"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...

"In The Court Of The Crimson King: 40th Anniversary Series" by KING CRIMSON (October 2009 Panegyric CD and DVD-A Reissue - Robert Fripp and Steve Wilson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"…Outside Looking Inside…"

There can't be too many album covers as iconic as this - Barry Godber's startling painting still having the capability of shock and awe - even now. But then everything about King Crimson's debut album was more than a little different and ready to shake up the old and herald in the new. The birth of Progressive Rock some say. Well here we go at a rebirth on CD - because this 2009 Steve Wilson/Robert Fripp overseen Remix and Remaster is the nut's butts in every way. Here are the cat's foot and the iron claw (and that's just the CD)...

Released October 2009 - "In The Court Of The Crimson King" by KING CRIMSON is a 40th Anniversary Series CD and DVD reissue on Panegyric KCSP1 (Barcode 633367400123) and breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 - 2009 STEREO MIX remixed from original multitrack master tapes - (78:15 minutes):

1. 21st Century Schizoid Man (including "Mirrors") (7:24 minutes)

2. I Talk To The Wind (6:00 minutes)

3. Epitaph (including "March For No Reason" and "Tomorrow And Tomorrow") (8:53 minutes)

4. Moonchild (including "The Dream" and "The Illusion") (9:02 minutes) - [Side 2]

5. The Court Of The Crimson King (9:31 minutes)

Tracks 1 to 5 are the original Stereo album "In The Court Of The Crimson King" - released October 1969 in the UK on Island ILPS 9111 and December 1969 in the USA on Atlantic SD 8245

BONUS TRACKS

6. Moonchild (Full Version - 12:16 minutes)

7. I Talk To The Wind (Duo Version - 4:56 minutes)

8. I Talk To The Wind (Alternate Mix - 6:37 minutes)

9. Epitaph (Backing Track - 9:06 minutes)

10. Wind Session [21st Century Schizoid Man Intro - 4:31 minutes]

DVD - AUDIO CONTENT:

Tracks 1 to 5 - Original Album Remixed In MLP Lossless 5.1 Surround and DTS 5.1 Digital Surround (track names as per Disc 1)

Tracks 6 to 10 - 2009 Stereo Mix (track names as per Disc 1)

Tracks 11 to 15 - Original 2004 Master Edition - Simon Heyworth Remaster (track names as per Disc 1)

Tracks 16 to 20 are Additional Audio Content is in MLP Lossless Stereo 2.0 and  PCM Stereo 2.0 (track names as per 6 to 10 on Disc 1)

Tracks 21 to 25 are The Alternate Album

21. 21st Century Schizoid Man (Instrumental)

22. I Talk To The Wind (Studio Run Through)

23. Epitaph (Alternate Version)

24. Moonchild (Take 1)

25. The Court Of The Crimson King (Take 3)

[Note: 21 to 25 are alternate takes mixed for the first time from the original studio recordings]

DVD - VIDEO CONTENT

1. 21st Century Schizoid Man (Edit). Film from Hyde Park concert 5 July 1969 available for the first time with original audio from the actual performance

The matt outer slipcase houses a gatefold card digipak within - the CD having the cover artwork while the DVD has the inner smiling face (with fangs!). The oversized 16-page colour booklet is a surprisingly short affair - reissue credits, some liner notes from guitarist ROBERT FRIPP, a repro on the centre pages of the album's inner gatefold, some live photos (a fun shot of Barry Godber in a record shop holding the album looking at his handywork on the front cover) and an appreciation of the album and its historical placing by SID SMITH. But the real deal is in the indepth Steve Wilson/Robert Fripp Remix and Remaster - and wow is a word that jumps to mind. Every track of this overly familiar album is improved and I'm amazed also at the quality of the bonus material - especially on Disc 1.

Designed to scare the knackers of your aging Uncle Bob - "21st Century Schizoid Man" kicks off proceedings with a fuzzed-up vocal wallop. It's never been a favourite of mine but I know others worship at its anarchic feet. What is not dismissible however is the power of the sound. It comes at you head-on and feels like you're hearing the record anew - what an unbelievably powerful racket they made. After the madness of "Schizoid Man" -the flute-laden softness of "I Talk To The Wind" and Greg Lake's hippy lyrics now feature stunning delicacy that was hard to get on original vinyl LP. Its six-minutes are suddenly warm and cackle-free in those quiet parts - frankly frank it sounds beautiful. We're into Moody Blues Mellotron territory for the very Crimson "Epitaph" - with those acoustic guitar strums plinging in your speakers with fabulous clarity. At about 6:20 when the song goes into a soft break - the drums and bass are 'so' good and that Mellotron is just `there' in the mix rather than swamping the whole thing. "Mankind is in the hands of fools..." Greg Lake sang on "Epitaph" and it's a bit worrying just how relevant those lyrics still are.

