King Crimson - Thrak Box Live and Studio Recordings 1994-1997 (2015) MP3@320kbps Beolab1700

King Crimson - Thrak Box Live and Studio Recordings 1994-1997 (2015) MP3@320kbps Beolab1700

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King Crimson - JurassiKc THRAK - THRAK BOX 1
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Artist...............: King Crimson
Album................: JurassiKc THRAK - THRAK BOX 1
Genre................: Rock
Source...............: CD
Year.................: 2015
Ripper...............: EAC (Secure mode) / LAME 3.92 & Asus CD-S520
Codec................: LAME 3.99
Version..............: MPEG 1 Layer III
Quality..............: Insane, (avg. bitrate: 320kbps)
Channels.............: Joint Stereo / 44100 hz
Tags.................: ID3 v1.1, ID3 v2.3
Information..........:

Posted by............: Beolab1700 on 04/11/2015

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Tracklisting
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Please see torrent contents for full tracklisting

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After three years spent extensively focusing on its 1972-’74 lineup — documented over a massive 66 CDs, DVDs and Blu Rays on Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (40th Anniversary Series Box) (2012); The Road to Red (2013); and Starless (2014) — King Crimson turns the clock ahead 20 years to an almost completely different lineup, a radically different sound and a far more unwieldy 6-piece incarnation dubbed “the double trio” on THRAK BOX: King Crimson Live and Studio Recordings 1994- 1997. Like its predecessors, the box is part of the group’s ongoing 40th Anniversary Series, which began in 2009 with the release of new stereo and surround sound mixes of the progressive rock progenitor’s earth-shattering 1969 debut, In the Court of the Crimson King, its highly influential 1975 studio swan song for the ’72-’74 group, Red and the divisive album that series remixer (until now) Steven Wilson dubbed “the album that stereo couldn’t contain,” 1970’s now more recognized classic, Lizard. As usual, alongside the box sets come CD/DVD-a sets with the new mixes, original mixes, and a smaller collection of bonus material.

Unlike the three boxes from the past three years, however, THRAK BOX was constructed with a different purpose in mind. Those previous boxes—while each containing the studio (or more accurately, in the case of Road to Red, studio/live conglomeration) or live album that was its core raison d’être—focused more heavily on live recordings: largely audio only and ranging from low to high fidelity, and sourced from audience bootleg cassettes, soundboard recordings and full, professional multi-track tapes.

Recording technology had come a long way, in terms of portability, ease and cost in the two decades separating the ’72-’74 lineup from the double trio that expanded the ’80s Crimson lineup of guitarist Robert Fripp, guitarist/vocalist Adrian Belew, bassist/Stick player Tony Levin and electro-acoustic drummer/percussionist Bill Bruford with two younger newcomers: Stick/Warr guitarist Trey Gunn and another electro-acoustic drummer/percussionist, Pat Mastelotto. Both newcomers came to the group through associations with Fripp: his Guitar Craft classes and/or the King Crimson co-founder’s collaboration with singer/songwriter David Sylvian on 1993’s The First Day and/or its live follow-up, ’94’s Damage. Every note the group made was recorded…and in high fidelity. Releasing a box like the Larks’ Tongues box—which included every known note played by the band (more to the point: every known note recorded by the group, which was far from all-inclusive)—would not just be an absurdly oversized box that would dwarf those that came before, it would have served no real purpose.

The double trio represented a more decided return to being an improvisational band after King Crimson’s largely form-focused ’80s incarnation, of which only one of its three studio recordings has, thus far, received the 40th Anniversary treatment: 1981’s groundbreaking Discipline, which introduced an entirely different Crimson, featuring the group’s sole remaining founding member (Fripp) and the only holdover from the ’72-’74 group, (Bruford). But the double trio was still heavily predicated on structure—whether it was blistering instrumentals or some of the most radio-friendly songs Crimson had released to date—and so a box containing a large number of live recordings would simply have been overkill.

And so, instead, THRAK BOX is a set of 12 CDs, two DVDs (one audio, one video) and two Blu Rays (also one audio, one video) that tells as complete a story of the 1994-1997 King Crimson as any pathological Crimhead would need, ranging from the early early studio recordings that resulted in, as Fripp called it, the 1994 calling card VROOOM EP, which also suggested that this new incarnation was going to be, quite possibly, the densest, most angular and most flat-out aggressive Crimson yet, to (in addition to the 2002 remaster of the double trio’s only full-length studio recording) new stereo and surround sound mixes of 1995’s THRAK—this time done by current Crimson guitarist/vocalist/flautist Jakko M. Jakszyk, with input and approval from/by Fripp.

