THE CONSTRUKCTION OF LIGHT

It's ridiculous to do a song-by-song review here, because there's no more tones in the palette other than the digital experimentation and the polyrhythms (their greatest gift). It has the most amazing guitar interplays in the same context of "Discipline", but the thing has the same goshdarned mood all over. There's no "Exiles", no "Night Watch", not even a "Matte Kudasai" to relax your eardrums. It's the same freak show over and over.

All in all, this is probably the best "double duo" band around: Fripp has a lot of technicality and in my opinion he is very underrated; so is Belew (who also has amazing vocals, even though they are disguised here by strange vocal harmonies and studio tricks); Trey Gunn could compete with Levin anytime (even though he doesn't play bass per se, rather a "Warr Guitar") and Pat does amazing works with the drums, whilst the pulsating electronic effects become irritating after a while).

Perhaps the softest song here is the second part of the title track, but maybe I'm talking too much nonsense. There are no soft songs here, and even as I like to hear polyrhythmic experiments and guitar duets and groovy bass lines, you have to push the pause button once in a short while to take a rest; it's just too much. This is what I like to call a "wankfest".

"Prozakc Blues" is the "Elephant Talk" of this album, with an eerie blues feel and weird vocals by Belew. "The Construkction of Light" is the highlight, with sudden breaks, and if I can decipher correctly, some instruments play at 7/4 while others play at 4/4 (correct me if I'm wrong); it's the Discipline-related song. "Into The Frying Pan" continues as a weird rocker with lots of time shifts. "Frakctured" is the gloomiest song on here, and although it might contain some of the most beautiful harmonies of the album, it also contains some frenetic shreds and terrifying sound effects. "the World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum" incorporates a stupid play on words that would sound better coming from Peter Gabriel, dubbed above the samey guitar riffs all over. "Larks' Tongues" is a reworking of the original part 2 of 1973; but with more frenetic interplay and electronic drums. "Coda: I Have A Dream" is the last song (speaks for itself: coda), and it consists of simple chord progressions and not much variation.

So for me, this is 3-star material, I suggest you start progressively from "Court" and end here or in "The Power To Believe"; that is, to understand the evolution of this band.