Track Listing

1. VROOM
2. Coda: Marine 475
3. Dinosaur
4. Walking On Air
5. B'boom
6. THRAK
7. Inner Garden
8. People
9. Radio
10. One Time
11. Radio
12. Inner Garden
13. Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream
14. VROOM VROOM
15. VROOM VROOM: Coda

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46954 in Music
• Released on: 2004-12-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

CD Description
For guitarist-composer Robert Fripp, the visceral power of rock music has always been an inspiration. And since formingKing Crimson in the late '60s, few instrumentalists have done more to extend the sonic range of the electric guitar or rock song structure than Robert Fripp. But the guitarist also counts world rhythm musics, 20th Century classical composition, modern jazz and contemporary electronics among his many interests. And with THRAK, Fripp and King Crimson have created their most compelling synthesis of art and noise, a thrashing suite made up of contrasting, interconnected motifs. This groaning beast of an album is fabricated from the roiling roar of dissonance and classic power riffs and animated by a complex series of rhythm changes, opulent lyric contrasts, heady contrapuntal interplay and stunning solo flights.
In rethinking his concept of King Crimson, Fripp has reconstituted the band as a double trio, in which Fripp teams with Stick virtuoso Trey Gunn and drummer Pat Mastelotto, whilelead vocalist-guitarist Adrian Belew answers back with bassist Tony Levin and electronic percussion innovator Bill Bruford. Together they achieve a rare blend of intuitive power and formal design, from the classic King Crimson rumble of "Vrooom" to the menacing variations of "Dinosaur", on which Belew's Lennonesque vocal echoes Fripp's pride in having avoided extinction, as the band exhumes the bones of the Beatles,Hendrix, Bartok and the late Romantics from their fossil digs.
But THRAK offers a wide range of textures and moods. With its bell-like arpeggios and flute-like ornaments, the ragaish "Walking On Air" is as lovely a ballad as Crimson hasever produced. "B'Boom" finds the drummers in an electro-acoustic dialogue, meshing haunting urban-industrial sounds into a ritualistic percussive web of African-styled polyrhythms. The crashing rhythmic cycles of the title tune are an avuncular nod to today's meanderings of noise, while the funky "People" and dreamy "One Time" present song structures ready-made for progressive college programmers. THRAK is a diverse, dynamic, polished recital.

Customer Reviews

The pivot in KC's career
I didn't even know King Crimson still existed when I bought this 1995 album - it was a complete surprise to find it on sale. At the beginning and end are two heavy instrumentals in the same style as "Red" but with two guitars, two basses and two drummers. Although they are similar to "Red", "Red" is really a genre in itself and deserves a revisit. (You will find more of the same type of composition, but of a more complex type, on the 2000 and 2003 albums, "The ConstruKction of Light" and "The Power To Believe" respectively.) There are also two exquisite ballads harking back to "Matte Kudusai" and two rather more conventional funky rock songs. To some extent the other tracks are background filler, but as a whole the album has a very strong, dark presence. The two later albums mentioned above are even better, featuring as they do some of the best guitar and Stick playing ever, but do suffer slightly from the absence of the supremely on-the-beat Bill Bruford. If you like this album, you must also get the contemporary DVD "Deja Vrooom" which is absolute heaven for any fan of KC or rock guitar and composition in general. "Thrak" marks a three-way turning point between the "Larks' Tongues" band, the lighter "Discipline" line-up and the heaviest-of-all sound of the 21st century Crim.

Absolutely essential
One of the top three King Crimson albums - up there with Court of the Crimson King and Larks Tongues. At times frighteningly powerful, there is an edge of menace running through the album, with gentler interludes. Musically complex, even when the themes are relatively straightforward, the album proves a challenge for the first couple of hearings, even to die-hard Crimson followers.

Midlife Crisis?
The first thing I noticed about King Crimson's eleventh studio LP s is how surprisingly brutal, heavy and most of all inventive these rock granddads sound. It's astonishing to think how old these guys were when they came together for "Thrak"...you've got Robert Fripp - 49, Adrian Belew - 46, Tony Levin - 49, Trey Gunn - 35, Bill Bruford - 46 and Pat Mastelotto - 40. Supremely old in relation to the 90s rock scene - yet they sound more inspired, more fresh and inventive than 99% of the material being churned out at this time.

While "Thrak" is not considered a metal album, it is undoubtedly brutal and retains a "heavy" feel without ever cranking the guitar distortion. This is partly down to the "double trio" line-up consisting of two drummers (Bruford and Mastelotto), two bassists (Levin and Gunn) and two guitarists (Fripp and Belew). The resulting sound is immense. Just one listen to the bewildering "Vrooom" gives a sense of what "Thrak" is all about. Classic Fripp guitar melodies and riffs, complex, jazzy and intertwining drum patterns and thundering baselines. As I mentioned "Thrak" is not a metal album, but to me this sounds as (if not more) brooding, intense and relevant when compared to the majority of metal acts around today. Then there's "B'boom" and the title track, the former being a drummers heaven with a duet solo that builds to a bewildering, syncopated groove. This gives way to the scary onslaught of the title track - evolved around blasts of intense guitars and difficult rhythms, the song sounds more like modern metal gods Meshuggah than anything King Crimson has ever put out.

Amidst this mayhem, "Thrak" also showcases King Crimson at their classic rock best. "Dinosaur" sounds like 70s prog rock given a twisted revamp. The verse flows and eases, giving way to a booming chorus in which Belew croons "I'm a dinosaur, somebody's digging my bones". The song shows how KC fear being overtaken in the music world, and this would certainly explain the inventive and heavy sound elsewhere. "People" and "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" are both funky rock numbers, fully equipped with off-beat grooves and catchy choruses. Both songs also continue a theme of social satire, of cynically stepping back and viewing the world, with "People" attacking our single-minded visions and lack of wider appreciation, and "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" focusing on the mundane and pointless. "Walking on Air" and "One Time" showcase KC at their delicate best, two superb ballads that would fit right in with their classic 60s and 70s material.

"Thrak" sees a band of old-timers, of rock granddads, pushing their sound to incredible and unexpected new places. At times harsh and chaotic, sometimes downright heavy and brutal, "Thrak" is the band's most adventurous album. Of course, they always come back to their classic rock roots, and this really sets off "Thrak" as a wonderfully eclectic yet balanced album. Highly recommended.