If any one track showed improvement most it would be the trippy Side 2 opener "Moonchild". Its soft guitar and vibes part at about 2:24 now sound gorgeous- and while tape hiss is still in evidence - it's not been crushed out by Wilson or Fripp - but controlled. They've allowed the centre section to breath and the delicacy of Robert Fripp's playing allied with Ian McDonald's vibes and the percussion of Michael Giles is now what you hear. And it stays that way until the Jazz flip-out towards the end. In fact its nine-minutes now feel so AMBIENT and ENO - but years before these phrases become common terminology. It ends on the epic title track with that huge Mellotron/Vocal refrain sounding clearer than ever. The drums, booming bass and acoustic guitar have lovely separation too when they kick in while the madrigal reprise ending is properly full on. A genius beginning of an album that still sounds so far ahead of its time it's embarrassing.

The extras are shockingly good - I love the 'Duo Version' of "I Talk To The Wind" with Robert Fripp on acoustic guitar with Ian McDonald giving it some reeds - it just so pretty - Fripp's playing amazingly fluid and musical. The 'Alternate Version' is over a half-minute longer than the album cut and features different solos (with the same gorgeous sound quality as the album cut). There's a "one, two, three, four..." count-in before we get the epic Mellotron beginning of "Epitaph" and then - no lyrics! It sounds great but strange! What it does do is to allow you to concentrate on the playing - which is incredible - and you can almost 'feel' EMERSON, LAKE and PALMER being formed as Lake plays...

The DVD is jam-packed if not a tad repetitive with the endless mixes - but for most - the important set of tracks here is the `Alternate Album' with a great `Take 3' of "The Court Of The Crimson King". And it doesn't have the nonsense that is "Wind Session" which is faffing about in the studio with well `wind' and sounds ("it's meant to be frightening...but it's not..."). The Surround Mix (which I heard on a mate's system) is mindblowingly good - and makes me realise why so many audio fans go nuts for 5.1 - especially when it’s done properly.

Subtitled "An Observation by KING CRIMSON" - this album has arrived at legendary status - especially in the last few decades. And on the strength of this quality reissue - that's hardly surprising. Well done again to Steven Wilson and the good people involved...

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"Larks' Tongues In Aspic: 40th Anniversary Series" by KING CRIMSON - March 1973 UK Album on Island Records and April 1973 USA on Atlantic Records (October 2010 UK Panegyric CD and DVD-A Reissue - Robert Fripp and Steven Wilson Remasters) - A Review my Mark Barry...

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"...In This Faraway Land..." 

1973 was a strange year for Prog Rock. By all accounts the genre should have been stabbed in the Tolkien, kicked in the Third Eye and left for dead in a Topographic ditch. But it prevailed even more than it had done in 1971 and 1972 – the years of Yes, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, Focus, Van Der Graaf Generator - the Vertigo Spiral, Harvest, Charisma and Deram Nova labels and of course – the mighty King Crimson over on Island Records (Atlantic in the US).

KC were already one of the most cultish of Progressive Rock bands to have ever spanked the planks - "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" managing a decent No. 20 spot on the UK LP charts in April 1973 when many other genre names couldn't get arrested. At the opposite end of the commercial abyss - Pink Floyd had unleashed the album monster "The Dark Side Of The Moon" a month earlier – a record that has virtually defined chart longevity for five decades straight (prisms and pyramids ahoy) - while Mike Oldfield was clanging on his "Tubular Bells" in May. The whole broody, moody and musically adventurous lot of them were huge albums – absolute global goliaths really. Hell - Yes would even put the sprawling and deeply challenging double-LP set "Tales from Topographic Oceans" on the No. 1 spot in Blighty in December – a staggering achievement in 1973 and quite probably impossible to achieve in 2018. Which brings us to this fifth platter from England’s defiantly different KC – a sextet of musical birds body parts in jelly...

The last Remaster stab at this so-so album came in 2000 for a 30th Anniversary Edition (Simon Heyworth and Robert Fripp did the honours) - but this '40th Anniversary Series' Edition has had the magic and nimble fingers of STEVE WILSON around it's sunny throat - and once again the Porcupine Tree boy wonder has brought forth nuances that I for one hadn't heard before (the DVD-A includes the 2000 Remaster and Flat Transfer versions too). Here are the Talking Drums...

UK released 22 October 2010 - "Larks' Tongues In Aspic: 40th Anniversary Series" by KING CRIMSON on Panegyric KCSP5 (Barcode 633367400529) is a CD and DVD-Audio Reissue and New Remaster that plays out as follows:

Disc 1 CD (68:02 minutes):

2012 Stereo Mix

1. Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part I) [Side 1]

2. Book Of Saturday

3. Exiles

4. Easy Money [Side 2]

5. The Talking Drum

6. Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part II)

Tracks 1 to 6 are their fifth studio album "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" - released March 1973 in the UK on Island ILPS 9230 and April 1973 in the USA on Atlantic SD 7263. Produced by King Crimson (Engineer Nick Ryan) - the LP peaked at No. 20 and No. 61 on the UK and US album charts.

