Errors-To: admin at elephant-talk dot com Reply-To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Sender: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Precedence: bulk From: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Subject: Elephant Talk Digest #485 E L E P H A N T T A L K The Internet newsletter for Robert Fripp and King Crimson enthusiasts Number 485 Saturday, 18 April 1998 Today's Topics: NEWS: Live chat with Tony Levin on April 22! NEWS: ET KC Tribute update NEWS: IRC Chat with Ian McDonald GIG BIZ: projeKct 2 tickets... I am not a scalper 80's KC Adrian Belew--programmer for Adobe? David Cross "Exiles" Re: about mr.fripp & mr eno (none) Highland, etc. Cover Tunes Re: Sylvian as KC singer? "Oh no, not again...this music makes me nervous" At our esteemed moderator's indulgence... Re: Space Groove: ProjeKct 2 CD thoughts & the P2 enhanced CD KC midi files But what do they sound like? Re:crimson tab update by cameron taylor (ET #483) Bert's Bunny, Jobson and Geeks Real-time recording NPR cancelled and Re: Abhiman GIG REVIEW: BLUE Review GIG REVIEW: B.L.U.E. review GIG REVIEW: B.L.U.E. Toad's Place, New Haven CT Monday night... GIG REVIEW: Levin/Bruford/Troy and B.L.U.E. - Concert review and album GIG REVIEW: BLUE live in Philly GIG REVIEW: PROJEkCT TWO - 16th April, Jazz Cafe, London GIG REVIEW: "Split Your Head!" - PROJEKcT TWO at the Jazz Cafe ------------------ A D M I N I S T R I V I A --------------------- POSTS: Please send all posts to newsletter at elephant-talk dot com To UNSUBSCRIBE, or to CHANGE ADDRESS: Send a message with a body of HELP to admin at elephant-talk dot com, or use the DIY list machine at http://www.elephant-talk.com/list/ to ASK FOR HELP about your ET subscription: Send a message to: help at elephant-talk dot com ETWeb: http://www.elephant-talk.com/ You can read the most recent seven editions of ET at http://www.elephant-talk.com/cgi-bin/newslet.pl IRC: Regular get-togethers at #ElephantTalk on Undernet Sundays at Noon PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT Mondays at 6pm PST / 9pm EST / 2am GMT THE ET TEAM: Toby Howard (Moderator), Dan Kirkdorffer (Webmeister) Mike Dickson (List Admin), and a cast of thousands. The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. ET is produced using John Relph's Digest system v3.5b (relph at sgi dot com). ------------------ A I V I R T S I N I M D A --------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 13:07:10 -0800 From: swarden at electricvillage dot com (Scott Warden) Subject: NEWS: Live chat with Tony Levin on April 22! Hello there! We're contacting every King Crimson fan we can find to let them know about the live chat we're having with Tony Levin on April 22 at 7 pm PST, 9 Central, 10 pm EST. The URL is: (http://www.rockvillage.com) then you just click on the box with Tony's picture in it. If you're AOL use the HTML option, if you're anything else you can either download the ichat plug-in (which takes about 20 minutes) or just log in as a guest. Hope to see you at the chat! Thanks - Scott Warden (If you've got any questions send me a message.) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Apr 98 19:33:00 PDT From: Matt Walsh Subject: NEWS: ET KC Tribute update Just a quick note to let you know that the next survey for the ET Tribute, The artwork/CD cover survey, is currently running on ETWeb. We received a bunch of submissions from ET members. Now it is time for all of you at ET to decide what the album cover should look like. After browsing the page and deciding which one you like best. Select the box underneath it and submit your form. PLEASE only one survey per person. We will be running the survey until the first week of May. Of course as you should all know by now, the ETWeb can be found at http://www.elephant-talk.com. There you will find all the juicy details. I would like to thank all of you who took the time to fill out the tribute questionaire that we had up last month. We got around 181 responses, and gave me plenty of info on where I should be continuing the project. I will be sending a more detailed e-mail concerning this in the not-too-distant future, after I've had a chance to go over everyhting and get some issues straightened out. But, for now we do have a title... the title for Elephant Talk's upcoming tribute is (please plop a KC CD in your CD player and forward to a Bruford (or Giles, or...) drum roll)..... By an overwhelming percentage... In The Wake Of The Crimson King: An ET Tribute To King Crimson Thanks again to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey. Even the constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks as always to Dan Kirkdorffer for all his help. Till next time... Matthew Walsh Software Engineer - Strategic Management Group mattw at smginc dot com mattmonkw at aol dot com Matt's personal CD jukebox - Currently playing and annoying co-workers with: Opeth - "Morningrise" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 23:57:03 -0400 From: Gary Davis Subject: NEWS: IRC Chat with Ian McDonald Hello, folks, The Artist Shop and Talk City hosted an IRC Chat with Ian McDonald this evening, April 15. Ian talked about such things the original King Crimson and the recent Epitaph release; his recent work with Steve Hackett; plans for a solo album that will include such guests as Steve Hackett, John Wetton and other Crimson alumni; working on re-mastering the McDonald & Giles album and the desire to do a second McDonald and Giles album; and more. Unfortunately we didn't get our notice into ET early enough, so many of you may have been totally unaware of the event. So Ian has consented to do another chat on Sunday, May 3 at 5pm EST. This will be even better than our Wednesday evening chat as it will allow KC fans in Europe to join in as well, not to mention early risers in Japan and Australia. You'll find full details on joining this chat on our IRC page at . I hope you'll all come. Gary ************************************************************** Gary Davis The Artist Shop The Other Road http://www.artist-shop.com artshop at artist-shop dot com phone: 330-929-2056 fax:330-945-4923 SUPPORT THE INDEPENDENT ARTIST!!! ************************************************************** Check