King Crimson: Starless and Bible Black (Revised Edition) (1974)

So I've been on a Crimson binge lately since the new lineup is currently touring. 

This is an alternate version of the 1974 album Starless and Bible Black with better improvs switched in for the originals. I've always felt that the improvs presented on the original record were some of the blandest improvs of the period. 

The improvs I've chosen I believe show Crimson at their most daring and dangerous: wildly experimental and chaotic - a kind of paranoid, dark, gothic expansion of psychedelia. In many ways I think that through these recordings, Crimson has more in common with bands like Swans, Tool, or the Birthday Party than their progressive contemporaries like Yes and Genesis. For one, there is nothing baroque about Crimson in the slightest as Yes, Jethro Tull, or Genesis were. Crimson is much looser when it comes to composition, often letting raw ambience and emotion come through via noise and chilling tension build-up, something that I feel is more common with 80s goth bands.  

Its no suprise that this lineup went on to influence the likes of Nick Cave, Swans, Black Flag, and later Tool. In some sense, the 1974 lineup Crimson could be seen as the genesis of grunge since the album Red went on to influence Black Flag's My War which in turn provided the musical genesis of both the Melvins and Nirvana. Melvins and Nirvana have also cited Swans as an early influence which in turn were influenced by this very Crimson lineup.

As Bill bruford once said, if you want to know what music will sound like in 20 years, just put on a Crimson record.

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