King Crimson: Live in Vienna

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Tony Levin (b, stick)
Mel Collins
Jeremy Stacey (d, ky)
Robert Fripp (g)
Pat Mastelotto (poetry reading)
Jakko Jakszyk
Gavin Harrison (d)

Label:

Panegyric

July/2018

Catalogue Number:

KCXP5002

RecordDate:

1 December 2016 and various other dates

Of course, nothing is simple for the Crims. So this live in Vienna package is actually released out of sync, in that it's a 2016 recording that follows the official bootleg of the 2017 Chicago concert. And for good measure the most intriguing cut here isn't even from the Vienna show. Instead it's a Copenhagen performance of ‘Fracture’, its first live realisation since, ooh, 1974. Not counting the late Belew-era Crims version, ‘FraKtured’. Phew, confusing innit? Hopefully this manifestation of ‘Fracture’ will send listeners back to the molten ‘original’ wherein the Bruford/Wetton alliance burns bright as Beelzebub with Cross' violin scarily malevolent. The 2016 version is graced by Collins' flute but otherwise this remains a stiff-legged tribute, lacking the drama, dynamics and internecine fury of the original. The other intriguing cuts here are equally not from Vienna, but culled and edited from Milan, Rome, Marseille, Barcelona and Antwerp. They are re-visioned versions of the soundscapes that opened the European shows and have about them something new and fine that is rather absent from the rehashed material featured in the body of the performances.

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