out the latest Artist Shop newsletter at http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 14:08:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Yossarian Subject: GIG BIZ: projeKct 2 tickets... I am not a scalper hello all, i have two extra tickets for projeKct 2 at IMAC in Huntington, NY for wednesday May 6th. I AM NOT A SCALPER!!! Two friends of mine bailed on me so if there are any crimheads out there in the NYC are who have not yet bought tickets, please e-mail me as soon as possible. I will not charge extra, i will only take what I paid for them. thank you. -pietro sabatino "Lest the mirror stop turning" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 13:04:39 PDT From: "Alfred Dodson" Subject: 80's KC Hello again this is in response to the harsh statements written concerning the 80's King Crimson. For me this version of the group is really no different than any of the others the only noticable difference that is unavoidable is the passage of time and musical influence that a musician takes in over the years. I enjoy all incarnations of KC but I feel strongly that the words written by Adrian Belew are the best out of all of them. Sure Pete Sinfield has his place simply because that kind of lyric was in style at that particular time. Adrian's lyrics are mature and do not sound dated like the 70's KC. If one remembers that for Adrian KC was the first serious band he was in as a frontman and to take on a project like KC was a challenge. I do wish people would stop badgering the man and let him do what he does best. Speaking as a musician in the St. Louis area, who plays with a local band called Hotel faux Pas, I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion but lets not waste time debating who can sing or write good lyrics cause in the end you'll eventually change your mind as the passage of time takes a beating to your ears. thanks Alfred P.S. "The noise" is a kickass video of what the 80's KC had to offer to the world at large-so buy it, watch it, love it. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:13:03 -0400 From: "earthblind, starbound" Subject: Adrian Belew--programmer for Adobe? A friend of mine just got Adobe Photoshop, and when he was installing it I noticed the name of the install program--Big Electric Cat. Ade, you there? Time for me to get out my Desire of the Rhino King cd. -=- I know a monster when I see one in the mirror. --------------------==== Broken via True Love ====------------------- http://www.afn.org/~afn39111 Butcher, Rape, Smash to Pieces ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 17:27:11 -0700 From: "Robert Miyares" Subject: David Cross "Exiles" ET, I recently purchased David Cross's "Exiles" after a sample listen of 2 tracks on Elephant Tape. The songs featured Robert Fripp and Peter Hammill. Both songs are magnificent--reminiscent of "Disengage" on Exposure. I ran accross the album at Tower Records and just had to have it. After a full listen, I have to ask "What gives?" Yes, "Tonk" and "Troppo" are great songs, but what are they doing on this record. Aside from these songs and "Duo" ( a sweet instrumental duet of Cross's violin and Fripp's soundscapes) this album is embarrassing. It opens with a bizarre version of "Exiles" sung by John Wetton. The arrangement is pompous and overblown with bad prog breaks and solos interrupting the flow (although it does stand as a testament of just how beautiful a song it is if it can survive such harsh treatment.) I found it odd to note that the violin in the middle section was replaced by a classical guitar. Is this really a solo album by a violin player? In fact, Cross is almost invisible throughout the entire record. I also notice that Pete Sinfield has not matured any in the past years. His one contribution, "This Is Your Life" sung by John Wetton are his sappiest lyrics since ELP's "Love Beach." Example: "When all's said and done/Water's sweeter than wine/Just one go down the slide/For the ride of your life." Yeesh! After a full listen, I find it hard to believe that the Fripp/Hammill tunes were written by Cross and his band as listed in the credits. It sounds so different to the rest of the songs accreditted to them and so close in style to Fripp and Hammill songs I've heard before--plus the lyrics of both songs are pure Hammill. Example: "Re-entering the pattern/The final escapade/the cycle flies right off the deep end/Free flow thoughts to fade."--an existential physicist if ever I heard one. Finally, there are several instrumental tracks featuring Cross and his band. If this was all I heard, I would think this was a solo album by someone in the Dixie Dregs. Anyway, those 2 songs were worth the price at least, and I only hope that someday Fripp and Hammill will put together an entire album and tour together. It's a great combo. Hammill is the only person who can sing the way Fripp plays. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 07:55:29 +0200 From: Michael Peters Subject: Re: about mr.fripp & mr eno > Regarding "NO PUSSYFOOTING", the album of Robert Fripp and > Brian Eno, i was wondering about the meaning of that > statement : no pussyfooting ?? check out the articles and reviews collection on the EnoWeb: http://www.hyperreal.com/music/artists/brian_eno/ >No Pussyfooting came from the slogan >Fripp had written on a piece of paper >and planted on the mixer in the studio >the night the record was being recorded. michael peters mpeters at csi dot com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mpeters/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 19:00:41 +0300 From: "Jacob Nachmani" Hello, I read your discography about King Crimson. I was surprised that a CD which I bought yesterday here in the Middle East was not listed in your discography. I'm talking about 'In the court of the crimson king' and I mean The CD which says on the label on the disc itself 'manufactured in England' as opposed to any other country. I like the CDs from England because they have the best recording quality. Could you please let me know if there is no such CD and I simply bought an Illegal copy or perhaps you just did not put it in your discography even though it realy exists. Thanks, Jacob. