LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC

Robert Fripp's ability to incorporate new musicians and yet always sound like King Crimson is significant to say the least. On the other hand, even without elements so present in previous works, such as Mel Collins' saxophone on "Island", the feeling is that the absences are not missed. Everything changes to remain the same seems to be the motto, and "Larks' Tongues in Aspic", the band's celebrated fifth album, confirms this, with a forcefulness that comes close to the brilliance of the debut "In the Court of the Crimson King".

The novel sounds of the kalimba, African-rooted percussion played by newcomer Jamie Muir, Fripp's distorted and pioneering metal guitars, the haemorrhagic drumming of ex-Yes drummer Bill Bruford, and the debut violin of David Cross, come together at the very beginning of the album, in the extensive "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One" to structure a proposal that knows no labels and constantly redesigns its own musical cosmos, where there is room for the also recently incorporated John Wetton to deploy his melancholic voice in affable melodies, as in the brief and arpeggiated "Book of Saturday", or in the tenebrous and at the same time beautiful "Exiles", one of the album's great moments.

And as experimentation was always the fuel that stoked the fire of motivation in the Brits (rather in Fripp and his circumstantial band mates.... ), both the raspy "Easy Money" and its strange percussive sonorities along with Fripp's overlapping guitar solo in a weary gait, and the intriguing "The Talking Drum", a title taken from another African percussion simulating the sound of vocal strings and featuring Wetton's persistent bass and an instrumental base crackled by Cross's arabesque violin, are the prelude to the screeching "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two", with Fripp very active again on guitars and in conjunction with the whole band, bringing the album to a resounding conclusion.

Excellent

4/4.5 stars