Product Description
Brand New ~ Sealed! High Quality 200 Gram Vinyl Of Incredible 1981 King Crimson LP. Newly Cut From Masters Approved By Robert Fripp, Mixed By Steven Wilson. Includes Inner Sleeve.
When Robert Fripp declared in 1974 that King Crimson had ‘ceased to exist’ nobody could have foreseen that they would break their silence seven years later with an album that perhaps had more in common with the then current post-punk new wave than the band’s progressive rock past. Released in 1981, ‘Discipline’ was a startling reinvention with a new line-up performing radically different material that managed to delight fans, confound critics and pick up a substantial new audience along the way. 30 years later ‘Discipline’ remains one of the key albums of the early 1980s and one of King Crimson’s most popular. As different from the 1970s King Crimson, as the 1970s line-ups had been from the 1960s band, the new quartet of Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew (ex-Zappa, Bowie, Talking Heads) and Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel), rapidly established itself as a force on the live circuit. The longer songs of the 1960s & early 1970s & the extended improvisations of the live performances from the earlier touring bands were replaced with a series of short taut songs imbued with a minimalist aesthetic that featured complex interwoven guitar lines, (coined ‘rock gamelan’) Belew’s distinctive vocals, Bruford’s new armoury of electronic percussion & Levin’s fluid bass & Chapman stick lines. Songs written for the album became firm fixtures in the band’s repertoire and the stature and influence of the material has grown over the years. By the end of 1981 Crimson was, once again, viewed as one of rock music’s premier outfits. King Crimson had also achieved a rare feat for a rock group – becoming one of the very few acts to release a classic album in three separate decades. From ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’ in 1969, via ‘Red’ in 1974 to ‘Discipline’ in 1981, with differing line-ups & radically different sounds the band’s reputation for innovation & progression (in the best sense of the word) was unassailable.
Adrian Belew: guitar, lead vocal
Robert Fripp: guitar & devices
Tony Levin: stick, bass guitar, support vocal
Bill Bruford: batterie
Side 1:
Elephant Talk
Frame By Frame
Matte Kudasai
Indiscipline
Side 2:
Thela Hun Ginjeet
The Sheltering Sky
Discipline
AMG –
Many Crimson fans consider this album one of their best, right up there with In the Court of the Crimson King. It's easy to hear why... When King Crimson leader Robert Fripp decided to assemble a new version of the band in the early '80s, prog rock fans rejoiced, and most new wave fans frowned. But after hearing this new unit's first release, 1981's Discipline, all the elements that made other arty new wave rockers (i.e., Talking Heads, Pere Ubu, the Police, etc.) successful were evident. Combining the futuristic guitar of Adrian Belew with the textured guitar of Fripp doesn't sound like it would work on paper, but the pairing of these two originals worked out magically. Rounding out the quartet was bass wizard Tony Levin and ex-Yes drummer Bill Bruford. Belew's vocals fit the music perfectly, sounding like David Byrne at his most paranoid at times (the funk track "Thela Hun Ginjeet"). Some other highlights include Tony Levin's "stick" (a strange bass-like instrument)-driven opener "Elephant Talk," the atmospheric "The Sheltering Sky," and the heavy rocker "Indiscipline." Many Crimson fans consider this album one of their best, right up there with In the Court of the Crimson King. It's easy to understand why after you hear the inspired performances by this hungry new version of the band.