"Starless And Bible Black" by KING CRIMSON – Seventh UK LP from March 1974 on Island Records (April 1974 on Atlantic Records in the USA) – featuring Robert Fripp. David Cross, John Wetton and Bill Bruford (October 2011 UK Discipline Global Mobile/Panegyric 40th Anniversary Series CD+DVD-A Reissue in A Card Slipcase – CD with Robert Fripp, Steve Wilson and Simon Heyworth Remixes, Remasters and Mastering) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...The Mincer..."

I have a love vs. hate relationship with King Crimson and their seventh UK platter only adds to that confusion. While inhabiting that thin line between genius and tuneless tosh – there is undeniable brilliance here - their sixth studio platter featuring a band of super-talented musicians that walked an unapologetic musical line – and still do. 

Like many fans I suspect, for me the 70ts line-up seemed to Rock and even when the music would whig-out completely - there was always something to hook you back. And this 40th Anniversary Series edition only enhances that feeling - albeit this time with a lot more on the DVD-A. Prog and Jazz Rock ahoy. Here are the great deceptive details...

UK released 3 October 2011 - "Starless And Bible Black" by KING CRIMSON on Discipline Global Mobile/Panegyric KCSP6 (Barcode 633367400628) is a 40th Anniversary Series CD + DVD-A Reissue that plays out as follows:

CD CONTENT (68:45 minutes):
2011 Stereo Mix 
1. The Great Deceiver [Side 1]
2. Lament 
3. We'll Let You Know 
4. The Night Watch 
5. Trio [Side 2]
6. The Mincer 
7. Starless And Bible Black 
8. Fracture 
Tracks 1 to 8 are their seventh album "Starless And Bible Black" [sixth studio LP] – released March 1974 in the UK on Island ILPS 9275 and April 1974 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 7298. Produced by KING CRIMSON – it peaked at No. 28 in the UK and No 64 in the USA. 
Album Mixed and Remastered from original multi-track tapes by STEVE WILSON and ROBERT FRIPP – Mastered by SIMON HEYWORTH and ROBERT FRIPP at Super Audio Mastering in Devon (assisted by Andy Miles). 

BONUS TRACKS: 
9. The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part 1
10. Improv: The Mincer 
11. The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part 2
12. Dr. Diamond (Live, June 23rd, 1974, Palazzo Dello Sport, Udine, Italy) 
13. Guts On My Side (Live, March 19th, 1974, Palazzo Dello Sport, Udine, Italy)

DVD AUDIO CONTENT: 
Audio Content
Original Album (Tracks 1 to 8 as listed on the CD)
MLP Lossless 5.1 Surround 
DTS 5.1 Digital Surround 

Bonus Track: 
1. Easy Money (taken from the album "The Night Watch")
Mixed and Remastered from original tapes by SW and RF

2011 Stereo Mix (Tracks 1 to 8 as listed on the CD)
MPL Lossless Stereo (24/96)
PCM Stereo 2.0 (24/48)

30th Anniversary Remaster (Tracks 1 to 8 as listed on the CD)
PCM Stereo 2.0 (24/48)

Zurich, Volkshaus: November 15th, 1973 
1. Lament 
2. The Night Watch 
3. Fracture 
4. The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part 1
5. Improv: The Mincer 
6. The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part 2

Additional Tracks: 
1. We’ll Let You Know (unedited from The Great Deceiver)
2. Dr. Diamond (Live, June 23rd, 1973, Richards Club, Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
3. Guts On My Side (Live, March 19th, 1974, Palazzo Dello Sport, Udine, Italy)
4. The Night Watch (Single Edit, Stereo)
22 March 1974 UK 45 on Island WIP 6189, A-side. The album version is 4:37 minutes, this single edit runs to 3:15 minutes. The B-side was the album track The Great Deceiver at 4:02 minutes 
5. The Night Watch (US Radio Single Edit, Mono) 
1974 US 45 on Atlantic 45-3016, A-side of the Promo (also 3:15 minutes), Stereo on the flipside 
6. 30-Second Radio Advert 
7. 60-Second Radio Advert 

DVD VIDEO CONTENT
Central Park, New York, June 25th, 1973 
1. Easy Money
2. Fragged Dusty Wall Carpet 

I have to admit that visually and aesthetically; I find these glossy King Crimson reissues disappointingly ordinary. The inner card digipak offers the CD on the left with the DVD on the right clip - all with the same artwork (its even on the inner part of the card slipcase). The 16-page booklet is taken up with technical data, black and photos of the band (period shots from 1973 and 1974), the lyrics that came with the inner sleeve and some new diary-entries by Robert Fripp on the mastering and restoring processes with further liner notes from SID SMITH. It’s all very functional, at times informative but not very exciting. 

You have to say that for such frantic and dense music – the WILSON/FRIPP Remaster sounds amazingly clear – lifting up what could have been a clashing mess into coherence. I just wish it looked and 'felt' like more of a celebration – but that’s just me. The June 1973 film sequences shot in New York’s Central Park by Atlantic Records for promotional purposes (they shared the bill with Black Oak Arkansas) have been restored for the Video side of the DVD-A, although a performance of Larks Tongue In Aspic seems to be lost to the ether forever. It is also very cool to have those UK and US single rarities (stereo and mono edits). To the music...

Mixing live with studio recordings, Side 1 opens with "The Great Deceiver" - a tale of cigarettes, ice-cream, Cadillacs and figurine statues of the Virgin Mary in some health-food poser's crib. It's angry, angular, nasty even and when "The Great Deceiver" finishes its gnarly four-minutes-plus - you're in no doubt that this is a King Crimson album. And if you don't like that, you can bog off and buy Lena Zavaroni on Regal Zonophone where she assures her mother that someone is making eyes at her (probably Robert Fripp with a sniper rifle). 

People stomp on dirty floors in the sort of anti love-song bass thump that is "The Lament" - the remaster absolutely rocking it - Wetton and his strange vocals getting close to Greg Lake of old. Instrumental time comes with the jagged "We'll Let You Know" - Bass plucks trading fisticuffs with Guitar notes wrenched out of a clearly traumatised Fender. Island chopped the four and half minutes of "The Night Watch" down to a more (ahem) radio-friendly 3:15 minute edit and issued it as a UK 45 with the album cut of "The Great Deceiver" on the B-side. Cleverly, this reissue also includes the rare American Atlantic Records Promo-only 45 version of the Edit in Mono. 

Side 1 ends with the instrumental duo of "Trio" and a delightfully titled "The Mincer" – the first a (dare I say it) pretty song where a lone violin aches after a gorgeous Remaster (I don't remember my original LP ever being this clear) – while the final Side 1 piece elicits a very real menace as Fripp solos, undoubtedly channelling a Universal Pictures 1930s creature from the lagoon movie in his scary head. 

Side 2's bigger set pieces weigh in at nine and eleven minutes plus respectively - the title track "Starless And Bible Black" feeling like a nightmare dawn of digital crickets while "Fracture" is probably the most Prog Rock passage on a challenging album. 

March 1974's "Starless And Bible Black" would be followed by the equally revered "Red" in October of that busy year for King Crimson and come 2024 we will undoubtedly get a 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Blacker Than Black version. 

But in the meantime, if you want to go out and dance all night (lyrics in "Lament"), then look no further than this wee brute - presented to you here in stunning Audio...