IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

Structurally, Wake is nearly identical to Court, despite there being quite a bit of churn in the band's lineup. Such instability would be a recurring theme of these early releases. 

Wind/keys player Ian McDonald quit after King Crimson's US tour, citing a distaste for the harshness of the music, and drummer Michael Giles would leave after recording the album. (Fun fact: McDonald would eventually go on to co-found Foreigner, playing on their first three albums.) Fripp offered to leave the band, if it would convince McDonald and Giles to stay, as he considered the band more important than himself; but those two insisted that Fripp was more important to the band's continued existence than they were.

Greg Lake was on his way out of the band to join Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer, but he still provided vocals on all but one song. Though he sang, Lake did not play bass on Wake. Instead, Peter Giles was invited back to the band. Fripp provided most of the keyboards, except for piano, which was played by Keith Tippett. Wind instruments are less prominent on this album, but when they do show up, they're played by prolific prog saxophonist Mel Collins.

Wake features three brief, quiet pieces (or should I say, "peaces"?). The first of these, "Peace - A Beginning", is ultimately forgettable. What follows is "22nd Century Schizoid Man"--sorry--"Pictures of a City (Including "42nd at Treadmill")", a heavy, jazzy, sax-forward song with an extended, frenetic instrumental midsection. It's decent enough, but it pales against its obvious progenitor.

"Cadence and Cascade" is a gentle acoustic ballad, and it is the one song here sung by someone other than Greg Lake. As far as ballads go, it's not bad, but it is completely opposite the style most people associate with King Crimson. 

The title track is this album's answer to "Epitaph". Mellotron and acoustic guitar alternate to give a sense of  richness and pared-back austerity, and Lake's vocals are impassioned. It might be a little longer than it needs to be, but I like it a lot.

Side two opens with the brief acoustic instrumental "Peace - A Theme". Again, it's fine, but unnecessary. This leads into the oddball, jazzy "Cat Food", which was released as a single. King Crimson actually went on Top of the Pops to perform (or mime, more accurately) this song. It has a weird catchiness, and the chorus is pretty strong. This composition seems like a precursor to the direction King Crimson would take in the '80s: there's a definite pop slant to it, but it's still plenty strange.

(A slightly shortened version of "Cat Food" was released as a single, and it was backed with the B-side "Groon", which is even jazzier and more dissonant than its A-side. This instrumental feels somewhat analogous to the extended instrumental section of "Moonchild", albeit noticeably more fun. That is to say, it is an ultimately unnecessary improvisational instrumental.)

Following "Cat Food" is the 11-minute instrumental "The Devil's Triangle ("Merday Morn", "Hand of Scerion", "Garden of Worm")". This piece evolved out of the band's interpretation of the "Mars, the Bringer of War" section of Gustav Holst's The Planets, which was a mainstay of their early live shows. I've heard some recordings from their 1969 concerts where they played "Mars", and it is an amazing, snarling, metallic assault.

The version on Wake, though, has a long, slow fade-in, and drums and Mellotron are the primary instruments for most of its runtime. It swirls and swells and evokes the harsh polytonality of the orchestral original. In the end, despite all the grandiosity and bluster, its finale feels somewhat anticlimactic. Guitar and bass are too minimal, and there's not enough textural variation. It's a soup of various keyboard tones.

The album ends on "Peace - An End", another short piece. This one, though, combines Lake's vocals from "Beginning" and Fripp's comforting acoustic guitar from "Theme".

If you can't tell, In the Wake of Poseidon isn't my favorite King Crimson album. It's not their worst, but it might be their most disappointing. This is definitely the least-creative the band ever was, as they effectively just made an inferior knock-off of their debut.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2024/04/15/deep-dive-king-crimson/

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