What does it sound like?:
In September 2014, the ‘seven headed beast’ line up of Crimson played four nights in New York City as part of their US tour. These have now been distilled into this excellent two cd set, which captures the power and the glory of the band in full flight. Old classics such as Larks Tongues and Starless (disappointingly no Fracture though) are treated not as musty museum exhibits but as living, constantly evolving pieces, and it’s great to also hear less performed pieces like A Scarcity of Miracles and The Letters. Throughout the whole show, there’s a delicate balance between the precision of the most intricate passages of Fripp’s guitar and the sheer brute sonic force of this three drummer iteration of the band in full flow on, for example, The Hell Hounds of Krim and Banshee Legs Bell Hassle, a real contrast in dynamics, which can be quite shocking to the unwary listener at times. This is a band that simply refused to become just another legacy act, intent instead on challenging not just the audience but themselves – just listen to and marvel at the playing on Level Five to hear just what I mean. As if the incredible music wasn’t enough, there’s a very good booklet featuring the usual gold standard liner notes by long time biographer Sid Smith, which is the icing on the cake and really rounds this set off nicely – come on, this is an absolute steal at the price!
What does it all *mean*?
The coming months will see the release of a bluray containing all the shows on the US tour, including this release, but prior to that Islands will be reissued in deluxe form with all the music recorded during those sessions and a brand new Steven Wilson Atmos mix included.
Goes well with…
Looking forwards, not backwards, and using the past as both a foundation and a launching pad for the future.
Release Date:
out now
Might suit people who like…
If you have any or indeed all of the superb live sets issued over the last decade then you really should add this one to your collection.
Top review B. P.
I was going to order this but that Bluray containing all the shows…..any more info on this B.P.
This release is the start of a new series from the band’s 2014-2021 line up.
There will be a 2 x blu-ray release later in the year that will include audio from ALL 19 shows from the 2014 U.S. tour, but no release date as yet.
Thanks B.P.
In case anyone wants to get hold of this material and more…
alternative approach 1: the DGM Live website has the 2014 tour available for download at about £150 in FLAC format. I suspect the Blu-Ray release might turn out a bit cheaper though, but let’s see…
alternative approach 2: subscribe to Nugs introductory offer, and you get access to all of these shows plus a couple of hundred other KC outings from across their career.
alternative approach 3: subscribe to DGM’s 1000 club and get £750 worth of downloads per year for. £140 annually. With that, you can also stream the entire DGM archive directly from their site, and access to Nugs is included to stream the catalog that so far has made it over there.
addendum 1: Nugs also allows the purchase of physical CDs of individual shows.
honestly: Just buy the CD/LP that Bargey reviewed. It’s a good one.
Grateful Dead offer a similar thing with their Play Dead service where $100 pa gets you access to their huge archive of live recordings.
Islands deluxe! Hurrah! One of my favourite KC albums – can’t wait to hear that.
Then put the 25th of September in your diary sir!
All diaries have that date in it.
👏👏👏
You weren’t tempted by the Sailors’ Tales huge box, VV?
I have that. It’s remarkable to listen Boz become a groovy bassist on the job, he nails it under two weeks by my reckoning.
It’s a great box – mind you, they all are…
TBH I have a huge amount of KC material, most of it from the early days of the collector’s club, and as a result I have swerved a lot of the comprehensive boxed-set releases. And after all’s said and done they are bloody expensive and there are limits. Islands, though, like the Lark’s Tongues and Starless albums, is the KC era – post the prog-defining first three LPS, and before the angry angular trio’s ascendancy – that I most enjoy and listen to.
…hence, I thought that specific box might have tempted you more than the rest…
Oh yes, tempted indeed, just not that much.
The 2 bluray set containing all the US dates plus video of one show is released 23 October .
Note though that the blurays now will no longer include the cd content reviewed above as originally planned – the good news is that it’s been replaced by a video of the full friends and family only show recorded at The Egg.