King Crimson - Projekcts (44 tracks) +Album Reviews

If I could only own one KC recording, this is it!

Bill | Thelema | 04/24/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The Projekcts" is the result of the "fractalization" of the double trio that consituted the most recent version of King Crimson (on 1994's THRAK). The group was divided into four seperate sub-groups (either a trio or quartet), with each of these Projekcts being represented in this box set with their own individual CD. The result is almost 4 hours of the most entertaining, original, and challenging music the group has ever produced.Projekct One opens the set with "Live at the Jazz Cafe." Of all four Projekcts, this line-up of Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Trey Gunn and Bill Bruford offer up the closest thing to a traditional Crimson sound here. Bruford dominates the arragements, and his presence underpins a jazzy, "SaBB/Red" feel.Of all the sub-groups, Projekct Two toured most extensively. The interplay of Fripp's soundscapes and Gunn's touch guitar of "Live Groove" demand much of Adrian Belew's relative inexperience on V-drums. For the most part, Adrian delivers. A strong effort, despite the ridiculous "camera banter" at the disc's end.All questions regarding the contemporary relevance of a 30 year old prog-rock band are laid to rest by the time Projekct Three's "Masque" receives its first play. Pat Mastelotto's electronic rythyms sound more akin to Mick Harris' Scorn than to anything previously heard from the band that gave the world "Moonchild." Gunn and Fripp slip seemlessly through one improv after another- at times it is impossible to tell precisely who is making what sound, and exactly how the two are able to anticipate each others' intentions so accurately. Absolutely breath-taking.Projekct Four's "West Coast Live" picks up where "Masque" leaves off. The Gunn/Fripp/Mastelotto trio is rounded off to a quartet with the edition of Tony Levin on bass. Levin adds a deep-ended, almost funky feel to Mastelotto's ferocious electronics, and Gunn and Fripp respond yet again with some of their best playing on record to date. Perfect. You will not be disappointed should you choose to purchase this remarkable set of recordings. Do NOT make the mistake of buying the single CD Projekcts sampler. You will only want to go out and buy the whole box set afterwards, anyway. The considerable bulk of "The Projekcts" box set is offset by its more-than-reasonable price. Learn from the mistakes of those who adopted a "wait & see" attitude about purchasing "The Great Deceiver," and who consequentially missed out entirely on that great set of live performances!Hearing "The Projekcts" about 15 years after I had first written off King Crimson as "Art Rock Dinosaurs," I am reminded of just how much of a narrow-minded, snot-nosed, know-nothing punk I had to be in order to make such a grevious mis-calculation. In their 50's, King Crimson is making music that is more refreshingly original and uncompromising than any of that Indie/Alternative garbage those Corporate Music Types would have you believe is "innovative.""

Stunning, restless, challenging & invigorating.

Kevin Gamble | Columbia, MO USA | 12/19/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The reviews below cover it pretty well--this is wild, daring instrumental music that really pushes the envelope. It's my favorite music of 1999. The four discs cover a wide range of sounds:Projekct 1 is largely defined by its rhythm section--Bill Bruford's acoustic drums and Tony Levin's aggressive bass--and is a heavy, dense, churning affair. Projekct 2 is spacier and flightier--Adrian Belew's electronic drums are loose and thin, and Fripp and Gunn fly around to create an airier sound. Projekct 3 may be the best indication of Crimson yet to come, as it is the current lineup minus only Belew. It's a tight, muscular sound largely driven by Pat Mastelotto's hyperspeed electronic drums. More familiar with Bruford's sound, I was skeptical of this approach before hearing the disc, but it works great and is very powerful. For me, Projekct 4 is where it really all comes together--it's the Projekct 3 lineup plus Tony Levin, and he adds a great deal of 'oomph' to the low end, resulting in some incredibly intense music.If you have a taste for the 90s King Crimson, or just want some extremely progressive and forward-thinking music, then I'd consider this essential listening."

Challenging but worth it

Kevin Gamble | 10/29/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Now that King Crimson has fractalize to borrow from their promotional material fans get a chance to hear the various incarnations of the latest double trio configuration. On The ProjeKcts 4 disk set each disk is dedicated to a ProjeKct. Each projeKct has Robert Fripp at the helm with the only minor disappointment being Adrian Belew playing e-drums (an instrument he is very adept at) rather than in a guitarists role. Beyond that you can hear variations on the full band in three and four piece lineups that vary per disk. Musically this is almost all improvisation but it is often not the ferocious style of Thrakattack or earlier live perfomances. There is more space and spacy sounds on each of the ProjeKcts. Every performance is excellent with good recording and spatial depth, this is important as the fractalized KC goes in a more electronic direction than some fans may be used to. Use of programmed ryhthms are frequent. Intensity is there, this couldn't be a KC project without it, but this is very focused improvising that doen't focus on skill. It's there but the idea here is the music and groove- yes groove but don't let that frighten you, it's not techno, or if there's a new obsucre genre then someone mention it so I can check out more music like this. It is very clear that the fractalized bands have purpose behind their improvisations and that is what makes The ProjeKcts Album worth buying. We are getting a glimpse at 21st Century Crimson and it something to look forward to. NOTE, the one disk version is a sampler of sorts and as such very incomplete in terms of flow of content. I heard the single CD and did not enjoy it as much the material was out of context as is to be expected on a compilation."

