THE VROOOM SESSIONS 1994King CrimsonEclectic Prog |
From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website
On this release you can mainly hear improvs and some composed pieces. The title usually explains what you can expect from the song. "Bass Groove" is build around a bass groove, "Monster Jam" starts off as a soundscape but soon builds to a scary, heavy track (like the end of "When I Say Stop, Continue"). "Funky Jam" is funky (just a "Fashionable" by the way)."Slow Mellow" is a nice little tune of guitar and bass. Familiar tracks are "No Questions Asked", which would develop to "Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream" and "One Time", both are without vocals.
This is a good release, even though the tracks are not yet finished or completely worked out. This release does mark the beginning of yet another chapter in the fabulous Crimson history.
Bass Groove is excellent. An insistently galloping bass and percussion lays the groundwork, Fripp and Belew add beautiful frippertronics and guitar-synth soundscapes. It has a really dark and threatening atmosphere, a must for fans of Nebelnest and Nil. Fashionable is a fairly standard funk improvisation. Not bad but not particularly memorable.
Monster Jam. 8.30 essential minutes of dark RIO. Just like the opening tracks this is a must for fans of Univers Zero and Guapo. Beautiful ambient dissonance on pounding tribal beats and dark rumbling bass.
Slow Mellow brings some harmonious comfort after the preceding violence. It's a very warm dialogue between slowly fading guitar chords and bass guitar picking. Krim 3 is more rocking and shows the band improvising with themes that would be used on the forthcoming album. Funky Jam is similar to Fashionable. It's slightly more engaging but still not entirely convincing. Maybe I'm not into funky jams.
No Questions Asked is a premature instrumental version of Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream. Hardly necessary. Both the short soundscape Adrian's Coulds and Calliope, an improvisation around world beats aren't really going anywhere. One Time is an instrumental version of the known song. Perfect for a little karaoke party at home. Booga Looga finds Crimson struggling to get a groove going but it doesn't really happen.
Overall, a good set of instrumental improvisations recorded during sessions predating the Thrak album. They announce much of what would follow on the ProjeKct albums in the second half of the 90's and they offer a glimpse of the darker side of modern Crimson. If they had included When I Say Stop, Continue I could have considered 3 solid stars, but in its actual form, I feel there's a track missing. 3 stars-lite. Not a must.
The jams are very listenable, but many of the "songs" are obviously undeveloped. Not a necessary album to own, but not bad.
"Bass Groove" is exactly what it advertises, with the overall atmosphere being dark and moody, and "Fashionable" is funky and could have fit in on Discipline. "Monster Jam" is too long, but it's a great way for the two drummers to show off. Meanwhile, "Slow Mellow" takes its name too seriously and is an incredibly long three minutes. "Krim 3" is fantastic, with a jagged, bouncy groove. (It was later reworked for an Adrian Belew solo release.)
"Funky Jam" is fantastic, and?wait, I've heard this before! This is the "alternative version" of "Matte Kudasai", isn't it? At least, I thought it was, based on the version of the album I've had on my hard drive since 2010 or so. Was this just mislabeled?
Yes, it was. This is how I found out wherever I got my digital copy of Discipline from had a mislabeled song on it. Well, this is embarrassing. I looked up the real alternate version of "Matte Kudasai", and it's only minimally different from the canonical version. That is to say, I'm still not nuts about it. "Funky Jam" holds up, though, and I'm happy to have some proper provenance on this matter now.
"No Questions Asked" would eventually become "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream", and an early version of "One Time" also appears here. "Calliope" is weird, bouncy, and too long; but it's fun, and another great percussion showcase. The closing "Booga Looga" has a vaguely Western vibe to it, and it's a decent enough cut.
The Vrooom Sessions is a pleasant collection. It's far from essential, but it shows a side of King Crimson's songwriting that isn't just endless, airy improvisation.
Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2024/04/15/deep-dive-king-crimson/
KING CRIMSON The VROOOM Sessions 1994 ratings only
chronological order | showing rating only
- gboland
- brig64 (Igor)
- HongaBlotz
- Lynx33 (Balázs Markó)
- Disconnect (EO)
- Amarok (Tommaso)
- progknight94 (alessandro gambarotto)
- SyrinxTemple
- murrays (Murray)
- al b
- Progvaed (Victor)
- JLAbad
- JohnCarlson (John Carlson)
- Progressive Ghost
- Dreamcow (Dennis Miller)
- Chewie
- Pastichoni (Marco Cayuso)
- Contrina (Ernesto Martin)
- LuKcho (Luís Gomes)
- Glubluk (Glubluk)
- koubi1 (John Koubiadis)
- Anster (Anton Ermakov)
- joseph1962 (Joseph Acocella)
- progjuan (Juan)
- Kaplan (Stéphane Laquerrière)
- zeb1981 (Tom-Erik Løe)
- Zeropikinz (Gleb)
Post a review of KING CRIMSON The VROOOM Sessions 1994
You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.
MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE
As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.
You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).