King Crimson Beat

I can understand anyone who (a) doesn't think the 80s King Crimson albums are progressive rock or (b) finds them really difficult to listen to. I've only discovered these albums recently. Pure laziness probably.

I find myself getting less and less interested in the first question as I continue to write these blogs. If you're the sort of person who only listens to music based on whether someone has labelled it progressive rock, rather than because someone has recommended it to you, you're probably missing out on all sorts of things. Sting's album the Soul Cages for example.

https://progressive-rock-focus.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-soul-cages-by-sting.html

This album follows on chronologically and stylistically from King Crimson's Discipline album. I reviewed that here:

https://progressive-rock-focus.blogspot.com/2024/04/king-crimson-discipline.html

I could pretty much cut and paste my comments from that review in here. Adrian Belew is still in David Byrne territory. The minimalist influences are still there, as the band forms strong interlocking patterns with their instruments. But it's not just a repeat of the same formula, there are some great moments, as you'd expect from any Fripp band. The opening to eighth track Requiem is absolutely stunning and atmospheric, for example.

The more I listen to Beat, and listen again to Discipline, the more I wonder that these albums aren't more widely revered. They are astonishing feats of creativity. The musicianship, as you'd expect, is second to none. I strongly dislike what I call "prog twiddling" which is where musicianship becomes everything, to the extent of sacrificing any actual musical content. I can imagine some listeners making that criticism of this album, but somehow to my ears it never seems forced or out of place.

I do not hesitate to recommend this album.

Reasons to listen:

  • You'd like to know what Talking Heads would have sounded like if they'd got really experimental
  • You are tired of listening to the same old rehashed Genesis/Yes clones
  • You are prepared to be broad-minded in your categorisation of progressive rock, or alternatively, you just don't care
Reasons not to listen:
  • Absolutely none. There are no reasons not to listen to this. Why have you read to the end of this sentence when you could be going and listening to it?

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