BEAT

"Beat" is the second of the "guitar gamelan" trilogy from the early 80s, featuring the foursome of Fripp, Belew, Levin, and Bruford. Like its predecessor, it's a combination of volcanic instrumentals and powerful pop songs; here, the difference between the Fripp-led and Belew-led songs is much more discernable than in the first album, mostly. As others have pointed out, Bruford uses much more synthesized drumming in this album than in anything he's done before, relying heavily on his "Octopus" drum kit of the time built around an array of Simmons drums and percussion devices. Levin continues to switch between stick and bass guitar, sometimes using both in the same song. Both Belew and Fripp continue to explore the various uses of guitar synths. One of the biggest attractions of this album is Belew's success in finding his own vocal style instead of channeling David Byrne, as he so often did on the first album.

"Neal and Jack and Me" is a lovely midtempo piece built around Fripp and Belew's doubled guitar interlacings, with a sinuous rhythm underlying the guitar crafting. ; an obvious predecessor to the more successful "Three of a Perfect Pair." "Heartbeat" is one of this band's few direct attempts to garner some radio play, a melodic, rather straighforward ballad built around Belew's chiming, twangy guitar. The slinky, North African-sounding "Sartori in Tangier" gives insight into Levin's abilities on the Chapman stick, showing his chops as not only a bassist, but a third guitarist capable of adding to the guitar structures of Fripp and Belew. (Later Trey Gunn's Warr guitar would explore this territory even more deeply.) The first side of the LP (CDs hadn't come out yet!) ends with the percussion-driven "Waiting Man," a herky-jerky, back-and-forth bit that wouldn't actually come together for the band until later on, when they would improve upon it in live performances.

Side Two opens with the screaming, urban-jungle "Neurotica," with an urgent spoken-word vocal over "Indiscipline"-like drums and tight chording and staccato solos from the guitars. "Two Hands" is a beautiful, airy love song, with soaring bass and guitars over a subdued African percussion beat. "The Howler" harks back a bit to the dark, menacing sound of the 70s iteration of the band, ending with a rare, truly frenzied organ solo from Fripp. Last is the first real improv from the band on either album, the dark, slowly building "Requiem," based on a disturbing Fripp guitar figure, throbbing bass, and howls of Belew feedback building to a classically monomaniacal ending.

Though the album grows on the listener with repeated playing, it's certainly not as cohesive as "Discipline," and because of the fact that the first album gave us fair warning of what to expect from this new lineup, doesn't stun us with the fresh sound of the original album. Also, there are no real standouts on this album, no songs that reach out and demand your attention and awe. Some people look at this album as the leftovers from the first album not worthy of inclusion on that disc; I wouldn't go that far, but it is definitely true that those who didn't particularly like "Discipline" really won't like this second offering. (It's worth noting that during the tour for this album, the band continued to play all seven tracks from "Discipline," and salted in perhaps 4 songs from this album along with the two instrumental assaults, "Red" and "LTA II" from the 70s lineup. As the band continued into the 90s, the material from this album was almost completely absent from its playlists.)

Overall, a good continuation of the 80s foursome, but an album that breaks little new ground, and not one that a casual fan would rush to buy, and one that hasn't worn as well over the last two decades.