MCDONALD & GILES

When I heard about the existence of this album in the 70´s I knew I had to get it, since I was a huge fan of King Crimson and In The Court Of The Crimson King is definitly one of my favorite CDs of all time. It took me a long, long time to finally put my hands on one copy of Mcdonald & Giles (already the CD version in the early 90´s). It was some disapointment! Maybe my expectations were very high after all those years. The fact is: what made King Crimson MK I so great was the chemistry between all band members, not one or even two specific guys, no matter how talent each one was as individuals.KG was bigger than the sum of its parts.

And definitly, there are some missing parts here. The vocals are very weak (not a Greg Lake or even a Gordon Haskell in sight...). The guitar parts are nonexistent (man.. do I miss Robert Fripp!). Of course everything is well done and the playing is good, the music in general is nice, but some parts are simply silly and pointless. The best tracks are Birdman and Suite in C. If you are a fan of jazz and 60´s psychodelic influenced jams, welcome. But this is not my cup of tea.

Production is only average and my CD version sounds poor, so I really don´t know if there is a better, remastered version available. Be aware.

Not really a bad record, but this is not the kind of CD I wanted to hear, specially when there are so many talented people involved. Mcdonald & Giles? I expected more. For collectors and fans only.