Abstract, Instrumental, Captivating and Gorgeous

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

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Other reviews explain how the ProjeKcts came to be, but few actually describe the music, partly because there is too much to characterize, too wide of a range. The easiest thing to say is that ProjeKcts is most like "Repercussions of Angelic Behavior" from Fripp, Gunn and Rieflin. If you liked that, ProjeKcts is almost certainly right for you.ProjeKct 1 (Fripp, Gunn, Levin, Bruford) is the only one with Bruford. "4 ii 1" (to pick only one song) begins with Levin and Bruford putting down a gut-grabbing thump that never relents, with Levin throwing in charming, gnarly little whorl-accents all over the place--it's a bit like "Sleepless" (from "Three of a Perfect Pair), but pumped up to monstrously more interesting proportions. A guitar introduction follows, a combination of chord abuse and swelling sustains that teeter at the very edge of feedback. Somewhere in here, Gunn takes over and frees Fripp to unleash some thoroughly visceral shredding. How a guitar can be so distorted and still be carving out "melody" (with the harmonizer going) is truly something to behold. "1 ii 2" which follows is slow, spare, and has soaring guitar lines backed by Frippertronics, demonstrating that ProjeKcts 1 is a thing of many moods and styles. Except for the first track, which leaves me a bit flat, the whole thing is sonic bliss from almost start to finish.ProjeKct 2 (Fripp, Gunn, Belew) was actually the first ProjeKct to tape, and features Belew on V-drums rather than guitar--an example of Fripp easing toward electronic drums (it sounds like Belew's bass tom is actually playing the bass guitar in spots). Probably the weakest of the four discs (one of them has to be), it nevertheless is no waste of time. The concert staple, "The Deception of the Thrush" originates here, and features Gunn's talking guitar. Another staple, "Heavy ConstruKction" debuts here. Starting with a bopping heavy drum riff, Fripp's "Thrakattak"-sensibility crunch introduces a linear main theme as Gunn snakes a thick smoke-curl bass line underneath. As soon as Fripp leaves the opening idea behind, though, the song opens into an amazing stratosphere of sound, with Gunn alternating between Godzilla-sized bass lines and washes of the most delicious spiky fuzz guitar as Fripp vies again for the honor of Most Interesting Guitar Player Ever. Program out the last track, which is mostly 10 minutes of audience noise, for a solidly wild ride otherwise.ProjeKct 3 (Fripp, Gunn, Mastoletto) is probably the most difficult at first. Called "Masque", unnamed tracks and advice from the liner notes recommend putting the disc on shuffle play to "continue the improvisation". What makes Masque tricky is that Fripp, Gunn and Mastoletto have clearly gone to pains to erase the distinction between individual performers-sifting out who is playing what becomes impossible, especially since Mastoletto's drums are capable of patching in guitar flourishes or bass lines. Perhaps "masque" is precisely a reference to the hiding of personality here; it might just as well have been called Hydra. As to the music itself, these are no longer seem improvisations in the usual sense of elaborations upon a musical idea. They're more like extrapolations-extensions of prearranged musical ideas. No surprise, given the foresight that must go into making Mastoletto's patched drums play music and not blech. The opening track illustrates this. An intense guitar flourish jumps out at you, echoes, then dies away...and then the song starts-a burst of Frippertronics, thumping bass, clicking drums with live accents by Mastoletto, Gunn or Fripp growling quietly in the background until one guitar steps forward to play a lyrical melody. Then the bass changes, becoming big and visceral. The drums follow suit with bright cymbals, Frippertronics creep up in the background and then suddenly, Fripp's skysaw rips through it all backed by waves of white noise. Gunn's bass detaches itself and you realize the bass has actually been the drums. And on it goes. In a sense this is atmospheric music, it's just that the atmosphere is Venus'. Ultimately, as with much difficult music, this disc has become the most consistently rewarding to listen to for me.ProjeKct 4 (Fripp, Gunn, Levin, Mastoletto) is more accessible than 3. Overall, it consists of five songs, but the 40 minutes of "Ghost" is split so that it opens and closes the album. Adding Levin seems to have caused a backing away from the blending of players on "Masque", making for a more "straightforward" musical approach. In "Hindu Fizz", Mastoletto concocts a hyper jangle of entirely artificial Tibetan percussion and live accents for Levin's more-felt-than-heard subsonic bass as Gunn, basically a second bassist here, rips out a talkative, schizy "melody" in the tenor range. Imagine "Nuages" (from "Three of a Perfect Pair") nervously amped up on coffee and jittery. A middle section features Fripp on "piano", intermixing ridiculously fast lines with Gunn matching. But what truly makes the song is the patch Fripp has found for the main theme. It is like glass and steel, unbelievably crisp, and played very high up on the neck of the guitar to sharpen its ice-like edge. And just when it seems it cannot be any sharper, Fripp hits the wah-wah pedal, and the note careens up to a truly gorgeous, crystalline intensity-musical nirvana. "ProjeKction", by contrast, once it gets past its too-abstract opening theme, becomes a monstrous smorgasbord of noise and thump.This is the Crimson I listen to most. Abstract, instrumental, captivating and gorgeous."

This is King Crimson, make no mistake

J. Bjorne | Huntsville, AL. USA | 10/28/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a box set daring in the fact that the majority of it is improvisation, but if you are a King Crimson fan then that shouldn't faze you at all. I have been a die-hard for years now, and until this set The Great Deceiver had been my all-time favorite Crimson release (with maybe the exception of Larks Tongue, or Beat, or Red, depending on mood). Well, now KC have outdone themselves. Take the plunge. Buy the box!"

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