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 18:37:28 EDT From: SMcmil6360 Subject: Highland, etc. I have a couple of questions/comments for the readership. 1) Does anyone know where I can find a listing of bootleg titles from a company called Highland? Or where I can mail order the titles? They handle a lot of great King Crimson, Bill Bruford, Genesis, and Yes bootlegs. 2) In particular, what are some good mail order companies for King Crimson boots? Ones that you've had good experiences with. Thanks. Steve. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 10:44:45 -0400 From: "Larry D'Ambrosa" Subject: Cover Tunes Hello Fellow ETers I've been thinking about this for a while. Fripp has stated that the idea for the double trio just "came to him". What if the idea for King Crimson to play a couple of cover tunes also "came to him". What do you think they would be? Larry D'Ambrosa ldambrosa at csi dot com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 15:54:13 +0100 From: "Brian Thomson, London UK" Subject: Re: Sylvian as KC singer? To A. De Wailly, who asked: Sylvian is quoted in a Sound On Sound issue I have as saying that Mr Fripp DID ask him to join KC when they started working together again in 1993 or so. Sylvian thought about it, but declined, saying he wouldn't be good at handling everything that comes with the name "King Crimson". That's what he sez, anyway... not an option anyway, with Adrian in the band. Irreplaceable IMHO. Even though I like Midge Ure a lot as well, can you imagine him singing "Matte Kudusai"? Brian Thomson, London UK bnt at ibm dot net P2 Tonight! (Jazz Cafe, London). Will post impressions to ET later... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 09:54:47 -0700 From: Jonah Stein Subject: "Oh no, not again...this music makes me nervous" Let me start of by congradulating everyone at ET on the new layout. I love the frameset. Last month, I attended the ProjeKCt two show at the great american music hall in SF. The show was great, with the kind of blistering riffs all of us have come to expect from RF. I particularly enjoyed the improvization from a musician I have come to expect almost Germanic Perfection. I left with a new appreciation of RF's skill and showmanship (well, he did actually look at the crowd for most of the night!) My contribution is the observation of my seven year old son Justin, who was forced to come with me because the sitter cancelled. After standing at the balcony rail to watch the first song with intense interest, he sat down. When the second song began, he turned to me and said "Oh no, dad, not again... this music makes me nervous." Twenty years or so of predictable, formulaic pap, and he too will be seeking music which makes him nervous. Jonah ps Andrian is a pretty damn interesting drummer pps A few months back, there was a rather frightening suggestion for a re-union tour with all of the members of KC together on stage. Awful..But how about a three day festival with differing lineups of KC intermingled with various solo projects of members.... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 11:58:42 -0600 From: daniel farris Subject: At our esteemed moderator's indulgence... Sorry, Toby. I know this is off topic. I'll try to be very brief. (I'll even try to type quickly.) ganderso at notes dot cc dot bellcore dot com wrote in ET 483: > much of the spatial, 3-D information will > be lost, as it is that both-channel crosstalk that allows > your brain to reconstruct the recorded image (this is why on > headphones most recordings break into three blobs of > sound--one right, one left, and one center just above your > forehead). Yes, this is exactly the headphone-phenomenon to which I was referring. > There is, however, sort of a way out, called "binaural > recording". Proponents of binaural sware that it can yield > some of the best sound. And I would agree with them. I've made numerous binaural recordings of classical performances and try, as much as possible, to get away with using this technique to varying degrees on multi-track rock recordings. It is, however, not always appropriate for certain types of projects. In any case, while I really don't dislike headphones at all, I still prefer to play back binaural tapes (and all others as well) on speakers. Headphones are useful at times when it simply isn't practical to listen on speakers: a necessary evil, if you will. And don't forget about Ambisonic- you can't press it on vinyl, and you can't hear it in headphones. No other type of "3D" recording (that I can think of) offers a vertical axis on playback. Daniel Farris denial recording Birmingham Alabama ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 15:05:35 -0400 From: "Dave Lane" Subject: Re: Space Groove: ProjeKct 2 CD thoughts & the P2 enhanced CD "Bill Knispel" wrote: > My one big complaint...the font used in the liner > notes (I assume it's meant to cop a Star Trek feel) is > almost impossible to read easily. I wish it was clearer. It's the same font that NASA uses, or used to. Check out: http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/X-29/Small/EC91-491-6.jpg Some folks have complained about the P2 enhanced CD not working. It's essentially the same as the enhanced stuff on the Night Watch CD and the content of the DGM online catalogue site. I was able to run it with no difficulty on my NT 4.0 machine. I have another machine that can run either NT 3.51 or Windows 95, and that machine has no soundcard, which makes in non-conformant to the system requirements specified in the README.TXT file on the CD, but it runs fine on NT 3.51. On Windows 95, it *looks* ok, but makes a godawful racket through the PC speaker. I already had Quicktime set up on both machines, but there are instructions on the disk on how to set up Quicktime so that you can use the CD. I like the album a lot. I'm looking forward to Projekct 1 and any other permutations that Fripp & Co. come up with. --Dave ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 23:55:52 -0400 From: Hunter/Goldwasser Subject: KC midi files For those of you who for some reason or other are interested in cheesy midi clips and are also interested in the best band since cavemen started banging on logs with other logs and realized that it made a nifty noise, ahem, there are some decent Crimso midis at: http://midifarm.com/files/midifiles/General_MIDI/KING_CRIMSON/ --Ben Goldwasser ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 21:26:29 -0700 From: "Andy Gower" Subject: But what do they sound like? If you're like me, you hear about all these side projects on this digest but wonder if they're actually worth spending money on. Well I suggest you visit: The Elephant Tape Page http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/3112/etape/index.html They have Real Audio sound clips of numerous KC projects (Bruford Levin Upper Extremities, Tony Levin, Trey Gunn, etc.). The clips don't sound great but they're a good way to get familiar with the sound. Check 'em out! Andy Gower http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Arena/2763/index.html (my own web site!) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 15:37:40 +0300 From: Shmulik Pfeifel Subject: Re:crimson tab update by cameron taylor (ET #483) Hi to all the Crimzoids! (I like that name!) I would only like to remark with regard to the above tab, that it would be much easier to start playing the intro (and if you have an electric guitar- the rest of the song as well) on and around the ten fret. The song begins with a break down and impro on GM, so why not use the ten fret?. Ofcourse, there are no rules, but I think that Cameron's fingering is a little impractical (no offence). As a newcommer to ET Digest I must say I'm having a hellova' time reading it. greetings Samuel ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 14:22:19 GMT From: crimson at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk (Mike Dickson) Subject: Bert's Bunny, Jobson and Geeks THE TIMES WEEKEND SATURDAY APRIL 11 1998 'From The Cooking Pot To The Couch' BEATON is 14lb of New Zealand White bunny with a passion for watching television, listening to CDs of Gregorian chants and generally lolling about the sofa with his owners, the actress Toyah Wilcox and her musician husband, Robert Fripp, at their Wiltshire home. [...] [Toyah] believes that bucks are better-natured than does, though Beaton - who has not been castrated - views the Wilcox/Fripp home as a menage-a-trois. 'He sleeps in the bedroom with us;, says Miss Wilcox, 'and he knows the difference between the human sexes, and a bit of male territorial-type spraying goes on. 'Often he'll spray the chair Robert has just been sitting on. Once Robert came home to discover he'd unwittingly spent a whole moring at the bank, round the shops and on other errands with Beaton's pee streaked down his trousers and he got rather annoyed. Yet when I'm away, Beaton and Robert are inseperable.' [ -- note: the article doesn't go on to expound Roberts views on the relationship between performer and rodient.] > From: BULLJ1 at westat dot com (BULLJ1) > > ET481 was hysterical! I guess geeks do have humor. Toby and Dan are the Geeks. I am entirely well-balanced. I am the Gimp. > From: Jim Bauer > Subject: Did Eddie Jobson Ever Play with KC? > > I have two ways of interpreting this: 1), he assisted the engineers in > the studio during the remix; or 2) they overdubbed some tracks in the > studio. I understand that Jobson was responsible for the violin overdubs in viuew of the fact that some of Cross' efforts were inaudible most of the time. Mike Dickson, Black Cat Software Factory, Scotland : Fax 0131-271-1551 crimson at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk : ET Administrator : Columnated Ruins Domino ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 10:02:54 -0400 From: ganderso at notes dot cc dot bellcore dot com Subject: Real-time recording Daniel Farris said... < BQ > How can a band make music that is not true to itself? What are the criteria for making music that is a true portrait of the band? < EQ > An important point. I do believe, however, that the "fan" to whom Daniel was responding may have been reacting to a somewhat novel concept (by Fripp) as to what a recording is, or should be. I think we're all used to the idea of a "new album" being a carefully structured, produced, and promoted "product" or event. Good or bad, we're used to a polished feel to things. The approach to releases with the 6-piece KC has never been this way, also for better or worse (indeed, "Vroom" was almost a rehearsal tape itself). Instead, for whatever reason, Fripp (or just fate) has caused us to be able to hear KC develop in almost real time, and this may not be for everyone. I'll even admit I've only listened through all of Thrak AttakC once, perhaps because of it's raw sound. Interestingly, Levin seems to share this view. Of the thre CDs released by his tiny label, none of them are really "big productions", liner notes would indicate that all were performed with minimal rehearsal, and are fairly close to being "live". This allows for a less polished sound, but on another level it's little more direct and honest. I feel like i listening to other men making music, rather than experiencing a nice, exciting "product". -Emory ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 10:33:52 -0400 From: "dumela" Subject: NPR cancelled and Re: Abhiman According to Tony the NPR interview for BLUE scheduled for 4/16 was cancelled. ----- abhiman at juno dot com wrote: >I came to the conclusion that Robert (a) is civil to his >colleagues, (b) respectful to his audience as a whole [as >one reads his liner notes], and (c) a complete @#$%&! to >the singular audient. As I wrote in my gig review (ET #447) of the Birchmere soundscape show 12/10/98 Robert displayed more kindness to me as a singular audient and complete stranger than I might be willing to give myself. He brought me into the club stating that I was getting wet (I wasn't), introduced me to his sister Patricia, handed me his clothing satchel, instructed me more than once to be discreet (my pleasure), and asked the manager to reserve me a table. Later he approached me at the bar and did some laughing. This was all on his initiative. So, and there have been many other such stories in ET (do read), my own experience leads me to believe that your conclusion is incorrect. His