Three audio live performances on CD—all complete versions of live sets previously only released in part and/or as soundboard recordings, this time mixed from original multi-track tapes—are augmented by a high resolution edition of B’Boom, the 1995 album culled from the group’s 10-day, Fall 1994 live performance debut in Argentina. That live album, released four months after THRAK in August 1995, came after the rehearsal/recording of VROOOM in June 1994 and a week of rehearsals in Belgrano four months later to tighten up the new material, add some more new music and adapt earlier repertoire to the larger lineup. Most significant, however, is the inclusion of a complete, never-before-seen concert video (on both DVD and Blu Ray) from the group’s 1995 show at San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre (a nice coincidence, coming, as it did, 19 years prior to the current Crimson’s lineup’s enthusiastically received two nights at the same venue in October, 2014) and, on Blu Ray only, the 1996 VHS release, Live in Japan, reissued on DVD in 1999 as Déjá VROOOM.

Another THRAK BOX CD, JurassiKc THRAK, is a collage of recordings akin to the Larks’ Tongues box’s “Keep That One, Nick”, providing insight into the recording process as well as including some material that never made it onto any commercial recordings. Maximum VROOOM collects the VROOOM EP together with some of the better material from the King Crimson Collector’s Club-only VROOOM Sessions, culled from the EP’s rehearsals; along with JurassiKc THRAK, it provides even more insight into this group’s recording process: a combination of pre-written material, generally expanded further by group input; and in-studio jams that often provided the seed for ideas that would ultimately lead to formal new material…and ways of working together as a six-piece.

Byte-Size THRAK brings material together from a variety of CD singles issued around the release of THRAK, including live material and single edits, as well as material from the KCCC-only Nashville Rehearsals, which signalled the formal end of the double trio as Crimson hit some unresolvable conflicts and “FraKctalised” into a series of smaller groups (trios and quartets) that hit the road as various-numbered ProjeKcts, releasing material through the latter half of the 1990s until a proper (and, once again, quartet-sized) King Crimson resurfaced in 2000 with The ConstruKction of Light.

Finally, ATTAKcATHRAK (The Vicar’s THRAK) provides longtime Crimson engineer/producer David Singleton the chance to make his own sequel to THRaKaTTaK, the 1996 studio concoction that took “THRAK” improvs from a multiplicity of shows recorded on tour in 1995 as inspiration for full album composed—other than the initial and closing themes of THRAK‘s title track—entirely of improvised material. Like-minded but an entirely different experience, ATTAKcATHRAK (The Vicar’s THRAK) provides its own alternate window into Crimson’s return to improvisation, as well as shining a strong spotlight on the technology that made this six-headed Crimson capable of sounds well beyond those anticipated from what was essentially a two-guitar, two-bass and two-drums lineup.

Beyond this bounty of material that truly tells the full story of a band from inception to dissolution, THRAK BOX comes with additional goodies including a compilation of Tony’s Road Movies, video cam recordings made by Tony Levin throughout the band’s three-year run; the THRAK Electronic Press Kit (EPK); a full 12″x12″ replica of the album cover and interior; a tour booklet from the 1994 shows in Argentina; two tour posters; a replica of the cover of one of the THRAK recording reel tapes; a hard copy King Crimson press kit; and copies of settings and itineraries. All this supplemented by a 12″x12″ booklet that, as always, contains a thoroughly detailed accounting of the group’s activities—in this case, one of his best yet—by longtime Crimson scribe, Sid Smith; “The Tale of the Tapes,” a one-page narrative from David Singleton that, in addition to explaining the process of selecting the material for this box, also discusses how this project made compiling ATTAKcATHRAK (The Vicar’s THRAK) an unavoidable inevitability; and a bevy of images, cover artwork and more.

THRAK BOX—as would be expected from a group that, each time it reconvenes, makes use of bleeding edge technology to expand its sonic, improvisational and compositional potential—takes the absolute fullest advantage of Blu Ray technology, such as making it possible for the Warfield show to be either a video or audio-only experience, automatically playing without having to make menu selections from a TV screen, but providing far more options if the menu system is used. Not only does it include the best-sounding audio available, it also features the absolute best that could be done to clean up the audio and/or video from standard definition recordings made in the mid-1990s, and there’s also a full page in the booklet, explaining how best to set up and optimize Blu Ray players to best take advantage of the discs’ many features.

