The Power To Believe - Motivational Book for Personal Growth & Self-Improvement | Inspirational Reading for Career Success, Life Challenges & Spiritual Development

Gaining some grasp of the latest work by King Crimson has always been demanding. The earlier iterations of the group took the listener to generally recognizable destinations, moving from classical- and jazz- influenced structures and instrumentation to the seeming perfection of these techniques in the LTA period. Throughout these evolutionary steps there remained a sense of expressing a consistent aesthetic within a variety of musical ideas. Gregory Karl called this "convergent evolution" in his excellent essay on Lark's Tongues in Aspic.The version of Crimson that followed this was clearly interested in applying phase music techniques -- another branch of classical, art or "new" music. The "Discipline" period offered a wide range of ideas, from phase to noise to bringing a more complex level of composition and musicality to shorter, pop forms, successfully balancing the longer, more abstract compositions. Still, you knew what was going on.The recent period -- with the exception of "THRAK", which is another matter all together -- has been harder to grasp. "Power to Believe", however, manages to make several things quite clear.First, Crimson has not abandoned theme and development as some seem to think. This music, which continues to incorporate phase techniques, is much more than a wall of sound. The difference here is that "theme and development" are intensely compressed not only within the phase technique, where things change second by second, but in every other level of the compositions as well. In listening to "Level Five" for example, you'll note that as similar as each module of this piece may seem, virtually nothing is ever repeated in exactly the same way twice. What, in 1972, took some 9 or 10 minutes to develop is now stated, modified and restated within the space of a few seconds while at the same time being sliced and diced into discrete segments whose interaction provide yet another layer of theme and restatement . While "21st Century Schizoid Man" may have made its mark first on the emotions, "Level Five" leaves its mark first on the intellect. Like much of the work on PTB, it is overwhelming in both complexity and restraint -- creating an all-new reconciliation of opposites that stretches to incorporate every element of the music, resulting in a display of profoundly complex and original compositional techniqueSecond, the band is once again playing with sound as well as with music. This is evidenced throughout the record and extends to experimentation with all the instruments, including percussion. At one point the treatments become so pervasive that you' d have to assume the guitars are paying tribute to a pair of Mellotrons. The effect of all this processing and signal treatment is one of adding further dimension to the music, creating a more spacious and detailed soundstage. The music sounds far, far beyond the capabilities of any typical four-piece outfit.Finally, it is time to leave the past behind. There is always the temptation to compare what is here with what once was, but there's really no point. This is a different band. While some of the preoccupations are still familiar -- the music still expresses a kind of despair, and a striving for a kind of redemption -- the tools and techniques are very, very different. Too many times, for too many years, I've tried to think of this King Crimson in the same way I tend to think of the earlier incarnations. My mistake. When I saw the PTB concert in Seattle a month ago I was greatly relieved that the set included nothing pre-THRAK. As a result, everything made more sense. The more recent music was freer and more powerful when it stood on its own, related but separate. And it gave me the chance to understand some very new ideas about a 34 year old relationship.