civility to this singular audient was inspiring. tj ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 19:14:51 -0400 From: "Norton, Craig" Subject: GIG REVIEW: BLUE Review Last night was the first date of the U.S. leg of the Bruford Levin Upper Extremities tour and it was a show to remember. Tony Levin and Bill Bruford did an in-store appearance at a local music shop and I had the chance to meet the boys. Having done an extensive e-mail interview (see interviews) with Tony about a month earlier, it was my first chance to meet him in person. He was taking pictures with his digital camera and yacking it up with everyone. Bill was having a good time in this opportunity to entertain us with his dry wit. Torn strolled in as I was leaving and scoped out the situation. Considering they had just flown back from Japan two days earlier, they were in pretty good shape. The show at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT began with Bill doing a rather quiet drum solo. This was the last quiet moment of night, as the two short sets that followed were very high intensity. Extended versions of the entire Upper Extemeties disc were played with much improvisation. The only non-BLUE tune was a composition of David Torn's from his Cloud About Mercury project which featured Bruford and Levin when it was recorded back in the late 80's. David Torn was a lot of fun to watch; he looks like a healthy Sam Kinnison. Torn is the master of controlled feedback. He doesn't as much play the guitar, but sort of works the general region in which the guitar is located. Only about half the time he was playing the strings of the guitar synth. The rest of the time he was working the effects stack, tweaking the loops into submission and utilizing a bizarre feedback device. At times he had a look on his face like he couldn't believe what he was doing. Chris Botti was a surprising addition to the quartet, adding an intense jazz feel and a great on-stage presence. He wandered the stage from side to side while playing and interacting with the other musicians and audience. At times he reminded me of Mark Isham and when things got really weird, there was a definite Miles Davis thing happening. He seemed to make eye contact with every member of the audience in his travels about the stage. In addition to his duties behind the drum kit, Bill Bruford was given the job of MC. In between tunes, his witty banter was greatly appreciated by the raucous crowd. When someone yelled "Close To The Edge", he asked the other guys- "Do we know that one?" He opened the show with a solo played mostly with his bare hands on the acoustic drums. (There were no Simmons electronic drums evident.) He powered the high intensity jazz with understated ease. If he was suffering from jet-lag, he showed no signs at all. Tony Levin was in his element improvising heavily with the other musicians and utilizing all the tools of his trade. Easily moving from the bow and upright NS to Stick to the infamous Toast Bass and Funk Fingers. Levin pounded out the bottom end with the greatest of ease. Tony had said on his web site that Toad's was a favorite place for him to play, and the feeling was mutual. Many in the crowd were very familiar with his site (as well as ET) and a lot of folks seemed to be familiar with the newly released disc. All in all, it was an intense evening of jazz/rock improv. With Project2 coming to Toad's in a few weeks, I think it's going to be a very musical Spring. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 01:00:00 EDT From: Close2Edge Subject: GIG REVIEW: B.L.U.E. review Hello, Folks! There was a request for a review of B.L.U.E. in the last issue, and I suppose that enough has not been said about this recording, so I will oblige. Bruford Levin Upper Extremities arrived at my doorstep last week, and it has graced my ears three times so far. It is rewarding music, and attention- getting. An unusual mixture of instruments and sounds is used. Chris Botti's trumpet brings brass to experimental rock in a way that I don't think has been heard since early King Crimson or fusion-era Miles Davis. The rest of the band is playing in that dark 90's-progressive voice that Fripp and his milieu have patented, but the addition of the trumpet makes things much more unpredictable. Bill Bruford is given some wonderful freedom here. He combines elements of his playing with Crimson, ABWH, and Earthworks here, all of his facets are on the disc! There are some whimsical interludes that record him skittering around on a defucnt piano in Levin's garage. On the first track, Cerulean Sea, Bruford lends a merciless held-tension counter-rhythm to what is a fairly simple bass line by Tony. The result is spine-tingling, and comparable to the best work of Crimson. David Torn fits in well, lending an experimental looping/industrial guitar sound that reminds one of Fripp, but with a decidedly different spirit. David is a competent player, and his ideas are exciting, but I sometimes wonder if he wishes to communicate anything other than his own ingenuity? I am very glad that Tony Levin has released so much music on Papa Bear records. His is such a rare and accomplished musical voice. When he was with King Crimson and with Peter Gabriel, I always knew that he would do well if given more of the spotlight. I trust Papa Bear as well as I trust DGM. These people put out records that wake up your ears. Ironically, one of my favorite tracks on Upper Extremities is a retread of "Etude in the Key of Guildford" from Tony's "World Diary" CD. The addition of Torn and Botti give this piece some vigorous energy. It sounds less like Mariachis now, and more like Van Halen with brains and a trumpet. Still waiting for Projekct 2..... Eric J. Thorson. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 10:29:46 -0400 From: bruce higgins Subject: GIG REVIEW: B.L.U.E. Toad's Place, New Haven CT Monday night... It's taken a couple of days for me to calm down enough to write about this show "objectively". To try and get even more rational, I'm going to start with some reasons why this may not have been the greatest show I have ever seen: - it didn't have the arc and variety of a Dead show - it didn't have the soul of a Van Morrison performance - it didn't have the titanic darkness of a King Crimson gig - it didn't have the preposterous pyrotechnics of a Pink Floyd extravaganza - it didn't have the pathos and spirit of Don Pullen's final performances - it didn't have the sheer abandon of a Salif Keita dance party - it didn't have the mordant wit of a Richard Thompson set OK. Take a deep breath. Toad's Place is wonderful place to see a show. The stage area is intimate, but there is plenty of room around the periphery to wander, order a beer, take a time out. We arrived to find 7 rows of folding chairs set up in front of the stage...all occupied an hour before showtime. Curses! The only thing to do was grab a table and chairs from the periphery and carefully set them up halfway between the drum riser and Torn's electronic command console. Table service for four, stage left center. Bass Ale, please, and keep it coming! After an interminable wait, leavened only by the fact that the preshow music was a nicely chosen selection of Eno material (RAF(!), Bush of Ghosts, Nerve Net, One Word, etc...), the lights went down and Bill Bruford, Master Drummer of the Universe came out and started a simple drum pattern which quickly evolved into something I couldn't follow. After a few minutes of this, Tony Levin strolled out to a great round of applause and began bowing an 8-foot tall electric stand-up, sans body. DEEEEP notes that even Toads' mighty subs couldn't handle shook the hall. Eventually David Torn ambled on-stage and began toying with his set up. As the jam began to gel, Chris Botti, the Chet Baker of progressive rock, slunk into view, barely visible in black turtleneck and slacks, and began whispering into his electronically mobile-mic'ed horn... A lot of shows take a little time to find their groove; this band hit warp speed in no time flat. The opening jam metamorphosized into "Etude Revisited" from the Bruford Levin Upper Extremities CD. A triumphal ditty on the album, this version was extended to the neighborhood of 10 minutes. Torn ripped off a number of the insane solos that only he is capable of. Botti stalked the stage urging the band higher with repeated cuts at the theme. Levin and Bruford laid out the intricate, yet violent, ryhthmic underpinnings with the icy precision developed in their years with Crimson. Absolutely tremendous. When it finally ended, Bruford stood up to address the frothing crowd. Before he could say a word the guy behind me (or was it me?) shouted out "PLAY THAT ONE AGAIN!!!" :-) I could have left after that one tune and been fully satisfied. But no, off we go into "Original Sin". I sat in fear of hearing Torn's solo, so devastating on the CD, but this time he developed it slowly, gave it room breathe, before launching into overdrive. I'll spare you much more blow-by-blow. They played most of the B.L.U.E. CD, and closed the second set with an absolutely ripping "Three Minutes of Pure Entertainment" from the Cloud About Mercury disc. Torn actually had his hands on his guitar maybe half the time. He was otherwise occupied working the samplers, delays, loops, and god knows what else he had arrayed around himself. He would play a solo on the guitar, and then spend the rest of the tune reworking it on the console. He had various gizmos that he waved around, creating eerie effects, and a couple of times it looked like he was taking an electric razor to his guitar, to bizarre, growling effect. After intermission, he came out alone with what we eventually concluded was an electric oud - it looked like something T.A.F.K.A. Prince might play. He played a middle eastern inflected solo, that eventually joined by his cohorts, morphed into "A Palace Of Pearls (on a Blade of Grass)". He is utterly beyond any guitar player I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot). Chris Botti impressed no end. My brother, a professional trumpet player, was blown away. He has great stage presence and played great, sweeping, insistent melodies over the fiendish complexities of Levin, Bruford, and Torn. Levin. Bruford. You know the story. Goddamn if Tony doesn't keep getting better on the stick. Personally, while the 90's KC storms, and Pat and Trey are phenomenal musicians, I prefer the 80's edition, where Bill and Tony don't get as lost in all the clatter and thrakking. The B.L.U.E. tour is a fantastic opportunity to see these guys reclaim the bottom end for themselves. This mini-tour is a bona fide Event. These musicians are The Best on their respective instruments, and they seem to manage to get together once a decade. I don't imagine that I'll see a better show this year. At the moment, I can't even imagine wanting to see another concert (except the Boston show that I have tickets for but can't attend, DAMMIT). Three opportunities remain to see this band. Baltimore tomorrow, the Knit (two shows) on Saturday, and the House of Blues in Boston on Sunday. It is worth the drive. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 15:02:24 -0400 From: Ken M Subject: GIG REVIEW: Levin/Bruford/Troy and B.L.U.E. - Concert review and album Simply astounding. Levin/Bruford came to Toad's Place New Haven, CT on Monday 4/13/98 and had a signing at Cutler's Records, not 1 block away earlier in the day. I had the pleasure of being first in line to sit and speak to Tony and Bill, while all the arrangements were finalized for their signing. The turn-out for the sigining was small, I'd say 50 people at the onset at 4:00pm. Bill opened the flood gates by standing up and saying, in a very Parliamentary voice, "I declare these proceedings Open!", to which I simply gave him a "Harumph, yes yes, quite so." in return. Bill then pointed to the t-shirts of a few people in the front of the line, "I see Yes, King Crimson, and ... Led Zeppelin?" Which brought a chuckle from many, and a flush to the LZ wearer's face. All queries regarding King Crimson were quickly set aside with Tony's simple "I have no idea about any of that right now," which I was to assume was his way of not wishing to get into any discussions on that topic for a plethera of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that he was promoting his and Bill's new album BLUE, not a KC album! Tony, as