 stars.