This return of quintessential 70s progressive rockers King Crimson marks a major volte-face by the group’s founder, Robert Fripp. Having announced his retirement from music in 2012, he has since not only reformed the band but also overseen the writing of their first new material in 12 years.
It’s major news for the venerable group’s baby-boomer fans, who are excited still further when they learn that the band are playing classic tracks that have not been heard live for over 40 years. They’re doing so with a highly unorthodox set-up: Fripp, saxophonist Mel Collins, bassist Tony Levin and singer/guitarist Jakko Jakszyk line up across the back wall behind no fewer than three drummers.
Fripp always envisaged Crimson melding rock and classical tropes, with their music a cluttered fusion of psychedelia, free jazz and acrobatic electronica. These elements are all firmly in place in tonight’s opener, Lark’s Tongues In Aspic Part I, a dense 1973 album title track and faux-freewheeling symphony in which instruments actually dovetail with forensic precision.
Really, it’s a curious evening. With Fripp a simultaneously avuncular and aloof presence at the rear of the stage, the seven players never say a word all night. Instead, they focus meticulously on offerings such as 1971’s The Letters and The Sailor’s Tale, whose guitar spasms, sax squalls, seismic percussion and dramatic crescendos could have inspired Spinal Tap’s Jazz Odyssey.
Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison produces a prodigious solo on 21st Century Schizoid Man, famously sampled by Kanye West on Power, before the evening closes with a prog-rock sacred text, the vermilion gash of sheer cosmic hogwash that is 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King. King Crimson may be an immersive experience, but sometimes you don’t half wish that you were stoned.
- At the Lowry, Salford, 11 September. Box office: 0843-208 6000. Then touring.