always, was bright, wide-eyed, perhaps a little shorter than I anticipated, but very nice and charismatic. He was constantly taking photos of the crowd with his digital camera or a camcorder. I mentioned ET to him, which he replied, "Elephant Talk is a great newsletter, but I don't have much time to read it lately." < Cheers Toby! > Bill was pragmatic and aloof, but quite willing to answer any questions offered to him.. One question I caught from one of the people nearby as Tony signed my THRAK CD case was "Are you planning anything new with YES?" to which he quickly replied "Well, let's see.. I did something with them a couple years back, a tour in '91 was it? Other than that I've not been in that band for 25 years." After we had our fill of Hero Worship, my friend Dave and I went to Toad's place to buy tickets for the upcoming evening's show. We found, to our delight, David Torn tuning up and testing his equipment on stage, so we sat and listened to a little bit of his looping squaking wailing weirdness. Fast Forward... 8:09pm, doors opened at 8:00, show to start at 9:00. Walking past "Au Bon Pain", a bakery/sandwich shop about 1/2 block from Toad's place caught Bill Bruford enjoying some quiet time with a cigarette, I nodded to him and said "Hi Bill" as my friends and I passed him in peace.. Another KC member sighting, who's keeping score? Concert Review -------------- Set List TBA... I didn't write it down, I was too busy listening! Toad's place is a great venue for this kind of music. I thought It would have been better if they gave us chairs, and this time they did! The "floor" area of the club was littered with chairs and tables with a short walk in any direction to a bar. The sound system is clean and there aren't any perceptible rattles or hums in the acoustics. We took our seat on stage right, in front of David Torn's rig. Toad's place filled to capacity for these masters. Good for you Tony, Bill, David and Chris!!! Bruford opened the show with a dazzling display of eclectic rhythm. About 2 minutes later, Tony walked onstage and added his Chapman Stick to the mix, creating a highly focused, and instesnly captivating counter-point to Bruford's rhythm. About 2 minutes later, David Torn walked out and screeched a greeting to the crowd. Wait, there's more.. 2 Minutes later, Chris Biotti entered the scene with his Trumpet calling all the cacophony of David Torn and the outlandish syncopations of Bruford/Levin to a peak soul-searching pinnacle. The concert was a melding of strict syncopation and rythym by Tony and Bruford, with a floating "Surfing the Feedback" kind of wall-of-sound approach from Torn. Chris Biotti's trumpet added the smoothness and character to the sounds you would expect from a master horn player. Nobody left disppointed, and a standing ovation accompanied many of the performances. My personal favorite of the album, and live, was "Fin de Siecle" which is, hauntingly enough, a variation on a theme introduced in Led Zeppelin's "Cashmire". Very powerful, very deep, and very interesting to listen to. In an attempt to make this review as balanced as possible, here is my criticism, for what it's worth. David Torn needs to turn down a little bit, and groove a little more. His loops, live at least, were too harsh and many times caused dissonance where one would really really REALLY want some harmony. He's a great player, and his style is unique and worthy of his place with the like of Bruford and Levin, but at times it seemed that the muse just barely escaped his grasp. Chris Biotti's trumpet playing was smooth, kind on the ears, and made sense of some of the soup of sounds that were blasting out of Torn's rig, but at the end of the day, I could only identify one "Riff" that he seemed to be playing, over and over again in many songs and placed. Very Miles Davis-ish, and very good, but I think he needs to open up a bit more and explore the music. Break out of the box Chris! In summary: BUY THE ALBUM.. It is a great piece of work, and if for no other reason than to read the liner notes, which gives Tony and Bill's "thoughts" behind each of the songs. Bill, eclectic as usual speaks in riddles and impressions, Tony telling it like it is. SEE THE SHOW... These masters are worthy of any price, and the measly $15 I paid to get in was well worth it. I can't wait for ProjeKt 2 to come in May so I can see how Fripp, Belew, and Trey work together. Ken Melms Advanced Development MECA Software L.L.C. http://www.mecasw.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 17:16:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Earl Rapp Subject: GIG REVIEW: BLUE live in Philly Hello All: I saw Bruford Levin Upper Extremities at the TLA in Philly and was blown away, if you get a chance on the east coast, please go see them, it was truly an amazing night. Everyone in the band was great and the crowd in philly was great even BB said so himself. Best To All !! Earl Rapp Earl Rapp (donnamx at waterw dot com) http://www.waterw.com/~donnamx/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 11:15:09 EDT From: Camzone Subject: GIG REVIEW: PROJEkCT TWO - 16th April, Jazz Cafe, London Hello there. Now, rather than typing out another version of my Gig Review, why don't you check it out at this address: "http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4472/kcrimson/sgtreport.html" ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 10:11:55 +0100 From: "Brian Thomson, London UK" Subject: GIG REVIEW: "Split Your Head!" - PROJEKcT TWO at the Jazz Cafe At least, I think that's what the Frippian said in the space between scorching solos from all three contestants in the night's festivities. Nice to know he's having fun as much as the audience is! By gig time, the Jazz Cafe was not quite as packed as I've seen it on other occasions (like Gil Scott-Heron, who's there again soon), but anybody else who arrived wouldn't have seen much anyway. "See? Aren't you supposed to be there just for the music?". Well, yeah, but... even Robert can't deny that the performance was worth watching, as well. Facing the stage, from left to right, we had Trey's Warr Zone, the man himself looking like he could successfully employ two more hands than