[amphead]

So there it is. Do you give them thumbs up or thumbs down?

 

[stewgriff]

Thumbs up. You only have to listen to 21st Century Schizoid Man to hear the power and innovations they made.

The only problem is, mainly due to Robert Fripp's complete lack of restraint, the group's output is inconsistent. The peaks are very high, but there's a lot of scattered wankery in every era. Only Robert Fripp could release an album exclusively of atonal improv jams.

 

[asmox]

 

[TheAnomaly]

21st century schizoid man; nuff said.

 

[gtp]

Big thumbs up!

 

[gsolman6]

Its never that easy a question especially when you are talking about progressive rock, a genre in which you have to take the good with the bad.

As for King Crimson their output can be quite enthralling at times. 21st Century Schizoid Man for example said as much in its 6 minutes as Rush has in their entire career. I only have the first album and the live Absent Lovers but I can recommend both.

Its also good to check out what Fripp has done with others. For instance Bowie's Heroes and various appearances on some of the better Van der Graaf Generator albums are prime challenging stuff.

Some good Crimson review pages to help you get a handle on them:

http://starling.rinet.ru/music/king.htm
http://www.johnmcferrinmusicreviews.org/kc.htm

 

[Trilogy]

UP! Red is my personal KC fav. Their finest hour.

 

[ozz]

thumbs up

 

[BillC]

Way up for Crimson and related outings. Some highlights for me:

KC: In the Court of the Crimson King
KC: Red
KC: Discipline

Fripp and Eno: No P*$$yfooting (edit: apparently the filters don't like cats)

Fripp and David Sylvian: First Day
Fripp and David Sylvian: Damage

Sunday all over the World:

Fripp: Churchscapes

Many, many more. I've discovered a lot of music that I love through connections to Crimson/Fripp including solo stuff from Adrian Belew, solo stuff from David Sylvian, on and on...

 

[Faust2D]

 

[Know Talent]

...aside from Bruford and the electronic drums thing...

Checkout "Absent Lovers" recording of their closing gig during the 83(?) tour. Adrian Belew's vocals are amazing and together with Fripp and Levin the set is airtight!

not a big fan of their later incarnations though

 

[sinus1982]

Big thumbs up, I especially like the "red" phase and newer albums like "Power to believe" and "THRAK"....

And also ... they were a big inspiration for my dearest band: ANEKDOTEN!

 

[J-Pak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sinus1982 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Big thumbs up, I especially like the "red" phase and newer albums like "Power to believe" and "THRAK".... And also ... they were a big inspiration for my dearest band: ANEKDOTEN!

Yeah Anekdoten are

(especially their newer albums where they don't try to be KC clones).

King Crimson are one of my favorite bands, especially love Fripp's ProjeKcts works.

 

[Relayer71]

I give them a thumbs up.

I just wish they would release an album as consistently well written/performed and original as Discipline (although I haven't picked up the last two but heard some of the tracks).

 

[Relayer71]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsolman6 /img/forum/go_quote.gif 21st Century Schizoid Man for example said as much in its 6 minutes as Rush has in their entire career.

Ok, that is a tremendous exaggeration, lol.

Granted Rush probably has released more bad or at least very mediocre complete albums than KC but their best work exhibits great playing, interesting lyrics, atmosphere and melody (they can be melodic when they try).

For me Rush's BEST albums just have more "heart" than KC's best (I do admit though, when they're bad, they're BAD!).