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of THRAK BOX, however, is Jakko Jakszyk’s more radical reinterpretation of both the surround and new stereo mixes. If purists rankled at Steven Wilson’s stereo remixes—which largely respected the overall placement of the instruments, but created greater clarity between the layers so that the music was clearer, more delineated and discernible—they may find themselves up in arms at Jakzsyk’s more invasive approach. He creates far more significant distance between the instruments, in addition to adding parts that were either not on the original recording or are heard here, for the first time, with far greater clarity. The additions range from the relatively minor, such as Fripp’s brief line as the band returns to the opening theme near the conclusion of “VROOOM,” to the more extensive, like the guitarist’s signature sustaining-toned guitar fills heard on “Dinosaur” for the first time.

However, when considering the intrinsic density of the double trio, and the sampling technologies that often made it difficult to tell who was doing what, Jakszyk’s new mix is an absolute revelation and, rather than being considered a travesty for changing what some will think was already a perfect mix simply because it’s the one with which they are familiar, should be considered more as an alternate view of the album. In its greater unraveling of who’s playing what, subtle additions and more delineated positioning, it absolutely stands on its own merits as the mix that, like Wilson’s remix of Lizard, is amongst the most revealing of the 40th Anniversary Series—and, for many, may well become their preferred mix.

It’s clear that Fripp supports the new mix, radical though it may be. For those who use the argument that the original mix is what the artist intended, aside from that not always being the case (the demands of record labels looking for an artist to get a finished album submitted, for example, by a certain date so that they could slot it into their release schedule), it must be considered that none of the new mixes found on Crimson’s 40th Anniversary Series have been without the guitarist and true keeper of the Crimson legacy’s full involvement…and ultimate approval.

“In the world of King Crimson, I defer to Robert [Fripp],” says Jakszyk, in a brief interview conducted about his new mixes. “When he arrives, what he says goes. Occasionally he’ll ask my opinion, and I’ll tell him…and he may even accept it. But I would never argue a point. Frankly, it’s all subjective. Robert knows what Crimson is, and what he’s after.

“I normally start with the stereo mix,” Jakszyk continues, describing the approach he has used to remixing classic albums by Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and others. “I use the original as a kind of template. Certainly there can be edits that appear on the final original mix that don’t exist in the multitrack, as usually the original edits occur post-mix on 1/4″ or 1/2.” So, I need to reinstate these as a place to start. I want, wherever possible, to evoke the spirit of the original, if not a copy, and I tend to move out from there.

“In the end, most of these [King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series] releases contain a ‘cleaned up’ master of the original version of the mix. As a consequence, recreating that mix exactly seems rather pointless. I like to use it as a starting point, however,” continues Jakszyk.

“If I’m familiar with the material (and I often am), I might have a long-held desire to hear something more clearly…or even change the odd thing. It’s not a liberty I take as much as, I think, Steven [Wilson] does sometimes, but there have been moments where I’ve corrected a mistake—or tuned a note, even. I have also, on occasion, decided not to go with the original edit, as there are times when I think it’s interesting to revert to how it was played on the original take,” Jakszyk concludes.

But with THRAK, Jakszyk was faced with a completely different situation when compared to his other work. “THRAK was the exception to any of my rules,” he says. “As a fan of the original—as good as I thought it was—it was apparent that there was an awful lot of sonic and musical information crammed into stereo that was not helped by a lot of processing…some doubtlessly added at the mastering stage.

“So, if ever there was an album made for 5.1 it was this,” Jakszyk continues. “I didn’t start with stereo on this; it was straight to surround. We’d deal with the stereo later, rather than the usual and opposite approach I take. Consequently, the very first decision I made was to separate the drums: one kit up front and one at the back (though this moves, on occasion, when one drummer is largely the percussionist).

“This being the early ’90s, there was a lot of digital processing going on—the guitars, electronic percussion and Trey’s touch guitar, all of which were in stereo,” Jakszyk explains. “This all added to the mush and lack of clarity in the original stereo, so in surround I made these either very narrow or used just one side. That way I could place things, along with their own mono reverb, say, in their own unique spot in the surround picture.

“I start all this on my own, and when I have a mix I think is worth listening to, I get Robert to come by,” Jakszyk continues. “We usually have a few short but intense days tweaking things from my starting point. Robert’s very specific about placement and ambience that suits instruments and creating a mono place for both, and still has very sharp ears in this regard. As someone whose studio learning experience was largely in the ’80s, everything was stereo. So I’ve learned a great deal from Robert’s alternative perspective…and, of course, it makes perfect sense. Anyway, the fact is that the 5.1 mix was done relatively quickly and was finished and mastered sometime ago.

“It was the stereo mix that took the time. I think we must have done it