he has; Adrian and his V-Drums, grinning and grooving; and Robert, still having more fun than he expects (that word again!), using his seated position to control multiple foot pedals at once. As with the other shows, they even gave we audients an encore of sorts - the "loungecore" version of VROOOM, punctuated by an AB drumsolo - a guaranteed crowdpleaser. For the second set, I ended up on the balcony directly above the band, a perfect position to ponder Trey's complete lack of a bald spot (lucky sod). (For anybody else wondering, I was the plonker* dressed all in black except for a "piano keyboard" tie!) Most of the pieces they played defy straightforward description, and I wasn't about to stand there making notes, since my attention was, shall we say, engaged. It was enough of a challenge to stand up straight and make sure my glasses didn't bounce off of Trey's head! (No, it wasn't the two bottles of Red Stripe - I think.) For many of the pieces, especially at first, Adrian concentrated on keeping a steady beat, but stretched out later on, and never got near boring. The bass drum-controlled bass line he used on half the pieces kept the other guys nicely off balance, never the same number of beats per cycle! At one point he tried several times to count Trey and Robert in to a full-blown piece, but both of them were miles away in a soundscape of their own, and Adrian eventually started off on his own beat after someone in the audience shouted "one-two-three-four"! Trey, meanwhile, was having a pretty good time too, and is sounding better and better all the time, especially when he cranks it up! The "Talker" sounds are quite amazing - from the descriptions in other reviews I thought he was triggering samples, but it's really more subtle and complex than that. The Warr Guitar bass sounds are no less impressive, and now that the Chapman vs Warr et al court case is over, I can safely "come out" and say "I want to go to Warr!" Robert, on top of all this noise from the other two, was no less animated than I've heard previously, but showed an nice sense of occasion - sometimes actually staying silent, making his guitar-from-hell sound that more effective when it swoops down from the clouds, all guns blazing; and with Trey, "together, they make quite a team!". At the end of the first set, they ended up in a spontaneous piano duel - trading chords back and forth, and not overlapping once! (How do they do that?) Twice later on, we were aurally treated to dual harmony lead lines from Robert and Trey - obviously prearranged in general, but I think that's where the "split your head" concept comes in - quite a few of the harmonies _shouldn't_ work, but do anyway - slightly mind-melting to think of. Of the 12 ETers who planned to meet for dinner before the gig, 11 were able to make it - quite an impressive turnout - thanks, guys! The food was nothing to write home about, I'm afraid - I had the pickled herring, which they just took out of a jar and put on a plate, and the Penne with Mexican Sausage, which was a bit too "al dente" for my taste. Not very good value, either, as 10 other ETers (plus David Singleton and Pat Mastelotto, and the other DGMers) will attest to! Still it was great to put names to faces, or is it the other way around? The tables on the top floor are not as good as they claim, since everyone at the big tables on the upper floor ended up standing during the music - the tables are too far back. Still., worthwhile - just. < NERD > For my fellow gear-heads: not to much to report on Robert's side, since he's made no obvious changes to his rig, but he was using what I believe was a new Fernandes "Les Paul" guitar, complete with whammy, which was no match for his Digitech Whammy Pedal, of course, but nice and subtle... Adrian's big news was, of course, the Roland V-Drums, which have been discussed before on ET, and are currently uncontested in sound quality and playability. In short, they've done for the drums what their VG-8 Virtual Guitar (still in Robert's setup) did for the guitar - similar "Composite Object Sound Modelling" (COSM) technology is involved. Part of the fun of my bat's-eye view was checking out patch names - "House 1", "House 2", "Factory" (with the machine-shop sounds), and "WordPlay" were some I noticed, the latter the cue for a little bit of the song of that name (from Op Zop Too Wah). I had been expecting a little delay between AB hitting a drum pad and the sound coming out, but, obviously, Roland knows that no drummer would accept that. Trey, meanwhile, didn't have a message (like "Bite me, Bagel Boy") on his TC G-Force! AWWW! Maybe we've been a little too obnoxious about it on ET... anyway, he also had some interesting patch names going on his system - including the now famous "Talker", "Dirty Talker", and "Wet Talker", using his new Digitech Talker box. The other one I remember is called "Sustain" - and he's not kidding, either. (How long would you like that, Sir?) If you were wondering why Trey's sound would change when he leant forward... he's using something called a Dimension Beam, by Interacive Light, which projects a little infra-red beam straight up, and when Trey leans into the beam, the unit picks up the movement and sends out MIDI controller information, which he can then use to increase distortion levels, or change the balance of different effects, etc. It can also generate MIDI Notes as well, so you could play a synth with it - instant Jean-Michel Jarre! (er...) < /NERD > All-in-all, a good evening, with no flash photography or other distractions. Despite all my talk about spectacle(s), "al dente", and patch names, it was the music that brought me there, and which riveted me in place for 99.9% of the sets. Only one thing spoiled the evening: while my attention was with the music, some STOLE the "Space Groove" and "Gates Of Paradise" CDs I had bought earlier in the evening. And I thought King Crimson and the PROJEkCTS brought people together? If the "tea leaf" is on ET... may the fleas of a thousand Elephants infest your groin. Brian Thomson, London UK bnt at ibm dot net * plonker = English for "dipstick"! ------------------------------ End of Elephant-Talk Digest #485 ********************************