Search - King Crimson :: Deception of the Thrush: A Beginners Guide to ProjeKcts

A Terrific Sampler (4.5 stars really)

Snow Leopard | Urbana, IL | 12/24/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The double trio of "Thrak" (Fripp, Gunn, Levin, Bruford, Belew and Mastoletto) eventually splintered, and toured variously in (four) smaller groups (with Fripp and Gunn being the only two constants throughout). Concert recordings were made for each group on tour, were edited, reduced and released as the ProjeKcts boxed set. "Deception of the Thrush" is a reduction of that boxed set that nevertheless manages a good job of sharpening your curiosity to hear more.



Why buy just a sampler, when a boxed set of four discs is available (money aside)? There are three reasons.



First, the boxed set is indeed something to have, but what you gain in quantity inevitably means an overall reduction in quality. In other words, the "punch" packed by the sampler is more consistent than with the music of the boxed set. Obviously, highlights from a concert will be more impressive in some ways than the concert itself, but that doesn't mean you'd never want to hear the whole concert too.



Second, this is a decidedly wicked combination of tunes. All of the pieces are "improvisations" (I think "extrapolations" might be a better word). They all consist of consummate musicians, with an extraordinary range of electronic equipment (some of it preprogrammed) working through the musical space created by a more or less unstructured series of musical ideas. You can listen to the whole disc just thinking to yourself about the technical aspects of the equipment if you like, but the sounds, and noises, and shifts, and textures and sheer gargantuan musicianship you hear is thoroughly compelling.



Third, the pieces actually form a coherent whole, which is rather impressive given that they're culled together from four bands in all kinds of different venues. This is no slapdash collection of live pieces, but actually feels like an "album".



As for the songs themselves, the disc opens with seven tracks of "Masque" from ProjeKct 3 (approximately 26 minutes), three tracks from ProjeKct 1, one from ProjeKct 2, an edited marriage of two versions of "Deception of the Thrush" from ProjeKcts 3 and 4, and finally all of "Ghost" in five tracks (which clocks in a nearly 40 minutes). One can see from this that ProjeKcts 3 and 4 are heavily represented, while 1 and 2 are not. This is fine with me, since 1, 3 and 4 are the more esoterically experimental of the ProjeKcts. Number 2 "wastes" Adrian Belew's guitar talents on playing the V-drums (which are somehow capable of playing bass lines it seems). Bruford and Levin are both on 1 (a must-hear disc in the boxed set).



It is difficult to describe the music, especially when it is so varied. ProjeKcts 3 and 4 both feature Pat Mastoletto on drums, plus Fripp and Gunn. (Tony Levin is on 4.) As such, the drumming on the bulk of this disk is a combination of preprogrammed loops and live drumming-very little Bruford, if that's what you're hoping. All of the sonic experimentation that has become a staple of Fripp's guitar now has a home in Mastoletto's drums as well. As a result, they bubble, burp, thump, and pitter pat right along. In one respect, I almost think this is Robert Fripp's way of weaning his fans of 2 decades of Bruford, and selling them on the approach and style Mastoletto is now bringing to Crimson. Meanwhile, Gunn is usually holding down the bass with the distinctive fretless sound of his touch and talking guitars, and proving again and again that Tony Levin's absence needn't be a reason to wail and bemoan. (On 4, with Levin on bass, Gunn gets to set up all kinds of counter rhythms, grinding guitar lines and sonic sledgehammers in tandem with Fripp.) Meanwhile, Fripp, up to his eyebrows in electronics, is pulling off guitar wizardry as usual, soloing with harmonizers while backing himself on Frippertronics.



The overall effect of this much musicianship and electronics crammed into a small space is, to my mind, some of the most consistently listenable avant-garde music I own. The boxed set is without a doubt my favorite King Crimson "album"--I listen to it more than anything else by them--but I'm always having to change disks to hear it all. With the sampler disk, I get a cross-section without the hassle of having to choose. It doesn't have all of the pieces I'd select for my own personal best version, of course, but what it does select (knowing the whole of what is available in the full set) is very good.



Just remember again. This bears no resemblance to "In the Court of the Crimson King"; neither is it like "Red" (except in heaviness maybe), nor "Thrak", nor "Discipline". If you've heard Rieflin, Fripp and Gunn's "Repercussions of Angelic Behavior", then you have an idea of what this sounds like. It tends to be very big and ominous, supremely musical in a very noisy way, atmospheric more than song-like (bearing in mind that smog can be an atmosphere), churning, ethereal, and super-engaging."

King Crimson, still, the best vintage!

Cengiz ONEN | San Ramon, CA USA | 04/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Being the sampled version of the 4CD set, this CD's main emphasis is to give an idea what is waiting for the listener in the 4CD box. It fulfills its mission perfectly: elaborated and meticulously engineered pieces that takes you from where you are and brings to wonderful and everchanging Crimsonian world where everything looks so within reach yet far apart. Brilliant!"

King Crimson - 'A Beginners Guide To ProjeKcts' (Discipline)

Mike Reed | USA | 02/27/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Never have been all that much of a King Crimson fan,but I admit to liking several of their landmark CD reissues/releases.'A Beginners...' is sort of tough to follow UNLESS you're a big-time Crimson fan,but I'll do my best.The way the CD booklet explains it,all these cuts were performed by certain King Crimson subgroups(isn't that the same as band spin-offs?).I thought that "Ghost,Part 1",all three tracks were decent,thus allowing the players to be more interactive with one another.Also enjoyed the seven part "Masque" which were good that tend to showcase each musician's suberb playing abilities.Just good progressive album rock.Line-up:Robert Fripp-guitar&keyboards,Adrian Belew-guitar&vocals,Trey Gunn-guitar,Tony Levin-bass and Pat Mastelotto-drums.Nice cover."