BONUS TRACKS:

7. Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part I) (Alternate Mix)

8. Book Of Saturday (Alternate Mix)

9. The Talking Drum (Alternate Mix)

Disc 2 DVD-AUDIO, NTSC, Region 0 (Code Exempt):

AUDIO CONTENT

1. Original Album Remixed In MPL Lossless 5.1 Surround

2. Original Album Remixed In DTS 5.1 Digital Surround

3. 2012 Stereo Album Mix In MPL Lossless Stereo (24/96)

4. 2012 Stereo Album Mix in PCM Stereo 2.0 (24/48)

5. Original Album Mix (30th Anniversary Edition from 1999)

6. Original Album Mix Alternate Takes and Mixes in PCM Stereo 2.0 (24/48)

VIDEO CONTENT (Dual Mono)

1. Improv: The Rich Tapestry Of Life

2. Exiles

3. Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part i)

4. Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part II) as Broadcast on Beat Club

KING CRIMSON was:

DAVID CROSS – Violin, Viola, Mellotron

ROBERT FRIPP – Guitars, Mellotron and Devices

JOHN WETTON – Bass, Vocals and Piano

BILL BRUFORD – Drums

JAMIE MUIR – Percussion and Allsorts

Like the other issues in this series the outer card slipcase and 2-disc foldout digipak contained within are aesthetically nice but only in a limited sort of way. The loose 16-page booklet leaves much to be desired despite a short and informative set of liner notes by noted writer and Prog music nut – SID SMITH. There's a snap of a 5-piece Crimson in London's Command Studios in January 1973 recording the album as well as other outtake photos - the stickered American LP artwork is pictured and the inner lyric bag that came with both UK and US issues is here too as - a live shot of the band on stage at The Rainbow Theatre in London in December 1973 (including a trade advert for the show) - a small shot of the Rare Promo-Only US EP on Atlantic Records and a Billboard advert for the 'new' LP and Tape of April 1973.

Downsides - the print is tiny and there are no photos or memorabilia pictured under the see-through CD trays (both sides lazily left blank) and the digipak itself has all the imagination of a common cold. Hardly exciting in any way and when you consider just how stunning the Jethro Tull 'Book Format' reissues are (I think there's eight now all of which have received universal fan worship and rightly so) – the presentation on all of these so called 'Definitive' 40th Anniversary Series Editions is staggeringly ordinary by comparison. But that's where the carping ends because on these babies - it's all about the sound...

All that 96 kHz and MPL Lossless techno jiggery-pokery mentioned on the card slipcase aside - the Audio is amazing right from the get go. For this Panegyric reissue ROBERT FRIPP and STEVE WILSON (of Porcupine Tree) carried out the 2012 multi-track mix from original tapes - whilst SIMON HEYWORTH (of Nick Drake fame), ROBERT FRIPP and ANDY MILES did the Stereo and 51. Surround Mastering at Super Audio Mastering Studios (DVD authoring by NEIL WILKES at Opus Productions). The DVD-A 'contains a complete album's worth of alternate takes and mixes, plus 43 minutes of previously unseen filmed performance of the band'. It all 'feels' clearer than the '30th Anniversary' reissue put out by Virgin in 2000.

From the moment that the percussive pinging of "Part I" of "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" kicks in - the sound is sweet and continues so for 13:35 minutes. When that huge riffage does emerge it may be time to turn this sucker down but you will of course want to turn it up again to catch those beautifully played violin passages (madness and sweetness in the same song). John Wetton's voice isn't the greatest for sure on the unreasonably short "Book Of Saturday" – a moment where Crimson sound closest to Yes (at least musically). Side 1 ends with 7:41 minutes of "Exiles" - again so clean during that building fade in. Without doubt one of my favourite tracks on an album I'm not that pushed on - the violin, acoustic guitars and Mellotron parts are beautifully present in this mix.

The cleverly structured "Easy Money" talks of suspect dudes in 'moccasin sneakers' - fabulous audio to that Bass break - but again for me Wetton's voice just let’s the side down a tad. "The Talking Drum" is another seven-minutes of whirling winds and far away electronic buzzing bees that soon emerge into a sly percussive pattern - violin taking the enjoyable romp home. Part II of the title track takes no prisoners and goes straight into that cool guitar grunge - returning to familiar sounds as it progresses - and again all of it so impress sonically. With "Exiles" it's my second fave-rave on the album.

I've listened to the 5.1 Surround Mix (on a friend's set up) and I can only describe it as 'powerful' with a capitol 'P'. I'm reminded of hearing those 'Quad' albums back in the Seventies - instruments coming out of speakers that you'd swear you've never heard before. As with all of these reissues - I can understand the completist reason for the Flat Transfer of the album but it’s just that - flat - and after the Wilson version - hard to go back to.

To sum up – their fifth studio outing "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" isn’t my fave-rave KC LP (never has been) - but this gorgeous CD and DVD-A Audio makeover by Steve Wilson and Robert Fripp has made me hear it again – and favourably. 

And despite my reservations about that so-so presentation – you keep coming back to the Audio – the best this Lark has ever sounded...and that's ultimately the best fan news...